The South African Jockey Academy hosted a competitive but fun 5-A-Side Soccer Tournament at the Academy on Tuesday 24 March. Nine teams participated including 4 Apprentice Teams, as well as teams each compiled of Academy Grooms, Academy Staff, Old Boys, Gold Circle Staff and Kruger Bets Staff!
The Group Stages of the tournament where highly entertaining and the Academy Staff team, AKA Bailey’s Hot Shots, produced some incredible achievements and results with veteran strikers Stephen Jupp and Laurence O’Donoghue scoring 4 goals between them, earning “3 Goal O’Donoghue” a special MVP award!
From the onset of the tournament, four teams emerged as the strongest, namely Gold Circle, Kruger Bets, Old Boy’s and the Apprentice Team named Vicious & Delicious. The Gold Circle and Kruger Bets teams crushed all the opposition in Group A and the Old Boy’s with players like Billy Jacobson, Chippy Taylor, Donovan Dillon, Jared Samuel, Sean Veale and Warren Kennedy dominated Group B.
In the Semi’s Gold Circle easily beat Vicious & Delicious, while in an extremely tight encounter, Kruger Bets scrapped past the Old Boys. The Final was a hotly contested match between Gold Circle and Kruger Bets that was won 2-1 by Gold Circle.
Tournament Director and Academy Educator, Vinay Harry, explained the aim of the tournament was to provide the apprentices with another sporting and social outlet and to let them have fun and gave a massive vote thanks to all who officiated, participated, played, refereed saying “the tournament was a huge success and a follow up tournament would be scheduled for July or August!”