Grosvenor Grammar School – rugby and hockey tour to South Africa 2016
On Wednesday 25th May Grosvenor Grammar School welcomed Ulster rugby star and South African International Ruan Pienaar to the school to help launch its upcoming rugby and girls’ hockey tour to South Africa this summer.
As well as Ruan, the launch also featured pupils Daniel Martin and Deputy Head Girl Abbey Walker, captains of the First XV rugby and First XI hockey teams respectively, as well as representatives from two of the tour’s principal sponsors – Philip Steele, Managing Director of Denman International Ltd., and Aaron McKinney of AMPM Property Management.
The tour, which departs on Saturday 23rd July, will see a total of 62 pupils spend 17 nights in the Rainbow nation, during which time the party will visit Johannesburg, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and take the Garden Route to Cape Town. In addition, the tour will see the School’s rugby players participate in fixtures against Knysna High School and Bergvliet High School while the girls’ hockey delegation will take on Kempton Park School, Cape Recife High School and Oakhill School.
Away from the pitch pupils will also be afforded the opportunity to visit famous landmarks such as the Apartheid Museum, Voortrekker Monument, Robben Island, Table Mountain, Cape Point, Dinokeng Game Reserve and Garden Route Game Reserve, as well as Monkeyland and Birds of Eden, while they are also scheduled to lead a training session at George Sports Academy and to receive a coaching session at the Cape Town Sports Institute.
The two-and-a-half week tour promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the fortunate pupils who have been given the opportunity to participate within it. To this end, particular praise must be reserved for Tour Manager Mr Andrew Gibson, a P.E. teacher within the school, who has worked tirelessly to organise a varied and exciting itinerary that should provide all present with a plethora of life-long experiences and memories.
In addition the school is also indebted to tour sponsors Denman International Ltd., AMPM Property Management, Desk Warehouse and Chaka Travel, without whose financial support the running of the tour simply would not have been possible.
We wish all involved the best of luck on this summer’s tour and look forward to reading of their exploits upon their return in August.
