This year’s tour was a historic one, the first to include a girls’ rugby team, which made this the largest Hill House tour to the Southern Hemisphere, comprising boys’ and girls’ hockey, and boys’ and girls’ rugby. 

Starting in Stellenbosch, the centre of the South African wine business, the teams were treated to several days of acclimatisation and training at the town’s renowned university, where they also encountered the only rain of the tour. After the first fixtures, the party moved on to Cape Town, where matches were interspersed with some lifetime experiences, including a very thought-provoking visit to Robben Island, surfing, a voyage to Seal Island, a trip to the Cape of Good Hope and a gruelling trek up the iconic Table Mountain. The tour then moved on to Johannesburg, the final round of fixtures, and a fabulous 3 days of safari in Pilanesberg National Park, before returning home to get ready for the new season ahead. 

On the playing field, the boys’ rugby team enjoyed both gaining significant successes and testing themselves against several renowned opponents, including a final victory over Johannesburg’s Harlequins RFC and a close game with the world-famous Paarl Boys School, whose quality of play was matched only by their superb hospitality. The girls’ U18s, previously champions of England, won all of their games, including a close-run affair against the previously undefeated DF Academie at the ‘Battle of Belville’, and a final victory over the professional franchise Blue Bulls Academy.

Boys’ and girls’ hockey both saw significant successes, with several victories and some excellent hockey, culminating in a remarkable final set of fixtures at Northcliff High School, where the girls equalised in the last minute of their final fixture, much to the delight of the massed crowd, in which the Northcliff choir’s war cry ‘Kumbaya’ was returned in full song by Hill House’s ‘Yorkshire’ and ‘Jerusalem’.

Pupils and staff will remember the trip of a lifetime, including not only excellent sport, but also making new friends, whose welcome was warm and generous, and enjoying new adventures and experiences. Many thanks to all parents and sponsors for their support, to Mrs Vickers and Venatour for such excellent organisation, to Mr Barker for his leadership of the tour, to Mr Rose, Barclay-Quelch and Miss Weston, and especially to the pupils, who were such excellent ambassadors for Hill House.