This past weekend the 13th Bestmed Gerrie Berner Festival took place in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape. This very prestigious festival is hosted by Paul Roos Gymnasium and twelve schools from across South Africa participates in this event. Paul Roos played quality tennis and won the title by beating Grey College of Bloemfontein in the final 5 -3.
Paul Roos played tennis of the highest standard throughout the event. Even during the round-robin phase the boys from Stellenbosch beat the defending champions, St.Stithians in a tough battle 5 - 4. This helped the Paul Roos team to end undefeated in their group. In the other group Grey College ended number one with Waterkloof in the 2nd position.
Schools that participate in this invitational tournament are: Afrikaans H/S (Affies), Grey College in Bloemfontein, St.Benedicts College, St.Stithians, Waterkloof, Oakdale, Stellenbosch High School, Pretoria Boys High, Paarl Boishaai, Kearsney College, St. Davids's and Paul Roos Gymnasium
The schools are divided in two pools of 6 each. These six schools then compete in a round-robin format against each other. All the singles and doubles matches are contested with a "pro-set", meaning first to eight games. After the round-robin matches are completed, the teams play crossover matches against the teams in the other pool in order to determine the final and other play-off matches.
After the conclusion of the pool matches the two pools looked like this;
Pool A:
- Paul Roos
- St.Stithians
- Paarl Boishaai
- St. Benedicts
- St.Davids
- Kearsney
Pool B:
- Grey College
- Waterkloof
- Affies
- Pretoria Boys High
- Oakdale
- Stellenbosch
During the crossover matches and semi-finals Paul Roos beat Waterkloof in convincing style by 6 - 0. In the other semi-final, Grey College was victorious against St.Stithians and won 5 - 2. The crossover and play-off matches consist of full-sets and a 10-point tiebreaker for the 3rd set. The doubles is still a "pro-set".
The final between Paul Roos and Grey College was as usual a tough contest. Grey College was to strong in the number 1 position with Philip Henning (nr 59 on the ITF Junior ranking list) and Joubert Klopper winning their respective singles matches. But at numbers 3, 4, 5 and 6 the Paul Roos boys were to strong and PRG was leading 4 - 2 after the singles. Grey was able to win one more doubles but again the depth of Paul Roos sealed the tie for them when the number three doubles combination won their match. With this win the boys won the tie and the title 5 - 3.
The final standings after the tournament:
- Paul Roos
- Grey College
- Waterkloof
- St.Stithians
- Affies
- HJS Paarl (Boishaai)
- Pretoria Boys High
- St. Benedicts
- Oakdale
- Stellenbosch
- St. Davids
- Kearsney
Pictured: From left to right: Carl Roothman, Jean Durand (Captain), JP van den Berg, Hugo Kotze, Andre du Plessis, Wikus Robbertse, Ruben Fortuin and Swannie Swanepoel (Coach).