The South African Interprovincial Indoor Hockey Tournament (IPT) came to a thrilling close on the third and final day at the Sunningdale Sports Centre in Cape Town on Saturday with the KZN Inland men’s and women’s teams winning their respective events to be crowned the 2012 national champions.

By fortunate scheduling in an IPT that was based on a round-robin league format, most of the final round of matches were straight play-offs for final positions.

In the women’s competition KZN Inland beat a plucky Namibia 3-2 but had to sit out the final match nervously. Although last year’s women’s champions, the Durban-based KZN Coastal Raiders, beat Western Province 5-4 in a thriller, they were unable to match their KZN midlands rivals’ superior goal difference.

The KZN Inland men, defending their title won in Durban last year sealed the men’s and women’s double for the Pietermaritzburg-based hockey province despite being held to a dramatic 3-3 draw by Western Province.

FINAL PLACINGS

Men: 1. KZN Inland; 2 Western Province; 3 KZN Coastal Raiders; 4 WP Peninsula; 5 Namibia; 6 Eastern Gauteng.
Women: 1 KZN Inland; 2 KZN Coastal Raiders; 3 Western Province; 4 Namibia; 5 KZN Mynahs; 6 Eastern Gauteng.

SA Hockey Association media release