Stellenbosch school beats Cape Town school to win the under-12 Western Cape Danone Nations Cup provincial final. Next stop the nationals in Gauteng

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Idas Valley Primary School from Stellenbosch made it through to the provincial finals stage of the Danone Nations Cup competition for the first time this year, and they went one step further by taking the Western Cape provincial title to qualify for next month’s national finals in Boksburg as well.

The finals were played at the Van Riebeeck Stadium in Mossel Bay last weekend, with the seven competing teams playing a round-robin competition followed by the final between the 1^st and 2^nd placed teams.

Saxonsea Primary School from Cape Town fared best in the pool stage with Idas Valley coming in second so met in the final match.  After the score deadlocked at 1-all in regulation time, Idas Valley went on to beat the favourites 3-2 on penalties.

For Idas Valley, it was just reward for the hard work they have put into the tournament since they first entered in 2013.

Anton Gordon, the team manager, has been with the school for 24 years and has been coaching the team since 2013. He said that Saxonsea Primary School was the strongest team at the provincials and they did well during the tournament, but soccer is unpredictable and it is the team that scores the most goals that wins and that is what Idas did.

What made the difference this year was bringing in another coach, Jo-Anne Baartman.  She teaches Mathematics and English FAL at the school and played for the University of Stellenbosch’s women team when she was at school.

“All the players are new to the Danone Nations Cup so it was a challenge to prepare the team because they had no experience,” said Baartman. “Our strategy worked, though, and I’m delighted that we will be going to the national finals.”’

The manager, Gordon, said he is pleased with the support they are getting from the parents of the boys.

“Preparations for the national finals are under way and without the support and encouragement of the parents, the boys would not have had the confidence to be the best on Saturday,” he said.

“Most of the players have never been to Johannesburg so they are excited. I’m hoping they will make friends and have fun during their time there.”

Idas Valley played 6 pool games at the provincial finals, winning 4 which placed them in the final. Their key player was striker, Tyler Cicero. He scored the opening goal against Saxonsea in the first 3 minutes of the final. The team had lost to Saxonsea earlier on, so they were motivated to change that around.

However Saxonsea Primary School equalised 5 minutes later to end the game 1-all requiring the penalty shoot out.

There are just 2 more provincial finalists left to qualify for the Danone Nations Cup national finals. This weekend the Eastern Cape will host their provincial final at the Laerskool Kuswag in East London leaving Gauteng the last province to host their playoffs, on Saturday, 17th June at Reiger Park.

Results

Naphakade PS 0 vs Saxonsea PS 1

Isalathiso PS 1 (2) vs Zwelihle PS 1(1)

Idas Valley PS 0 (3) vs Teske PS 0 (1)

Naphakade PS 0 (3) vs Isalathiso 0 (1)

Saxonsea PS 1 (1) vs Zwelihle PS 1 (2)

Idas Valley PS  1 vs Naphakade PS 0

Teske PS 0 (5) vs Isalathiso 0 (4)

Saxonsea PS 1 vs Idas Valley PS 0

Zwelihle PS 1 vs Naphakade PS  0

Teske PS 2 vs Saxonsea PS 0

Isalathiso PS 0 (2) vs Idas Valley 0 (1)

Teske PS 1 (2) vs Zwelihle PS 1 (3)

Saxonsea PS 1 (2) vs Isalathiso PS 0(0)

Naphakade PS 0 (3) vs Teske PS 0 (3)

Zwelihle PS 0 vs Idas Valley PS 1

Saxonsea PS 1 (2) vs Idas Valley PS 1 (3)

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There is everything to play for in the Coca-Cola Schools T20 Challenge

Interviews, footage and transcripts can be found on http://www.csamedia.co.za/coca-cola-schools-t20.html

There’s still everything to play for four of the six franchise teams playing on the final day of the Coca-Cola Schools T20 national tournament in Stellenbosch on Sunday, with the race for places in the final on Sunday afternoon still wide open.

Going into the final round of pool games on Sunday morning, Grey College, representing the Knights, and Menlo Park of the Titans are joint log leaders on 13 points, with Hilton College (Dolphins) lying third on 10 and St Andrew’s of the Warriors fourth on nine.

Grey and Menlo Park meet in their final league game on Sunday morning, with the winner there booking their place in the final later in the day.

There are some interesting permutations as far as the other final slot is concerned. Hilton and St Andrew’s meet in the morning and, depending on bonus points earned in that game, either of them could still go through ahead of the loser of the Grey v Menlo Park game.

The second day’s play on Saturday was cold and blustery, and characterised by low-scoring matches.

There were some upsets too – Lions representative, Potchefstroom Volkskool became the first side to lower the colours of high-riding Grey College, in the morning while St Andrew’s successfully defended a total of just 89 against Paarl Boys’ High (Cobras).

In the afternoon matches, Hilton bounced back from a heavy defeat to Menlo Park earlier on to beat Paarl Boys’ High, and Grey College, after being restricted to just 100 by St Andrew’s , proceeded to bowl them out for 84 to stake their claim for a final spot.

Sunday’s morning’s other game, between Potch Volkskool and Paarl Boys’ High, will determine who the wooden spoonists are.

Sunday’s fixtures are: Titans v Knights, Dolphins v Warriors, Lions v Cobras.

Summarised scores

Saturday Morning

Titans (Menlo Park) 162/4 (Mmako 44, Snyman 62, Erasmus 20; Yeats 2/18).Dolphins (Hilton) 134/8 (Curtis 26, Jewels 24, Morris 36; Erasmus 2/25, Viljoen 3/16). Menlo Park won by 28 runs.

Lions (Potchefstroom Volkskool) 130/5 (Von Abo 31, Dreyer 25; Van Schlakwyk 44, Swanepoel 2/18). Grey College (Knights) 126/6 (Crowther 3/27). Potchefstroom won by four runs.

St Andrew’s (Warriors) 89/8 (Lane 18, Benjamin28; Pretorius 3/16). Paarl Boys’ High (Cobras) 85 (Kotze 24; Norval 2/24, Feguson 2/1, Quarnby 3/10). St Andrew’s won by four runs.

Saturday Afternoon

Menlo Park 112.7 (Viljoen 30, Foxcroft 47; Van Schalkwyk 4/26; Louw 2/10, Crowther 2/12). Potchefstroom Volkskool 104/7 (Louw 45, Crowther 23; Britz 2/15, Viljoen 2/19).Menlo Park won by 13 runs.

Grey College 100/7 (Potgieter 27, Van Tonder 33; Norval 4/15). St Andrew’s 84 (Phillips 34; Visser 2/5, Nel 2/21; Durrow 3/21). Grey won by 16 runs.

Hilton 157/8 (Morris 38, Dahl 30, Bosch 28; Grobler 4/34). Paarl Boys’ High 123/9 (Van Lingen 53; Lauryssen 4/27, Bosch 3/21, Dahl 2/11). Hilton won by 34 runs.

Grey College is the only unbeaten team at the Coca-Cola Schools T20 Challenge

Interviews, footage and transcripts can be found on http://www.csamedia.co.za/coca-cola-schools-t20.html

Grey College dominated day one of the Coca-Cola Schools T20 Challenge, that kicked off at the University of Stellenbosch on Friday the 20^th February, by being the only unbeaten team on the day.

In a tournament like this there is no team that is historically dominant and that can expect to be the favourites so day one of the tournament is always a day in which the teams look to discovery who are the most powerful teams that they will come against. Hilton College and Paarl Boys High might think that they are unlucky because they took on a very powerful Grey College on the first day of the tournament but some would say that they are lucky due to the fact that they got their most difficult game out of the way and now they can play more freely.

Grey College took on Hilton College in their morning game and Grey came out all guns blazing. Wihan Victor took on the Hilton bowlers and hit a magnificent 114 in 51 balls before he was bowled by Krogg. His wicket was a little too late because the damage had already been done. Grey eventually finished on 195/3 which proved to be the highest score of the day’s play. Hilton decided that they would chase the score from the first ball and it did not prove to be the best decision. They lost wickets recklessly chasing the huge score. Eventually Grey managed to bowl them out for 79 runs. Philip Visser was Grey’s best bowler taking 4/13. It is important to know that it was Hilton’s first loss this season in any format of the game.

Volkskool Potchefstroom, the surprise Lions representative, took on St Andrews College from Grahamstown on the main field with a lot of spectators watching the game. Unfortunately Volkies were outplayed from the first ball and lost wickets at regular intervals. They did not even manage to bat for their full 20 overs eventually being bowled out for 84 in 18.5 overs, Thomas Lane was St Andrews best bowler taking 3/11. ST Andrews were never tested when they chased down the total and easily knocked off the runs in 15.4 overs.

The last morning game was between Paarl Boys High and Menlopark Hoerskool. Paarl are the local team and they came to the tournament with a lot of local supporters who did not leave disappointed. Paarl Boys hit 144 runs for four wickets with their keeper Justin Wubbeling hitting 95 not out off 64 balls. Thanks to some good fielding and accurate bowling Menlopark were not able to chase down the score. They only managed to hit 89 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. All of the Paarl bowlers contributed in a great team effort.

Coming into the afternoon games it looked like Paarl Boys High, St Andrews and Grey College were the teams to beat however Grey College and Paarl Boys high were scheduled to play against each other in a potential preview to Sunday’s final.

Once again Grey College batted first and this time did not find the game as easy as their first game. Wihan Victor only hit 28 off 22 balls so they had to rely on this middle order to setup a defendable total and they were not disappointed. Raynard van Tonder rose to the occasion and hit 55 runs to help Grey score 150/5 in this 20 overs. Paarl Boys High were in the game until the last over of the match however 151 to win was just too much for them and they fell 12 runs short. They managed to score 138 for 7 thanks to a quick 56 from Tiaan du Plessis, Charl Swanepoel took 3 for 24 for Grey college.

Hilton College bounced back from a bad loss to Grey College by beating Volkskool Potchefstroom by 56 runs. They batted well posting 175 for 3 with Curtis (47), Jewels (46) and Morris (52*) scoring the majority of the runs. Hilton proved that they were a far better batting line up than what they showed when they played Grey College in their first game. Volkskool Potchefstroom tried hard to chase down the Hilton total but were their worst enemies losing 5 wickets to run outs. Hilton’s fielding improved a lot from their first game and created a lot of pressure in the field.

St Andrews wanted to join Grey College as the only unbeaten teams on day one and got off to a good start against Menlopark. Menlopark batted first and were skittled for 109 runs in 15.3 overs with all of the St Andrews bowlers taking wickets. St Andrews must have thought that they had the game in the bag but Menlopark were not going to give up and they came all out at St Andrews. St Andrews had no response to Menlopark’s bowlers and before long they were 54 all out. Dalen Mmako took 3 wickets for 7 runs, Thinus Viljoen took 3 wickets for 16 and up front Willem Britz took 2 wickets for 5 runs in 4 overs. 

Morning results

Grey College 195/3 (Victor 114) Hilton College 79 all out (Visser 4/13)

Grey won by 116 runs

Volkskool Potchefstroom 84 all out (Lane 3/11) St Andrews Grahamstown 85/1 (Lane 33)

St Andrews won by 9 wickets

Paarl Boys High School 144/4 (Wubbeling 95*) Menlopark 89/8 (Cilliers 2/15)

Paarl won by 55 runs

Afternoon Results

Hilton College 175/3 (Morris 52*, Curtis 47, Jewels 46) Volkskool Potchefstroom 119 all out (5 run outs)
Hilton won by 56 runs

Grey College 150/5 (van Tonder 55) Paarl Boys High 138/7 (du Plessis 56, Swanepoel 3/24)

Grey won by 12 runs

Menlopark 104/9 St Andrews 54 all out (Mmako 3/7, Viljoen 3/16, Britz 2/5)

Menlopark won by 50 runs

Day 2 fixtures

21-Feb	Saturday	9:30 - 12:30	Lions	Knights	Coetzenburg
21-Feb	Saturday	9:30 - 12:30	Titans	Dolphins	Tassies
21-Feb	Saturday	9:30 - 12:30	Cobras	Warriors	Maties 3
21-Feb	Saturday	14:00 - 17:00	Dolphins	Cobras	Coetzenburg
21-Feb	Saturday	14:00 - 17:00	Knights	Warriors	Tassies
21-Feb	Saturday	14:00 - 17:00	Lions	Titans	Maties 3