Posted by UHS (Union High School, Graaff-Reinet) on Thursday, 7 March 2019
We are proud to announce our captains for the upcoming rugby and hockey season:
Rugby: Gary Shell (vice-captain), Iviwe Ndamane (captain),
Hockey: Jenna McNaughton (captain), Micela Loock (vice-captain)
Union is extremely proud of Megan Doyle, Mia Botha and Jenna McNaughton who have been selected represent the Eastern Province Biathlon team at the South African Champs in the near future.
Eight senior boys and girls participated in the Fichardt Park McDonalds Tennis tournament in Bloemfontein over the weekend of 1 March. Playing without our hockey and rugby players, the teams acquitted themselves admirably, every player giving of his or her best.
In both the A and B tournaments, our girls were outplayed by very strong opposition, but must be commended for both their tenacity and exemplary on and off-court manners at all times.
In the boys sections, Union High showed their depth of talent coming second in the A section to Upington High School. Upington ended the tournament with 78 games, and Union with 72. Noä Cilliers and Peter Watermeyer were awarded the prize for the best doubles couple there.
In the B section, Union’s second four players were unbeaten against Fichardt Park, Grens, Middelburg and Upington, but on game average, the winners of this tournament were Upington again. Union had beaten them by 11 games to 10.
Mrs Vorster and Mrs Galloway would like to thank all the players for their impeccable manners and behaviour. The boys in particular, were extremely helpful with carrying luggage, packing and hooking the trailer and we were very grateful for their assistance.
This past weekend saw our 1st hockey girls travel to PE to take part in the EP opening festival.
We came up against tough opposition, but the girls were equal to the task. Our 1st encounter was against Woodridge. An early goal by Micela Loock put Union ahead, but a lack of concentration saw Woodridge equalise later in the game. The match ended 1-1. We went on to beat Framesby in our 2nd match 1-0 to close off day 1 of play. Our start to day two saw a very tough game to the strong Kingswood girls resulting in an unfortunate 2-0 defeat, although we had our chances. A good recovery resulted in a us beating Westering 4-0 to end the weekend on a real high. The girls played an attractive brand of hockey throughout the 2 days and should be very proud of their performances.
Goals by the following:
Micela Loock – 2
Jenna McNaughton – 2
Laetitia Theron – 1
Rosslyn Sparks – 1
Last week Thursday our u13A rugby team travelled to East London to attend the ninth annual Grens Sport Festival. Over the course of the tour our boys played three matches that served as a preparation for a lengthy and challenging rugby season.
Day 1 – Union U13A vs Grens U13A lost 5 -15
Day 2 – Union U13A vs Fort Beaufort won 46 – 15
Day 3 – Union U13A vs Gonubie U13A lost 14 – 27
Our boys played well in all three matches, sticking to our structure and putting in tremendous defensive performances against strong opposition.
UHS 1st XV – Grens Festival 2019
On Thursday 28 February, Union High’s mighty “Whites” travelled to East London to participate in the Grens Festival. Our first opponent was the hosting school Hoërskool Grens. Due to “loadshedding”, our match started 45 minutes before scheduled time. This enforced us to rush through our warm up and didn’t give us much time to settle in.
Grens was first to score as we let the ball bounce off a kick, they seized the opportunity and made us pay for our mistake two minutes into the game. 15 minutes into the game Junior Duba crossed the line, with us converting to make the score 7 all. A blunder by the referee resulted in us trailing once again by 14 points to 7. Khwezi Simon dotted the ball in our in goal area, followed up by Grens picking the ball up and “scoring”. This led to much frustration on our behalf. A few minutes later we gave away a penalty, which Grens converted making the half time score 17-7 in their favour.
The second half was played in an unsportsmanlike manner as Grens were involved in 8 foul play incidents without receiving any cards. Bowen Langmead scored 20 minutes into the second half, which was once again converted by Jaden Brotherton. The final score after a very frustrating, dirty game by the opposition was 36-14 to Grens. We must commend our boys for not getting involved in foul play and off the ball incidents.
On Saturday 02 March, The mighty “Whites” played against Hoërskool Hangklip from Queenstown. The boys were very amped for the encounter as we felt we needed to improve tremendously from our loss on Thursday evening. Union were first to strike as Jaden Brotherton slotted a penalty in 14th minute after dominating the opening phases. 10 minutes later Junior Duba crossed the whitewash, with Jaden converting taking out tally to 10 points. Just before half time we crossed over the line, with Junior scoring his second try of the match. Jaden once again converted to take us into the break 17-0 up.
The second half started with Hangklip scoring after 5 minutes, taking the score to 17-5. With us on attack in the opposition half, Hangklip intercepted a pass and breached our defences to make the score 17-12. After settling down, UHS scored an amazing team try with Bladen Jacobs dotting down in the corner. The conversion was missed and the score was now 22-12 in our favour with 5 minutes to go. We received a penalty with no time left on the clock. Jaden kicked for touch to set us up with a lineout 10 metres out. The mighty “Whites” mauled over in the corner to finish off the game impressively. The final score was 27-12 to Union High.
This weekend was a wonderful learning experience for the boys and has made the team a very close unit. We look forward to a decent season ahead.
As a part of Union’s Centenary celebrations, Fairview Estates hosted a wine tasting evening on Friday evening to launch our Centenary Wine, which has been especially bottled for Union. It was wonderful to see so many past and present parents at the event which was expertly organised by Karin Marais. Karin’s sister, Marlies Naude, a wine expert at Fairview Estates, presented a fascinating selection of wines in a ‘blind tasting’. Marlies encouraged everyone to focus on the ‘nose’ of various wines, providing lemon, pepper, green-pepper, nuts, cinnamon and other scent-filled ingredients with which to compare.
Karin and her team worked hard to transform ‘The Union’ into an elegant and sophisticated tasting room. Every detail had been carefully thought through, including placemats beautifully designed by past pupil Mieke Marais, who also designed the label for the wine. Delicious Fairview cheeses were enjoyed by all and the evening was fun and festive! A magnum bottle of ‘Chakalaka’ wine was auctioned off which raised the fitting amount of R1919 for our amazing school!
A convivial evening was enjoyed by all and much gratitude must go to Karin and her close knit team!
Wine is available for purchase at the front office at R100 a bottle, R600 a case.
Union High learners attended a play called Silkworm by the Contagious Theatre Company at the Rupert Theatre tonight. It was thought provoking and fun, sensitive and silly at the same time. Well written with lots of scope for improvisation and audience participation. It subtly delivers the message that life is fragile, and that small things become big things when your time is limited.