The Matric Class of 2019 are delighted with their one-of-a-kind, Centenary Matric pullovers and wear them with Union Pride!
Mr Kingwill supervising the groundstaff who are planting one hundred pallets of grass on the Puttick and Murray Field cricket pitches. We are grateful to the Old Unionite Association for financing this project and to Montego Pet Nutrition who transported the grass to Graaff-Reinet from the South-Western Cape. The persistent drought and the quality of available water has had a devastating effect on our cricket pitches.
On Tuesday 19 February Union hosted the annual Primary Interschools Athletics Meeting with Laer Volkskool. In perfect weather conditions, our beautiful school fields were a hive of activity where the athletes were involved in a total of 64 events ranging from U7 to U13, involving field and track events. Many of the races were very closely contested making it difficult for the place judges. All participants need to be commended on their good sportsm…anship throughout the day. This ensured that an enjoyable event could take place. Many thanks must go to our neighbours Laer Volkskool for their participation and for competing in good spirit.
During the meeting 14 new records were set, 5 by Union athletes.
Congratulation to the following on setting new records:
Alutha Wesi – Boys u13 200m, 100m
Siphosethu Vena – Girls u13 100m
Daniel Short – Boys u11 High Jump, 100m
The final point’s position was: Union- 1074 and LVS – 774
The group of AK House cyclists gets bigger each week! This time the boys celebrate a 1% rise in the dam levels and the fact that Mr Hamilton joined them!
On Monday the 18th of February the top 6 Junior boys and girls enjoyed a wonderful afternoon’s tennis against Gill Primary. The boys matches were tightly contested with Union losing 3 matches to 4. Special mention must be made of Peter-Daniel Clegg who won both his singles and doubles matches.
The girls did well to win by 9 matches to 0.
U13A Cricket vs Laerskool Albertyn
On Saturday our U13A boys played a limited over match against Laerskool Albertyn from Uitenhage. The match was played in Great Spirit with Union winning the toss and electing to bowl first, our bowlers immediately hit the right areas and put Albertyn under pressure, we managed to take wickets at regular intervals and bowled Albertyn out for 34 in 15 overs. Shaakir Kazi was the pick of the bowlers with 7 for 4 in 6 overs. Our batsmen managed to reach the target in 4th overs with one wicket down securing a 9 wicket win.
U11A Cricket vs Laerskool Albertyn
The U11A cricket team played a limited over match against Albertyn on the weekend. They won the toss and elected to bowl first. Good bowling and two excellent run outs from the team led to our opposition being dismissed for 38 in 12 overs. Union came into to bat and passed their score in the 5th over, winning the game by 9 wickets
U11B vs Gill College
On 13 February, we hosted Gill primary in a 20-over contest. Union won the toss and elected to take the field first. Our bowlers struggled to hit good lines, and missed run out opportunities made it easy for the Gill batsmen to score freely. Gill managed a respectable 137 for 3 in their allotted 20 overs. Our best bowlers were Warren Barlow with figures of 1-23 in 4 overs and Christopher John Moos picking up 1-17 in his 3 overs.
Union then went in to bat, with a slow start to the first 6 overs and losing 2 early wickets led to us falling behind. The middle overs provided much excitement and brought the run rate down, but losing wickets at crucial stages led to Union being 20 runs short of their target. Best batsmen were Yonela Wana – 13 and Josh Arends – 17. Union managed 118 for 9 in their 20 overs, losing by 19 runs.
U13B vs Gill College
Union won the toss and elected to bat. After losing two quick wickets a partnership was formed by Matthew Paxton and Josh Neil. Josh continued to bat well, later securing a 48 run partnership with Alastair Imrie. They ended on 142/6, with Josh on 37 not out.
Gill struggled to form partnerships due to consistent bowling from Matthew and the captain Jayden and were all bowled out in the 16th over for 61.
Union won the match by 81 runs.
Daniel Short achieved 2 bronze medals at the Sara Baartman athletics meeting in Port Elizabeth today. Congratulations Daniel!
Hoër Volkskool hosted the 2019 Interschools Gala at the Hoër Volkskool pool on Tuesday, 12 February. Although we were represented well in all age groups, Union swam against strong competition at this year’s Interschools gala. Our swimmers made Union proud by truly giving their all, many of them competing in every event they could to ensure points for Union. The final score was Union 302 – Volkskool 366.
While the loss is disappointing, we would like to thank the swimmers for their participation and determination, and congratulate them on their good behavior throughout the event. Thank you to Hoër Volkskool for hosting this event in their wonderful facilities; and, of course, to all the staff and pupils who gave up their time to officiate at the event. We look forward to the annual Karoo Interschools Gala held at the Hoër Volkskool pool.
1st XI vs Muir College
On Friday our 1st XI played their last game for the season in a 50 over day night game against Muir College.
This was also a very special occasion as two of our boys received their 50th cap, Trevor Moos and Luke Mc Naughton.
Muir won the toss and elected to bat. Union put on a wonderful display of bowling and fielding with Luke Mc Naughton taking the lead with the ball backed up by some wonderful sharp fielding that lead to a game changing run out. Unio…n managed to keep the runs to a minimum and kept taking wickets at regular intervals and managed to bowl Muir out for 127.
Bowling performances: Luke Mc Naughton 5 for 42 in 10 overs; Brett Amsterdam 2 for 17 in 8 overs; Caerwyn Spence 1 for 10 in 6 overs; Lunga Zantsi 1 for 25 in 3 overs.
Union went in to bat and what ended up being a stop start beginning to the innings made things a bit tough at the start, however Trevor Moos and James Pringle put together the perfect 47 run opening partnership through very trying conditions to put us in a commanding position for the run chase. This allowed Brett Amsterdam, Luke Mc Naughton and Zusakhe Ngwane to bat with freedom and get us over the line with only 3 wickets down.
This was really a clinical performance from Union who were always in control and was wonderful that Luke and Trevor rose to the occasion and put together two wonderful performances in their 50th game.
Batting performances: Brett Amsterdam 37 not out; Trevor Moos 24; Luke Mc Naughton 19; James Pringle 17; Zusakhe Ngwane 9 not out.
Union won the match by 7 wickets
Congratulations to Luke McNaughton and Trevor Moos who both received their 50th cap from Mr Pringle before the day/night game against Muir College today.
1ST XI vs Nico Malan CSA national T20 competition
On Saturday Union 1st XI played against Nico Malan in the CSA National T20 competition at Grey High School.
Nico Malan won the toss and sent Union in to bat. Union got off to a reasonable start but struggled to put together a meaningful partnership and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. This unfortunately lead to us only scoring 103.
Batting performances: Zusakhe Ngwane 16; Brett Amsterdam 14; Jayden Brotherton 13; Bowen Langmead 12; Caerwyn Spence 12.
Nico Malan went in to bat and Union fought hard with the ball and in the field and had Nico Malan 48 for 5. However 103 proved a tough target to defend even though the game ended up going right down to the wire. In the end it was a great game of cricket and very exciting to watch. If Union could have capitalized on one or two chances the result could easily have been different.
Bowling performances: Jayden Brotherton 2 for 14 in 4; Lihle Mxhunyelwa 2 for 19 in 3; Brett Amsterdam 1 for 17 in 3; Trevor Moss 1 for 28 in 3
Even though he did not take a wicket, Caerwyn Spence bowl two excellent overs in the heat of the game which only went for 7 runs.
Union lost he match by 3 wickets
UHS 2nd Cricket vs Muir
UHS won the toss and elected to bat first in this 40 over match. James Pienaar 32, William Kayster 22, Khwezi Simon 16*, Matthew Hesselink 13 and Josh Calitz 10 contributed to a score of 131 all out in the 25th over.
Muir replied with a score of 138/6 in the 28th over. Best bowling figures were Jarrod Naude 2/28 and Matthew Hesselink 2/38.
No significant run partnership, not batting out our overs and a dropped catch put us under pressure in defending the low score posted.
UHS lost this match by 4 wickets.
U/15A vs Muir College
On Saturday our Colts played at Botanics against Muir College in a 40 over match. Muir won the toss and asked us to bat first. Union lost some quick wickets upfront through poor shot selection and a lack of patience. Kwande Mhlabeni and Matthew Basson consolidated for a brilliantly played 70 run partnership. With a lapse in concentration we lost our last 6 wickets for only 39 runs. Union made 139 all out in 31.3 overs.
Top batsmen: Kwande Mhlabeni 42; Matthew Basson 39; Sisipho Arnols 15.
The Union bowlers struggled to bowl a good line and length. As a result failed to put the Muir batsmen under pressure. Missed chances didn’t help us. Muir passed our score in the 31st over having lost only 5 wickets.
Top bowlers: Laython Carelse 3 for 28 in 8 overs; Daniel Nell 1 for 16 in 3 overs; Hlakinipha Skepe 1 for 34 in 7.2 overs.
Union lost the game by 5 wickets.