On Wednesday afternoon, 17 April, Union High School hosted its very first competitive shooting league event.
Twelve UHS competitors took part in this sporting contest against the top shooters from Hoër Volkskool and Marlow Agricultural High School.
The event – which was held at the HVS shooting range – was a great success and saw the Union shooters achieve some very good results.
In their encounter against Sunridge Primary School in Port Elizabeth on Saturday, 13 April, Union’s young hockey teams delivered the following results:
The junior third team won 2 – 0, while the junior second team won 1 – 0 and the junior first team lost 1 – 3.
The junior first team was unfortunate to lose, but learnt a lot. The game was played in wonderful weather and a friendly spirit. The first half saw the Union girls pushing themselves in applying tactics they have learned these past few weeks. Sunridge was, however, first in breaking past their opponents’ defence to score a goal. Although it was a struggle to, in turn, break past Sunridge’s defence, Union managed it successfully to score a goal – shared by Chloe Erasmus and Leshay Fourie. The first half ended with the score tied at 1 – 1.
In the second half, the Union team strived to make a breakthrough, but did not succeed. They soon lost concentration as well as their perspective of the game. Struggling to pick up the pieces, they allowed Sunridge to convert the score to 1 – 3. The game ended with Union going down 1 – 3 to Sunridge.
Although the girls lost, the match gave them a fair idea of the areas they need to work on so that they can make the most of the season that lies ahead.
Spectators witnessed an extravaganza of goals, when Union’s senior hockey girls competed against Port Elizabeth’s Victoria Park High School (VP) on Saturday, 13 April.
What turned out to be a clean sweep for the teams, started with the U/16B team putting 6 unanswered goals past VP’s defence.
The U/16A team then took to the turf and struggled to find momentum at first with what seemed to be a lack of enthusiasm. It took them 30 minutes to finally break through VP’s defence, but this then seemed to put the spark back into their play – they then continued to press and put a further 5 goals in the back of the net which gave them a convincing 6 – 0 victory in the end.
The 2nd team, too, had a good day on the field as they cruised to a 7 – 1 victory.
Goals didn’t seem hard to come by as the 1st team started their encounter with goals in the 3rd and 6th minute of the 1st quarter by Laetitia Theron. Sara Kingwill increased Union’s lead to 3 – 0 with a goal in the 2nd quarter. VP scored a goal in the 3rd quarter and also starved Union of any scoring opportunities during this period. The 4th quarter saw Rosslyn Sparks and Sara Kingwill each scoring, to put an end to what was a good entertaining encounter. The match ended with the score standing at 5 – 1 in Union’s favour.
“The girls must be congratulated on their results, as well as for remaining humble in their victory and treating their opponents with respect,” said coach Alvin August.
“The girls have a few tough encounters lying ahead and they will need to put in maximum effort to ensure good results.”
This past Saturday, 13 April, Union hosted Victoria Park High School (VP) from Port Elizabeth for the two schools’ annual rugby and hockey derby. The positive atmosphere around the campus and the great support for all of Union’s teams ensured that UHS completely dominated the fixture.
All the teams played at a high intensity level and showcased the high quality brand of rugby Union is known for.
U/14A team won 50 – 17
U/15A team won 26 – 7
U/16A team won 55 – 12
3rd team lost 25 – 17 against Asherville Secondary School’s first team
2nd team won 41 – 19 against VP
These incredible performances from all the Union teams set a high benchmark for the 1st XV game which was to follow.
There was also a lot riding on this match, with the school’s “Mighty Whites” owing the community a better performance after last weekend’s loss against Muir College. Three minutes into the game, Union was first to cross the whitewash through Luke McNaughton picking up a lose ball and running half the field to get Union onto the scoreboard. A few minutes later, the forwards set up a good maul, with Zusakhe Ngwane dotting down to increase Union’s lead to 12 – 0. Victoria Park bounced back and scored when Union was two players down due to ill discipline. Ten minutes before half time, the Union team was back to their full contingent of players and took control of the game once again. Good continuity and setting up phases, resulted in Gary Shell scoring Union’s third try, taking Union’s lead to 17 – 7 at the break.
In the second half, Jaden Brotherton and Brett Amsterdam used the conditions perfectly, ensuring that most of the play took place in VP’s 22m area. Union, once again, scored first in this half, through Gary Shell from good trick play off a lineout. VP hit back with a penalty a few minutes later, taking the score to 24 – 10 in Union’s favour.
Amazing attacking play, running lines and interlinking between backs and forwards saw Union score three more tries by Bowen Langmead, Khwezi Simon and Lihle Mxhunyelwa. Jaden Brotherton successfully converted all three.
A lapse in concentration and turning our backs on the opposition led to VP scoring towards the end of the game. The final score was 45 – 17 in Union’s favour. Union High School’s try scorers were Gary Shell (2), Luke McNaughton, Zusakhe Ngwane, Bowen Langmead, Khwezi Simon and Lihle Mxhunyelwa, with Jaden Brotherton successfully converting 5 from the 7.
All in all, it was a wonderful day for Union rugby and a good comeback by the 1st XV.
Monday afternoon, 8 April, saw Union’s top junior players facing Laer Volkskool in, what turned out to be, a very closely-contested bout of tennis. The UHS junior girls proved superior on the day, beating Volkskool with 6 matches to 3.
The junior boys, who could, unfortunately, only field three of their regular first team players, lost their encounter with 3 games to Volkskool’s 6. All the players put forth their best efforts on the day and certainly did the school proud.
On Saturday, 6 April, Union High School’s rugby teams faced one of the school’s oldest rivals, Muir College from Uitenhage.
A morning of hard fought competitive rugby ensued, resulting in a mixed bag of results.
The U/13A team won their match 38 – 19 and the U/14A team lost theirs 0 – 33.
The U/15A team beat their opponents 19 – 12, with the U/16As losing 10 – 45.
The third team and the second team then won their matches, 34 – 10 and 19 – 17, respectively.
The all-around tough matches set the tone for the much-awaited 1st XV game that followed.
The game between the two schools’ first teams was tremendously fast-paced from the get-go with both teams taking turns to test each other’s defences with neither one giving way.
The stalemate was broken when Muir converted a penalty kick to take the lead.
The game continued back and forth until Muir, through some individual brilliance, managed to break Union’s defences and crossed the line for the first try of the match. Despite being behind, Union’s defence held true and although on the back foot, some quick thinking from Brett Amsterdam, turned defence into attack taking a quick tap penalty to put Junior Duba away to cross the line. Muir kicked another penalty and the teams went into half time, with the score standing at 13-5 in Muir’s favour.
The second half seemed to prove a very different game, with Muir almost immediately taking the advantage to cross the line. This seemed to have taken the wind out of Union’s sails and the players struggled to recover, leaving our defence breached too easily. This allowed Muir to cross our line almost at will and left too much work to play catch-up.
Despite falling far behind on the scoreboard, the Union boys continued to fight and put together some wonderful phases of attack towards the end of the game. They were finally rewarded for their efforts when Zusakhe Ngwane crossed the line after a well-structured mall from ten meters out.
The game’s final score was 37 – 10 in Muir’s favour.
“As expected, this was a tough, but well-contested match,” says coach Stephen Bezuidenhout. “We were, unfortunately, our own worst enemy and went down to a better side on the day.”
This past Saturday, 6 April, Union High School’s senior hockey teams came out tops in a full schedule of hockey fixtures against Grahamstown rivals, Victoria Girls’ High School (VGHS). A new match format being implemented by SA Hockey, saw all teams playing matches consisting of four 15-minute quarters each.
After the u/16Bs, u/16As and second team beat VGHS 3 – 0, 3 – 1 and 3 – 0 in their respective encounters, it was the first team’s time to shine and continue their winning ways.
The game started off at a good pace with Union dominating possession which lead to a goal in the 5th minute by Laetitia Theron, putting Union 1 – 0 up. VGHS bounced back not long after with an equalizer. With the scores level, the scene was set for a feast of goals.The Union girls stepped their play up a gear with a goal by Henze Japhta in the 15th minute which saw the first quarter end with the score standing at 2 – 1 in Union’s favour.The second quarter saw Union extend their lead to 3-1 with another goal from Laetitia Theron which was as a result of a superb build-up from good accurate passing. Sara Kingwill then put victory firmly beyond VGHS’s reach with a fourth goal in the 35th minute, which ended the third quarter with Union 4 – 1 up.
“The water breaks in-between quarters in the new match format, caused the girls to lose some momentum and concentration which resulted in them missing out on possible goal opportunities,” says coach Alvin August. The fourth quarter only saw one goal by Henzѐ Japhta in the 59th minute to give Union a convincing and well deserved 5 -1 victory.
In an exciting end to their school holidays, 11 Union High School competitive shooters participated in their very first ‘big’ competition – the Eastern Province Open Championships – this past weekend.
The event, held at the Koedoeskloof shooting range in Uitenhage on Friday and Saturday, 29 and 30 March, transpired in cool, windy weather but saw the shooters deliver excellent scores nonetheless.
“It was a stress-filled day for all involved, but the learners gave it their best and we couldn’t be happier with the results they achieved,” said coach Christelle van Eck. “The learners were well-mannered, never complained and helped where ever they could, truly keeping the Union flag flying high.”
Amber Bezuidenhout, Angus McGlaggen, Michaela Price, Megan Putter, Lauren Waddelouw, Amy Waddelouw, Tessa James, Tammy James and Kelly-Page Scott competed in the Air Rifle Open Sight event, with Corniel Vorster competing in the Air Rifle Open Sight, Air Sport Pistol, Air Pistol Standing and Air Pistol Freestyle events and Schea Johnson competing in the Air Rifle Open Sight, Small Bore Rifle Light Open Sight and Small Bore Rifle Silhouette Open Sight events.
Congratulations to the following hockey players who have made it through to the next round of EP trails.
U/18: Jenna McNaughton; Micela Loock; Sara Kingwill; Sakhe Booi; Laetitia Theron
U/16: Chloe Shires
U/14: Leah Marais; Sonwabisa Mroro
We are proud of Caytah-Leigh Koeberg and Matthew Paxton who are currently representing Eastern Province at the SA Provincial tournament in Bloemfontein.