Rugby, Sport Results

Jnr Rugby: Grens Festival

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.

There was also time for some fun at the beach between matches.
Rugby, Sport Results

Snr Rugby: Grens Festival

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.

Sport Results, Swimming

Karoo Swimming Gala

As we approach the final few weeks of this term, the swimming coaches would like to thank their swimmers for their efforts throughout yet another very demanding season. The heavy combination of academic stress and countless galas at this time of year always takes its toll on our athletes and we appreciate your dedication during these exhausting times.

The Karoo gala was hosted by Volkskool on Wednesday and many of our senior and junior swimmers were invited to compete. The competition in the senior division in particular was very tight and made for some tremendously exciting finishes.  The senior girls managed to clinch 1st place in their division – with a mere 20 points separating them from the second placed Volkskool;  while our senior boys came 3rd with only 30 points separating the top three schools. We managed these scores by ensuring we entered as many participants in each race as possible.

Although Volkskool were comfortable victors in the junior division, the 2nd place honours were shared by Union and Gill.

Congratulations to the following junior swimmers who did very well to achieve top 3 places in their races:
1st places:     Matthew Paxton, Misha Newton, Daniel Marais
2nd places:    Chloe Erasmus, Matthew Paxton
3rd places:     Tyra Binney, Matthew Davenport, Mecoli Vorster, Misha Newton, Bradley Davenport, Rebecca Copeman and Matthew Paxton

Our senior swimmers placed as follows:
Brigetté Oelofsen: 1st place 100m Freestyle;  2nd place 50m IM and  50m Breaststroke;  3rd place 50m Freestyle and 50m Butterfly
Lana Bouwer:  2nd place 50m Backstroke
Amber Binney:  2nd place 50m IM and 50m Butterfly;  3rd place 50m Freestyle and  50m Breaststroke
Hannah Bodenstein: 2nd place 50m Backstroke;  3rd place 50m IM
Megan Doyle:  1st place 100m Freestyle;  2nd place 50m IM and 50m Butterfly;  3rd place 50m Freestyle
Jade Shires:  3rd place 50m IM
Elia Railton:  2nd place 50m Breaststroke and 50m Backstroke
Jude Langmead:  1st place 50m Butterfly
James Potgieter:  3rd place 50m IM and 50m Butterfly
Mack Rubidge:  2nd place 100m Freestyle;  3rd place 50m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke and 50m Butterfly
Luke McNaughton:  3rd Place 50m IM
Damon Fouché:  3rd place 50m Breaststroke

KAROO SWIMMING TEAM:
Based on the Karoo Gala results last week, we are proud to announce that the following swimmers have been selected to participate in the Inter Districts gala to be held in East London next Monday. Congratulations to all these swimmers!

 

 

Cricket, Sport Results

Jnr Cricket Results

U13A Cricket vs Frans Conradie (Limited Overs)

On Saturday our u13A cricket team played a limited overs match against Frans Conradie. After losing the toss we were asked to bowl first by our guests. Alutha Wesi and Shaakir Kazi opened the bowling and put together a brutal opening spell dismissing our visitors for 36 runs in 12 overs. After shuffling our batting order Union chased down their total in 11 overs securing a 6 wicket win.
Alutha Wesi 5/18 in 6 overs

Athletics, Sport Results

Sarah Baartman Athletics

On Friday, 22 February, three athletes represented the Karoo Team at the Sarah Baartman Athletics Meeting at the Oval in Port Elizabeth. We appreciate each one of them – having the commitment to take part in the event, while still having the Matric Dance, the same evening!

The athletes received the following places:

Silver:
Erin Mitchell – High Jump, Girls u/17

Fourth Places:
Matthew Carelse, 400 m and 800 m, Boys u/17
Iviwe Ndamane, 800 m, Open Boys

Hockey, Sport Results

Hockey Results: 1st match of season

Union 1st hockey girls travelled to Gill College on the 23 February to participate in their annual Sports day.

The girls arrived with a positive attitude and only 1 goal in mind, to leave with 2 victories. With only 25 minutes per game to prove our skill and determination, we entered our 1st encounter against Nico Malan first team, which saw the girls come out as 2-0 victors. They stuck to the game plan and the 1st box was ticked. Nico Malan must be commended on keeping Union honest as they had a few chances, which were kept out by our goalkeeper, Sakhe Booi. We then met Volkskool’s 2nd team in our 2nd fixture of the day and came out as comfortable winners, winning 9 goals to nothing. Goals by captain, Jenna McNaughton – 4, Micela Loock – 2 and 1 a piece for Rosslyn Sparks, Marchѐ Green and Henzѐ Japhta.

Rugby, Sport Results

Rugby Results: 1st match of season

On Saturday 23rd February the mighty “Whites” set off for Somerset East to play in the Gill Sports Day. Our opponents on the day was Hoërskool Cillié from Port Elizabeth, who are known for being physical up front and elusive at the back. The boys prepared really well in the week as we knew this would be a tough contest.  The fixture was scheduled for 14:00 in very hot conditions.

We started the game very well putting a number of phases together, showing maturity as we held on to the ball and did not panic. After fourteen minutes of continuous attack Cillie’s defenses were finally breached by Cleathon Koeberg who crossed over the line with great strength and body positioning. The conversion was unsuccessful. We continued to apply loads of pressure as we dominated possession and territory for most of the game. Ten minutes after scoring our first try, Jaden Brotherton burst through the defensive line and evaded seven Cillié players before linking up with Brett Amsterdam who ran a good support line to give off the final pass to Bladen Jacobs who dotted down for an amazing team try. The conversion was unsuccessful and we went into the break 10-0 up.

The second half was very similar to the first in the sense that we dominated possession and territory. We attacked wave after wave, but unfortunately didnt convert all the opportunities we had into points. Fifteen minutes into the second half, we were awarded a penalty try for cynical play by Cillié who caught the ball in an offside position as we were about to score. This increased our score to 17-0 which ended up being the final result.

Every player in the squad got some game time which is the purpose of pre-season fixtures. All in all the boys delivered a decent performance in our first game of the season.

 

Cricket, Sport Results

Jnr Cricket Results

U13A Cricket vs Frans Conradie

On Thursday, 21 February, our u13A Cricket team played a T20 match against Frans Conradie from Despatch. We lost the toss and were asked to bat. Our batsmen got off to a great start through a 57-run partnership between Alutha Wesi and Peter Michaels paving the way for the middle order to score freely ending our 20 overs on 145/5. Frans Conradie then replied with some positive batting keeping our bowlers honest. Good fielding kept our opponents under pressure a…nd they ended their 20 overs on 79/5 with Union winning by 66 runs.
Jayden Swart 49*
Alutha Wesi 27
Peter Michaels 27

U11A Cricket vs Frans Conradie

Our u11A team played Frans Conradie on Thursday, 21 February. Union won the toss and elected to bowl first. The bowlers worked well together to restrict the opponents to 61 in their twenty overs. Union came in to bat and got off to a good start, but a quick few wickets put us under pressure. Jade Lottering and Peter-Daniel Clegg built a solid partnership and in the end we passed their score with 6 wickets down, winning by 4 wickets.

U11 Cricket vs Niko Brummer

On Wednesday, 20 February, our u11 boys played a T20 match against Niko Brummer of Beaufort West. Our guest were asked to bat first and started with a conservative approach. Our bowlers kept the run rate down and restricted Niko Brummer to 45 runs in their 20 overs. Our batsmen replied aggressively and chased down the score in the 6th over to win by 8 wickets. Richard Murray took 4 for 7 in 4 overs and Daniel Short scored 25 not out.

Athletics, Sport Results

Interschools Athletics

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

 

Sport Results, Tennis

Jnr Tennis vs Gill Primary

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.