Sport Results

Chess Trials

The first round of the trials to select the Chris Hani District’s chess team for 2020 was held on Monday afternoon, 10 February.

This set of matches saw 21 schools participating and took the format of an individual Swiss Open chess tournament.

110 entrants battled it out in the Union High School hall in Graaff-Reinet, while a further 80 players pitted their skills against one another at Marlow Agricultural High School in Cradock.

The chess tournament was keenly contested by players from start to finish and saw a wave of promising young talent emerge.

(The second round of the trials will be held in March and the third soon thereafter, after which the the top players will be invited to a closed tournament in August, where the final selection will be made for the team that will represent the district at the South African Junior Chess Championship to be held in Johannesburg in early January 2021.

Union extends its thanks to all those who assisted in making the tournament a success – the section controllers, arbiters and all those who assisted in the many smalls tasks on the day.

Sport Results, Swimming

Interhouse Gala Results

On Tuesday afternoon, 11 February, the Union High School pool witnessed a very exciting Interhouse Swimming Gala that contained an abundance of enthusiasm, physical effort and polished swimming strokes.

This was the first gala hosted by Union in the school’s swimming pool since it was revamped last year and the Houses rallied their swimmers for this long-standing friendly competition between Daly and Arnott.

While all the races were closely contested, a dedicated team of timekeepers stood poised with their stopwatches at one end of the pool, with house supporters and teams cheering enthusiastically from the sides.

As ever, the relays generated huge excitement – speed and lots of noise were evident as every position and point became vital towards the overall scores.

In the end there could only be one winner and it was Arnott House! They beat Daly House to the title with a strong 563 points in total compared to Daly House’s 389 points.

Congratulations Team Arnott!

A big well done goes to all those who swam!

Sport Results

Jnr Tennis vs Cradock

On Monday afternoon, 10 February, Union’s Top 6 junior boys and girls tennis players travelled to Cradock for what turned out to be a very enjoyable afternoon of tennis against Cradock Primary School.

Matthew Paxton and Peter-Daniel Clegg were certainly Union’s top performers, winning their singles as well as their doubles matches on the day.

Tara Ferreira, Grace Kemp and Mecoli Vorster are also to be congratulated on winning their singles.

Rugby, Sport Results

Coaches Prep for 2020 Rugby Season

This past weekend, nine dedicated members of the Union Schools’ staff attended a World Rugby Level 2 coaching course.

The course was presented by Mr Anthony Heugh (World Rugby Coaching Educator) and was facilitated at Union High School over the course of two days.

The course was aimed at enhancing the participants’ coaching capability and technical knowledge.

The weekend’s activities included board sessions, theory work, video analysis and practical sessions with the school’s 1st XV squad.

The coaches will complete the second part of the course in May, the successful completion of which will see them earn their World Rugby Level 2 qualification.

Sport Results, Tennis

EP Selection – Tennis

Congratulations to Tara Ferreira, Matthew Paxton and Caytah-Leigh Koeberg who were recently selected to represent the Eastern Cape at the upcoming Inter-Provincial Primary and High Schools national tennis tournament to be held from 9 to 12 April.

These players were selected during trials played in January.

Tara will represent the province as part of their Girls u/13 team, Caytah-Leigh will be playing for the Girls u/15 team and Matthew will be playing for the Eastern Cape Aloes Boys u/13 team.

Union High School is proud of the depth of our tennis talent and congratulate our players on the honour of representing the Eastern Cape. Provincial selection is the result of long hours on the tennis court practising and is recognition of their talent and passion for the sport.

Sport Results

Biathlon Inter-Provincial

Eight Union biathletes were invited to represent the Eastern Province at the Highgate Inter-Provincial competition in Oudtshoorn this past Saturday, 1 February.

They were Jakobus Reynolds, Mack Rubidge, Bowen Langmead, Mia Botha, Rebecca Copeman, Jade Shires, Elias Railton and Tyra Binney.

Of these eight, two were able to attend.

Mia Botha & Rebecca Copeman

Youngsters Mia Botha (Grade 4) and Rebecca Copeman (Grade 6) showed true grit, taking on the best of the best in sweltering 37˚C weather.

Facing some stiff competition from the likes of the Boland, Border, Eden, Southern Free State and Western Province, the two biathletes were in high spirits, performing to the best of their abilities and representing their school and province very well.

Sport Results

Snr Cricket Results vs Stirling

This past weekend, Union’s 1st XI faced Stirling High School in a declaration match played over two days.

The match, which commenced on Friday afternoon, 31 January, and concluded on Saturday, 1 February, saw Stirling winning the toss and electing to bat first at the start of play.

Union managed to bowl 43 overs in the allotted time for the day and had Stirling at 129 for 6 at the close of play.

On Saturday, Stirling resumed their innings and Union managed to strike early with two quick wickets.

Union, however, couldn’t capitalise on their efforts and allowed Stirling to reach a total of 184 all out.

Union’s best bowlers were Jaden Brotherton (3 for 21), James Pienaar (2 for 16) and Kyle-Luke du Preez (2 for 22).

Despite a solid start when Union went in to bat, they continued to lose wickets regularly and struggled to put partnerships together resulting in Union being bowled out for 132.

The Union team members who performed best with the bat during their first innings were James Pienaar (33) and James Pringle (29).

This resulted in Stirling proceeding with their second innings with a 52-run lead.

With Union needing to take only 5 wickets to restrict Stirling from gaining a substantial lead, they had the perfect start taking a wicket with the very first ball.

Union proceeded to bowl well and had Stirling at 19 for 2 in their second innings.

Unfortunately, the Union team was unable to sustain the needed pressure and Stirling managed to score 120 for 3, declaring with a 172-run lead.

Union needed to, therefore, score 173 runs to win the match with only 5 wickets in hand, however, Stirling declared late in the day leaving Union only 40 minutes to bat with them trying to take the 5 wickets for victory.

In the end, Union managed to bat out the time losing only one wicket for 30 runs.

Union’s best batsmen were James Pienaar (19 not out) and Jaden Brotherton (11 not out).

The match ended in a draw.

• Congratulations to Jaden Brotherton and Bowen Langmead on being awarded their 50th test caps for Union’s 1st XI before the match against Stirling.

 

Sport Results, Swimming

Swimming: B Age Group Gala

Eleven Union High School swimmers participated in the ‘B’ Age Group Gala at the Newton Park Swimming Pool in Port Elizabeth on Saturday, 1 February, competing in 24 events in total.

It was a debut meeting for swimmers Grace Kemp, Matthew Davenport, Daniel Marais and Luc Railton.  These swimmers did very well and will now be able to compete to improve their times at future meetings.

Standout performances included Tya Binney, James Potgieter and Max Price who swam two Personal Bests each.

Well done to all those who participated!