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.

 

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 and 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.

Healthy Living

The Grade 6 learners are busy studying Healthy Eating as part of theit Natural Science syllabus. They are currently completing a practical task based on the nutritional information given on food packaging. It’s never to early to learn about the benefits of eating healthily and making conscious decisions about what we put into our bodies.

New Grass for Pitches

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.

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 sportsmanship 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