Looking back on the best of 2018

And that’s the school sport year done – except for the boat race, and the interprovincials coming up.

So, not for any good reason, except that I always do, I’ve drawn up a list of my top 10 sporting achievements this year. I used to limit them to things I had actually seen myself but now that I work for a rugby and cricket only website, I don’t get around so much. Some of the below are therefore based on hearsay, but they are all undoubtedly amazing.

In no particular order:

1 Lythe Pillay of King Edward VII broke the boys schools athletics interhigh 100m 200m and 400m records, all of the same day and at the end of the year added the SA under-15 400m record to his tally.

2 Jeppe High School for Boys' 1^st hockey team finished unbeaten in a season which saw them play all of the top schools in the country. They successfully defended the local Aitken Cup title for the third year in a row and were the top ranked school in the land on all those odious ranking lists.

3 For the second year in a row, a local player captained the SA Schools rugby team. Last year it was Travis Gordon of KES, this year Jeppe’s Muzi Manyike led the team in their game against France when the original captain withdrew due to injury. Muzi also played for the SA under-18 Sevens team.

4 Two hardy perennials – St Benedict’s won the team competition at the SA Rowing championships for the 25th year in a row, and ...

5 Northcliff High School won the Co-Ed schools athletics A league for the 22^nd year in a row. Heaven knows who will topple them, and Bennies, from their perches. I do know that those wins don’t come easy, though, and in both cases single-minded determination and much hard work goes into it, year after year.

6 One I was at: St Andrew’s School of Bloemfontein won the Coca-Cola Schools T20 Challenge title in Pretoria in March. They are a small school, punching way above their weight. First they ended Grey College’s long domination of Free State schools cricket, then they beat the best from around the country.

7 Everyone’s trying, but no-one has been able to shift Monument from their spot as the top local rugby team. They were beaten by Helpmekaar and Garsfontein earlier but when it counted – in the Virseker Cup final – they produced the goods to beat Helpmekaar 57-11 and take the North Vaal title (and its predecessors) for the eight time.

8 Central Gauteng (OJ Eagles, in effect) won water polo’s national championship (Currie Cup) for the 14^th time in the last 16 years. The club, made up of mainly, but not only, St John’s old boys, is coached by Vlado Trninic and they continued their incredible run of successes.

9 That Currie Cup water polo tournament was held at St Stithians after CGA had to step in, very late, to host it after Western Province withdrew due to the Cape Town drought. Saints parent and Gauteng Schools administrator, Bruno Fernandes, showed he is without peer as a tournament director by putting on another flawless show.

10 The Craven Week was in Paarl and Western Province won the “finals”of both the main tournament and the Academy Week that goes with it. The strength of schools rugby is very much in the Cape and only the Golden Lions seem to be capable of challenging that.

Here’s an 11^th – OK I lied, but this is just so nice.

11 Muzi Manyike, again. The Jeppe head boy and captain fetched, on his own initiative, this little disabled boy from a local orphanage and got him to carry the match ball out, to the cheers of the biggest school rugby crowd of the year, ahead of the second Jeppe v KES derby game.