My sporting highlights of the week - the guts of Dricus du Plessis and the efforts made by teachers to hit the ground running.

 

My sporting highlight of the week?

Well, it has to be Dricus du Plessis, I guess. I, like many others, am suddenly a UFC fan although I have to confess that I know absolutely nothing about the sport – I actually was a bit alarmed at what the fighters are allowed to do – but there’s no denying the nation-building effect of these isolated world championship victories. And, I think that if any coach wants to show his players what he means when he tells them to show some old-fashioned determination when things aren’t going to plan, he could do worse that play them a clip of those last two rounds – the guts that Dricus showed was remarkable.

It was the first weekend of school sport and despite the fact that they only went back last Wednesday, there was plenty of action. I was at the water polo at St John’s on Saturday. There were five games in two days for the 1^st teams, to get them back into the swing of things, in their new indoor aquatic centre. It was my first time there and it’s a world-class facility. The trouble and expense that some schools in this country go to so that children can play sport is quite amazing.

On Sunday I was at cricket at Jeppe – there were matches at many schools on Saturday – but this one, against Potchefstroom Volkskool is traditionally on a Sunday, for some reason. Two Jeppe teams made the trip to Potch and two from there came across to Joburg. Once again, the effort that the school teachers go to to let the children play sport amazed me – it’s my year-opening highlight, every year.