Saints end Jeppe's Aitken run

 

My sporting highlight of the week?  …… The Aitken Cup hockey final, without a doubt. St Stithians won it in a one-on-one shootout after the scores were locked on 2-2 at the end of normal time. In doing so, they ended Jeppe’s run of consecutive wins – six – and they took the title for only the second time in their history, the last time being in the 1970s.

Those who know hockey better than I do were saying that it was a high quality encounter, I do know that it was a thriller. Jeppe were clinical in the opening two quarters and went into a 2-0 lead before Saints pulled one back just before half time, they equalised in the fourth quarter and defended heroically as Jeppe went all out for the winner.

That led to the dreaded one-on-ones – a terrible way to decide a game like that, but surely one of the most exciting spectacles in sport. It was always going the be a lottery, particularly as it played out in the near-dark after the generator failed a few minutes into load-shedding.

Both sides missed attempts before Saints held their nerve to take the win.

The result was not all that surprising really. Jeppe scraped home in last year’s final between the two sides last year, and Saints won the school fixture a few weeks later. A significant number of that team are back again and St Stithians were the favourites going in. They were worthy winners in the end, if only just.

Earlier in the day Jeppe won the U16 and U5 Alan Monk and Boden Trophy finals, so their first team was going for the treble. They missed it by the narrowest of margins.

This year was the 50^th anniversary of the competition and Trevor Aitken, the man who the competition was named after, was there to present the cup, as was Alan Monk who handed the U16 Top 8 trophy to the Jeppe captain.

It was a great day and the good sportsmanship on display was wonderful. I particularly enjoyed the way the Saints players went across to commiserate with the Jeppe goalkeeper after he let that final goal through.

Stop the game when the winning margin gets out of hand

 

My needle’s sticking again, I’m afraid.

I saw the scores from the Potchefstroom Gimnasium vs Paarl Gimnasium rugby games on Saturday and I can’t help myself.

There were five results published. The average scoreline is 75-3; Paarl won the first team game 83-3, and the U16As 97-3. The comments on Facebook were the expected mixture of those who (like me) who believe that a fixture like that is an abomination, and those who see nothing wrong with it, or even believe it’s a good thing.

 My view is that anything that happens at a school has to be educationally accountable, and there’s nothing educational about allowing scores in rugby matches to reach those numbers. Education is about learning things that help children grow and develop into good adults, and that’s a much about building character, kindness and humility as it is about building strength, acquiring skills and accumulating knowledge.

 Allowing a team of children to be humiliated, discouraged and possibly injured, during a rugby game, while at the same time allowing the other team to bully them, to gloat and to assume an air of superiority, is not educationally accountable, and that applies to both teams.

 Apart from all the other damage that’s being done, it’s bad for the future of the game. The good thing about being a writer who is a stuck needle on a record, is that you can go digging on your computer and find what you wrote before. I sounded off on this topic in 2017, 2018, and again last year. Here’s what I wrote in 2018 after seeing scores similar to those in Potchefstroom on Saturday:

 

 You’ll remember that last year a team that won 221-0 posed in front of those numbers on the scoreboard and the photo was posted on the school’s Twitter and Facebook sites. I commented at the time that it was as sickening as those pictures that you see of so-called hunters posing over the carcasses of slain lions or elephants that had been chained to stakes. I have the same nausea again today, and it’s an appropriate comparison, because rugby players who are willing to turn out for the lower teams in the junior age groups are rapidly becoming an endangered species and we should be doing all we can to conserve them, just like we should be looking after those magnificent wild animals.

 

One of the comments on the Gimmies scores post referred to the fact that the Potch teams had travelled 1000 km to play a rugby game, so they should be allowed to do so for the full match time. Well, you have to ask how the fixture ever happened. Apart from the fact that the two schools adhere to the custom, coming from our Dutch colonial past, of calling high schools gymnasiums, I wonder if they have much in common, and those responsible for arranging that 1000-km trip surely knew beforehand what the results were going to be.

 Rugby, in this instance, is a vehicle for a range of lessons taught and learnt. Going on a rugby tour is about a lot more than the hour-long match against the opposing school. The paperwork and arrangements required when a team goes on tour is a mammoth task, made ever more difficult by the red tape that the education department requires. If so much trouble is being gone to, and if the parents are paying the sorts of tour fees that they are, then it had better be about more than just the hour-long matches played.           .

 No, its also about travelling across the country in a bus, with your team mates, and all the socialisation and sprit building that happens on that bus. It’s about being hosted by a family in the town you are going to and having to interact with your opponent the night before the game, and at breakfast in the morning; it’s about seeing and experiencing a school that is different to yours; it’s about your manners, and showing gratitude towards those have offered you hospitality and thanking the teachers who went with you and made it all happen.

 And it is about the game you will be playing there, but not only it. So, if the game has to get called early because it’s a mismatch and not in anyone’s educational interests that runs its course, then so be it. That act itself can be a lesson, to both teams. It doesn’t make it all a waste of time and money, all the other important lessons are still being taught.

 Rugby games between children should be called off when the score starts climbing rapidly and the opponents are unable to stop that from happening, every time.   

Another top 10 in 2022

 

I once heard former Springbok coach Nelie Smith say that when he was a Springbok selector, once they had chosen the Bok team, they would pick another team from the players left out that could quite possibly beat their selection – and then relook at their choices.

In that spirit, and because my recent blog listing 10 schools sport highlights that stood out for me in 2022 got quite a nice response, here are another 10 that could well be better than my originals.

In chronological order:

1 In March there was a function at Jeppe to mark the end of Mike Bechet’s reign as 1^st team cricket coach. He was in charge of 1033 1^st team games in all, at Jeppe and Maritzburg College. He was the epitome of an old-school teacher-coach: stern, uncompromising and altogether ethical. But ever-caring about the players in his charge.

2 In May the racing lanes at Roodeplaat Dam were completely cleared of Water Hyacinth. It took a massive effort by the rowing community, over many months to get there. There was talk at one stage that there will never be rowing there again, yet in November the Gauteng Champs were held there. Quite amazing!

3 I attended the Golden Lions Craven Week capping ceremony in June. The team captain, Xander Schoeman, and the Lions senior provincial captain, Reinhard Nothnagel made speeches. They are both Monument boys and it showed. Their talks were based on the solid values you need to succeed as a rugby player, and as a man. They say good people make good rugby players – these two will go a long way.

4 The Craven Week was on again and the “final” was as good as any I’ve seen. Western Province beat the Blue Bulls 29-21 in a great advert for the game. It was WP’s 6^th “title” in 11 years and their stars, for a change, came from Southern Cape Town, not from Paarl.

5 At that same Craven Week, King Edward’s Thabang Mphafi was selected for the SA Schools side. He was the captain of the KES 1^st team and the school’s deputy head boy. He was at the school on a TAG Foundation bursary and would probably not have reached those heights if he had stayed at school in Welkom, where he came from. I’m not a fan of recruitment of rugby players by schools, but some programmes are more than just about results. TAG is one of those.

6 In July I watched the Jeppe vs Parktown derby. It’s Parktown’s centenary in 2023 and their theme is that they are not done yet. Jeppe won the hockey and rugby games quite comfortably, but they lost the spirit-in-the-stands war, and I’d say the politeness and charm of the boys on the day contest ended even. From what I saw Parktown is certainly not done yet.

7 The St David’s Challenge Cup football tournament was back in August. Norkem Park were beaten 1-0 by Jeppe in the final, but they made lots of friends over the weekend. It’s a development success story, a school programme supported by the community that it’s in, attracting talent and providing top coaching. The boys sang and danced and added energy, and they just never went away, in any of their games.

8 The very next weekend, St David’s hosted its Time Cricket festival and, this year, the teams played two two-day games each. St David’s director of cricket, Dave Nosworthy, is adamant that cricket skills and tactics are best taught in longer forms of the game and that the obsession with limited overs cricket is detrimental to the development of good players. You can’t argue with that.

9 In September there were three St Stithians old boys – Kagiso Rabada, Wiaan Mulder and Ryan Rickelton – in the South African cricket side that played England. Saints continues to breed international players – there is one in the current Ireland team and there was another in the Holland team that dumped us out of the T20 World Cup. Only one of the three is in Australia at the moment. Perhaps the other two should have been too.

10 Vlado Trninic coached the Gauteng U19 boys team to victory at the SA Schools tournament in December. It was his last provincial assignment. A few weeks before, at the province’s capping ceremony, a procession of the players he has coached at Easterns, St John’s College, OJ Eagles and Gauteng paid tribute to him. They included many internationals. The remarkable thing was that, almost to a man, they spoke of the impression he had made on them outside of the pool more than about what he taught them in it. That’s the mark of a good coach. He’ll be missed.

Ten of my school sports highlights of 2022

1 Let’s get the hardy perennials out of the way up front: St Benedict’s won the boys competition at the SA Schools rowing championships at Germiston Lake (Roodeplaat was hyacinth-choked) for the 28^th consecutive year in March, and ….

2 Northcliff High school won the Joburg co-ed schools A league athletics interhigh for the 24^th time in a row. There are still no contenders in sight for either of them.

3 The Easter Rugby festivals were on again, which was in itself a highlight. I was at KES, and what stood out for me was the Queens College old boys standing in a torrential downpour, singing their songs from the 1^st whistle to the last.

4 The Jeppe vs KES rugby double header derby clash is always special, but the 1^st meeting this year really stands out. It was thriller, won 27-26 in the last minute by KES. There were 22 black players across the two teams and the standard of rugby was fantastic, a triumph for successful transformation.

5 The Aitken Trophy final this year ended four hours after it began, due to lightning 1^st, then loadshedding. Jeppe scored in the final second to beat St Stithians 2-1, their 6^th consecutive title. What I’ll remember, though, was the sight of the Saints players going across to applaud the Jeppe supporters after the game ended.

6 The U13 Craven Week was at Monument in Krugersdorp and it was great to attend it again. The Golden Lions beat Boland in the “main game” after defeating Western Province on the second last day – the 1^st time WP had lost a game at the week in 10 years.

7 I was at a special event at KES in October. It was a farewell evening for Tutty Faber who has hung up his whistle after coaching at the school for 40 years. He has been an incredible servant to King Edward in number of different roles. It will be hard to imagine the place without him.

8 St Dominic’s School of Boksburg lost 10-8 to St Stithians in the final of the Saints stayers tournament in November, after beating Roedean 4-3 in the semifinals. It’s been remarkable story of improvement. I remember not too many years ago when they were cannon fodder at the Roedean tournament, just making up the numbers, really.

9 Central Gauteng won the boys and girls U19 titles at the SA Schools water polo tournament in Durban in December, and took the overall title, ahead of Western Province who have dominated this event for the last 10 years.

10 The year ended for me with a week in Stellenbosch at the Khaya Majola cricket week. There was no week in 2020 and I missed 2021 because of Covid. It was great to be back at the world’s greatest school cricket festival – it keeps that title, only just, despite some serious cutbacks in the production due to CSA’s financial woes. And there can be no better setting it for than between the Eerste River and the Hottentots-Holland mountains at the Maties’ Coetzenberg complex.

KES moves into 2nd spot on SA Schools cricket caps list

 

The South African Schools and Colts teams were announced at the end of the Khaya Majola Week in Stellenbosch on Sunday. In previous years, they would have played each other on the day after the festival ended, but that practice was dropped last year because of the Covid regulations in place and it was continued this year, along with the reduction to four days of play, to cut costs.

 Times are tough, clearly, but the changes have undeniably devalued the week and they threaten its status as arguable the best school-level interprovincial tournament in the world and South Africa’s strategic edge in youth development.

 That said, there are some very talented players in the ranks of the two teams named.

 Over the years, the majority of South African Schools players have come from a relatively small number of schools and the selection of Liam Alder of King Edward VII School takes the Johannesburg School into second sport on the list with 17 caps, ahead of St St Stithians and Grey College, who have both produced 16 SA Schools players since unification in 1994.

 Grey High School still tops the list on 24. They had no SA Schools selections this year.

 The top 10 schools are: Grey High School – 24, 2 King Edward 17, Grey College – 16, St Stithians – 16, Rondebosch – 13, Affies – 11, Wynberg – 12, St Andrew’s College – 11, DHS – 9, Hudson Park – 9, Maritzburg College, St John’s and Glenwood – 8.

 South African Schools

Juan James (Wynberg Boys’ High, Western Province, captain), Liam Alder (King Edward VII, Central Gauteng Lions), Jake Carstens (Hilton College, KwaZulu-Natal Inland), Nathan Jacobs (New Orleans Secondary, Boland), Tristan Luus (Hoërskool Waterkloof, Titans), Kwena Maphaka (St Stithians College, Central Gauteng Lions), Bongile Mfunelwa (Rondebosch Boys’ High, Western Province), Jason Muirhead (St Charles’ College, KwaZulu-Natal Inland), Romashan Pillay (Westville Boys’ High, KwaZulu-Natal Coastal), Ludwich Schuld (Hoër Volkskool Potchefstroom, North West), Richard Seletswane (St Stithians College, Central Gauteng Lions), Liyema Waqu (SACS, Western Province).

 South African Schools Colts

Thebe Gazide (St Stithians College, Central Gauteng Lions, captain), Christiaan du Toit (Hoërskool Waterkloof, Titans), Maahir Joseph (Rondebosch Boys’ High, Western Province), Ontlametse Kesiamang (Northern Cape High, Northern Cape), Christopher King (St John’s College, Central Gauteng Lions), Gerhardus Maree (Grey College, Free State), Leketa Dakalo (St Andrew’s School, Free State), Johnathan Muller (Grey College, Free State), Riley Norton (Paul Roos Gimnasium, Boland), Bonga Shezi (Durban High School, KwaZulu-Natal Coastal), Khayelihle Sithole (St Benedicts College, Easterns),      Bhamji Suleman (Laudium Hub, Titans)

 Western Province won the “main game” of the week on Sunday, beating KwaZulu-Natal Inland by 146 runs. This was WP’s 1^st victory in the week’s unofficial final since 2019. They have played in it seven times since 2012.

Summarised Scores- Day 4 

Western Province 218 (Bongile Mfunelwa 66, Juan James 38, Maahir Joseph 30; Jake Carstens 3/38, Matthew Urquhart 2/13, Ross Boast 2/36); KwaZulu-Natal Inland 72 (Jake Carstens 15; Asakhe Tsaka 4/19, Liyema Waqu 2/14). Western Province won by 146 runs.

 Titans 141 (Tristan Luus 39, Leo Sadler 34; Christopher King 4/25, Liam Alder 2/22, Kyle Glennostor 2/26); Central Gauteng Lions 144/3 (Thebe Gazide 40, David Teeger 39, Richard Seletswane 24, Reuben du Toit 24*; Tristan Luus 2/18). Central Gauteng Lions won by seven wickets.

 KwaZulu-Natal 205/9 (Mohamed Taqvi 48, Sagel Rajakumar 47*, Ross Montgomery 43; Nathan Jacobs 3/40, Riley Norton 2/31); Boland 209/8 (William September 55, Werner Brand 43*, Josh Jordaan 26, Gysbert Wege 23; Mohamed Taqvi 2/19, Ryan Jairaj 2/31). Boland won by two wickets.

 Free State 252 (Gerhard Maree 87, Samokelo Lepheto 66, Joe Meyer 45; Rico Fryer 3/43, Martin Bullock 3/53); North West 174 (Bathabile Masigo 32, Rico Fryer 28, Ludwich Schuld 21, Martin Bullock 21, Dewald du Plessis 20; Dakalo Leketa 5/33, Khanyisile Nondwangu 2/55). Free State won by 78 runs.

 Easterns 267 (Khayelihle Sithole 97, Kyle Enoch 27, Dewan Marais 26, Tian du Toit 26, Extras 22; Marno Coetzee 3/22, Gopolang Makitise 3/75, Naziel Adams 2/18); Northern Cape 238 (Naziel Adams 55, Jody Barends 53, Ontlametse Kesiamang 45, Extras 31, Deshwin Swartz 30; Tian du Toit 3/33, Luphumlo Mhlongo 2/38, Jeandré Byleveld 2/47). Easterns won by 29 runs.

 Eastern Province 208 (Casey Keevy 51, Corby van Heerden 41, Simnikile Soyaya 31, Matthew Beamish 31; Zandré Conradie 4/39, Ziano Lewis 2/40); Garden Route Badgers 188/7 (Zander Nel 61*, Thurstin Murphy 38*, Keenan Arries 29, Elro Spies 20; Lisa Numba 3/32, Aphiwe Mnyanda 2/31). Eastern Province won by 20 runs.

 Limpopo 96 (Nlovo Sithole 33; Awangile Twani 5/14, Lesego Botha 2/15); Border 97/8 (Tre Gilbert 23*, Extras 22, Uzubenathi Kene 20; Ntemi Madimola 4/18). Border won by two wickets.

 Namibia Cheetahs 132 (Jack Parker 45, Zacheo van Vuuren 21; Curtleigh Koetzee 4/28, Rickus Kramm 2/22, Quinlan Visagie 2/38); Mpumalanga 101 (Jayden Schultz 26, Hannes Feuth 25; Gerhard Janse van Rensburg 5/29). Namibia Cheetahs won by 31 runs.

 Border Kei 45 (Extras 13; Junior Kariata 3/5, Francois du Plessis 3/6, Nico Pieters 2/9, Addo Iita 2/25); Namibia Welwitchias 46/1 (SW Kuhn 28*; Myekwa Sibonisiwe 1/16). Namibia Welwitchias won by nine wickets.

 

 

 

Its a WP vs KZN Inland Khaya Majola "main" game

 

The Khaya Majola Week ends in Stellenbosch today with Western Province meeting Kwa-Zulu Natal Inland on the main field – the Coetzenberg Oval at Maties – in the “main game” of the week.

 It will be the week’s unofficial final, although it’s a festival, and there isn’t supposed to be an overall winner. Although there was a period, from 1996 to about 2001, when the, then, Coke Week was a limited-overs knockout tournament, played in two sections with cross-pool playoffs, semi-finals and a final, a winner’s trophy, and classification games all the way down to last position. That later changed and the week reverted to the festival format, with the only prize (apart for SA Schools and Colts selection) being a spot in that final game.

 It was also decided to introduce other formats – time cricket and T20 – so a knockout tournament wasn’t possible.

 This year, it has been a four day festival of 50-over games only, so it could have been a tournament. It sort of panned out that way. The second day was washed out, so those results were disregarded and on the basis of the 1^st day results, WP met Northwest and KZN Inland played the Central Gauteng Lions, with the winners going though to the showpiece fixture.

 The Lions were the defending champions, having beaten the Titans in Potch last year, and they have been in more “finals” than anyone else, including eight times in the last 11 years. They aren’t there this year, though, and few can argue that WP and Inland don’t deserve to be the finalists.

 The fixtures for the final day are:

Western Province vs KwaZulu-Natal Inland (Maties A, Coetzenberg Oval); Central Gauteng Lions vs Titans (Maties B, Tassies Oval); Boland vs KwaZulu-Natal Coastal (Paul Roos Gim); North West vs Free State (Maties C); Northern Cape vs Easterns (Maties D); Garden Route Badgers vs Eastern Province (Van der Stel); Border vs Limpopo (Distell); Namibia Cheetahs vs Mpumalanga (Bridgehouse); Namibia Welwitschias vs Border Kei (Spes Bona).

It's been an unusual week as far as individual performances go. It certainly hasn’t been the runfest we have been accustomed to. There was one hundred made on Saturday – exactly 100 by Romashan Pillay of KZN Coastal against Easterns – and a further four half centuries, making it just three centuries going into the final day, although half a day was lost to the rain. The wickets were always going to be low and slow, and the howling wind on day one didn’t help. Then the rain on Friday slowed the outfields down on Saturday making run-scoring even more difficult.

 There will, we hope, be some sparkling performances on the final day.  

Summarised Scores – Day 3

Northwest 85 (Dewald du Plessis 37; Liyema Waqu 4/38, Abdullah Bayoumy 2/9, Cameron Fraser 2/24); Western Province 87/5 (Maahir Joseph 31, Juan James 27; Samuel Bobraine 2/19, Paballo Madisa 2/42). Western Province won by five wickets. 

Boland 173/9 (William September 41, Nathan Jacobs 38*, Riley Norton 28; Leo Sadler 3/22, Tristan Luus 2/56); Titans 174/3 (Christiaan du Toit 77, Bhamji Suleman 72*; Riley Norton 3/37). Titans won by seven wickets.

Central Gauteng Lions 157 (Thebe Gazide 34, Neil Timmers 28, Richard Seletswane 20; Nathan Beaumont 3/20, Matipa Denenga 2/18); KwaZulu-Natal Inland 161/5 (Jason Muirhead 76, Jake Carstens 44*; Kwena Maphaka 3/39). KwaZulu-Natal Inland won by five wickets.

KwaZulu-Natal Coastal 220/5 (Romashan Pillay 100, Aryan Gopalan 42, Evan Fouché 31; Martin Khumalo 3/42); Easterns 148 (Simele Maye 44, Jeandré Byleveld 35; Sagel Rajakumar 2/10, Ryan Jairaj 2/11, Aryan Gopalan 2/23). KwaZulu-Natal Coastal won by 72 runs.

Free State 205/9 (Foster Lubbe 68, Khanyisile Nondwangu 31, Thabiso Nkoe 27*, Samokelo Lepheto 27; Simnikile Soyaya 3/39, Aphiwe Mnyanda 2/43); Eastern Province 103 (Casey Keevy 38, Ashley Ostling 22; Johnathan Muller 4/13, Foster Lubbe 2/13, Dakalo Leketa 2/17). Free State won by 102 runs.

Border 135 (Tre Gilbert 62, Ryan Denston 23; Kamvalihle Qusheka 2/5, Liyabonga Malefi 2/6, Charl-Francois Marais 2/13, Ewald de Jager 2/21, Thurstin Murphy 2/24); Garden Route Badgers 111 (Thurstin Murphy 32, Extras 27, Liyabonga Malefi 26; Tyler Stagg 3/25, Ryan Denston 2/23). Border won by 24 runs.

Mpumalanga 102 (Sphumelelo Madonsela 21, Hannes Feuth 21, Extras 20; Tumiso Seetelo 4/23, Monnapule Jansen 2/13, Paseka Jonker 2/24); Northern Cape 105/3 (Igsaan Alexander 43, Kgotso Motlwai 37). Northern Cape won by seven wickets.

Namibia Welwitchias 104 (Jandré Botha 25; Khaif Patel 2/4, Ntemi Madimola 2/16, Masilo Moremi 2/18, Gideon Goosen 2/43); Limpopo 105/5 (Shelton Ngobeni 45; Nico Pieters 2/21, Ben Burger 2/22). Limpopo won by five wickets.

Namibia Cheetahs 254 (JC Balt 70, Gerhard Janse van Rensburg 54, Extras 34, Hansie de Villiers 24; Esam Mpafa 5/60, Faiz Shaik 2/39); Kei 114 (Ntsika Ngqukumba 26, Extras 29, Thabiso Rebert 20*; PD Blignaut 3/11, JC Balt 3/22, Dirkie Theunissen 2/8). Namibia Cheetahs won by 140 runs. 

 

 

The rain came down at the Khaya Majola Week, and the makers of plans got going

 

The 2^nd day’s play at the Khaya Majola Week in Stellenbosch was called off at about 12 noon on Friday when the heavens opened up. It’s not supposed to rain in the Western Cape at this time of the year, I’m told, but it certainly did, and it was a downpour to rival those we’ve had on the Highveld in the last week or two.

The organisers eventually sent the boys back to the hotel at lunchtime , with instructions to be ready to return within 30 minutes ,should it clear up. They want the boys to play, at any cost, at these weeks, which is part of what makes them special.

The disruption brought challenges. The abandoned games couldn’t be used in the calculations when deciding who plays who – strength on strength – on the last two days, and the limited time out on the field has aggravated the headaches the selectors were facing anyway, having to pick SA Schools teams at a four day tournament.

In the background, plans were being made – the ground staff will be on post at 5am on Saturday to make sure the fields are playable come starting time, and the organisers are already contemplating shorter games than the scheduled 50-overs format, should the starts be delayed. And they were trying set up the best possible contests for day 3, even though no-one has played a lot of cricket yet.

Over the years, I’ve often likened the Khaya Majola Week to a military operation. Today I saw how it’s conducted. CSA’s manager of youth cricket, Niels Momberg, is the CO, stern and perfectionistic; the indefatigable Morgan Pillay, the week's permanent secretary, is his executive officer, making things happen, and the brilliant Hannes Nienaber - co-opted cricket fundi - is the head of intelligence – an endless source of statistics and historical context for them to base their decisions on.

It's the beating heart of the world greatest school cricket tournament, and it was something to behold.

Summarised scores Day 2 – All the games abandoned because of rain.

Eastern Province 126/0 (Zac Micklewright 65 not out, Ashley Ostling 54 not out), vs Boland.

Central Gauteng Lions 76/4 (Richard Seletswane 37 not out), vs Titans.

Garden Route Badgers 100/4 (Elro Spies 42), vs Namibia Welwitchias.

Limpopo 166/10 (Zack Duvenhage 61; Paseka Jonker 3/17), vs Northern Cape.

Free State 109/5 (Liam Dohery 24, Khanyisile Nondwanga 24), vs Kwa-Zulu-Natal Coastal.

Border 95/3 (Chloe Van Schoor 25), vs Namibia Cheetahs.

Western Province 145/2 (Maahir Joseph 69 not out, Meeka-eel Prince 38), vs KwaZulu-Natal Inland Inland

Mpumalanga 124/5 (Yalin Koul 42, Hannes Feuth 36 not out), vs  Border Kei

Northwest 188/3 (Dewald du Plessis 51 not out, Bathabile Masiga 54, Rico Fryer 42). vs Easterns

Saturday morning dawned clear and sunny in Stellenbosch. Praise be.

Today’s Fixtures

Titans vs Boland, Western Province vs North West, Central Gauteng Lions vs KwaZulu-Natal Inland, Free State vs Eastern Province, Easterns vs KwaZulu-Natal, Garden Route Badgers vs Border, Mpumalanga vs Northern Cape, Namibia Welwitschias vs Limpopo, Namibia Cheetahs vs Border Kei.