At Union, we’re obsessed with cultivating a love of reading in our learners!
It is, therefore, always wonderful to see a learner on campus with their nose deep in a book!
Seen here is Lebone Raula enjoying Maggie Stiefvater’s ‘The Raven King’, one of the many high-quality books available to learners at the school’s library.
On Saturday, 22 February, Union High School’s 1st XI faced Uitenhage’s Muir College in a declaration match.
Muir won the toss and elected to bat first, putting together a reasonable opening start.
Some hard work and determination, as well as a great display of spin bowling from Brett Amsterdam and Jarrod Naude, backed up by some excellent fielding and catching, saw Union’s bowlers increase the pressure on Muir’s batsmen which resulted in wickets starting to fall at regular intervals.
Although Union’s bowlers remained disciplined in their lines and lengths, making it very hard for the Muir batsmen to score, the Muir team managed to put 222 on the board in their 65 overs.
Union’s best bowlers were Jaden Brotherton (2 for 29 in 9 overs), Brett Amsterdam (2 for 62 in 23 overs) and Jarrod Naude (3 for 78 in 21 overs).
Union then went in to bat, with only 55 overs to their disposal in which to reach the set target.
The Union batsmen showed good application from the start and an excellent performance by James Pienaar, backed up by some outstanding stroke play from Bowen Langmead, saw Union batting themselves in reach of the target.
Although Union’s batsmen demonstrated outstanding maturity throughout their innings with the bat, they, unfortunately, fell just short of their goal, scoring a total of 209 for 8 in 54 overs at the end of play.
Union’s best batsmen were James Pienaar (70), Bowen Langmead (66) and Brett Amsterdam (25).
The match ended in a draw.
The annual Interschools swimming gala between the Union Schools and Laer and Hoër Volkskool was held on Wednesday afternoon, 19 February.
A THRILLING performance by the swim stars of these two schools treated spectators to an exhilarating show of athleticism.
Union is indebted to Hoër Volkskool who, once again, made their fantastic facilities available for the event.
As always, Union and Volkskool had a strong team of staff and volunteers operating poolside and the school extends its thanks to all those who acted as time keepers and to those charged with officiating duties.
The gala ran exceptionally smooth, with close to 80 individual events and relays being held.
The strong competition between the two schools’ swimmers ensured that a lot of records tumbled, with many new personal bests also being recorded.
Union’s junior swimmers pipped Laer Volkskool with 407 points to 372, while Hoër Volkskool finished with 410 points in total, which saw them edge out Union High School’s 321 points.
The overall points tallied up to:
Volkskool: 782
Union: 728
The Junior Victor Ludorum award is shared by Union’s Matthew Paxton and Volkskool’s Aiden Thiart, while Volkskool’s Carlien Oosthuizen was recognised as the Junior Victrix Ludorum.
Volkskool siblings Llewellyn and Marlien Crewe-Brown claimed the senior Victor and Victrix Ludorum honours.
Congratulations Volkskool!
Union’s swimming squad trained very hard for this event and have made the school so very proud with their performances and marvellous team spirit.
As swimming grows in stature at Union, we look forward to many more of these meets in the coming years.
Old Unionites Jenna McNaughton and Christine Harris – Class of 2019 – are enjoying a wonderful Gap year at Salisbury Cathedral School in England this year.
While abroad, they are soaking up all the new experiences and having a blast taking in the beautiful sights.
The Grade 9s in Mrs Bronwen Langmead’s Creative Arts class, studied the art of Portraiture during a recent lesson.
This activity helps learners better understand the difference between drawing from life and drawing from a photograph.
Through the process of putting forth time and effort, they came to see they can create realistic portraits successfully. It was a “wow” moment for all the learners involved!
[The learners impressive creations can be seen displayed in the UHS main quad, if you’re nearby do pop round to have a look!]
| TEAMS | STARTING TIME | FORMAT | VENUE |
| UHS 1ST XI | 09:00 | Declaration | Muir College 1 |
| UHS 2ND | 09:00 | 50 Overs | Muir College 2 |
| UHS u/15A | 09:00 | Declaration | Muir College 3 |
On Tuesday afternoon, 18 February, Union’s u/13As, u/13Bs and u/11As faced their Gill Primary School counterparts in T20 matches.
Union’s u/13A (featured here in the accompanying photographs) dominated their opponents during their encounter on Union’s Puttick Field.
Excellent fielding and determination by the bowlers led to Gill being bowled out for 16 runs after 8.3 overs with brothers Shaakir and Yaseen Kazi taking 3 wickets each.
Union’s batsmen then replied, chasing down the target in 2.2 overs securing a 9-wicket victory. Both Union and Gill learners played the game in great spirit.
In their match against Gill, Union’s u/11A cricket team won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Consistent bowling made it challenging to get runs on the board, but Gill eventually managed to reach a score of 53 in their allotted 20 overs. Union made light work of the run chase and passed the target in the 9th over. Union’s best bowler was Owen Paxton with 3 wickets and two excellent run-outs. Evan van der Westhuizen was the best batsmen on the day.
In their T20 match against Gill in Somerset East, Union’s u/13Bs was sent in to bat first, scoring 97 for 7 in their allotted 20 overs. Union’s Mohamed Ahmed (20) and Bradley Davenport (18) fared best with the bat.
Union then started their target defence in sublime fashion, by only conceding 5 runs in the first 5 overs.
Wickets were soon to tumble, as Maqhawe Norman picked up 2 for 12 in 4 overs. Bradley Davenport also bowled well during the middle overs and took 3 for 10 in 4 overs. Liso Booi executed a run-out with a direct hit from mid-wicket.
Union restricted Gill to 71 for 7 in their 20 overs and won the match by 26 runs.
Overall, the day saw great cricket from all the Union teams concerned.
As a school, Union endeavours to be successful in sport on both a local, provincial and national level.
It is events, however, like Monday afternoon’s interhouse cross-country, which epitomises the true ethos of sport at Union.
Determination, dedication and a real sense of school spirit were on display with hundreds of learners competing for their house.
This time it was Arnott House who won, but every learner who took part should be recognised for the effort and willingness to push themselves and improve.
They did themselves, their house and school proud.
The winners in each respective age group are as follows:
Overall results:
Arnott: 98 points (1st)
Daly: 78 Points (2nd)
“𝐍𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐜𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐨 𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐲.” ― 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐞
A Grade 6 learner at Union High School deserves to be praised for her honesty after she made sure that a plastic bank bag, containing a substantial amount of money, was returned to its rightful owner.
On Monday afternoon, 10 February, Lisakhanya Menos noticed a small package on the ground while busy with her extracurriculars on the Union High School campus.
This little package turned out to be a small bank bag, filled with money.
While some would have called it their lucky day, pocketed the cash and not thought twice about it, Lisakhanya rescued the little package and then dutifully turned the money over to Mrs Yvette Cloete.
The money soon made its way back to its owner – one of the school’s teachers, who reported having lost it earlier.
Lisakhanya set a great example of doing the right thing even when no one is watching. It is acts of honesty and civic duty like this that replenishes faith in the good-hearted nature of our learners.
Well done, Lisakhanya!
On Saturday, 15 February, Union High School’s 1st XI travelled to Uitenhage to play against the Daniël Pienaar Technical High School in the quarter-finals of the CSA T20 competition.
Daniël Pienaar won the toss and elected to bat first.
Union’s bowlers struggled to settle with consistent line and lengths, which allowed the Daniël Pienaar players to score freely.
Union, however, managed to finally tighten things up and started taking regular wickets, slowing the run rate down and eventually restricting Daniël Pienaar to 96 in their allotted 20 overs after them having scored 61 in their first 10 overs.
Union’s best bowlers were Brett Amsterdam (3 for 6 in 4 overs), Jarrod Naudé (2 for 17 in 4 overs) and Josh Calitz (2 for 13 in 2 overs).
Union then went in to bat and soon found themselves standing at 19 for 4.
After being in a tough position, the innings continued in a stop-start manner with the Union batsmen struggling to get going.
Thanks to some valiant efforts by the middle to lower-order batsmen, Union managed to get back in the game and soon found themselves in a position where they could possibly win the game.
Unfortunately, it was a little too late and Union ended up 6 runs short of their target.
Union’s best batsmen were James Pringle (24), Sisipho Arnols (14) and Josh Calitz (14).
Union lost the match by 6 runs.
• Union’s 2nd XI also faced Daniël Pienaar on Saturday.
Daniël Pienaar won the toss and elected to bat. They were bowled out for 143 in the 25th over.
Union’s best bowlers were Daniel Nell (3 for 21) and Hlakaniphe Skepe (3 for 22).
Union then had good opening partnerships of 56 and 54.
Union’s top scorers were Rogan Odendaal (56), Hlakaniphe Skepe (21), Matthew Hesselink (14) and Dylan Kriel (19 not out).
Union passed Daniël Pienaar’s score in the 34th over to win the match by 3 wickets.