Hoër Volkskool hosted the 2019 Interschools Gala at the Hoër Volkskool pool on Tuesday, 12 February. Although we were represented well in all age groups, Union swam against strong competition at this year’s Interschools gala. Our swimmers made Union proud by truly giving their all, many of them competing in every event they could to ensure points for Union. The final score was Union 302 – Volkskool 366.
While the loss is disappointing, we would like to thank the swimmers for their participation and determination, and congratulate them on their good behavior throughout the event. Thank you to Hoër Volkskool for hosting this event in their wonderful facilities; and, of course, to all the staff and pupils who gave up their time to officiate at the event. We look forward to the annual Karoo Interschools Gala held at the Hoër Volkskool pool.
On Friday our 1st XI played their last game for the season in a 50 over day night game against Muir College.
This was also a very special occasion as two of our boys received their 50th cap, Trevor Moos and Luke Mc Naughton.
Muir won the toss and elected to bat. Union put on a wonderful display of bowling and fielding with Luke Mc Naughton taking the lead with the ball backed up by some wonderful sharp fielding that lead to a game changing run out. Unio…n managed to keep the runs to a minimum and kept taking wickets at regular intervals and managed to bowl Muir out for 127.
Congratulations to Luke McNaughton who, in his 50th game for Union, took a five-fer!
Bowling performances: Luke Mc Naughton 5 for 42 in 10 overs; Brett Amsterdam 2 for 17 in 8 overs; Caerwyn Spence 1 for 10 in 6 overs; Lunga Zantsi 1 for 25 in 3 overs.
Union went in to bat and what ended up being a stop start beginning to the innings made things a bit tough at the start, however Trevor Moos and James Pringle put together the perfect 47 run opening partnership through very trying conditions to put us in a commanding position for the run chase. This allowed Brett Amsterdam, Luke Mc Naughton and Zusakhe Ngwane to bat with freedom and get us over the line with only 3 wickets down.
This was really a clinical performance from Union who were always in control and was wonderful that Luke and Trevor rose to the occasion and put together two wonderful performances in their 50th game.
Batting performances: Brett Amsterdam 37 not out; Trevor Moos 24; Luke Mc Naughton 19; James Pringle 17; Zusakhe Ngwane 9 not out.
Union won the match by 7 wickets
Congratulations to Luke McNaughton and Trevor Moos who both received their 50th cap from Mr Pringle before the day/night game against Muir College today.
1ST XI vs Nico Malan CSA national T20 competition
On Saturday Union 1st XI played against Nico Malan in the CSA National T20 competition at Grey High School.
Nico Malan won the toss and sent Union in to bat. Union got off to a reasonable start but struggled to put together a meaningful partnership and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. This unfortunately lead to us only scoring 103.
Nico Malan went in to bat and Union fought hard with the ball and in the field and had Nico Malan 48 for 5. However 103 proved a tough target to defend even though the game ended up going right down to the wire. In the end it was a great game of cricket and very exciting to watch. If Union could have capitalized on one or two chances the result could easily have been different.
Bowling performances: Jayden Brotherton 2 for 14 in 4; Lihle Mxhunyelwa 2 for 19 in 3; Brett Amsterdam 1 for 17 in 3; Trevor Moss 1 for 28 in 3
Even though he did not take a wicket, Caerwyn Spence bowl two excellent overs in the heat of the game which only went for 7 runs.
Union lost he match by 3 wickets
UHS 2nd Cricket vs Muir
UHS won the toss and elected to bat first in this 40 over match. James Pienaar 32, William Kayster 22, Khwezi Simon 16*, Matthew Hesselink 13 and Josh Calitz 10 contributed to a score of 131 all out in the 25th over.
Muir replied with a score of 138/6 in the 28th over. Best bowling figures were Jarrod Naude 2/28 and Matthew Hesselink 2/38.
No significant run partnership, not batting out our overs and a dropped catch put us under pressure in defending the low score posted.
UHS lost this match by 4 wickets.
U/15A vs Muir College
On Saturday our Colts played at Botanics against Muir College in a 40 over match. Muir won the toss and asked us to bat first. Union lost some quick wickets upfront through poor shot selection and a lack of patience. Kwande Mhlabeni and Matthew Basson consolidated for a brilliantly played 70 run partnership. With a lapse in concentration we lost our last 6 wickets for only 39 runs. Union made 139 all out in 31.3 overs.
Top batsmen: Kwande Mhlabeni 42; Matthew Basson 39; Sisipho Arnols 15.
The Union bowlers struggled to bowl a good line and length. As a result failed to put the Muir batsmen under pressure. Missed chances didn’t help us. Muir passed our score in the 31st over having lost only 5 wickets.
Top bowlers: Laython Carelse 3 for 28 in 8 overs; Daniel Nell 1 for 16 in 3 overs; Hlakinipha Skepe 1 for 34 in 7.2 overs.
A group of 16 Union swimmers, from U/13 to Open, participated in the 4th and last B Age Group gala of the season, in Port Elizabeth on Saturday 16th February. Our swimmers did very well, improving on their times and some again achieving awards times. The swimmers are awaiting their invitations to the prestigious Top 8 Gala, which takes place on the 9th of March.
Results:
Mack Rubidge (44 points) 1st place 50m Backstroke
1st place 100m Freestyle
2nd place 50m Butterfly
2nd place 50m Freestyle
Elia Railton (28 points) 1st place 50m Breastroke
2nd place 50m Backstroke
Megan Doyle (18 points) 2nd place 100m Freestyle
3rd place 50m Freestyle
Amber Binney (17 points) 3rd place 50m Breaststroke
After a successful outing at the B-age group gala on Saturday, nine of our more determined swimmers stayed over in PE to take part in the 95th Spar Sunday’s River Mile on Sunday, 17 February as well.
While the swim last year was exceptionally tough, the excellent conditions this year saw the swimmers slashing their times with an average of around 15 – 20 minutes all round.
As the incoming tide started pushing through, a field of 214 ladies took to the water in a flurry of splashing limbs. Following up on her success from last year, Hannah Bodenstein was our first female swimmer home in a spectacular time of 20 minutes and 20 seconds. Hot on her heels was Amber Binney who crossed the finish line a mere 2 seconds later, despite sustaining a gash to her foot in the process. Drew Dobinson followed shortly after with a time of 23 minutes, with Kelly-Page Scott, Brigette Oelofsen and Elia Railton all exiting the water in under 25 minutes.
The perfect conditions held as the group of 237 men began their race. The pushing tide helped the swimmers set a blistering pace and our 3 boys completed the race in good time; all crossing the finish line in under 25 mins. Mack Rubidge powered through the course in an incredible 18 minutes, while Damon Fouche and Schea Johnson finished in 23 and 24 minutes respectively.
It is always wonderful to see our learners representing our school so well in events of this nature and they must be commended for their fine efforts this weekend despite the hefty academic workload that is synonymous with this time of term. Thank you all for your dedication.
IT WAS WONDERFUL TO SEE UNION BEING SO WELL REPRESENTED AT AN EVENT OF THIS STATURE, AND IT WAS ENCOURAGING TO NOTE THE EAGERNESS WITH WHICH ALL THE FIRST-TIMERS COMPETED. WELL DONE TO THEM ALL.
The Eco Club learns about water and land management from Rosemary Scheepers at the Camdeboo National Park. They also had fun modelling with clay from the Sundays River.
Each year, on Valentine’s day, the Arthur Kingwill House gentlemen invite the Herby Arnott House ladies (and the Max Krooners!), over to their lawn for a sunset picnic. Mr Kingwill and Mr Sullivan welcomed everyone and paid tribute to our amazing house mothers and matrons, and a beautiful evening was enjoyed by one and all!
The school swimming pool is currently undergoing extensive repair and renovation. One might wonder why the school has chosen to embark on this project at this time of year, while swimming is underway, and have not waited for the winter. The answer to this is that the repairs were necessitated by an alarming leak and consequent drop in water level which simply could not be ignored.
The constant fluctuation of the water level and the weekly re-filling of the pool with water from the school’s furrows via Mackie’s Pit was causing havoc with PH levels and costing a fortune in chlorine and acid. Further, it was simply impossible to ensure the clarity of the pool for our swimmers.
The school’s maintenance crew has been feverishly digging trenches to expose the pool’s extensive plumbing network and searching for leaks and will take the opportunity to carry out extensive maintenance, including replacing all the sub-terranean plumbing. Further work will also be carried out to replace tiles, expansion gap sealant and the moulded tile around the perimeter.
Mr Colin Warner of Colin Warner Plumbing will supervise this work and will ensure that several improvements are made to the existing system which will provide a safe, appropriate swimming facility for our children.
We thank the Union community for its understanding and patience during this time.
Rainfall and all that goes with it, is of extreme importance in the semi-arid Karoo. With Nqweba dam’s levels having dropped to 1% of capacity, the veld dry and Graaff-Reinet’s water a real issue – water talk is common at Union. Then last week it started to rain! While the town itself has not received substantial rainfall at this stage, it fell heavily in the catchment areas on farms where some of our boarders live. On Monday morning some of this water reached the rivers that flow into the dam. With much jubilation, the Arthur Kingwill House matrics went to witness this wonderful event and saw the Sunday’s river in full spate after many, many months.
The Eco Club visited The Karoo Taxidermy on Friday 8 February. They learnt about the economic side of hunting and the Taxidermy, about job creation, the import & export logistics and also about the modelling of a fibreglass rhino shoulder mount (darted on a “green hunt”). Many thanks to Jason Marais for his knowledge sharing and Friday afternoon and to Mrs Nell for joining the tour and driving a bus. The group enjoyed their educational outing to Karoo Taxidermy.
While the swim last year was exceptionally tough, the excellent conditions this year saw the swimmers slashing their times with an average of around 15 – 20 minutes all round.
