Union 1st XI cricketer Caerwyn Spence received his 50th cap on Sunday, 22 September during the Cape Schools Cricket Week from Headmaster, Mr William Pringle before the match against Paarl Boys High.
Well done Caerwyn!
Congratulations to Matthew Hesselink, Kyle-Luke du Preez and MJ Newton who received their 1st Team Cricket Caps before the match against Paarl Boys High.
Union’s u/11 cricketers recently enjoyed three days of fantastic cricket at the u/11 cricket festival hosted by Queen’s College Boys’ Primary School in Queenstown.
On Day 1, Union faced off against hosts Queen’s College in a 50-over encounter. Union lost the match by 73 runs.
On Day 2, Union beat Dale College Boys’ Junior School in a T20 match by 2 runs, losing to Alice Primary by 9 wickets shortly thereafter in another T20.
Union, however, ended the tournament on a high, beating St. Andrew’s School, Bloemfontein, by 2 wickets in a 40-over match.
Well done, gents!
One of the longest running schools cricket weeks in the country will be hosted by Union High School next weekend, with 10 leading teams competing in matches from Friday, 20 September to Tuesday, 24 September.
In this, its Centenary year, the Graaff-Reinet school will now be in charge of the 52nd anniversary of the Cape Schools’ Cricket Week.
The tournament was started in the 1960s, with eight teams – four from the EP and Border and four from Cape Town – meeting for a festival of cricket.
The original teams were Grey, Queen’s Dale and Union High from the eastern region, with the Western Cape sides being SACS, Wynberg, Bishops and Rondebosch.
In the years following the inaugural week, Selborne (1969) and Kimberley Boys’ High (1971) were also included, although the number of teams attending the festival remained at eight until 10 teams contested 1988 edition.
Since the turn of the century, the number of teams has varied from 10 to 12.
As you would expect in half a century of tournaments, the week has seen a number of players who reached the highest level of the game coming through its ranks.
Back in the sixties, legends such as Kenny McEwan, Peter Kirsten, Allan Lamb and Garth le Roux all played in the week, while more recently Johan Botha, Wayne Parnell, Rusty Theron, Danie Piedt and Dawid Malan, now playing for England, have been part of the event.
Interestingly, Malan attended Paarl Boys’ High, who have only competed a handful of times, but will be back this year, taking on Queen’s College at Asante Sana Game Reserve in their opening match on Saturday, 21 September.
SACS, the oldest high school in South Africa, will be taking part again this year, with their first match to take place on Saturday, 21 September, against host school Union High on Union’s Minnaar Field.
Paul Roos is also in the line-up and should have an interesting opener against Dale College on Saturday at the Botanics Sports Club, while Grey High School will face tough opposition against Rondebosch in their opener on Saturday at Hoër Volkskool and Selborne College will be up against Wynberg in their opener on Saturday at Union’s Puttick Field.
Following Saturday’s game against SACS, Union will play Paarl Boys, Paul Roos and Wynberg.
The fixtures are:
| Date | Teams | Venue | Time | Format |
| Friday 20/9 |
Friendly “EP vs WP” | Botanics Sports Club | 18:00 | T20 |
| Saturday 21/9 |
Union High vs SACS Selborne College vs Wynberg Grey High vs Rondebosch Dale College vs Paul Roos Queen’s College vs Paarl Boys |
Minnaar Field Puttick Field Hoër Volkskool Botanics Sports Club Asante Sana Game Reserve |
09:00 09:00 09:00 09:00 09:30 |
Declaration |
| Sunday 22/9 |
Union High vs Paarl Boys Queen’s College vs Paul Roos Selborne College vs SACS Grey High vs Wynberg Dale College vs Rondebosch |
Minnaar Field Puttick Field Hoër Volkskool Botanics Sports Club Asante Sana Game Reserve |
09:00 09:00 09:00 09:00 09:30 |
Declaration |
| Monday 23/9 |
Union High vs Paul Roos Dale College vs Paarl Boys Queen’s College vs Wynberg Selborne College vs Rondebosch Grey High vs SACS |
Minnaar Field Puttick Field Hoër Volkskool Botanics Sports Club Asante Sana Game Reserve |
09:00 09:00 09:00 09:00 09:30 |
Declaration |
| Tuesday 24/9 |
Union High vs Wynberg Grey High vs Paarl Boys Dale College vs SACS Queen’s College vs Rondebosch Selborne College vs Paul Roos |
Minnaar Field Puttick Field Hoër Volkskool Botanics Sports Club Asante Sana Game Reserve |
09:00 09:00 09:00 09:00 09:30 |
50 Overs |
It is a fundamental principle that you cannot play good cricket on poor wickets.
With the rugby season behind us, the cricket season having recently commenced and the much-anticipated Cape Schools Cricket Week on our doorstep, a lot of careful and thoughtful work has gone into the preparation of the cricket pitches as well as the in- and outfields of Union’s Murray and Puttick fields these past months.
As the humble grass on which the season’s matches will be contested plays a critical role in determining the outcome of a match, Union thought it vital that the condition of the school’s turf satisfies players, coaches, spectators and administrators alike this season.
To ensure that everyone’s high expectations are met, Union delved into the depths of horticultural science to engineer the ground carefully to everyone’s satisfaction. This has been particularly difficult owing to the quality of water that has been available for use, with the salt content, in particular, providing the school with headaches.
Thanks to the generous support and immense efforts by numerous individuals, Union is happy to report that all the hard work is bearing fruit and that the turf should be pitch-perfect for Cape Schools Cricket Week, which kicks off on Friday, 20 September at Union.
The run-up to this festival has seen a lot go on behind the scenes at Union to ensure joy is brought to the cricket connoisseur.
The grass and soil were measured and analysed to make sure they are healthy and have the right amount of compaction and moisture.
A lot of attention was also focused on the school’s pitches, which received a complete once over – they were drilled, scarified, the old bully was taken out and fertiliser and top soil added. The pitches were then watered and nurtured back into shape.
All of this would not have been possible without:
• Mr Donald Kingwill (who knows all the intricacies of Union’s pitches) and his crew of groundsmen who have been mowing, cutting, compacting, watering and crushing bully day in and day out.
• Mr Petrus Botha of N1 Construction who has not only made his roller available for the purposes of compacting the pitches, but also very generously helped the school in transporting water to flood the pitches on a weekly basis.
• Mr Derek Light who donated 180 square metres of kikuyu grass to use where needed on the in- and outfields.
• Mr David Stern who assisted in sourcing new bully for the pitches and Mr Campbell Scott of Campbell Scott Machine Hire who made his tipper truck available to the school for the transport thereof.
• Mr John-Allen Biggs who provided invaluable advice and support.
• Mr William Coleman and Mr David Stern who facilitated the testing of the soil which enabled Union to fine-tune the preparation process. Mr Coleman also donated kelp fertiliser and Gyp-Flo.
• Mr Peter Brotherton who supplied fertiliser and manure.
At Union, we firmly believe that good pitches and immaculate fields promote the game and develop good cricketers.
We, therefore, hope that all the hard work and preparation these past couple of months will help our players, as well as those from visiting schools, give their best on the field.
We look forward to the season with much anticipation.
Union’s cricketers will soon benefit from improved training facilities as all of the lanes at the cricket training nets are currently being fitted with new top-of-the-range carpets.
We hope this investment in our training facilities will lead to an outcome players, parents and the wider community will be very proud of in the cricket seasons to come.
Earlier this year, during the cricket season, Union High School’s first team cricketers participated in the 2019 Coca-Cola Schools T20 Challenge.
This challenge sees the finest of South African schools’ cricket teams battle it out in a national tournament. Coach Stephen Bezuidenhout’s team made it to the quarter finals in the provincial round of this tournament. Following this, Coco-Cola paid a visit to the school earlier today, Friday, 5 April, to hand over a training kit to the team in recognition of this achievement. Coach Stephen Bezuidenhout received the training kit from Coca-Cola representative, Siyamthanda Dlamini.
The Coca-Cola training kit consists of agility hurdles, cones, saucer cones, jump ropes, a set of 10 slalom poles and two fielding single stumps. Coke also gave free coke to all the learners of the school. We are so grateful for the training kit! Thanks Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa!
We are also extremely proud of this magnificent achievement by our cricketers! They have set the bar very high for the teams that will follow.
Credit must also go to our coaching staff for the skills transfer and enormous time sacrifice.
On Saturday our u13A cricket team played a limited overs match against Frans Conradie. After losing the toss we were asked to bowl first by our guests. Alutha Wesi and Shaakir Kazi opened the bowling and put together a brutal opening spell dismissing our visitors for 36 runs in 12 overs. After shuffling our batting order Union chased down their total in 11 overs securing a 6 wicket win.
Alutha Wesi 5/18 in 6 overs
On Thursday, 21 February, our u13A Cricket team played a T20 match against Frans Conradie from Despatch. We lost the toss and were asked to bat. Our batsmen got off to a great start through a 57-run partnership between Alutha Wesi and Peter Michaels paving the way for the middle order to score freely ending our 20 overs on 145/5. Frans Conradie then replied with some positive batting keeping our bowlers honest. Good fielding kept our opponents under pressure a…nd they ended their 20 overs on 79/5 with Union winning by 66 runs.
Jayden Swart 49*
Alutha Wesi 27
Peter Michaels 27
Our u11A team played Frans Conradie on Thursday, 21 February. Union won the toss and elected to bowl first. The bowlers worked well together to restrict the opponents to 61 in their twenty overs. Union came in to bat and got off to a good start, but a quick few wickets put us under pressure. Jade Lottering and Peter-Daniel Clegg built a solid partnership and in the end we passed their score with 6 wickets down, winning by 4 wickets.
On Wednesday, 20 February, our u11 boys played a T20 match against Niko Brummer of Beaufort West. Our guest were asked to bat first and started with a conservative approach. Our bowlers kept the run rate down and restricted Niko Brummer to 45 runs in their 20 overs. Our batsmen replied aggressively and chased down the score in the 6th over to win by 8 wickets. Richard Murray took 4 for 7 in 4 overs and Daniel Short scored 25 not out.
Mr Kingwill supervising the groundstaff who are planting one hundred pallets of grass on the Puttick and Murray Field cricket pitches. We are grateful to the Old Unionite Association for financing this project and to Montego Pet Nutrition who transported the grass to Graaff-Reinet from the South-Western Cape. The persistent drought and the quality of available water has had a devastating effect on our cricket pitches.
On Saturday our U13A boys played a limited over match against Laerskool Albertyn from Uitenhage. The match was played in Great Spirit with Union winning the toss and electing to bowl first, our bowlers immediately hit the right areas and put Albertyn under pressure, we managed to take wickets at regular intervals and bowled Albertyn out for 34 in 15 overs. Shaakir Kazi was the pick of the bowlers with 7 for 4 in 6 overs. Our batsmen managed to reach the target in 4th overs with one wicket down securing a 9 wicket win.
The U11A cricket team played a limited over match against Albertyn on the weekend. They won the toss and elected to bowl first. Good bowling and two excellent run outs from the team led to our opposition being dismissed for 38 in 12 overs. Union came into to bat and passed their score in the 5th over, winning the game by 9 wickets
On 13 February, we hosted Gill primary in a 20-over contest. Union won the toss and elected to take the field first. Our bowlers struggled to hit good lines, and missed run out opportunities made it easy for the Gill batsmen to score freely. Gill managed a respectable 137 for 3 in their allotted 20 overs. Our best bowlers were Warren Barlow with figures of 1-23 in 4 overs and Christopher John Moos picking up 1-17 in his 3 overs.
Union then went in to bat, with a slow start to the first 6 overs and losing 2 early wickets led to us falling behind. The middle overs provided much excitement and brought the run rate down, but losing wickets at crucial stages led to Union being 20 runs short of their target. Best batsmen were Yonela Wana – 13 and Josh Arends – 17. Union managed 118 for 9 in their 20 overs, losing by 19 runs.
Union won the toss and elected to bat. After losing two quick wickets a partnership was formed by Matthew Paxton and Josh Neil. Josh continued to bat well, later securing a 48 run partnership with Alastair Imrie. They ended on 142/6, with Josh on 37 not out.
Gill struggled to form partnerships due to consistent bowling from Matthew and the captain Jayden and were all bowled out in the 16th over for 61.
Union won the match by 81 runs.