There is plenty of cricket and even water polo on the go this weekend, so please feel free to add your say about what’s good in your part of the world.
Swimming: Interesting piece here by High School Sports Magazine: http://www.hssm.co.za/news/swimming/kwazulu-natal/2013/westville-reign-supreme-glenwood-gala which suggests that Westville’s stranglehold over swimming not just in KZN but in SA might be nearing an end. Nevertheless still an outstanding achievement by the Westville boys.
Some interesting athletics at Coetzenburg today, Good luck to Boishaai/Girlshaai, Paul Roos/Bloemhof interschools athletics against Paarl Gym this afternoon. Hope the weather dont stop this.
http://www.paulroos.co.za/2013/02/06/prestige-driehoek-atletiekbyeenkoms-11-feb-2013/
@Gungets Tuft:
Quick check your e-mails. Sent you something…!!!!! Very important stuff
Interesting to see Glenwood 2nds were to play St Benedicts Pinetown 1st last Saturday – but the weather won – again
the lightie went to St Benedicts and wanted to stay there for High School but at 48K pa I suggested
he try Glenwood – he did not like GWD for first 2 years (too much discipline ?) but now he loves it
I rememeber whacking a huge six when the ballies played the St Benedicts 1st a few years ago -not sure how SB would have done against the GWD 2nds though but this is how schools grow and develope their sports
mildly off the subject – can’t wait for Friday – Porties Nite series – lets see if Glenwood field their
“proper” 2nd team
@Grasshopper: What I lack in knowledge of rugby, cricket and polo I can hopefully make up in paddling (even if our up-country friends are going to shake their heads and sigh – my last comment from someone was “jissis, die Engelsmanne en hulle bote”). Surfski new to all schools, popular among the lifesaving crowd where it all started, now the dads briing their boys down (gene’s dad is a paddler, the McKie’s come from lifesaving, the Wilson boys dad is an A+ paddler). The Cape has been going into the school paddling for 5 years so they have the leg up on us but we are catching them quickly. Surfski is filling the gaps in the river calendar where the main races like Dusi (14 – 16 Feb) and Fish (27 – 28 Sept) dominate. The Winter Series starts soon, Sunday mornings once Dusi is behind us, great spectacle – there is one in the Cape as well, worth a drive down to watch 400-500 boats head out.
2’s, 4’s and 8’s is expensive to start and you have to dedicate yourself to that properly. Would have hoped that our Oarsome Foursome and Bridget Hartley – olympics okes, might have kickstarted something. Saw Bridget consorting with mortals like us at a PMB river race this weekend.
Thanks Gungets, your obviously know your stuff when it comes to paddling. For Glenwood it’s an achievement as it’s a sport we never really competed in previously. What I would love to see is KZN schools do 8’s rowing, now that is a great sport. Even if it took rowing in the harbour to get decent practice. The JHB schools seem to have a monopoly on this. The rugga players could do this between seasons for fittest, especially the taller lads. Check out Westville’s new website, full of comments of being invincible, the best, the greatest etc…..definitely not modest at all…..
@Grasshopper: Ja, he’s a good paddler. Not too many juniors entered, some okes right on his heels though. Calvin McKie from Clifton 29 sec behind him and the Wilson twins from College consistently about a minute behind.
It’s not the series win, there are 10 races (this was the third) with 7 to count I think – you wouldn’t want to start reporting results like Westville!!.
Gene was 11th in race 1, 2nd in race 2 (all the top boys away at the Drak Challenge) 16th in race 3, can’t see anyone catching him unless he stops paddling.
College can’t compete there – all our top paddlers are boarders and currently can’t make it to all the races. We are working on it though, hopefully will be able to at least get a team in for the later part of the series, means the boys travelling down after school on Friday, then back after the race. Expensive ….
SA School Champs on Friday 15th March (Race 10), so that is where it all counts, the boys from PE and Cape Town are pretty much assured of taking that.
@Grasshopper:
Yeah the Glenwood polo sıde ıs obvıously not as good as last year but wıll get better. Remember that Clıfton and a couple other top polo schools have holıday polo traınıng across all age-groups whıch ıs why DHS got klapped so hard IMO.
Well done to Bafana Bafana for qualıfyıng!!! Great stuff
@Horise, yep a pretty good weekend in JHB against Parktown, obviously a late filler for the Westville games. Thanks to Parktown. http://www.glenwoodhighschool.co.za/sites/default/files/vs%20Parktown%20and%20St%20Davids%2026%20Jan.pdf
Our 1st team waterpolo didn’t have a great weekend, coming 15th out of 16 at the Grey Bloem waterpolo tourno. Reddam Constantia won it and clifton only made the semis!!
@Gungets, you maybe interested in this; http://www.glenwoodhighschool.co.za/surf-ski-results
Surprise defeat for DHS vs Clifton. Probably still suffering from the day befores defeat. Clifton beat DHS by 6 wickets.
Hilton and College 1st cricket drew but it seems Hilton had the better day.overall winning ALL water polo games,2/12 basketball games and 8/15 cricket games with 5 draws and 2 losses.
Glenwood had a good weekend in Joburg
Think DHS is playing Westville next weekend, will be tough…
@star:
Well done to Westville. They played very well! They should also thank the rain on monday too or else they wouldn’t have made it this far
Westville will lose their swimming dominance if they do again what they did in 2012. It will be gone in no time!
@all
Next Gala is next week. Westville A and B gala
WBHS won by 8 wickets with about 7 overs remaining. I wonder who they will play in the KZN final. My money will be on Hilton.
And now for something completely different:
DHS 25/4 after 8 overs. WBHS looking good!!
@star: Swimmers are 98% products of their swimming clubs – not their schools. Chad is a great swimmer who went to WBHS – he was by no means produced there. Seagulls Swimming Club should take credit for that. Westville has a great swimming culture and the national swimming coach on their books – that is why all the top swimmers go to school there. Chad would have won Olympic gold no matter what school he went to.
Summer Sports? What about politics? Or does that now qualify as a tragedy?
Myself really enjoy the live HIL hockey on TV (we dont see much hockey these days on TV)plus we have our SA womens team playing at Hartleyvale in the World Series. In Paarl we have the PSi (Indoor) Boland league going at Paarl Gym and Somerset College from next saturday and our Paarl/Wellington/Worcester schools will play Indoors and summer league matches in the week on Paarl Gims astro and Indoor facilities. Schools like Boishaai, Gim, La Rochelle. Bridge House, Girlshaai, Hugenote and Swartland will play in the Paarl Gym Princess competitions.
The debate of the benefits of the super school in a particular sport is raised eg Clifton in water polo and Westville in swimming. This year in the Olympics SA came forth in swimming (ahead of Australia) which was their best year ever. The influence of Westville was undeniable and co-incided with 5 years of swimming domination. Is it not better to have your best athletes in the best strutures especially where the sport is more individualistic and technical in nature . We have the same argument about rugby players going to GC and the impact that has had on national performance. I seem to remember rumblings that govt was looking at the super school position to improve our top line performance. Just some thoughts.
@ Greenblooded- you now have 2 Westville boys and a College boy in your U14s-Can’t you guys make your own
@GreenBlooded: Good luck to a certain U14 College youngster who can put MC back on the swimming map ;) Send our best to him Greenblooded
Glad to see at least WBHS and GW are swimming together? Perhaps the water cools the tempers and emotions?
Reign Supreme? Sounds like the WBHS webmaster wrote this piece.
Funny – I have the Glenwood Gala as today – is this a multiple day affair or was it moved? Also hear from another very good source inside KZN Swimming circle that the Westville twins have indeed gone to Glenwood. Perhaps they contributed to Glenwood’s success in the U14 age groups?