Overview Sporting Achievements

This weekend saw a clash between two Pietermaritzburg schools with Maritzburg College’s cricket, basketball and water polo teams taking on St Charles College.

KZN Cricket Selections

Congratulations to the following Maritzburg College boys who have been selected for the KZN Inland teams.

U19

Bryn Brokensha, Caleb Thomas, Chad Mason (non-travelling reserve), Asanda Khumalo (non-travelling reserve)

U16

Sphamandla Dzanibe, Daniel Nadasan, Deolyn Naidoo (non-travelling reserve)

KZN Table Tennis Selection

Well done to Tayden Royappen who has been selected to represent KZN U18 at the National Top Schools event in December.

Basketball

It was an exciting day for the basketball fraternity against well-respected rivals St Charles College, with 19 teams in action. College won 16 of their 19 matches losing just 3.

The 1st team clash was a much-anticipated encounter between two of the strongest sides in the country. Today, College emerged the victors winning the match, 75-57.

1^st team report – Suwi Siwila (Director of Basketball)

The much-anticipated match between the top two Basketball programs in the country was on full display this past weekend. St Charles going in favorites were very aware of the form that College came into the game with.

The game started off as a cagey affair as College looked to silence the St Charles supporters on their home court. The 1st quarter ended with the score 11-10 to St Charles. The second quarter saw Maritzburg College assert their dominance, playing exceptional defence and free-flowing offense. Once College had taken the lead, there was no looking back.

The 3rd and 4th quarter followed a similar pattern to the 2nd. College played like champs to triumph over the top basketball school team in the country. Even without their court general A. Ngcobo who is out injured. College pulled off a major victory to assert themselves as the new number 1 in the country. The following players can be proud of their efforts; L Dlamini 23 points, K Sibankulu 17 points and R Hoskins with 15 huge rebounds.

Cricket

College’s cricketers played 13 matches yesterday against local rivals St Charles College, starting in beautiful sunshine but chasing the storms late afternoon. College won seven of their 13 matches, losing five and one with no result due to rain.

The 1st XI match played at St Charles was stopped for rain without a result. College opened the batting in the morning making 215/9 and Mason top scoring with 84. St Charles were 146/8, Mason having taken 3-12 when the match was called off.

1^st  XI team report – Robbie Coutts (1^st XI coach)

St Charles won the toss and had no hesitation in sending the visitors into bat on a pitch with a considerable amount of grass.

The College openers started slowly, working hard to see off the new ball. Caleb Thomas was the first to go with the score on 41. A mix of good bowling and poor shot selection saw College slump to 72 for 3, before Chad Mason and Michael Gibson got their team to tea without any further loss, leaving College 86 for 3 at the break. The pair batted intelligently putting on the biggest partnership of the innings, that of 53, Mason batted well, rotating the strike and was able to build little partnerships with the lower and middle to keep his team on track for a defendable score. Mason and Sphamandla Dzanibe added 41 for the 8^th wicket before Mason in the quest for quick runs at the end of the innings was unfortunate to get out for a well-played 84. Dzanibe and James Wiggill added an unbeaten 16 in the last 2 overs to get College to a defendable 214 for 9.

St Charles started well, losing their first wicket with the score on 55 in the 12^th over. The introduction of the College spinners, leg spinner Chad Mason and off spinner Oliver da Costa, slowed the run rate down and the pair bowled with good control, picking up two wickets in five overs, only giving away 11 runs. College’s bowling unit were disciplined, not giving the St Charles batsmen anything, bowling only 2 wides in 42 overs. The dot ball pressure started resulting in regular wickets falling and with Liam Armstrong executing a direct hit runout, St Charles were 136 for 6 in 41 overs. The 42^nd over bowled by off spinner Wiggill proved to be an eventful over, with a run out off the 2^nd ball and a good catch in the deep by Thomas. The lightening siren soon sounded, taking the players off the field and the match was eventually abandoned with St Charles on 146 for 8.

Scores in brief:

College 214 for 9; Mason 84, Dzanibe 23*

St Charles 146 for 8; Mason 3 for 12

Match abandoned.

Water polo

College’s water polo teams enjoyed a great day in the pool against local rivals, St Charles College.

With the 1st team down at Northwood for the Stayers tournament, College had four teams in action.

The 2nd team enjoyed a great win against St Charles 1st team 11-8 with Wright scoring 8 goals.

College’s 3rds drew against St Charles 2nds, 4-4, the U14A side also drew 7-7, while the U15AB lost their game 6-9.

At the Northwood Stayers Tournament, College finished in 6^th position.

Cycling

The Amashova proved a tough challenge for the College boys participating, in very wet and stormy conditions. Michael Barnardo, Caden Wood and Luke O’Connor completed the 65km race in just over 2 hours with Barnardo finishing 2nd in the u19 age category, while Caleb Sweetnam finished the 106km event in just over 4 hours and Nathan Curry in around 5 hours. Third former Adithya Naidoo completed his first ever Amashova – 38km in just over 1 hour.

Cole Sellick sacrificed his race to ride alongside Billy Macleod (who had a heart transplant operation in September 2022) along with Billy’s wife, Judy.  Cole’s cousin – Mitchell Boik and KZN cycling teammate – Jodi MacKinnon – all rode with Cole to motivate and support Billy to raise awareness about organ and tissue donor shortages in KZN. They finished the race in around 5 hours.