CRICKET
For latest Sports Report, Kearsney College headed to the 64th Michaelmas Week hosted by Maritzburg College after an outstanding tour to the St Johns College Rams T20 in Zimbabwe, where they won five out of six games, narrowly losing to the hosts in the final. At that tournament, Kearsney’s Jack O’Donovan and Ross Coetzee garnered a record-breaking partnership of 100 runs off 22 balls against Hellenic.
The scheduled first day of play at Michaelmas Week was washed out, leaving Kearsney with three challenging fixtures, featuring two of the top 10 ranked cricketing schools in South Africa.
In their first game Kearsney faced St Stithians College (ranked four) on a smallish field at Merchiston Primary in a 25-over affair. St Stithians mustered 247/7 and Kearsney chased it down with four balls to spare, seven wickets down (Jack O’Donovan 64, Murray Weyer 53).
Day 2 was a tale of two pitches against a competent Waterkloof side. Kearsney lost the toss and were put in to bat on a tricky wicket which only settled in the latter half of the innings, after some sun and wind intervention. In the 50-over game, Kearsney amassed 258/8 (Cameron Veenstra 100, Ross Coetzee 39, Matthew Mendes de Oliveira 36*). With the track having become a road, aggressive batting from Waterkloof saw them comfortably pass Kearsney’s total (261/5), thereby winning the contest by five wickets and justifying their number three ranking.
In the last encounter of the week, Kearsney clashed with the formidable Paul Roos side which had ventured away from the Cape Schools Week to be a part of the prestigious Michaelmas Week. In a high scoring 30-over match, Paul Roos scored 214/9, Murray Weyer being the pick of the bowlers with 3/38. Kearsney set about chasing the challenging total and, despite impressive contributions from Matthew Mendes de Oliveira (45) and Cameron Veenstra (34), Kearsney fell short by 12 runs. Schoolboy cricket at its champagne best!
GOLF
At the SA High Schools championships, played at Mt Edgecombe during the holidays, Kearsney had three players make the SA High Schools team.
Matthew Gouws was tied for the lead after 72 holes and lost in a play-off to finish second. Tyron Keylock shot a wonderful 69 in the final round to finish 4th, and KZN captain Reece Brown played consistent golf to finish in 6th position.
Troy Taylor finished tie 12th, with Asher Hollister finishing 29th, capping an outstanding season where the Kearsney 1st team also won the KZN Schools Championship.
WATER POLO
Kearsney’s 1st water polo team participated in the annual Clifton tournament, starting strongly with a 13-3 victory over Michaelhouse, which boosted their optimism for the rest of the competition.
A tough second match against Affies was anticipated, after Kearsney narrowly beat them by one goal at the Reef Cup earlier this year. The match ended in a 5-5 draw, leading to a penalty shootout which Kearsney won 7-6.
Kearsney’s final pool match against Paul Roos was a tough fight, which ultimately ended in a 8-7 loss. This pool group was particularly challenging, with three of the four teams finishing in the tournament’s top eight.
In the quarter-finals, Kearsney beat DHS 10-8; but went down 12-9 to a strong St Johns team in the semi-finals.
Kearsney went on to finish sixth out of 16 teams, after beating Hilton 9-8 and losing to Westville for the 5th/6th play-off.
In another holiday event, Kearsney’s U16 water polo team won the Nick Rey tournament held at Durban High School (DHS), with three boys receiving awards.
Results of their games were: Kearsney beat Martizburg College 15-1; Kearsney beat St Stithians 7-1; Kearsney beat Clifton 6-0; Kearsney beat Westville Boys 6-4; Kearsney beat Glenwood 18-0; Kearsney beat Wahoo Invitational 6-3
Kearsney beat DHS 17-3 (quarter final); Kearsney beat Affies 7-3 (semi-final); Kearsney beat Wahoo Invitational 6-3 (final).
The boys who received awards were Oliver Ludwig (player of the tournament), Rourke Stacey (goalie of the tournament) and Thomas Aylward (player of the match in the final).
Kearsney hosted the annual Independent Schools Stayers Basketball Tournament over the past weekend (27-29 September), which has established itself as a premier event in a sport that is often marginalised by traditional boys’ schools.
Sixteen schools participated in the A division and 12 in B division, with teams from across South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe travelling for the event. Over the three days, 104 games were played, using Kearsney’s indoor and outdoor courts.
In the A division, the large crowd of supporters were treated to some excellent schoolboy basketball. Michael Mount Waldorf won the final game against a highly competitive and talented St Benedict’s College. Both teams will be teams to watch in next year’s competition, as neither has yet reached its full potential.
In the B division, there were several closely contested games with LIV Village running out eventual winners, managing to hold on to beat a decidedly competitive St Peters College team.
It was clear that the Gauteng schools have pulled away from KZN schools which is a change from past tournaments.
Sports Report sent from Sue Miles at Working Words.
