May 2003
Note from the Webmaster - April's sports update was barely up before it was superseded by May's, but you can see it before reading this by clicking here.
Second term is traditionally a chaotic non-stop fixture list with weekends apparently 24 hour sport. So far this term has been an exception to the rule but no-one is under any illusions this will be an easy term because the Harare fixtures are upon us now and that will liven things up a bit. We also haven’t had a single first team fixture at home for any of the three major sports so these last three weeks have been rather like the formation lap of a Grand Prix and the red lights are now about to go off for the start of the race proper.
Rugby
The
first week of term we had rugby matches against Plumtree and it turned
out to be a very successful day. Plumtree are not so strong this year
as before but they are never a pushover, not least down on their own
turf so it is credit to the juniors, who had the away trip, that they
won all the games down there. Meanwhile the 1st XV played at
Hartsfield as part of the Matabeleland trials and ran out comfortable
winners there.
The selection of the Zimbabwe Craven week side is being done in
several stages this year. In this initial stage Clive Aston, Brendan
Lapage, Luke Coulson, Rowan Smith, Andrew McTaggart, David Crouch,
Mandikudza Mashanyare, Matthew Nesbitt, Verney Burdett and Wade Lemmer
made it to the Matabeleland A side while Bryan Pattison, as captain,
Michael du Plessis and Sean Martin played for the B side at further
trials in Harare the following week. Lapage, Pattison, Aston, Coulson,
Smith, McTaggart, Crouch, Mashanyare, Turner and Nesbitt all made it
through to the final trials at half term and so we hope for some good
representation from Falcon at Craven Week though always hoping we
don’t have a tough school match that week with a depleted side!
Soccer
The soccer team didn’t see any action until the second weekend when they travelled to Petra and won there 3-0. We also had a series of rugby matches there which was encouraging because there is so little opposition in Matabeleland. We won all the matches and were admittedly putting our Bs against their As in some cases but the Petra 1sts were competitive against our 2nds and our 14As only won thanks to a last minute try. Undoubtedly the first real test of our rugby sides will be next Saturday when we are up against Churchill.
We also had our first inter-House competition of the term this last week: the junior House soccer. I watched some of the preliminary games on the Monday and wasn’t wildly impressed with the standard of play but went along for the final on the Tuesday and thoroughly enjoyed a competitive game with some good football into the bargain. My personal view was that Chubb were the better team with good play from the likes of “KG” Kgobero, Doug Mostert and Blessing Tupiri though Melusi Sibanda of Hervey was certainly the best player on the pitch with a number of incisive runs and a good shot from distance. One all, however, was the position after a short extra time period and an exciting penalty shoot out with most shots finding the net eventually handed victory to Hervey. All good fun.
Hockey
The 1st hockey team also came up against Plumtree that weekend as part
of the Inter Cities tournament held in Bulawayo over 2 days. They won
all three pool matches and then played Plumtree in the quarter final,
sneaking through on penalty strokes after a 1-1 draw. A 1-0 victory
over CBC put us into the final against Prince Edward, which ended up
at 2-2 after extra time. This time our penalty strokes were less
successful so PE took the trophy but not a bad effort by the team all
things considered.
The 1st hockey team had another festival in
Bulawayo the second week, this time involving largely club sides and
were delighted to beat Queen’s Sports Club 2-1. We then drew 3-3 with
CBC and then had matches against Botswana Men’s A and B teams. We beat
the Bs 4-1 but at the end of a long weekend, stamina and fitness began
to tell and we lost 2-9 to the A side. Chalk it all down to
experience!
The junior A sides also made a visit to the hockey stadium for matches
against Plumtree. The 14As have much potential were never got it
together though 2 goals by Tom Randell, the captain, were enough to
secure victory. The 15As were very disappointing in their 1-1 draw and
it was the 16As who played the best hockey as they also won 2-0.
I must also mention that the Bushtick (staff) hockey side was also in
action this week for the first time since 2000. I accept
responsibility for the lay off because it was in 2000 that I injured
my knee and haven’t been fit to play since then. Everyone agreed it
was great to playing again. We took on a 3rd/4th team and with
national players Chris Davison, our 1st team coach, and Rowland Rixon-Fuller,
doing a gap year, we ought to have won but only drew 1-1. Chris and
Rixy say they have forgotten how to play on grass. Shame!
At some stage there were some hockey trials for the Matabeleland U17
sides. Tapiwa Mafi, Warren Collin and Graham Swanepoel all made the A
side I think with Thulani Mahamba-Sithole in the Bs, likely to be
joined by goalkeeper, Jan Ferreira, who I believe should have been
chosen in the first place. That’s selectors for you!
Squash
Orlando Fernandes would be disappointed if I forgot to mention squash
in this report though it has not been a successful start to the
Bulawayo league season with all our teams losing all our matches so
far. The A side was placed in the First League which was always going
to be a tough ask but it is good experience and the boys have not been
disgraced. I am sure they will be much more competitive as the season
progresses though getting teams to travel out here is a bit of a
problem at the moment.
Cricket
A
postscript which just occurs to me is that Stanley Marisa recently
played for Zimbabwe U19 cricket against the Academy side and took 3-30
with his left arm spin as the U19s won by 5 wickets. It was also good
to see Dion Ebrahim as Zimbabwe’s top scorer in the disappointing
First Test against England.
Richard Harrison
30th May 2003