September 2002
With many apologies for not giving an
update of Falcon sport for the last few weeks of second term, I try to
bring news of what has been happening over the last holidays and in
the first two weeks of this term. Firstly we are proud to point out
that Heath Streak (FOB 92) has been reappointed captain of the
national cricket team, currently in Sri Lanka for the ICC Champions
Trophy and that Mike McKillop (FOB 99) is the captain of the national
hockey team who have recently had a series of matches in Bulawayo
against South Africa. On a lesser perhaps, but no less commendable
level, Martyn Oosthuizen, presently in Form Four, represented Zimbabwe
at a junior bass fishing competition involving Zimbabwe, Namibia and
South Africa. For the first time for a long time, if ever, this
tournament was won by Zimbabwe.
At a school level, I believe we ought to start by congratulating our
1st soccer team. At the very end of the term they retained the CHISZ
Soccer Tournament, won last year at St George’s. If people point out
that that is a pretty insignificant trophy in the scheme of things
even here in Zimbabwe, they are probably right, so it is even more
creditable that the team qualified for national finals of the Coca
Cola schools tournament which were hosted at Jameson over the
holidays. No, we didn’t manage to win, but 6th place was an
outstanding achievement for Falcon. Not only that but Rodwell Khumalo
and Joshua Sithole were selected for a Zimbabwe Schools tour of Zambia
and Mozambique, the first time we have had representation at that
level. Well done to them and to the team as a whole.
The last week of the holidays saw the 1st XI cricket up in Harare for
the traditional Prince Edward Cricket Festival, this year with almost
50 teams competing which shows how cricket is developing in this
country. We had three tough encounters against St George’s, St John’s
and Prince Edward. It was a young and inexperienced team that took
part and all things considered they did not do too badly. On the first
day we had an exciting draw at Saints. Sean Williams, opening the
batting for the first time, hit an almost faultless 109 to set us up
with a score of just over 220 and determined bowling saw a strong
Saints’ top order dismissed relatively cheaply before they regrouped
to end up on 210-8. In the following match we were rather blown away
by a strong St John’s side but it was not without plus points, the
rearguard action from Ian Austen and Richard Ashworth, for example and
some fine spin bowling from Sean Williams and to a large extent, Keith
Ewing. An explosive 50 from Keith Ewing, including a six over the
squash courts, gave us another score in excess of 200 against PE but
they were never interested in chasing the runs and the match ended in
a tame draw.
Since then we have had two rounds of school matches. At first team
level, playing 50 over matches, we have had a good 6 wicket win over
C.B.C. with Ian Austen recording his fourth consecutive half century,
and a rather less satisfactory result against Lomagundi, losing by 81
runs, despite 77 from Andrew McTaggart, promoted to opener and
beginning to establish himself as a first team batsman, following
scores of over 30 at the festival and against C.B.C. Lower down the
ranks there have also been some notable achievements. At U16 level,
Alistair Holman has taken 10 wickets with his left arm spin in the
first two matches and in addition top scored with 70 against Lomagundi.
In that match Paul Trethowan also had a good all round performance
with 56 runs and 4-23. Batting is not the strength of our U15 side but
Barry Stewart hit 87 against Lomagundi, much to his credit. He, Gerald
Aliseni and Nigel Mubvumbi have been among the wickets, though they
were well beaten by C.B.C. Jason Graham has flattered to deceive for
much of this year but finally got it right with a century against
Lomagundi, supported by 73 from Daniel Landman. Matthew Bint and
Daniel Coulson seem to be the most successful U14 bowlers so far.
Lest I neglect the B teams, I should record good performances by
Clinton Prince (48), Christian Coetzee (5-28), Robert du Plessis
(6-12) and Matibona Patsika (3-14) for the 16Bs; runs and wickets for
Paul Bester of the 15Bs and a half century for Bjorn Moyo and 4-5 from
Michael Amos in the 14B side.
Basketball had no fixtures in the first week of term but their season
has now got under way. The 1sts had a narrow 35-33 win over C.B.C. and
the Senior Inter House Basketball is taking place as I write. The
juniors had mixed fortunes with a win for the Under 15 side but a loss
for the Under 16s.
Waterpolo is battling at the moment, not so much due to lack of
ability amongst the boys but because our swimming pool is out of
action. Hopefully that will not be the case for too much longer.
Practices have had to take place at Girls’ College and the Borrow
Street pool in Bulawayo which is hardly ideal preparation for matches.
The first team certainly should be fit now after runs up and down the
Falcon road. They did seem to struggle in the first tournament of the
term down at Plumtree, losing to both Plumtree and C.B.C. but the U16
side on the other hand did well with victories over both Matabeleland
schools. We shall see how things progress.
The tennis too did not get off to a great start judging by the results
though I cannot comment on the strength of the opposition. The 1sts
lost to C.B.C. but they usually are tough opponents in this sport
whilst the U14 side was the only side to win in their match against
Girls’ College. Perhaps they are not old enough yet to be distracted!
Richard Harrison
16th September 2002