May 2008

In looking back over First Term sport, the word that comes to mind first is “disrupted”. The first half of term was to a large extent washed away whilst the second half was cut short before we had even started. The water polo was not unduly fussed by the rain and in the two national tournaments in which they took part, one in Bulawayo and one at St John’s, the first team did better than any one had really expected. In the first one they were perhaps a little lucky to end up ranked 2nd but in the second they only came third on a technicality of the scoring system but that’s the way it goes. Anyhow it was all credit to Keith Riley and his team that they were competing up with the best when this looked like being a proverbial “rebuilding” year.

The cricket team struggled with both the weather and tail end batsmen. The 1st XI played 3 matches and had the better of a draw in each of them but failed to take the final wicket or two on each occasion. Having been able to see the conclusion of each game I would say that credit needs to go to the batsmen, rather than condemning our bowlers for incompetence. It was good cricket but disappointing from our point of view. Wisdom Bandura proved to be the batsman of the season scoring 3 half centuries on 4 innings and shared a massive stand of 170 against Peterhouse with Godwill Mamhiyo. On the bowling front, Corey van Rensburg took a remarkable 5-9 against Peterhouse whilst Stevie Macheka took 4 against Milton and Mamhiyo 4 against CBC.

The U16 A team battled a little, the only batsman to score a 50 for them was Michael Mlambo guesting from the U15 side but there was some impressive bowling particularly from Joy Chitate, Robbie Sargeant and, against Peterhouse, Nick Campbell. Tapiwa Pongweni also took one outstanding catch that is worth mentioning. Joy Chitate and Dirk van Heerden were selected for the Zimbabwe U16 side to travel to a tournament in the West Indies in the holiday but sadly the trip had to be called off at the last moment.

Still talking about Mlambo, I was able to watch him batting at the end of the U15 A game vs Peterhouse. It was one of the finest innings I have seen from a batsman at that level, batting throughout the innings and guiding the team by guarding the tail to a very pressurised one wicket victory. Viljoen took 6-39 vs Milton. It would be premature to judge the U14 A side yet but some promise was certainly demonstrated, notably Shaun Hammond’s all round performance against Peterhouse. Oscar Marchussen also had success over the season with both bat and ball.

Artwell Mutape has now taken over from Adam Joelson as the College tennis coach and showed much enthusiasm in his training. Time will obviously tell how the boys progress. Rain caused problems with both practices and matches and results for the term were mixed. Much the same weather problems were experienced by the basketballers but it is good to note that they came through on their tour to Durban during the holidays. Creven Matonisa was singled out by the coach, Isaac Museba, as playing particularly well along with the already recognised talent of the captain, Lyroyce Sibanda. The team reached the semi finals of the competition which strikes me as a good effort.

It was something of a holiday for tours this time round. The soccer team was the next to go, rather depleted due to some boys with passport problems and the disruption of life around the election time but the team that did go gained experience and certainly did not disgrace itself winning 2, losing 2 and drawing one.

As part of a training camp in Potchefstroom, the hockey team ended up playing 9 matches and winning 8 of them. Fidelis Majuba, the coach, admits that they weren’t playing the top opposition that South Africa has to offer but I think he is being modest at least in part and at the end of the day a win is a win! Captain Tom Randell and his cousin, Jack Randle along with Godwill Mamhiyo came away with a bagfull of goals each and Peter Trethowan also deserves mention for his standard of play over the week.

Finally at the end of the holidays the 1st and U16 A rugby XVs took part in the annual Cottco Rugby Festival at Prince Edward in Harare. I don’t think great things were expected from either team so in the end I feel the results were pretty positive. Whilst the 1st XV did suffer a heavy defeat at the hands of St George’s some of the people watching that I have spoken to feel that the gap could well be made up by the time we meet again in July. Given Falcon’s reputation for never giving up, I am happy to run with that and the victories over Churchill and Watershed were decisive in our favour. Sasha Holloway was voted the best forward of the tournament which is a fine accolade and we look forward to seeing him in action down here at Falcon. The 16 As ended up with two wins and a draw and can certainly hold their heads high after that effort.

Returning to the events of 1st Term, I must mention the cross country and athletics. The cross country particularly seems a long time ago now but there were some notable achievements. Tapiwa Pongweni was the real star of the show. In the relays, despite only being in the U16 age-group, he ran the fastest leg of anyone in both age-groups, not surprisingly a junior record. The following week he set a new record for the junior school course and came in first in the inter schools race which Falcon won very convincingly out of the 4 schools that took part. For the record, Oates House won the relay course and Hervey the School Course.

The early end of term really messed around the athletics though there were a couple of zonal meetings at which our boys generally did pretty well. We were also able to end the term with a very exciting Founders Day competition. In a very tight finish George Grey just held off Oates by 5 points when both Houses had scored over 1000.

Have I forgotten anything? Probably and I should mention that Seamus McGovern brought back some medals (no details as I write I fear) from a swimming championship in South Africa.

Now we look forward to the winter sports. There should be plenty of good competition in all the major sports and the teams would value the support of those of you who can make it to watch. I will try to keep you up to date on results and action.


Richard Harrison