Maritzburg College’s cricket, basketball and water polo teams were in action this weekend with most of the fixtures at home against St Charles College.

Cricket
College’s cricket teams won 9 of the 15 matches played over the weekend most of which were against St Charles, although 5 of the games were abandoned due to lightning.

1^st XI team report (Kyle Nipper)
The Maritzburg College 1st XI lost the toss and were asked to bowl. College dominated the start of the game – some brilliant fast bowling from openers Mondli Khumalo and Andile Simelane reducing St Charles to 19/3.

Featured pic: Maritzburg College’s last first XI match of the year.

St Charles then made a recovery through a superb partnership of close to 150 between Jason Login and captain Wes Madhevere before a one-handed diving Kent Goedeke catch got the breakthrough.

 

 

At 166/4 St Charles were in a commanding position but the College bowlers then pegged things back with great control to eventually dismiss Saints for 205 with seamer Sanele Mbatha finishing 3/24.

The College chase got off to a good start with openers Tristan Elam and Andrew Todd scoring quickly and freely, getting College to 71 without loss before Elam got out. A few partnerships got College into a strong position at 139/4, needing 67 runs in 14 overs before rain interrupted the game and brought it to an end with no result.

Summary of Results

Team	Result
1st	match abandoned
2nd	match abandoned
3rd	won by 6 wickets (Gace 61*)
4th	won by 4 wickets (Engelbrecht 71)
5th	won by 72 runs
6th	won by 81 runs (Schultz 70*)
15A	match abandoned(Jacobs 60*)
15B	match abandoned (Murray 81, De Bilo 69)
15C	won by 22 runs (Hamilton 52)
15D	won by 6 wickets
14A	match abandoned (Armstrong 5/23)
14B	won by 7 wickets
14C	lost by 40 runs
14D	won by 22 runs
14E	won by 53 runs

 

 

Basketball
Basketball’s 17 games were mostly against St Charles with College winning 14 of the games with great crowd support, especially of the 1^st team game.

1^st team report (Jenny Orchard)

The stage was set for a very exciting encounter as St Charles were ready to avenge their first term defeat. St Charles made their intentions clear in the first quarter with fast breaks and successful baskets and they soon built up a 10-point lead with College trailing 3-13 at the end of the first period.

College then played as a team and passed the ball around to create more opportunities and the boys started finding their feet, attacking the baskets and became comfortable with their shooting.

 

 

Tapelo Mthombeni got his stroke on form and ended up as College’s top scorer. After he shot the first 3-pointer College players came back with fire, ending the quarter with a one-point difference.

The game was now on with St Charles realising that things were not going to be as easy as they had hoped. College team fouls came into play and this had a detrimental effect on the lead that College had gained.

Despite the vociferous encouragement from the College supporters, St Charles managed to win the game with free throws.

 

 

Of the 17 matches against St Charles, College won 14 and lost 3.

Summary of Results

Team	Opponent	Score	Result
1st	St Charles	54 – 58	Lost
2nd	St Charles	32 – 44	Lost
3rd	St Charles	36 – 24	Won
4th	St Charles	26 – 27	Lost
5th	St Charles	18 – 17	Won
16A	St Charles	30 – 19	Won
16B	St Charles	51 – 27	Won
16C	St Charles	20 – 18	Won
16D	St Charles	20 – 16	Won
15A	St Charles	58 – 36	Won
15B	St Charles	23 – 15	Won
15C	St Charles	31 – 9	Won
15D	St Charles	46 – 6	Won
14A	St Charles	21 – 14	Won
14B	St Charles	28 – 17	Won
14C	St Charles	29 – 13	Won
14D	St Charles	34 – 2	Won
SUMMARY vs SCC
Played	17
Won	14
Lost	3

 

 

Water polo
The College 1^st team participated in the Northwood Stayers tournament over the weekend.
The other College water polo teams played St Charles, with College winning all four of the games.

1^st team report (Darren Sherriff)
College were in a preliminary round Group that consisted of Glenwood, Clifton, Kearsney and an Invitational team.

College 1^st team’s first game was against Glenwood, which was a slow start for the RedBlackWhite, having to fight back from being 1-0 down in the first chukka. College then played well and came out victors 7-3.

In the next game the RedBlackWhite played Clifton in a tightly-contested match winning 5-3.

In the third pool game College played Kearsney- and it was not the best RedBlackWhite performance with the team going down 5-10. The last pool game was against the Invitational team and College won 7-2.

 

 

This put our boys up against Westville in the cross-pool playoff. College pulled off a very tightly contested match 4-3 before meeting Reddam Highlands in the semi-finals, which saw #RedBlackWhite have a really slow start to the game and then trying to play catch-up from being 4-0 down in the first chukka.

College fought back but it was not enough and lost 5-9. In College’s final game, the team played Clifton again and were able to keep the opposition at bay by winning 4-2, placing 3^rd in the tournament.

Summary of Results

Stayers Tournament
College vs Glenwood:7 -3		won
College vs Clifton : 5 – 3		won
College vs Kearsney: 5 -10		lost
College vs Invitational: 7 – 2		won
College vs Westville: 4 – 3		lost
College vs Highlands: 5 – 9		lost
College vs Clifton: 4-2		won
College finished 3rd

College vs St Charles

Team	Opposition	Score	Result	Coach	Format
2nd	St Charles	8 – 2	Won	Makhathini	4 x 5 playing
3rd	St Charles	13 – 2	Won	Warr	4 x 5 playing
15A	St Charles	12 – 4	Won	Sutherland	4 x 5 playing
14A	St Charles	12 – 7	Won	Waters	4 x 5 playing