Maritzburg College opened its summer fixtures for 2022 with a full round of cricket, waterpolo, basketball and squash matches against our well-respected rivals and friends, Westville Boys High. Cricket College fielded teams against Westville this weekend. Of the 15 matches played, College won 11 and lost just 4. 1st XI Report (Robert Coutts – MIC Cricket)

The Maritzburg College 1st XI took on visitors Westville on Goldstones. The visiting captain won the toss and sent the home team into bat. College were not able to put together any meaningful partnerships up front and the Westville bowling attack was able to restrict College to 52 for 4 at tea. The College batsmen struggled to rotate the strike and this allowed Westville to put pressure on College; Luc Jacobs, who top scored with 61 and Bryn Brokensha who made a patient 27, put together the only meaningful partnership of the innings, and did put Westville under some pressure.

College lost wickets at crucial times towards the back of the innings and were never able to set a significant score, reaching 151 for 9 in their 50 overs. The Westville innings started quickly, racing to 30 for no wicket in 3 overs. College were only able to break the opening partnership in the 16th over, Cayden Hohls making the break through. Westville were well set at 105 for 2 at tea, College fought hard but were only able to take 1 more wicket, Westville passing the College total in the 41st over.

Photo: MCCricket1-22Jan.jpg
Caption: 1st XI Luc Jacobs in full flight against Westville on Goldstones this weekend.
Credit: Justin Waldman Sports Photography

Scores in brief:

College 151 for 9; Jacobs 61, Brokensha 27
Westville 152 for 3
Westville won by 7 wickets

Basketball

Saturday’s home games against long-time rivals Westville provided a good start to the season. Shaking the cobwebs off, College won A number of the junior day’s games which set a nice pace for the open teams. While our 2^nd team suffered a disappointing loss, this made the 1^st team more determined than ever to get their side a much-needed victory.

1^st team report (Zinhle Cele)

The game started off close with the teams seemingly evenly matched. No side held the lead for too long in the first quarter and it looked for a while as though it would be a close final score. Coming back into the second quarter, the difference between the two teams became evident and halfway through the second quarter, Maritzburg started to pull away. With impressive defensive play from Mbonambi and Mthimkhulu and quick hard-to-stop fast breaks from the likes of Sithole and Janse van Rensburg, it seemed Westville was getting further and further from closing the gap in the score. Once College rising star Henman got warmed up, it became clear that the game was already won, adding 17 points to his team’s final score, his performance elevated the already dominant team to victory.

Summary of Scores:

1^st won 71-56

2^nd lost 24-39

3^rd lost 20-27

4^th lost 19-27

U16A won 24-18

U16B won 27-15

U16C lost 18-26

U16D lost 19-20

U15A lost 28-30

U15B lost 20-25

U15C lost 18-28

U15D won 18-15

U15E won 27-2

U14A won 20-8

U14B won 21-4

U14C won 22-6

U14D won 18-6

U14E won 31-6

Waterpolo

College fielded 8 teams against Westville in the pool this weekend. College won 2 of the matches, and lost 6 with close scores in some of the games. Well done to our U14A team for the win in their first game for College.

Summary of scores:

1^st lost 3-15

2^nd lost 2-10

3^rd lost 2-7

4^th won 8-7

U15A lost 3-8

U15B lost 1-7

U14A won 7-4

U14B lost 6-7

1^st team report (Darren Sherriff – Director of Aquatics)

Over the past weekend the College 1^st water polo team hosted Westville at College. The game started in a tough contest and Westville managed to take an early 3 goal lead in the 1^st chukka. College fought hard in the 2^nd and managed to pull back 2 goals but Westville were able to extend their lead to 2-6. In the 3^rd chukka Westville came out firing and put a further 3 goals to their tally. Going into the last chukka, Westville were just too accurate and strong for the College side and came out the victors 3-15.

Squash

Top 8 Report (Alan McGuigan – MIC Squash)

College’s Top 8 squash team travelled to Westville on Friday, 21 January, to take part in their first fixture. Against a competitive Westville side, our boys put in a noteworthy team effort to run out 5 – 3 winners. Matt Mason, William Galliers and Veer Premchund recorded impressive 3 – 0 victories in their respective matches while Nikhiel Moodley and Thomas Pratt were involved in crunch matches which would ultimately decide the fixture, both boys digging deep to record crucial 3 – 2 wins.