1 Blooding a crop of new players in the country’s largest student rugby competition was always a risky step but coach Andy Royle believes it will pay off in the months to come, writes Alan Leonard, Wits Rugby Club manager, who accompanied the squad to the USSA’s at Rhodes in Grahamstown. Wits lost their opening match to a very strong UJ team 15-52, a game in which the Auckland Park side quickly established themselves as tourna- ment favourites. Joshua Jarvis and Richard Crossman crossed for tries while Michael Sephton- Poultney kicked a conversion and a penalty. Wits captain Thato Mavundla, and Connor Brockschmidt, Joshua Jarvis and Gideon Muller, were all outstanding. Wits’ second match on the Wednesday, against UFS Shimlas, was, accord- ing to most spectators, one of the best of the tournament. The Witsies put in a massive effort to tie the match 24-24 at full time before con- ceding three tries in extra time to lose 24-43. Outstanding contributions were made by Thato Mavundla, Brent Crossley, Josh Jarvis, Ish Nkolo, Luvoyo Pupuma and Ameer Williams. In a stunning turnaround of last year’s events, Wits’ men’s and women’s first basketball teams traded fortunes at this year’s USSA’s. In 2014 it was the Wits Lady Bucks who made the final of the national student basketball championships — indeed, won it — and the Wit’s men’s team who were bundled out at the semi-final stage. The Horny Bucks nevertheless won their third-place play-off. But the kudos this year go to the women’s team, who put behind them the disappointment of last year’s third-place finish, sweeping all before them to wrest the women’s title by beating the highly- rated VUT 66-62. The tournament follows the tragic death of UL Medunsa and Gauteng University Basketball League chairperson Tshepo Manamela. At the time of his passing, Manamela was chairperson of the GUBL exco. Wits’ men’s side had to settle for third place this time around, beating UJ 85-40 in their play-off. Wits lost 63-50 to VUT in their semi-final game, despite leading 36-29 going into the final quarter. In last year’s championships at UCT, the WHB were losing finalists. Wits Lady Bucks, coached by the modest Wilie Matlakala, became the first Wits team to win gold at a 2014 USSA team tournament. The consistent effort put into a tough GUBL season, and a hard working out by coaches Matlakala and men’s 1st team coach Tshiamo Ngakane during the pre- tournament training camp, appear to have served Wits Basketball well. The Lady Bucks’ Modiegi Mokoka was voted Most Valuable Player of the tournament. Following their victory, VC Adam Habib expressed his intention to honour the Lady Bucks’ achievement when students return for the new term. Click here to see a video clip of the final. The victorious WLB squad. Modiegi Mokoka (front left) sank the final basket for the Wits women’s team to clinch the USSA title. INSIDE Brylon & Bruce named in USSA u21 3 Happy ending for women’s hockey in 3 More accolades in line for Pietie Coet- 2 Wits Fencing foils the sceptics 4 Evasan Chettiar makes a Polish-ed 2 Engen KOC 2014 4 Volunteering for USSA 3 WITS’ 2014 MID -YEAR USSA HIGHLIGHTS ● Women’s hockey side finish 2nd in B- section; secure inclu- sion in Varsity Hockey ● WHB win play-off for 3rd place ● Rugby XV run oppo- nents close but end winless in G’Town ● Men’s hockey team finish 7th in A- section Volleyball men, women crash out in QF’s but still send players to national & provincial squads Badminton wins sin- gles & team honours LADY LUCK SMILES ON LADY BUCKS ROUGH RIDE FOR RUGBY ROOKIES AT RHODES FRIDAY 18 JULY 2014 VOL 1 Against NMMU, Wits charge out as they restart from a 22m drop-out Wits are forced defend an NMMU punt ahead. The Witsies lost this final game 26-22.
4
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LADY LUCK SMILES ON LADY BUCKS - wits.ac.za€¦ · Crossman crossed for tries while Michael Sephton- ... despite leading 36-29 going into the final quarter. In last year’s championships
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1
Blooding a crop of new players in the country’s largest student rugby competition was always a risky step but coach Andy Royle believes it will pay off in the months to come, writes Alan Leonard, Wits Rugby Club manager, who accompanied the squad to the USSA’s at Rhodes in Grahamstown.
Wits lost their opening match to a very strong UJ team 15-52, a game in which the Auckland Park side quickly established themselves as tourna-ment favourites. Joshua Jarvis and Richard Crossman crossed for tries while Michael Sephton-
Poultney kicked a conversion and a penalty. Wits captain Thato Mavundla, and Connor Brockschmidt, Joshua Jarvis and Gideon Muller, were all outstanding. Wits’ second match on the Wednesday, against UFS Shimlas, was, accord-ing to most spectators, one of the best of the tournament. The Witsies put in a massive effort to tie the match 24-24 at full time before con-ceding three tries in extra time to lose 24-43. Outstanding contributions were made by Thato Mavundla, Brent Crossley, Josh Jarvis, Ish Nkolo, Luvoyo Pupuma and Ameer Williams.
In a stunning turnaround of last year’s events, Wits’ men’s and women’s first basketball teams traded fortunes at this year’s USSA’s. In 2014 it was the Wits Lady Bucks who made the final of the national student basketball championships — indeed, won it — and the Wit’s men’s team who were bundled out at the semi-final stage. The Horny Bucks nevertheless won their third-place play-off.
But the kudos this year go to the women’s team, who put behind them the disappointment of last year’s third-place finish, sweeping all before them to wrest the women’s title by beating the highly-rated VUT 66-62.
The tournament follows the tragic death of UL Medunsa and Gauteng University Basketball League chairperson Tshepo Manamela. At the time of his passing, Manamela was chairperson of the GUBL exco.
Wits’ men’s side had to settle for third place this time around, beating UJ 85-40 in their play-off. Wits lost 63-50 to VUT in their semi-final game, despite leading 36-29 going into the final quarter. In last year’s championships at UCT, the WHB were losing finalists.
Wits Lady Bucks, coached by the modest Wilie Matlakala, became the first Wits team to win gold
at a 2014 USSA team tournament. The consistent effort put into a tough GUBL season, and a hard working out by coaches Matlakala and men’s 1st
team coach Tshiamo Ngakane during the pre-tournament training camp, appear to have served Wits Basketball well. The Lady Bucks’ Modiegi Mokoka was voted Most Valuable Player of the tournament. Following their victory, VC Adam Habib expressed his intention to honour the Lady Bucks’ achievement when students return for the new term. Click here to see a video clip of the final.
The victorious WLB squad. Modiegi Mokoka (front left) sank the final basket for the Wits women’s team to clinch the USSA title.
I N S I D E
Brylon & Bruce
named in USSA u21
3
Happy ending for
women’s hockey in
3
More accolades in
line for Pietie Coet-
2
Wits Fencing foils
the sceptics
4
Evasan Chettiar
makes a Polish-ed
2
Engen KOC 2014 4
Volunteering
for USSA
3
W I T S ’ 2 0 1 4 M I D - Y E A R
U S S A H I G H L I G H T S
● Women’s hockey
side finish 2nd in B-
section; secure inclu-
sion in Varsity
Hockey
● WHB win play-off
for 3rd place
● Rugby XV run oppo-
nents close but end
winless in G’Town
● Men’s hockey team
finish 7th in A-
section
Volleyball men,
women crash out in
QF’s but still send
players to national &
provincial squads
Badminton wins sin-
gles & team honours
LADY LUCK SMILES ON LADY BUCKS
ROUGH RIDE FOR RUGBY ROOKIES AT RHODES
F R I D A Y 1 8 J U L Y 2 0 1 4 V O L 1
Against NMMU, Wits charge out as they restart from a 22m drop-out
Wits are forced defend an NMMU punt ahead. The Witsies lost this final game 26-22.
Witsies make GP, SA student volleyball squads despite USSA QF exits
Women’s hockey coach wins GP sports honours
Wits’ women’s hockey coach,
Pietie Coetzee (left) was rec-
ognised recently as the Gau-
teng Sports Award’s Sports-
woman of the Year for 2014.
Pietie beat contenders Kirsten
Beckett (gymnastics) and
Kistern McCann (rowing) for
this accolade. She joined Wits
Hockey at the beginning of the
year. The coach was also a late
call-up to the SA women’s
team participating in this
year’s Rabobank hockey
World Cup in Amsterdam, The
Netherlands.
She is one of the most capped
players in women’s test
hockey, and is also a leading
goal-scorer among her peers
at international level.
After a long and rewarding
career in international hockey,
it was natural that Pietie
would take to coaching. These
days he’s a regular down at
the WEC artificial pitch, put-
ting girls through their paces.
Despite bowing out at the quarter-finals stage in this year’s USSA’s, both Wits’ men’s and women’s volleyball teams will be repre-sented in the Gauteng provincial and SA national student team squads.
Thandeka Tshabalala was called up to the national volleyball team, Zinhle Kunene made the Gauteng provincial side, and Dominic
The finals, staged in OMSH, were contested by UCT and VUT (men) and VUT and UWC (women).
at the UKZN-DUT-WITS-U Stell inter-varsity event in Durban over the weekend of 28 & 29 June; and Ricky Robinson, Gina Gibson and Victoria Stock in the MSC Offshore Regatta, also in Durban, from 1-5 July.
For a detailed report on all three events follow the link from the WYC web page.
WBC’s Tashlin Hamid reports that the team excelled at the 2014 USSA’s at UFS in Bloemfontein, winning both individual and team titles. WBC, only resuscitated in 2014 after years in the doldrums, won bronze in the team section. Tashlin and his CPUT partner won the men’s doubles event and Lisa Chen won the consolation singles event. Below, they show off their Bloem medal haul.
Wits Yacht Club’s Alexa Brown reports that in recent weeks the club’s current and alumni members participated in sev-eral events. These were Drew Amoretti (club boatswain) and Brennan Robinson (commodore 2012/13) in the Vasco da Gama offshore race from Maputo to Durban from 19-22 June; Ricky Robinson and Brennan Robin-son assisted the WYC regulars
Wits women in action at Hall 29 against Monash
WITS YACHT CLUB UPDATE
Evasan aims to Polish his game at WUC chess champs
Evasan Chettiar
Wits Chess Club’s Evasan Chettiar
will represent SA at the 13th World
University Championships (WUC)
chess tournament in Katowice,
Poland, from 18-24 August. The
championships are part of the
sporting events of the International
University Sports Federation, or-
ganised every even-numbered year
between the Summer and Winter
Universiades. Follow Evasan’s pro-
gress on Facebook: FISU World
University Championships and on
the internet www.fisu.net/World
University Championships
Badminton comes
good at USSA’s
Volleyballers help make USSA happen
A visit down to Hall 29 on any day during the USSA volley-
ball tournament week – from Monday 30 June to Friday 4
July - revealed, between all the action on court, a frenetic
but cheerful atmosphere. Students from around the coun-
try could be found warming up, practicing moves, scrutinis-
ing fixture schedules, or preparing to move between ven-
ues.
But preparing an USSA tournament can be nerve-wracking.
Ask students Nomcebo Msweli (below centre) and Linah
Rakgwale who came to the aid of sports officer Dennis
Tshabalala to help organise this year’s annual USSA tourna-
ment at Wits, while themselves preparing to play! Read
WHO’S GOT MY BACK? Julia de Kock marshals her defensive line as
Wits launch another attack on the UWC goal. Wits won this 2nd
game of the tournament 5-1.
Two Witsie ‘ballers named in USSA u21 squad
Wits Netball a step closer to reclaiming A-section status as Moloi bows out
Wits prepare to attack the TUT 2 goal in a game they lost narrowly lost 30-28
The 2014 Wits men student’s team (pic: Nqobile Dludla)
FINAL STANDINGS
1. Varsity College
2. Wits
3. Rhodes
4. NWU Vaal
5. UWC
6. CPUT
SOLO CHARGE: Judy Thulumane leads a Wits
assault on Varsity College. The narrow 2-1 defeat to
the eventual section winners was Wits’ only loss of
the week-long USSA tournament.
Witsie Zinhle Kunene was selected to the Gauteng provincial women’s volley-ball team
Made it!
I N
M E M O R I A M
The coaches, players &
supporters of Wits Bas-
ketball, and the staff of
WitsSport honour the
memory of the late
Tshepo Manamela,
a faithful servant of uni-
versity basketball Lala
Ngoxolo, Bra Tshepo, we
will miss you.
4
Club chair Richard Dobson (pictured left
below at the final dinner) reports that Wits
was again among the medals at the five-
institution Gymnastics USSA’s held at UCT
from 2-6 July. The final medals tally was
down on last year’s haul though, partly due
to taking a less experienced team than in
previous years. Some gymnasts also carried
slight injuries that affected their perform-
ance.
Medal winners from amongst the ten-
person squad were Marian de Pontes
(bronze level 1 WAG), Mitchell Struwig
(silver level 1 MAG), Catherine Honegger
(bronze novice table-top trampoline), and
he himself won gold (senior Olympic level
MAG) and bronze (tumbling). Wits Alumnus
Robyn Taylor won two golds for intermedi-
ate tumbling and level 5 WAG. Competing
‘varsities alongside Wits and the hosts were
UNW, Tuks and Maties.
Wits Fencing Club earned new gradings at the
provincial ranking event held As for the re-
sults, Wits won the following accolades at
Gauteng Fencing Association Ranking 2:
In the senior men's sabre, gold went to Wikus
Koen, while Justin Logie (gold), Koen (silver)
and Mikesh Harrilall (bronze) swept away all
opposition in the senior men’s foil. Harilall
also bagged bronze in the senior men’s epee,
and Heather Martens claimed bronze in the
women's epee. Wits won medals in all of the
events that we entered. Participation from
the girls was a bit lacking so we were unable
to enter Senior Women's Foil and Senior
Women's Sabre.
The tournament went extremely smoothly,
and all events ran according to schedule,
which is highly unusual for fencing! The GFA
was very pleased with the facilities and they
expressed much gratitude towards Wits.
There were a number of u20 and u17 events
so there were many parents present and they
were very happy with their experience of Wits
University. One young man has asked to join
our club and the parents of at least three
others said they would most likely enrol their
sons at Wits.
This year’s Johannesburg leg of the Engen Knockout Challenge kicked off on Friday 18 July at Marks Park—it continues to Sunday 20th—to the rhythm of drums and the spec-tacle of energetic dancing by the Basotho dance troupe, the Flying Carpets. The groupings and fixtures draw for the third event in South Africa’s leading youth football
tournament was finalised at Wits Univer-sity’s Sturrock Park sports complex on Wed 2 July. The tournament is contested by SAFA’s leading u-17 teams. Wits University’s Marks
sports officer for football Dennis Tsha-balala, who is also tournament director, says the university’s 11-year partnership with Engen has proven successful in help-ing many young hopefuls fulfil their foot-ball dreams.
“It will be interesting to see how many young talented players are identified this year and who may be scouted to take the next step up into the professional ranks of the sport,” he says. The five-leg tournament is played at ven-ues around the country. The E Cape sec-tion of the tournament was staged at the Gelvandale Sport Complex in PE on 27-29 June, and the Free State event was held at Grey College in Bloemfontein over the weekend of 4-6 July. It moved to Dur-ban’s Highbury & Pegasus Sport Complex on 11-13 July, and the last leg of the tour-nament will be held at Cape Town’s Wil-liam Herbert Sportsground from 1-3 August. Hopes are high that a new crop of youngsters will emerge to follow in the footsteps of Ajax Amsterdam’s Thulani Serero and S’sport United’s Ronwen Wil-liams Mokeke
Wits' Jonathan Jubber reports that the 2014 tournament held at Wits on 25 & 26 June was acclaimed by all as the best ever, thanks in part to the new climbing wall in the Old Mutual Sports Hall (OMSH), and the expert routes set. This proved a set-back for the Witsies however because it was their Dylan Vogt (pictured) who set the routes, thereby ruling him out of com-peting for his team. NWU's Nkosi Nama, who won the men's lead competition, was
the only one to make it to the end of the route set by Dylan. "Dylan set some amazing routes that kept the other universities on their toes - literally. He is the strongest climber we
have and by far the strongest of all who attended," said Jubber. Wits' did manage to bag silver in the women's boulder final. Jonathan added that the teams were 'blown away' by the quality of the wall and want the event staged at Wits again next year. FINAL RESULTS: 1st - Rhodes; 2nd - NWU; 3rd - UP; 4th - Wits; 5th - UCT.
Wits amajita gear up for Marks Park football fest Mountain out on a limb