LSEN Craven Week Set to Start
On Monday, 25 June 2018, the LSEN Craven Week starts at the Isak Steyl Stadium in Vanderbijlpark.
It is a top-class event run by admirable schoolmasters.
LSEN, spoken as elsen, stands for Learners with Special Educational Needs. The special educational needs include impaired eyesight, impaired hearing, academic problems and epilepsy.
Of the national weeks in South Africa, the LSEN Craven Week is the second oldest after the Craven Week for high schools. The LSEN rugby week was founded in 1980 through the enthusiasm of a Potchefstroom estate agent, Herman Lemmer. It was first called the Lemmer Week, then, in 1989, the Craven Week for Special Schools and now the LSEN Craven Week.
In the beginning, there were eight teams. This year there will be 14 teams: Blue Bulls, Blue Bulls Extraordinary Education, Boland, Eastern Province, Free State, Golden Lions, Golden Lions EE, Griffons, Sharks (KwaZulu-Natal), Leopards, Pumas (Mpumalanga), South Western Districts, Valke and Western Province.
At the end of the week, a national team is chosen. This was first done in 1985. In 1998 the chosen team played at Craven Week. That was too big a demand and since 1999 the chosen team has played at the Academy Week, as it will do this year.
Matches are played on three days. The fixtures for the first day are decided on in advance but after that, they are worked out on previous results to try to get fair match-ups.
In 2017, two teams won all three of their matches – Eastern Province and Western Province.
Day One Fixtures:
Monday, 25 June 2018
09.00: Blue Bulls vs Pumas
09.00: Sharks vs Valke XV
10.20: Golden Lions vs Free State
10.20: Golden Lions EE vs Griffons
11.40: Western Province vs Eastern Province
13.00: Boland vs South Western Districts
15.30: Valke vs Leopards
*EE = Extraordinary Education
