Swartland Festival Offers Midwinter Warm-Up
It may be a relatively young member of the festival family, but the ingenious placement – from Thursday 11 to Saturday 13 July 2013 – of the Swartland Winter Sports Festival in Malmesbury has ensured its growing popularity.
Principal Dirk Marais, his deputy Schreuder Brand and ageless sports organizer Freek Stander deserve much credit for providing rugby – and several netball – teams with an ideal opportunity to shake off the holiday cobwebs before the start of the new term a few days later.
The decision by some UK schools to make this event the starting point of their South African tours seems to have caught on. So it is that this year’s visitors, Coleraine Academical Institute, who will also be bringing their Under-16s, and Stonyhurst College will be getting their first taste of our country out in this delightful part of the Boland.
.
Coleraine Academical Institution (Northern Ireland), popularly known as Coleraine Inst, is situated on 70 acres of lush Derry turf. Their most recent international cap is Andrew Trimble.
Stonyhurst College, a Jesuit school from the Ribble Valley area of Lancashire in England, was founded in 1794 and can boast England 2003 Rugby World Cup winners Iain Balshaw and Kyran Bracken amongst its alumni.
Schools from outside the Boland include Cradock and old friends Despatch from the Eastern Cape and Bishops, Tygerberg, Strand, Brackenfell and Stellenberg from the Western Province.
Maybe young prospective goal-kickers could pop in and pick up a few tips. A look at the provincial points-scoring reveals that two of the province’s most successful points machines (Tyger Morné Kotze and Stephan Breunissen of Piketberg) will be strutting their stuff.
What makes this two-day extravaganza all the more popular is the fact that all the games take place on a single field which offers more than adequate seating for a large number of spectators who can buy a variety of refreshments without having to move out from under cover.
Rugby Programme
Thursday 11 July
09.00: Piketberg vs HTS Drostdy
10.15: Tygerberg vs Charlie Hofmeyr
11.25: Brackenfell vs Despatch
12.35: Strand vs Stonyhurst (England)
13.45: Swellendam vs Charlie Hofmeyr Under-16
14.45: Cradock vs Coleraine Under-16 (Northern Ireland)
16.00: Bishops vs Augsburg
17.15: Swartland vs Coleraine
Saturday 13 July
08.30: Swellendam vs Cradock
09.40: Charlie Hofmeyr Under-16 vs Coleraine Under-16
10.50: Charlie Hofmeyr vs Strand
12.00: Despatch vs Augsburg
13.10: Bishops vs Coleraine
14.20: Swartland vs Stonyhurst
15.30: Brackenfell vs HTS Drostdy
16.45: Piketberg vs Tygerberg
By Tony Stoops
