What a year of Brakpan sport: July highlights
The year 2017 was a busy one for Brakpan’s sportspeople.
There were ups and there were downs.
This is the 2017 Brakpan year in review.
July
• Enrico Schoeman and his daredevil counterpart, André de Kock, raised the temperature at Carnival City to extreme levels on Saturday, July 1. In the venue’s parking lot, the veteran stuntmen performed fire stunts that had spectators on their feet. Schoeman was set alight, after which he rode a Gold Rand Harley-Davidson through two fire tunnels and a burning noticeboard. Straight afterwards, de Kock crashed a burning car through a pyramid of burning car wrecks. Both the rider and the driver escaped unscathed, but they left the parking lot slightly the worse for wear.
• After a shaky first round, the defending league champions Brakpan Rugby Club’s first team started looking like their former selves again with another victory – this time against rivals Springs by 52-21 at Olympia Park on Saturday, July 1.
• Yvonne ‘Snowy’ Hlongwane stole the spotlight at the Street Wars drag racing event at the Nitro Raceway in Brakpan when she set a personal best on July 2. Hlongwane, who recently became the first South African black woman to drag race, clocked a quarter-mile time of 12 seconds dead with a top speed of 195km/h in her manager’s Nissan Skyline GT-R.
• Brakpan Rugby Club enjoyed a fantastic day away from home when all three of their senior teams stormed to victories against North West University (NWU) Vaal in the Valke Peregrine League on July 15. The first team enjoyed a 54-12 win over the NWU students.
•After a frustrating beginning to Valke Rugby Union’s Peregrine League, Brakpan Rugby Club’s First XV were back where they belong in July – top of the table. Despite early season losses to Boksburg and Springs rugby clubs, the new-look 2017 Brakpan outfit remained resolute and gritty to finish the league portion of the campaign as top dogs. They ensured they would once again top the Valke’s elite competition with a commanding 40-10 victory in their final match of the league fixtures against Reiger Park’s East Rand United (ERU) at Bosman Stadium on July 22. The ‘Panne’ and Vereeniging both ended the league phase on 38 points, but Brakpan’s points difference of 155 was 18 points better than Vereeniging’s at 137. This meant the men in green set up a rematch against ERU in the first-versus-fourth semi-final at Bosman on August 5.
Also read: Speedy Snowy steals the show
Stuntmen defy death at Carnival City
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