Kearsney and Glenwood lock horns at the weekend sports

KEARSNEY College faced off with Glenwood at the weekend, with the first team winning one out of three sports.

Kearsney enjoyed a successful weekend on the cricket field against respected opponents, Glenwood, winning 15 out of the 17 matches that were played on the day.

Unfortunately, the first team went down by 10 runs in a low-scoring affair, which was played at Glenwood. Glenwood won the toss and elected to bat first. Their two openers, Fourie and Verral, put on 51 runs for the first wicket in only 7.1 overs. Thereafter, the Kearsney spinners and captain, Brad Porteous, tied things up and made it difficult to score runs.

Glenwood made 145 with Brad Porteous taking 4/11. In reply, the Kearsney openers started slowly and lost the first wicket with the score on 10. Thereafter, two good partnerships for the second and fourth wickets followed, with Porteous holding the innings together with a solid 58. Unfortunately, Kearsney’s middle and lower orders crumbled under the pressure of some good bowling. They were bowled out for 135, with Grobbelaar taking 3/16 and Fynn taking 3/18.

In basketball news, Kearsney’s first team beat Glenwood’s first team 71-29. The game started well for Kearsney and they were able to score easily on offence, and were able to limit Glenwood to poor shots. The first quarter ended with Kearsney leading 25-9.

The coaches were able to rotate the players and the bench players were able to keep up the intensity and continued to play well, pulling further ahead of their opponents. Glenwood wilted in the second half and Kearsney dominated all facets of play to finish strongly. Captain, Mvelo Buthelezi, scored 20 points (a season high), and there were contributions by Khule Bopela (12 points), Thomas ‘Big Man’ Westermeyer (13 points) and Jonathan Christie (six points – a career high).

Kearsney’s first waterpolo team lost to Glenwood’s first team 4-12. Kearsney scored the first goal but struggled to contain their exceptional shooting throughout the rest of the first chukka, and Glenwood went 5-1 ahead. Kearsney changed their defence to a tight mark.

David Weaver and Brady Erlich scored two fine goals to narrow the deficit and bring Kearsney back into contention at 5-3. Michael Whitehouse was once again exceptional in goals. The third chukka was more of the same, except Kearsney couldn’t finish their opportunities.

Glenwood scored three lucky goals off a rebound, an own goal and a bounce off the back of the Kearsney goalie’s head, which put them 8-3 up. In the fourth chukka, Kearsney conceded four more goals but only got one back.