What a year of Brakpan sport: November 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.
November
• Theo Becker was announced as Brakpan Rugby Club’s Senior Sportsman of the Year at the club’s annual prize-giving. Up-and-coming u-21 player Martin Steyn, who was the top point scorer in the whole of the Valke Rugby Union this year, won the Junior Sportsman of the Year Award.
• The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Dalcha ‘Champion’ Lungiambula stunned the fighting world with an epic comeback in his EFC light-heavyweight title defence at EFC 65 at Carnival City on November 4.
• For the first time in 20 years, the humble but exuberant Ken Pike claimed the title of Brakpan Pigeon Racing Club’s club champion.
• Brakpan-based United Cricket Club’s Premier League XI made it three victories in as many matches when they welcomed Duduza to Hosking Park on November 5. Skipper Justin Gamble’s men kept their winning momentum going with a mammoth 245-run demolition of the visiting team. Skipper Gamble and his men then maintained their 100 per cent winning record with a fourth straight win, a 101-run victory on the Duckworth-Lewis method over KwaThema Cricket Club at the Prince Thethe Oval in the township on November 12.
• The final prestigious Junior Tennis Tournament (Liza Marchand’s Tennis Tournament) for the 2017 season was played at the Dalview Tennis Club on November 11.
• The biggest motorsport event of the year, Gymkhana GRiD, took place at Carnival City over the weekend of November 18 and 19. The series’ inaugural event in Africa, the brainchild of motoring icon Ken Block, drew the crowds as local drivers rubbed shoulders with some of the best international drivers in the world, including the likes of Block, Petter Solberg, Johan Kristoffersson, Andreas Bakkerud and Gymkhana GRiD rear-wheel drive champion Luke Woodham from the UK. An incredible all-wheel drive (AWD) podium featured 2017 FIA World Rallycross champion Kristoffersson, multiple FIA world champion Petter Solberg and world RX star Andreas Bakkerud. In the rear-wheel drive class, Woodham shrugged off technical problems to become the series’ most successful rear-wheel drive pilot with four consecutive wins to his name.
• After four relatively convincing victories in the Eastern Premier League competition, Brakpan’s United Cricket Club endured a tricky path to a fifth successive victory when they hosted Tembisa Cricket Club at Hosking Park on November 19. They enjoyed a 17-run victory.
• The Ekurhuleni Golf Union held its 2017 EGU Awards at Benoni Country Club on November 24. State Mines Country Club’s Jan Delport was the sole winner from a Brakpan course. He scooped the Ekurhuleni Senior Player of the Year Award.
• A five-game unbeaten run in the Eastern Premier League came to an end for United Cricket Club on November 26 when they travelled to the Lindeque Oval to play Alberton Cricket Club. They suffered a 138-run defeat.
• Pretoria golfer Tristen Strydom was smiling broadly after a one-stroke victory in the Race to Q-School Series at State Mines Country Club on November 29.
Also read: Season to remember for pigeon racers
Juniors helping keep tennis alive
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