EC’s best to be celebrated at awards
A NIGHT in recognition of the great sporting accomplishments over the past year will be in full swing at the Boardwalk in Port Elizabeth tonight when the Eastern Cape Sport and Recreational Achievers Awards are held.
A number of local federations and school teams have been named as finalists.
In the Federation of the Year category Border Cricket have been nominated, alongside the Eastern Cape Amateur Boxing Federation and Safa Eastern Cape.
CEO of Border Cricket, Thando Booi, said he was pleased for Border Cricket to be nominated in the category of Sports Federation of the Year as Border Cricket had always aspired to strive for excellence and serve the needs of the community.
During the year under review, Buffalo Park hosted three successful women’s One Day international games between South Africa and the West Indies.
The company managed to achieve a positive profit for the 2015/2016 financial year.
The Border women’s team won the Coastal T20 league while the provincial teams performed exceptionally well in the national tournaments with three players selected for the SA U19 boys’ team, one girl in the SA U19 team and three players in the SA U17 team.
“We know that there is still lots of work to do. However, we believe that together we will achieve more as we constantly work towards our vision,” said Booi.
He also acknowledged Cricket South Africa and all stakeholders for their support during the past year in achieving their milestones.
In the School Team of the Year category, Dale College were nominated for the exploits of their impressive first rugby team.
They were unbeaten at the Grey High Rugby Festival, were the stand-out school on the Border and performed admirably at the Kearsney Rugby Festival where two of their players received Sharks rugby bursaries.
“We are really grateful for the recognition. It’s awesome that the hard work of the staff and young men at Dale College is being recognised,” said Dale head of sport Keegan Gobel.
“The competition in school rugby is incredibly tight and being a college we compete against the best schools year in and year out and there is very little room for error.
“Last year the team worked exceptionally hard, the coaches were fantastic and going forward I think that is part and parcel of where our sport wants to be.”
Dale face stiff competition from Ludondolo Junior Secondary School (ladies football), whose various teams won school leagues and provincial tournaments, and the St Andrew’s College first eight rowing crew, who finished 11th overall at the International Head of the Charles Regatta Rowing competition in Boston, America, as well as winning medals at the SA Champs.