Fort Hare face the créme de la créme at Champs
THE University of Fort Hare Cricket Club are aiming to finish a good season on the best possible note when they head into battle in the 2018 Momentum National Club Championship finals in Pretoria on Sunday.
Fort Hare earned the right to represent the Eastern Cape as the Warriors champs at the club season ending tournament after defeating the Nelson Mandela University (NMU) Madibaz in a thrilling playoff this past Monday afternoon.
“We are very excited, to finally beat NMU and make it into the club champs again was really special,” said Fort Hare coach Mfuneko Ngam. “The guys are looking forward to the challenge and we are happy to be representing the Eastern Cape.”
The team had made it into the Eastern Cape playoff after a nailbiting conclusion to the Border club season saw them just finish on top of the log to be crowned Border champs, with them taking that positive momentum into the important knockout encounter.
“Looking at our Border league we finished top along with United and it was extremely close, so we were very happy to finish as league champions again,” admitted Ngam.
Fort Hare will now have the hopes of the Province on their shoulders as they take on the best of the best club sides from around the country.
The club champs take place from Sunday until next week Thursday, with each side playing each once and the team on top of the table at the end crowned champions.
The other sides taking part in the tournament are club sides Yorkshire Cricket Club (Free State/Knights), Crusaders Cricket Club (KwaZuluNatal/Dolphins) and Wellington Cricket Club (Western Cape/Cobras) and university sides North West University Pukke Cricket Club (North West/Lions) and the University of Pretoria Tuks Cricket Club (Gauteng/Titans).
Tuks are the defending champs and have been the dominant force in the competition in recent times, having won it four times out of the last six editions, while Crusaders (2015) and North West (2016) have also lifted the trophy in the last few years.
It will thus be very tough for Fort Hare, however they will look to build on the experiences gained by competing in last year’s champs, with this the second year in a row that Fort Hare are taking part.
Since the tournaments inception in 1987, only one team from the Border region, King William’s Town Cricket Club in 1990, has won it, while NMU has come out on top a number of times over the years for the Eastern Cape.
Fixtures for the champs are:
Sunday: Yorkshire v NWU (TUT Oval), Wellington v Tuks (Tuks Cricket Oval), Fort Hare v Crusaders (Irene Villagers Cricket Club)
Monday: Yorkshire v Tuks (TUT Oval), NWU v Crusaders (Memorial Park), Wellington v Fort Hare (Tuks Cricket Oval)
Tuesday: Yorkshire v Crusaders (Tuks Cricket Oval), Tuks v Fort Hare (Memorial Park), NWU v Wellington (Irene Country Club)
Wednesday: Yorkshire v Fort Hare (Tuks Cricket Oval), Crusaders v Wellington (Irene Country Club), Tuks v NWU (TUT Oval)
Thursday: Yorkshire v Wellington (Memorial Park), Fort Hare v NWU (Irene Villagers Cricket Club), Crusaders v Tuks (Tuks Cricket Oval)
On Friday the winners of the 2018 National Club Championship will then meet Durbanville Cricket Club, who are the Multiply T20 Community Cup title-holders, in the Super Cup final at the Tuks Cricket Oval to close out the club season on a high.