Fort Hare winless in top club tournament

THERE was a brave but ultimately futile fight from Fort Hare as they fell to their fifth defeat of the 2018 Momentum National Club Cricket Championships against North West University Pukke to finish their campaign Thursday without a win for the second year running.

Having just missed out on what would have been a morale-boosting win against Yorkshire Cricket Club of Kimberley on Wednesday, Fort Hare knew that they had it all to do against the eventual competition runners-up in their final match and so it proved as Pukke claimed a 29-run win.

Pukke batted first and managed a competitive 242 all out thanks to Lions all-rounder Wihan Lubbe who scored 109.

However, Fort Hare will have been boosted by the fact that they bowled them out, the first time they managed to dismiss a team in this year’s Club Championship.

Bamanye Xenxe led the way, claiming 3/35, while Mncedisi Malika, 2/21, Bongolwethu Makeleni, 2/25, Mkhululi Calana, 2/48 and Sithembile Langa, 1/47, all got in on the wicket-taking action.

The Fort Hare chase got off to a bad start, with the Alice team struggling at 36/3 at one stage, but some solid contributions in the middle and lower order helped them cross the 200 mark and close in on the target.

However, the lack of someone getting a big score was what cost them a chance of victory.

Mntabazuko Nqam top-scored with a solid half-century, finally going on to score 57, while Yamkela Oliphant (39), Jongile Kilani (26), Langa (21), Makeleni (17no) and Xenxe (15) all pitched in with cameos but Fort Hare were eventually dismissed for 213 with one ball remaining in the innings.

Fort Hare will now look back on another disappointing championship Week, and hopefully take the lessons they learned into the next club season.