Tiché excels at cricket week
Mossel Bay's talented schoolgirl cricketer Tiché Frans (14) excelled during the Cricket South Africa U16 National Cricket Week.
It took place from 12 to 16 December in Pietermaritzburg.
Tiché, who is an allrounder, is the captain of the South Western Districts Garden Route Badgers U16 girls' team.
A Sao Bras High School learner, Tiché was named Woman of the Match, in the South Western Districts match against Eastern Cape during the cricket week. She also took a wicket and made the most runs - 22 - of all the batters in that match.
Besides playing for South Western Districts (SWD), Tiché has her Western Cape colours, she plays for the D'Almeida Hub girls' and boys' teams and she plays for Sussex Cricket Club's women's team, which is based at the D'Almeida stadium.
She lives five minutes' walk from the stadium and practises there often, putting in many hours.
Girl cricketer of the year
In November, she was announced as the Sao Bras girl cricketer of the year for 2023 and was presented with a certificate.
The U16 National Cricket Week was hampered by rain. The SWD-Western Province match could not be played at all because of rain. SWD lost their second match against the Lions as well as their third match against Mpumalanga.
The SWD-Eastern Cape match was hampered by rain, but at least some play took place.
Other Mossel Bay girls who are part of the Badgers' U16 team and who competed in the cricket week are: Nadia Wentzel,
Catherine Pretorius and Gracey Johnson, all of Point High School. An up-and-coming cricketer to watch is Gracey, who also plays for the Sussex Cricket Club women's team.
She is a wicket-keeping middleorder batsman.
Best keeper
She was named SWD's best U16 keeper for the 2023 season. She said: "My goal is to make the SWD U19 team." Trials for this are taking place later this year. Gracey's achievements are remarkable because she has only been playing cricket since 2022. She is part of the Point High School girls' first cricket team which will be touring Cape Town later this month.