Battle of the North: Vossie Cricket Tournament
In the misty mountains of Tzaneen, Hoërskool Ben Vorster will play host to one of the first major cricket tournaments of the new cricket season.
The tournament will take place from the 24th of June 2019 until the 28th of June 2019. The week-long event will feature u19 A teams and u/15A teams from various parts of the country.
Tzaneen is well known for its warm tropic-like conditions which will aid the players in what would be considered the middle of winter across the rest of the country. The tournament provides a good opportunity for players to shake off any winter rust prior to what is set to be a long season.
A large portion of the tournament will be made up of other local schools from the Limpopo area namely Hoërskool Merensky and Stanford Lake College. A Limpopo XI will also compete in the tournament providing opportunities for several undiscovered players.
Ben Vorster received the award for Coca-Cola T20 winners award for the Limpopo region at the recent Limpopo Impala Cricket Awards function.
Schools such as Die Hoërskool Menlopark and Hoërskool Waterkloof will be journeying further north along the N1 to compete in the five-day cricketing affair.
Menlopark and Waterkloof will use the tournament as preparation for the start of the competitive Platinum League which is set to take place in the third term in Pretoria. Bredasdorp will be making the long journey up from the Cape.
Tzaneen is no stranger to producing cricketers of a high calibre with several ex-Titans players having been unearthed in this area. There must be something in the water or it could be the abundance of locally farmed avocados supplementing the much-needed protein in the diets of up-and-coming quickies.
Three of the most notable players to have come out of the area have all turned out to be players who enjoy putting pedal to the metal. Players such Marchant De Lange from Ben Vorster as well as Dale Steyn and Eldred Hawken of Hoërskool Merensky are all products of this close-knit farming community.
Ben Vorster narrowly lost to Hoerskool Waterkloof in the T20 schools semi-final held in Benoni earlier in the year. The Black Caps as they are known will be looking to amend this when they take on Waterkloof in what should be a tightly contested match on the 25th of June 2019.
Catch selected games on DigiTV during the week.
