New-look Wildeklawer T20 announces five new teams
One of South Africa’s top T20 tournaments at schoolboy level, the erstwhile Westvaal Noord/Suid Tournament will from this year be known as the Wildeklawer T20 tournament, after Wildeklawer was announced as the new main sponsor of the prestigious event.
Read and follow all the Wildeklawer T20 action live on SuperSport Schools – (www.supersportschools.com)
Along with the lead sponsorship change, no fewer than five new teams will be in action this year.
The tournament takes place from 16 to 19 October, in the batting-friendly conditions of Pretoria, with Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Affies), Hoërskool Waterkloof and Die Hoërskool Menlopark playing host to 13 teams from across the country.
Affies, the defending champions, who beat Grey College in the final last year, are in Group A, where they will face Jeppe High School for Boys and Grey High School, from Gqeberha. Each group features at least one newcomer, with the CSA Hub Invitational XI being the new face in the group.
The Hub side, which replaces Hoërskool Centurion, consists of the best up-and-coming talent from all Hubs across South Africa, and it has the makings of being a formidable force. Their excellence was underlined when they went unbeaten at the 2024 Oppenheimer Michaelmas Week in KwaZulu-Natal.
In Group B, Deon Botes, Affies’ former Director of Cricket, and his highly talented Paul Roos Gimnasium side replaces SACS in the lineup. They will be up against Grey College, Die Hoërskool Menlopark, and Northwood. It’s a wide open a group that is hard to call.
Group C includes two newcomers, including a formidable Durban High School (DHS) team that has been in fine form, and recently added the Eston One Insurance T20 Night League title to the Clifton T20 title they won earlier in the year. Their addition brings the number of KZN sides up to three, with Paarl Boys’ High, from the Western Cape, not in action this year.
King Edward VII School (KES), meanwhile, takes over from St Stithians College – one Johannesburg school replacing another.
DHS and KES will battle it out against St Andrew’s School, the regional Schools SA20 champions of the Free State, Northern Cape and North West, and Wynberg Boys’ High, from the southern suburbs of Cape Town.
Group D, it appears, is 2025’s Group of Death. Four high-quality teams, all with potential match-winners in their ranks, makes for an intriguing lineup, but two very good sides are going to miss out on the quarterfinals.
The two-time champions, Hoërskool Waterkloof, take on the Western Cape powerhouse Rondebosch Boys’ High, the Schools SA20 national runners-up, St David’s Marist Inanda, and Westville Boys’ High School, who claimed the KZN Coastal region’s W100 title for a fifth time in succession earlier this year.
GROUPS
Group A
Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool
Grey High School
Jeppe High School for Boys
CSA Hub Invitational XI
Group B
Die Hoërskool Menlopark
Paul Roos Gimnasium
Grey College
Northwood
Group C
St Andrew’s School
Wynberg Boys’ High School
King Edward VII School
Durban High School
Group D
Waterkloof
Rondebosch Boys’ High School
St David’s Marist Inanda
Wesville Boys’ High School
