Author: stagingnwoodccdevcoza

Northwood’s Ananta Reddy of grade 8BN recently became the SA U14 National Chess Champion.  He was the outright winner of the U14 South African Junior Closed Chess Championships which was held in Tswane from the 3rd to 11th of April 2015. Ananta was undefeated in this 11 round tournament which featured SA’s top U14 chess players.  Ananta  also previously won the SA U12 National  championship  and once  again receives his SA colours for Chess.  He will represent SA in various international  tournaments this year, including the World Youth that takes place in Greece .  Congratulations on your outstanding achievement!

Northwood’s James Benskin recently swam in the SA Level 1 Championship Gala at Kings Park Pool . He swam in 5 events and made the final for all five events. He won gold for 100m breast stroke, silver for 50m backstroke, bronze for 50m breast stroke and 50m butterfly. Well done James on your excellent achievement! 

The first game of the 2015 season saw Northwood take on a determined, big-hearted George Campbell away. Many have been anticipating the Knights squad of 2015. With some senior forwards in the squad still out due to injury and playing against a team that has come off a 5 week festival, one can forgive the slow start to the Knights game.

Many clinical errors hampered the superb Northwood backline from putting Campbell to bed before half time, veteran centre PK Sobahle spilt 3 passes early on that would have been 5 pointers. He finally showed his true talent and scored 2 tries to help with the 24-10 win away from home. Some discipline issues saw Northwood receive 2 yellow cards in the 2^nd half which killed all momentum and made for a stop start affair. All in all Northwood coach Grant Bashford can be pleased with his 1^st win of the season and hope that the boys have polished off all the rough edges and can start showing their true potential in the next game at home vs Westville.

Final Score:                  Northwood 24, George Campbell 10

Report done by:          Jonathan Scruby

Photo Credit, Michael Symington (Northwood School Press Club)

The Northwood 1^st hockey team had a winning start to their 2015 season with a solid 2 – 0 victory over a competitive Thomas More team.

Northwood started as the stronger of the two teams and created a number of scoring chances before finally taking the lead through a well taken goal by Bradley McNally. Northwood extended their lead late in the first half through captain Shane Bradbury after a swift counter-attack. Northwood went into the halftime break 2 – 0 up.

In the second half the quality of play from both teams dropped and neither side was able to capitalise on numerous chances. Both teams made too many unforced errors which resulted in a half without any goals.

Northwood secured the win but will need to work hard before their next match against Westville.

Northwood captain Tyler Smith won the toss and chose to bat. Northwood got off to a slow start with debutant Brent Phillips run out without facing a ball. Gavin Williams and Blayde Capell set about reconstructing the innings and both played well to take Northwood to tea on 86 for 1. The hard work of the 2^nd wicket partnership was soon undone when Blayde Capell got out in the 1^st over after tea. After the dismissal of Blayde Capell, Northwood batsman fell to some ill disciplined shots and again another run out. Gavin Williams and Junaid Syed showed some resistance and Northwood were eventually bowled out for 156 in the 59^th over.

DHS had the hard task of facing 3 overs before lunch. A fiery 1^st over from debutant bowler Xulu saw him strike DHS’s opening batter on the helmet which seemed to have rattled him as he was out the next over and DHS went onto tea at 3 for 1.

A quick wicket after tea followed a stubborn 3^rd wicket partnership between Mathew Noot and Dylan Coskey which was broken shortly after drinks. After afternoon tea, Northwood operated with spin from both ends and this changed the game. Debutant leg spinner Paritosh Joshi and Weston Roelfsz bowled superbly, combined with some good catching and fielding, and DHS were bowled out for 105 with Paritosh Joshi taking 4 for 11 and Weston Roelfsz 3 for 33.

Northwood:                   156 all out

Blayde Capell:  48

Junaid Syed:  36

Gavin Williams: 34

Dylan Bryan: 3 for 54

DHS                                        105 all out

Dylan Coskey: 31

Paritosh Joshii:  4 for 11

Weston Roelfsz:  3 for 33

Northwood won by 51 runs

Our swimming season reached its climax at the Durban and Districts Gala at King’s Park this week. The swimmers and coaches can be particularly proud of their efforts this year, with improved performances coming virtually across the board, and the school placing higher than in recent years at both D & D and Top 8. Congratulations to all involved, and in particular I would like to thank the Grade 8, 9 and 10 boys for their enthusiastic support on the stands at the various compulsory galas. Many compliments were paid to the school in this regard.

Mr P McAvoy

Headmaster

Best Performance      U14     Connor Maxwell

U15     James Benskin

U16     Trent Dungey

U17     Jarred Visser & Roy Kircher

Open   Ryan Symington

Primary School Best Performance:   Tyson Andrews

Runner Up:  James Matthews

Junior Victor Ludorum (U14 & U15) Shared:  Connor Maxwell & James Benskin

Senior Victor Ludorum (U16, U17 & Open):   Ryan Symington

Runner up: Trent Dungey

Our sincere thanks to all those who helped on the night.

Northwood 1st team waterpolo played Clifton on Monday 16 February as the fixture for the weekend had been postponed due to the Northwood team being on Tour in the Eastern Cape for the Vides waterpolo tournament.

The Northwood team has been gaining confidence after their recent tours to the Grey Bloem Itec Waterpolo tournamnet and the Vides waterpolo tournament hosted in Bloemfontein and East London respectively.

The match was played at Clifton and started well with good attacking opportunities being created on both ends of the pool. Clifton opened the scoring to lead 1-0 after 2 minutes, Northwood replied on the next attack. Both teams exchanged blows and at the end of the 1st chukka the score was tied at 2 all.

The second Chukka was the ultimate game changer again, Clifton converted first to take the lead but during the Chukka Northwood put 3 consecutive goals in while Clifton ended strong with the score 5-4 in favour of Northwood.

The 3rd chukka was even at 1 a piece with tactical time outs being called on both sides. Northwood lead going into the 4th Chukka 6-5.

In the last chukka Northwood showed composure by slowing down the game and running down the clock. Clifton converted to take us to 6 all. Again the young Northwood team fought tenaciously for every scrap and took the score to 8-6 with 1 min 30 seconds on the clock. Clifton pushed us all the way to the end and were rewarded with a goal in the dying seconds to pull the score to 8-7 in favour of Northwood.

Goal scorers for Northwood were:

Justin Snyman 2 goals

Mark Fourche 2 goals

Ryan Symington 2 goals

Criag Van Leeuwen 1 goal

Stratten Kennedy 1 goal

The coach of Northwood Waterpolo, Mr Hadyn Skinner, says “This is a remarkable victory for Northwood as after my appointment at Northwood in 2014 our 1st game was against Clifton where we lost 23-2. The team has been hard at work and will continue to push moving forward. We respect the Clifton waterpolo team immensely, we were just lucky to have our day yesterday”.