Author: stagingnwoodccdevcoza

The KZNSA Executive committee has just announced the team selected to represent KZN Central at the Junior SA Surfing Champs to be held in Jeffreys Bay on 24^th to 29^th September 2013.  Northwood is very proud of Bevan Willis and Keagan Wallace who were selected for the U15 Boys division.  Well done and good luck!

On Friday Northwood C Team surfed round two of the KZN School Surfing League against more experienced competitors. This eager Junior- team, showed spirit and managed to catch their requisite waves well within the time limit and without any penalties in very small conditions. While the savvier competitors picked off the longer cleaner walls of the lefts, breaking away from the pier, the team needed to reconsider their strategy and make careful wave selection a priority as they had plenty of time to do this. Only time in the water under competitive circumstance will teach you this. There is still time for the team to get this right. But well surfed especially, Michael Smit, who was Northwood’s top surfer.

Report done by:_Mrs. Aliphon_

The Northwood 1^st hockey team had to show character and determination when they played to a 1 – 1 draw against the highly rated Rondebosch team on Wednesday morning.

Northwood started the game brightly when some great build up play saw Steve McManus score a fantastic deflection goal to put Northwood one ahead. After conceding, Rondebosch played with a greater tempo and created a number of chances but could not capitilise. Northwood also had a good chance saved on the line by the Rondebosch defenders but didn’t create many chances without the influence of their inspirational leader Matthew de Sousa who is still recovering from an injury received during the Maritzburg College game.

The second half saw Rondebosch take control of the game and eventually they scored the equaliser through a well worked goal. After this the game opened up and both teams created some good chances but neither could grab the winner.

Report done by:      Darryn Gallagher

Northwood 1^st XV had their supporters sitting on the edge of their seats on Saturday, when they put in a great performance against Maritzburg College.  Northwood quickly raced into a 3-0 lead (penalty by S Makhanye) within the first few minutes, as they dominated territory and possession. With the College XV clearly rattled, Northwood pressed on and were awarded a second penalty.  Makhanye made the lead 6-0 and Northwood continued to play in College’s half.  However, a rolling maul (which led to a try) and then a charge down in the Northwood 22m close to half time led to a soft try for College, giving them a 12-6 lead at half time.

The second half was a titanic battle, with both sides making incisive breaks.  College were first to put points on the board, when the fullback evaded tackles to score a converted try.  Northwood bounced back quickly, with Macdonald offloading brilliantly in the tackle to the speedster Sobahle, who scored a great wingers try (converted by Makhanye) to narrow the deficit to 19-13.  With 15 minutes to go, the College fullback again evaded tackles and scored a converted try.  Northwood had 2 further try scoring opportunities, but the last passes did not go to hand, resulting in a 26-13 victory for College.

This is a significant improvement on last year’s results and bodes well for 2014, as the team consisted of 9 Gr11’s.  A great team effort all round.

The Northwood 1^st hockey team suffered their first loss of the season against a spirited Maritzburg College team on Saturday.

Some poor finishing from the Northwood team and some outstanding goal keeping from the College keeper saw the visitors come away with a hard fought 3 – 2 victory.

Northwood dominated the first half and after scoring early through Dale van der Merwe, failed to capitalise further on that dominance taking a 1 – 0 lead into the break.

The second half saw Northwood continue to create chances but the College team played with heart and created three chances of their own. They made no mistake in grabbing those chances and took a strong 3 – 1 lead into the last 7 minutes of the game.

Northwood managed to pull one back through a penalty corner flick from Dale van der Merwe but were unable to get the third.

A hard fought, spirited effort from the Maritzburg College team saw them come out deserving winners on the day.

On Friday 26th April Northwood 1^st Team surfed round one of the KZN School Surfing League, in very difficult conditions with the 6ft waves and strong winds down at Dairy beach.  The boys surfed well in the hour long tag team heat with Bevan Willis posting the highest score out of all the schools. The team was disciplined and did well not to incur any penalties, finishing well within the time limit. Well done to Mark Fouche who was named best judge on the day.

Northwood School  vs  Crawford North Coast B, Ashton College, St. Henry’s and Glenwood (5 teams per Heat)

Scores:

1. Northwood 29.1

2. Crawford North Coast B  18.6

3. Ashton College   14.4

4. St. Henry’s  13.9

5. Glenwood  8.4

Report done by:_Mrs. Aliphon_

 

Northwood kept the momentum going when they beat Clifton 5 – 1 in their opening encounter of the KZN Schools night league on Wednesday night.

The schools night league see’s some creative changes to the standard format of the game where teams play three 15 minute chukka’s and penalty corners are replaced by an 8 second 1 on 1 with the goal keeper.

Northwood opened the scoring in the first chukka through Matthew de Sousa when he wrong footed the Clifton keeper in a 1 on 1. Clifton answered back almost immediately with a fantastic reverse stick finish.

The second chukka saw Northwood start to create more chances and goals by Dale van der Merwe and Matthew de Sousa gave them a 3 – 1 lead going into the third chukka.

Clifton played some great hockey but were unable to take their chances in the circle. With 7 minutes remaining Clifton were unfortunate to have their keeper injured and were forced to play with a kicking back. Northwood seized the opportunity to score two more goals through Dale van der Merwe and Steve McManus.

U 19	U17
Simon Du Plessis	Gregory Wright
Dale Van Der Merwe	Nazeer Jaffer
Sereshen Moodley	Jordan Kisten
	Yetish Ramsurrup
	Shimal Harichuran
	Juniad Syed

 

On an extremely cold, windy and very wet Saturday morning, Northwood traveled to Hilton to fulfill our fixtures. Rain played havoc with fixtures across the province (and most parts of the country), resulting in this being one of the few fixtures completed.  The Northwood 1^st team were without 4 key players for this clash due to injuries and this had a knock-on effect on the other open sides.

The field was soggy and churned up from earlier games when play started at 15H00 and resembled a mud bath.  Both teams struggled with the underfoot conditions in the 1^st half, with Sasassa Makhanye (NW) and Cameron Wright (Hilton) having numerous shots at goals.  Makhanye seemed to be the better kicker on the day, converting 70% of his kicks, while Wright struggled in the wet.  Half time saw Hilton leading 16-6, having been caught short of defenders out wide twice, leading to 2 Hilton tries.

A quick try early in the 2^nd half saw Hilton leading 21-6, before Northwood’s TC Edmunds crashed over for an unconverted try in the corner.  The conditions took its toll and the referee enforced uncontested scrums early in the half, taking the wind out of Northwood’s sails.  Makhanye and Wright slotted another penalty each, ending the game at 24 – 14.

While the results did not necessarily go our way, there certainly were some highlights.  The U14A team are a talented bunch of boys and just need to play from the first whistle, as they inevitably play catch up rugby and normally win every second half.  Well done to the U14D team on drawing their first game against Hilton.  The U15A team put in their best performance to date and were always in with a chance of victory, until 2 late Hilton tries put the score out of reach.  This is a team to watch.

The U16A team turned in another good performance on the main field and I would like to believe that a number of these boys must be in contention for selection for the North Durban team in 2 weeks time.