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Northwood surfed in the 2015 KZN Schools Surfing Champs at Dairy beach on the weekend. Northwood 2nds surfed their way to 6^th place, while the 1^st team used the small but pristine conditions to their advantage to get to what was to be an epic final! The team were disciplined and surfed with consistency, making it very difficult for the other teams to contend with.  Clifton came close but in a team event like this, Northwood out shone them all. Well done to Bevan Willis, Keagan Wallace, Matthew Sills, Saxton Randall and Jaime Irvine who did us proud!

The standard of surfing was the best we have seen at a Schools Tag Team competition and there was no margin for error. The boys displayed some exciting surfing and focussed on getting the most out of the waves under enormous pressure. It was a fine way to end off the season and I can’t wait for next year.

Thank you to Paul Canning from O’neill for putting up the Prizes!

 

2015 KZN SCHOOLS TAG TEAM SURFING CHAMPS FINALS

 

1 AUGUST 2015, DAIRY BEACH

 

1^ST NORTHWOOD SCHOOL

2^ND CLIFTON 1

3^RD WESTVILLE BOYS HIGH

4^TH CRAWFORD NORTH COAST GIRLS

5^TH ASHTON COLLEGE INTERNATIONAL

6^th NORTHWOOD 2

7^TH CLIFTON 2

8^TH GLENWOOD HIGH SCHOOL

9^TH CRAWFORD NORTH COAST BOYS

Congratulations to Northwood students Mpumelelo Xulu and Alvin Chiradza who have recently returned from the SA U17 Cricket Camp at Kingsmead and have both been selected for the U17 KZN High Performance Cricket Squad.

 

Left to right:  Mpumelelo  Xulu and Alvin Chiradza

During the school holidays a group of Northwood School and Northlands Girls pupils were privileged to tour 6 European cities namely London, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona and Istanbul. Travelling around Europe despite experiencing some of the hottest days they have experienced in over 10 years, proved to be very exciting for them, for many it was the first time they had left Durban. London and Paris never disappointed with the shopping and although the boys were in awe of how much a girl really can spend in a couple of hours, some of them were up for the competition. Berlin was a reminder of how devastating Hitler’s reign really was and seeing remnants of the Berlin Wall really brought home just how much suffering and segregation was endured by many. On to Barcelona, the city that never sleeps – fortunately our hotel was away from the beaches and main shopping hub or we would never have got any of our teens to bed! Visiting La Sagrada Familia, a historic church designed by the famous architect, Gaudi, was out of this world, to think that although he passed away in 1926 the church is still being built with the aim to complete in 2026. Istanbul was the perfect way to end our tour. Although a bustling hive of activity being one of the main shipping ports in the world, our visit to Canakkele the site where the Battle of Gallipoli took place, was a contemplative and moving way to end our 13 days in Europe. A big thank you to all the parents for making this tour possible for the children and to the boys for being so well behaved, interested and appreciative!

Northwood’s Lego Club, The Technic Knights, presented a food hamper to our neighbour, The Domino Foundation.

The Domino Foundation has 4000 beneficiaries between the ages of 0 and 18, in including the Domino Babies Home. The Technic Knights initiated a whole-school fundraising drive, and a healthy hamper of non-perishable food items was collected.

The Technic Knights will enter the First Lego League (FLL) competition later this year where the robot they will build and programme using the Lego Mindstorm kits, will compete against those built by other schools. The four core values that underpin the FLL are: co-operation, discovery, integration and development. At present the Technic Knights are discovering their own strengths in benefitting others and the world around them. Well done SAP Technic Knights!

Northwood School’s Lego Club, The Northwood SAP Technic Knights, with Shaun Tait from the Domino Foundation.

On Saturday 6 June we celebrated our school and heritage as we welcomed many old friends and new to Northwood for a day of fellowship and sport. This year was an extra special milestone for our school as we were awarded an FNB Classis Clash fixture vs Kearsney, which was aired live by SuperSport from our fields! The support shown by the community was evident with over 6500 people attending this event.

The day started off with the delicious smell of bacon and boerewors rolls being braaied by our Northwood Fundraising parents, who did a sterling job of helping to keep the crowds well fed. Our Northwood Moms ran two hospitality Tea Gardens which were well attended and much appreciated by visitors to the school. Various vendors also supported the school offering a variety of treats and food options. This year Northwood offered a beer garden, hosted by the popular George based in Umhlanga which was very well attended by our Old Boys and which we look forward to including in future Old Boy Day events!

Old Boy, rugby great and Northlands Boys High Head Boy of 1989, Warren Brosnihan, was present for the renaming of one of our rugby fields in his honour. Warren epitomises the school motto (Acquit ye like men) and has been a true role model for all Northwood Boys.

Our 1^st XV Rugby score 14-36 was in the visitors favour, with the Northwood 1^st hockey team having disappointing end to their season when they were beaten 5 – 1 by a powerful Kearsney team, however a great day of sports all round was had in an awesome finish to the season. Thank you to everyone for their unconditional support of Northwood and the Knights.

Over the past three weekends, Northwood cyclists have been competing in the Junior Eliminator Series at venues across KZN. The format of the racing consists of heats ranging from 600m-1000m. The boys start in batches of four or five and sprint the course which is normally quite technically challenging. The first two riders to complete the course go through to the next round and the last two riders are eliminated from the competition. This is repeated until a final race of four riders compete for the top podium spot.

After the first two events, held at Northwood School and Giba Gorge, Northwood held a narrow lead over Maritzburg College and Thomas More. It all came down to the final race of the series where College had home ground advantage. After some extremely tough heats, with many of our boys making the semi-finals, Cayde Muldoon was the Northwood boy to watch as he progressed to the final of the u16 category. Lying in 3^rd place for most of the final race he managed to out-sprint a Thomas More rider onto the swimming pool bridge and snatched a 2^nd place at the end. Cayde Muldoon managed to finish the series off with 3^rd place overall. Northwood as a team however managed to win the overall event for the second year in a row. Prizes consisted of R10 000 for custom cycling kit, a Rayne High Definition Lifestyle Camera as well as an awesome trophy. Well done to all boys who took part and pushed so hard throughout the series.

We look forward to welcoming over 200 school cyclists from around the province this weekend as Northwood hosts one of the Spur Schools Cross Country races. Good luck to all boys involved.

Friday saw the Northwood Knights take on St Charles at the Growthpoint Kingspark Stadium as the main curtain raiser to the Sharks vs. Rebels. It was a St Charles home fixture and they were gracious enough to travel down to Durban to give both team’s boys the chance to experience playing on the pitch.

The Knights got off to a great start playing rugby from the word go. With some great carries and ball security from the forwards it was not long until the spaces became available out wide. After 2 great tries within the first 10 minutes Northwood can be upset for letting their foot of the gas. All credit to St Charles who dominated the rugby for the next 40 minutes with great continuity. The St Charles pupils were all in full voice with 7 minutes to go when they had scored their second try under the poles and took the lead 14-12. Northwood can be complimented on their composed attitude to work the ball consistently back into St Charles half and scored in the far left hand corner to take the lead again 17-14. The conversion was a good one by Lars Van Den Meijdin and Northwood held on to the last 2 minutes to secure a 19-14 victory.

Report By:  Head of Rugby, Mr Jonathan Scruby

Photo Credit to:  Michael Symington, Northwood Press Club

We are proud to have recently launched our new range of supporters gear at the Northwood Fashion Show!  The range includes ladies and men’s T-Shirts in a variety of colours as well a men’s blue and white vests.  The T-Shirts and vests are available in size small to XXL and are on sale during office hours from the back office as well as at home fixtures on Saturdays. With Old Boys Day just a few days away, now is the perfect time to reflect your Northwood spirit in style!

T-Shirts:  R160

Vests:  R140

For further information please email:  marketing@nwood.co.za

The Northwood 1^st hockey team were made to work hard for their 3 – 2 victory against a competitive St Charles team on Saturday.

The match was a scrappy affair played in extremely hot and dry conditions on a very slow playing surface.

Northwood opened the scoring when Captain Shane Bradbury went on a sniping run and fired a reverse stick shot past the face of the goal to fellow striker Joshua Cowell who deflected home.

St Charles equalised shortly afterwards after some well worked play.

Joshua Cowell was on the score sheet again after a brilliant drag flick rocketed past the St Charles keepers shoulder from Northwood’s first penalty corner of the half.

Both teams created more scoring chances in the half but it was Northwood that took a 2 – 1 lead into the half time break.

The second half saw St Charles pile on the pressure and Northwood lost their way with some poor discipline resulting in twelve minutes worth of cards.

St Charles saw their pressure rewarded when they scrambled the ball home to bring the scores back to level.

It looked like St Charles were going to get their third but Northwood Keeper Garick Goldman was in brilliant form pulling off some fantastic saves from penalty corners and free play.

Northwood took the lead again with their second penalty corner of the match when Ighsaan Manuel sent a powerful flick into the bottom corner of the goal.

St Charles threw everything into attack and created numerous field scoring chances and penalty corners but they were unable to beat the brilliant Garick Goldman in the Northwood goals.

Northwood held out for a 3 – 2 win in what was a tricky fixture.

Congratulations go to Garick Goldman, Cody van Breemen and Ighsaan Manuel on achieving their 50^th cap for the Northwood 1^st team. An outstanding achievement for three extremely talented young men.

The Northwood 1^st hockey team bounced back with a fantastic, hard fought 2 – 1 win against a powerful Westville team in last night’s KZN Night League battle for third place.

Northwood, left reeling after two humbling defeats last week, showed some character to bounce back against a strong Westville team that had beaten them earlier in the year.

Captain Shane Bradbury and keeper Garick Goldman were the stars of the day with Bradbury scoring the two goals through one on ones and Goldman making some crucial saves to help his team to the victory.

The win secured third place for Northwood in this year’s edition of the night league and it was a fantastic team effort.

Round 1 of the Junior Eliminator for KZN kicked off on Sunday 24 May. The first event was hosted by Northwood High School in Durban North. The junior riders representing 18 schools from around the province were tested by a well balanced course containing a small climb to test the legs, plenty of sprint and over taking opportunities and a few interesting obstacles to test their skills. In true Durban style, the weather was hot, only to be out done by the racing action on course. The interesting thing about eliminator is that there really is no “favourite to win” everybody stands the chance, anything can happen on course and there is no coming back from a dropped chain, puncture or crash and being youthful they can all sprint flat out for duration of the short course.

There were a lot of new faces that weren’t at last year’s series, at first there were a few questions of “why is the course so short and why only one lap?” It didn’t take long for the riders to realise it was pretty much a flat out sprint for around two minutes. Parents, team mates and other spectators were kept highly entertained by the high paced racing from the various age groups with a number of heats coming down to a sprint finish. It was great to have a full heat of under 14 girls to battle it out against each other, but it was Beanie Thies(Wartburg Kirchdorf School) who proved just too strong for the rest winning her three heats comfortably. There were only two under 16 girls who elected to race with the boys and held their own with Courtney Smith(Thomas More College) making it through to round 3 and Tiffany Keep(Thomas More College) keeping the boys on their toes advancing right up to the semi -finals before narrowly losing out on the line!

Despite their size, the speed and power from the under 14 boys was incredible, the boys attacked every obstacle at full pace including flying down the double set of stairs. The under 16 boys was the most hotly contested age group with a number of close finishes as the boys stomped on their pedals to advance through the rounds and into the final. The final was elbow to elbow racing getting the crowd on their feet screaming as the four boys chased each other around the course. The under 19 boys showed some smarts with a few team tactics as well as pacing themselves through the earlier rounds in order to conserve energy for when it really mattered.

The sponsors of the Junior Eliminator Series have gone all out in backing the young riders and during prize giving the competitors were showered in prizes both for the finalists as well as a raffle draw from Trek Bikes, Fox Racing, Enjoy Fitness, Skullcandy, OGIO and Rayne Cams. Round two will take place on Sunday 31 May at Giba Gorge Bike Park in Pinetown. It is Comrades day, so the registration will only start at 12pm, racing from 1pm and prize giving at 3pm.

We would like to see some more schools being represented, entries are still available and riders can enter online: www.onemovement.co.za

The Video of the event can be viewed at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kII2uLFYLw

Results from Round 1:

under 14 girls

1. Beanie Thies (Wartburg Kirchdorf School)
2. Emma Clipstone (St Marys DSG)
3. Kiara Muldoon (Northlands Girls High School)

 

under 16 Girls

1. Tiffany Keep (Thomas More College)
2. Courtney Smith (Thomas More College)

 

under 14 boys

1. Mitchel Potgieter (Kloof Primary)
2. Robbie Jessop (Virginia Primary)
3. Myles Crookes (Hillcrest High School)

 

under 16 boys

1. Jett Bradshaw (Two Bridges)
2. Dylan Howard (Crawford North Coast)
3. Joshua Clipstone (Thomas More College)

 

Under 19 Boys

1. Dean Wartmann (Wartburg Kirchdorf School)
2. Felix Manke (Maritzburg College)
3. Mitchell Meugens (Maritzburg College)

 

KZN Overall Series (after first event)

1^st Northwood                                   4228 Points

2^nd Thomas More                             3133 Points

3^rd Maritzburg College                   2950 Points