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CONGRATULATIONS to the following players who have been selected to KZN Rugby Teams:

Ngonidzashe Chidoma (U18 Craven Week team)

Kabelo Motloung (U18 Academy Week team)

Kuziwakwashe Kazembe (U18 Academy Week team)

Congratulations to the following boys on their selection to the KZN Coastal Teams:

U18A:    Greg Wright

U18B:    Sacha de Marigny

Ighsaan Manual

Daniel Willis

Jamie Pillay

Shane Bradbury

U18C:    Tyler Smith

U16A:    Cody van Breeman

Joshua Cowell

U16B:    Scott Bowman

Cade Leity

Shahied Cariem

U16C:    Ross Vening-Pridham

Ryan Whitehurst

Tyrone Stanley

U16 Non-travelling reserve:        Conner Ronquest

U14A:    Taine Bird

Cameron Pretorius

U14B:    Mikael Rademeyer

Zinzan George

The Northwood Annual Fashion Show has become a highlight on the school calendar, if not the entire Durban North community.  It is a popular event which our Northwood students and girls from neighbouring schools showcase all the latest fashion and designs from participating retail outlets.  Tickets for this one night only event are available from the back office or Mrs de Sousa, R60 per ticket or R50 for students in school uniform. We look forward to seeing you there!

On Sunday the 10th of May at 9am our boys made their way up to Kearsney to participate in the first Inter School Eliminator Series. This consists of a short track of 800m -1km, raced by four riders at a time. The two riders who come first and second go through to the next round and the process repeats itself until a winner is declared. It was a first for our boys as they had never participated in an event like this in the past.

After a few heats had passed we had 4 boys making it into the final heats, with Ethan Biggar being represented in the u14 age group, Cayde Muldoon and Ben Carnie in the u16 age group and Caldon Petit in the u19 age group. After some fantastic racing we ended up with four medals, two gold and two silver. The results are a reflection of the commitment the boys have been giving to early morning training sessions this year.

In addition to the medals, the boys also won over R4000 worth of prizes.

Results:

U14- Ethan Biggar 2nd.

u16-Cayde Muldoon 1st, Ben Carnie 2nd, Matthew Loder 6th and Suvel Kumkaren 8th.

U19- Caldon Petit 1st.

The next three races are as follows:

Spur School MTB Series: 17 May- Cascades MTB Park

Inter School Eliminator Series: 18 May- Crawford College, La Lucia

Inter School Eliminator Series: 25 May- Ashton College , Ballito.

Anyone who would like to enter is to please speak to Mr Le Roux or to contact him at gleroux@nwood.co.za.

Saturday the 10th of May 2014 will be a day many Northwood supporters will fondly remember as the Knights claimed their first victory over Hilton College in 23 years, continuing on their unbeaten home record this season.

From the kick off both sides were on the attack, with Northwood initially struggling to put phases together due to strong Hilton defense. Finally working their way into the left hand corner they reverted to the pick and go that they do so well and within seconds a nod by the assistant referee to the referee confirmed a try had been scored by Northwood burly number 7, Calvin Silson.

Hilton then replied with a try of their own after good work from their forwards allowed their fullback to coast over for a try in the corner. With Northwood doing the basics well up front, fly-half David Weersma put his boot to good use to pin Hilton back into their own half, suffocating any hopes of getting back into the Northwood half. Due to the heavy pressure on Hilton by Northwood working territory well, they were awarded two kickable penalties which they took full advantage of through the reliable boot of Sasasa Makhanya.

This saw the Knights going into the break with their heads up and leading 11 points to 7.

The 2^nd half started with renewed Hilton pressure but the Knights defense largely neutralized the attacking threat . The Northwood forwards started to gain dominance and this lead towards a well worked try which was converted to leave Nothwood 18 – 7 up.

As soon as Hilton got their hands back on the ball and started looking dangerous out wide, all hopes were cut short as, winger Jabu Mabida, worked a 50m run from an intercept (what seemed like De-javu of the Jeppe fixture) placed under the poles for an easily converted try within minutes of the previous one.

Northwood took full advantage of the lead and with great hands through the backs saw David Weersma put Sasasa Makhanya through a beautiful gap, and with Phiko Sobahle on hand to support he pulled off a miraculous gather from the pass to do what comes so naturally to him by finishing under the posts. With the score 32-7 to Northwood, Hilton can be proud of their efforts for the rest of the game which led to them getting an unconverted try towards the end of the match. The confidence in the Northwood camp can only be used to the Knights advantage as they have 4 home games in a row still to come.

Final score 32-14 to Northwood.

Photos courtesy of Michael Symington, Northwood Press Club

Congratulations to Bevan Willis who surfed a powerful and explosive U16 final against some fierce competitors to take the win with relative ease. “I picked up a decent wave near the beginning of the heat, and then I hassled the guys a bit,” said Willis of his strategy. “That wave at the end was a really good one. I didn’t hear what the score was, but I knew that it was a decent score.”

His second score was a 6, and combined with his earlier score of 4.75 saw the Undloti surfer with a heat total of 10.75 out of a possible 20 points, with Jordy Maree in second. Jake Elkington was in third and Adin Masencamp in 4th.

The U14 A Northwood hockey side performed with both success and good sportsmanship during the Ken Florens Hockey Festival.

Having achieved well during the season it was clear that the results at the festival would follow suite. The side played 6 games and were undefeated. Beating Prince Edward Harare twice, 3-1 and 1-0 respectively, emerging victorious against Parktown Boys from Johannesburg 4-0, and beating SACS from Cape Town 1-0. The boys drew 2 games: 1-1 against Paul Roos and 1-1 against St. David’s Inanda.

I would like to congratulate them on their success and make sure they keep their positive attitude for the closing fixtures of a tough season.

Well done lads!

Mr L Bragin

U14A Coach

After a successful trip to Johannesburg in 2013, Northwood and Jeppe linked back up with full set of fixtures for rugby, hockey, squash and chess, all with an overnight bus trip.

This year saw a Jeppe side dubbed to be a Joburg schools rugby power house after a good win on their tour beating the top rated Australian schools side Scotts College.  They travelled down to Northwood on Friday and were hosted by their opposite numbers that evening causing some new friendships to undoubtedly be made. Come Saturday however, it was business as usual and the Northwood Knights  proved the doubters wrong and stunned the Jeppe side with a convincing 14 point victory.

Northwood were first to get points on the board with the talented boot of Sasasa Makhanya. Jeppe did not take long to reply and were in with a try down the blind side. If anything this helped the Northwood team pull together and they worked a penalty to the corner, eventually scoring a try by vice captain Ngoni Chidoma soon after with a rolling maul.

Jeppe replied with a penalty late on in the half and this left the teams going in to the break at 10 all.

Both teams came out with a point to prove and were at each other’s necks so to speak. Northwood worked their way down field convincingly well through the boot of their strong Dutch international centre David Weersma pinning Jeppe back in their own half.

From here ball retention was vital and Northwood once again through some strong carries by flanker Calvin Silson found themselves close enough to the try line where they bullied Jeppe over the line with some pick and goes.  A converted try gave Northwood a 17-10 lead. Northwood then had 2 more penalties converted. Jeppe worked back a try of their own after good phase play to get one right through the centre channel and touch down under the posts. The score was 24-17 to Northwood with just minutes to go when replacement winger Jabu Mabida caught an intercept and made good use of his legs to beat most of the defenders 60 metres to the try line scoring under the posts. This proved to be the final nail in the coffin for Jeppe and Northwood walked away with a well deserved victory (not just for them and their school but their entire community) 31-14.

After the great win on Saturday Northwood made a quick turnaround to play Parktown on Monday. Due to some injuries the back line was shuffled around and in the end the boys did well to not let this distract any momentum.

The game seemed to be one way traffic in the first half with Northwood showing their true quality as a team and were tactical at set pieces, the break down and, most importantly, defence-cutting out any threats from Parktown before they could turn into momentum.

Northwood found themselves leading 26-3 at half time.

They could then be accused of being human for taking the pedal off the gas and letting Parktown into the game with 2 tries of their own and some weak discipline gave Parktown 2 penalties as well. After a quick reality check for the team by captain Ross Muil, the boys pulled together again and some great line outs work by thrower Cameron Silson(younger brother of the larger ball carrying flank) combined with good jumping by locks Shane Kennedy and Greg Slater saw the perfect platform for the backs to get moving again and Norhwood finished strong with 2 more tries to stamp out any doubt that Parktown had a chance of a comeback.

Northwood won the game 38-19.

The Northwood Musical takes place this year from the 14th to 16th May.
Tickets are available from the school now!
You not going to want to miss out on this year’s show!
Wednesday show: In uniform R50, or R65 for civvies. Thursday R65 and Supper Theatre on Friday night at R130 pp.

Saturday April 12 was the first of Northwood’s home rugby fixtures for the season up against George Campbell.

Northwood have usually managed to get the best over the latter and this was to be no exception. Northwood came out of the blocks firing. For the first time this season the forwards had clicked and with majority of the penalties being kicked to the corner they finally put their size and strength to good use with some strong rolling mauls leading to a could of tries. The mauls almost seemed unstoppable and will undoubtably become their favorite weapon on attack soon.

Northwood went in to the break leading 24-0.

After returning to the pitch they were perhaps too confident and some poor defending off the scrum resulted in George Campbell getting one back for themselves. Campbell failed to convert and so the score was 24-5 to Northwood. The majority of the second half was a scrappy stop-start affair with Northwood being forced to make 6 subs, in vital positions, due to injury within 15 minutes.  This had definitely made it difficult to get going again and find their momentum. Fortunately within the last 10 minutes the Northwood packed clicked and provided the perfect platform for the backs to spread the ball to the ever dangerous PK Sobahle at 13, who was dangerous all day with ball in hand and made some real yardage each carry.

Northwood managed 2 tries for all their efforts at the end and can be complimented for their efforts on defense when numbers were down. Winger Sasasa Makhanya can also be complimented for a great day with the boot converting all of Northwoods tries and did well when slotted in to fly-half.

Final score 38-5 to the Knights.