Archive - Nov 2010 - Story

Namibian cricket faces its biggest test this year when it takes on the United Arab Emirates in the ICC Intercontinental Shield final in Dubai from Thursday, December 2 to Sunday, December 5.

The UAE will start as firm favourites since they will be playing on their home turf, while they also have the better record against Namibia over the past year.

The two sides met 12 months ago at the start of the Intercontinental Shield tournament when the UAE beat Namibia by four wickets in Windhoek.

The Namibian Under 20 team will leave on Wednesday morning for Botswana where they will participate in the Metropolitan Cosafa U20 tournament which will be held from 4 to 12 December in Gaborone.

The team, which has been in camp from 22 November, is in the same group as South Africa and Lesotho.

Bernard Kaanjuka, who is the coach of the team, said that they had prepared well for the tournament.

Kari van der Vaart from Dolphins was the best swimmer at Gala 7 and 8 which took place in Windhoek over the weekend, after gaining four places amongst the top ten performances.

Christine Briedenhann of the Namib Swimming Academy set the best overall performance according to the FINA points scoring system, but Van der Vaart was more versatile, with four victories which all ranked amongst the top ten performances.

The young Spanish Leones surprised Namibia with a 33-20 win in Estadio Principes in Palma, Mallorca on Saturday afternoon.

Namibia are going to the 2011 World Cup; Spain are not. The Saturday before the touring Namibians lost to Portugal who are also not going to the World Cup.

Namibia were without their captain Jacques Burger, who is a star for Saracens while the Spaniards had very few caps in their whole side. The whole Spanish side had a total of 93 caps, of which two players total 55 caps.

Namibia beat Boland by six wickets in their CSA One Day Challenge in Paarl on Sunday, after comfortably chasing down the victory target of 184 runs with three overs to spare.

Boland won the toss and elected to bat but struggled against some accurate bowling by Namibia. Louis Klazinga clean bowled Emile Kriek for 11, while Kola Burger dismissed Godfrey Stevens for 18.

Sarel Burger caught and bowled Uwe Birkenstock for 21, while Christi Viljoen dismissed Omphile Ramela for 8 and Sarel Burger dismissed Tiaan Cloete for 2 to leave Boland struggling at 5/91 after 21 overs.

Namibia held Boland to a draw in their CSA Three Day match on Saturday after staging a fine comeback.

Boland were well in control with a 110-run lead on the first innings, but a huge second innings total of 477/9 swung the match Namibia’s way. Boland however managed to hold out for a draw after posting 214/6 in their second innings.

Craig Williams (144) and Nicolaas Scholtz (150 not out) each scored big centuries while Christi Viljoen added 67 batting at number 9 to lay the foundation for Namibia’s second innings total.

The Bank Windhoek 2010 Senior Golf Championship League ended on a high note with a prize giving ceremony at the Windhoek Country Club on Thursday, 25 November 2010. 

Every last Thursday of each month, 21 senior golfers played for merit points. The monthly winner received a silver cup sponsored by Bank Windhoek. The overall winner of the 2010 League was Johan du Toit, who received the floating trophy. Gert Goosen came in second place followed by Dirk Steenkamp.

Led by captain Craig Williams, Namibia staged a great recovery to finish the second day’s play with a 178-run lead over Boland and five second innings wickets in hand.

It was a remarkable revival by Namibia after Boland had built up a first innings lead of 110 runs and when Namibia struggled to 4/86 in their second innings, Boland were well in control. Openers Raymond van Schoor and Wian van Vuuren scored 29 and 19 respectively, while Gerhard Rudolph and Gerrie Snyman were both dismissed for ducks.

Paulus “Hitman” Moses announced his return to the ring with a bang when he beat Argentina’s Sergio Omar Priotti on a fifth round technical knockout in the early hours of Friday morning.

A packed hall of more than 500 fans turned up for his return to the ring since losing the WBA lightweight title in May and the Hitman did not disappoint as he gave a polished display before the referee stopped the fight at the start of the fifth round.

African Stars manager, Lesley Kozonguizi, has came out to say that his team still has a chance to redeem itself in the second half of the season. He said this after his team’s 2-1 loss to Civics on Wednesday evening at the Sam Nujoma Stadium.

The first goal for Civics came from Costa Khaiseb in the 67th minute with Tjono Jagger scoring the second one in the 83rd minute. Stars however managed to get one in the back of the net when Robert Nganjone found some breathing space.