MTN National Club Cricket Round-up

Tertiary teams in charge

Pretoria - Northerns and Free State meet on Saturday in their annual challenge but the early fireworks are being provided by the two unions senior tertiary institutions today.

Pretoria and Free State universities meet at ``neutral'' Aloe Park in a game which could decide Section 1 of the national club championship while Rand Afrikaans and the University of Port Elizabeth meet tomorrow (tuesday slugs) in a game which should decide Section 2.

The four sides, young and adventurous have turned this year's tournament into a battle for tertiary supremacy with Tuks, sponsored by Rentmeerster upsetting title holders Claremont on day one on Saturday and yesterday handed out an impressive thrashing to East Rand's CBC Old Boys, winning by 105 runs.

While Port Elizabeth University elbowed aside Potch University with an easy eight wicket victory at Villagers, RAU had a hiccup or two on their way to beating Old Selbornians at L C de Villiers Oval by five wickets.

Dirkie de Vos enjoyed a little South African sunshine and warmth after five months of damp and cold in the Bolton League by scoring an impressive 84 off 78 balls against CBC Old Boys (Easterns) one of several minnow teams taking part in the tournament. Tuks scored 258 for five and were not placed under any pressure as they raced to victory with keen fielding supporting the bowling, with De Vos bowling an economical line to end with one for 18 in nine overs. Wiaan Smith, who scored an entertaining century on the opening day of the tournament against the Griquas entry, West End, thrashed the Stellenbosch University bowlers for 63 runs off 89 balls yesterday as Kovsies reached their target of 177 for six with 11 balls to spare.

Deon Odendaal's four wickets for 30 were the best return of the day as Stellenbosch, who were losing finalists last year were bowled out for 173 and like Claremont need a small miracle to get that far again.

Gary Kirsten was supposed to rock up at the event yesterday, but either he didn't feel the effort was worth it or his club misinformed the organisers. In any event his brother, Paul, scored 51 as the champions scraped together 191 for seven and routed West End CC for 144 with Michael Alexander scoring 61 with the remainder managed peanuts.

As for RAU their opener Mark Benfield gave Old Selbornians a lesson in batting skills as the Johannesburg students, ably led by Nic Pothas, managed to squeeze together the 158 need to win by five wickets, although losing three wickets for 29 runs mid-innings was the sort of batting hitch which happens in limited-overs matches.

Benfield was joined by Simon Stobbs to add the 86 runs needed to see RAU set up an exciting Section 2 top log challenge with UPE tomorrow, although they meet a desperate Potch University today. Pukke were given a merciless mauling by the Port Elizabeth students who needed only 25 overs to score the 181 runs needed for victory.

The Port Elizabeth students were in such a hurry after their eight-wickets victory they left a kit bag at the ground.