MATABELELAND (Thanks to administrator Tracy Howard)

The new corporate box facility at Queens Sports Ground is nearly complete, with three boxes being sold and two being owned by our sponsors, Nissan and Old Mutual.

Matabeleland Cricket Association sent one of their coaches, Clement Mahachi, to Hwange and the Victoria Falls for a period of ten days, where he held coaching clinics for children from both the private schools and the government schools from the western suburbs.

On the domestic scene, the first Matabeleland league games started on 15 September. Queens played MacDonald Club, Mac Club winning by five wickets. Unfortunately Matabeleland all-rounder Greg Strydom broke his ankle while running up to bowl, which clearly sees him out of Logan Cup until at least the fourth round - a great loss to the provincial side.

Results:

Bulawayo Athletic Club beat Bulawayo Sports Club by five wickets.
Milton School beat Bulawayo Development by one wicket.
Crescent beat Jimbos by 28 runs.

Matabeleland is the centre of women’s cricket in Zimbabwe, and Girls’ College started their season on 23 September. This will be a great boost for the women’s game as so far no other girls’ schools have participated in this activity. Let’s hope this will encourage other schools to become interested. A special programme will begin soon in the Western Suburbs Schools, focusing especially on developing cricket as a choice of afternoon activities for girls.

Last season’s first-league match between Mutare Sports Club and Takashinga was an unpleasant affair, which almost led to Takashinga refusing to play after one of their batsmen declined to walk on being given out, an incident which resulted in his suspension. So Mutare faced the prospect of meeting the same team again with some trepidation.

It is therefore a pleasure to report that the match last weekend, at the same venue in Mutare, was played in excellent spirit, and the home side expressed their appreciation for the positive attitude of the Takashinga players. The match might have been spoiled when two Takashinga players were forced to retire hurt. Opener Walter Chawaguta edged a pull into his face and could not continue, while Bruce Makovah in diving for the crease dislocated his shoulder. Fortunately neither injury was too serious and the teams did not allow them to spoil the match.

Mutare’s nine-wicket win, thanks to a fluent 93 from Alistair Campbell, meant that they have won three matches out of three. They were worried that they might be forced to field a weak team, but the return of the national players from Sri Lanka more than made up the difference. They face Kwekwe this coming weekend at Alexandra Sports Club in Harare, a neutral venue in view of the distance between the two small cities, and hope to field a similar team.

Kwekwe Sports Club suffered a poor start to the season, losing their first two matches, but then enjoyed an exciting one-wicket victory over Old Georgians last weekend. They hope to do better now their national players have returned from Sri Lanka.

Haggie Rand Zimbabwe are the Midlands sponsors for the season 2002/03. There will be an official launch of this sponsorship at their clubhouse on Tuesday 8 October; in attendance will be all Haggie directors as well as the Midlands board and players. ZCU general manager Vince Hogg will also attend. The sponsorship is worth Z$2.5 million.