Second Round WP Cricket Matches Null and Void
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Vasco Da Gama have been knocked out of the Sasol League National Championships and their dream of qualifying for the Women’s National League has disappeared, but head coach Nathan Peskin said his team should hold their heads high.
The Western Cape Sasol League champions finished at the bottom of Group B after losing 3-1 to Ixias FC of the Free State on Tuesday, which was followed by a 1-1 stalemate with KwaZulu-Natal-based Sunflower FC.
Head coach Nathan Peskin said his team played “exceptional well” but poor officiating coupled with adverse weather conditions counted against them. “I can say undoubtedly that Vasco Da Gama was one of the top four teams in that tournament,” he said.
In both matches Vasco conceded penalties that Nathan believe were incorrectly awarded and a goal that seemed illegitimate was allowed to stand in favour of the opposition. “We were 1-0 up in the second half (of the first match) when the ref awarded a penalty to the opposition which was never a penalty. Just shortly thereafter our keeper punches a ball from a corner. It hits our defender’s head and the ball goes straight into the goalkeepers hands. The ref awards a goal. So it was sad.
“In our final match against Sunflower we played excellently. We were underdogs but played like champions. Again leading 1-0 until seven minutes from time the ref again awards a penalty against us again nowhere even close to a penalty. So these things really affect the outcome of games.”
Peskin said the heat was a scorching 35 degrees and the big stage got the better of his players. “But poor refereeing decisions against us didn’t help either.”
Montana Vikings Basketball Club have demonstrated their dominance of the Cape Town Basketball Association (CTBA) leagues this season, winning at least seven of the 11 divisions on offer.
The Vikings took home both Super League titles in men and ladies divisions; were crowned as champions in the Under 18 girls and boys sections; won the Under 12 girls and boys leagues; and finished top of the Under 16 boys’ league.
In the last match of the season, the Vikings Super League side for men beat CPUT (Cape Peninsula University of Technology) Alumni Cats by 13 points (78-65) in a highly entertaining encounter at Gugulethu Sport Complex.
Vikings head coach for the men super league team, Craig Daniels, was delighted with his club’s victory, and said what worked for them was that their training programs were focused on individual skills and physical development. “Even though we had seven guys for this game, they were fit and were able to last the whole game. You could see that they were getting tired, but the work they put in during the course of the season helped us to get through today”.
Vikings will participate in a tournament in Johannesburg early next year “and need to show that we are better even outside the Cape Town borders”.
Nathan Coetzee, Chairperson of the CTBA, congratulated all the winners and saluted all the participants – clubs, administrators, officials, coaches and players – for making 2019 a memorable season in the local basketball. He said the season was very challenging, with few resignations from the executive last year, but everything went according to plan.
“We played more games this year than any other season, and it was a huge success. We received quite a lot of support and, with the establishment of the Western Cape Basketball Association recently, we are very excited because now we have all the necessary structures to secure more funding and get government support”.
With a professional basketball league planned for Africa next year, Coetzee said he hoped that, with the right structures in place, a franchise would be established in Cape Town “because there is a lot of talent here.”