{"id":83103,"date":"2025-09-18T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T07:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=83103"},"modified":"2025-09-18T09:00:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T07:00:11","slug":"grey-college-st-andrews-school-the-teams-to-beat-in-free-state-schools-sa20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=83103","title":{"rendered":"Grey College, St Andrew’s School the teams to beat in Free State Schools SA20"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FG Botha accidently knocks a satellite out of orbit – maybe it wasn’t an accident. Photo: St. Andrew’s School on Instagram<\/strong><\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Group A and B fixtures<\/strong><\/p>\n

St. Andrew’s School was crowned the regional champion of the Free State, North West, and Northern Cape<\/strong><\/a> back in the summer.<\/p>\n

They also defeated Grey College<\/strong> on multiple occasions and delivered many of their best performances when it mattered most.<\/p>\n

Considering that they’re coming up against the top dogs in the territory on Friday, there’ll certainly be some nerves in the HTS Louis Botha<\/strong> team. They’ll be the heavy underdogs against Saints<\/strong><\/em>, but they have nothing to lose.<\/p>\n

When St Andrew’s faced St Alban’s<\/strong> in Pretoria recently, FG<\/strong> Botha<\/strong>, with 89, and Reuben van<\/strong> Aarde<\/strong>, with 85, impressed with the bat. The Bloemfontein school looked like they were headed for victory, but they ran out of overs in the two-day, two-innings fixture.<\/p>\n

At the Fasken Time Cricket Festival<\/strong>, Andrew Sobiech scored a century against Jeppe<\/strong><\/a><\/span>, while Naude Botha<\/strong> made 95 not out in the same game. Jonathan <\/strong><\/span>Hickley<\/span><\/strong>, then, scored 91 against St <\/strong><\/span>Stithians<\/span><\/strong>, and Botha weighed in with 80. The point is, Saints has some in-form batsmen who have already scored plenty of runs this term.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heindr\u00e9 Serfontein<\/strong> shone with the ball against St Alban’s, knocking over 4\/10 in 10 overs. FG Botha<\/strong>, meanwhile, picked up nine wickets in the match against St Stithians. A leg-spinner, he can rip through a batting order with his sharp spin. Nikhil Sukraj<\/strong>, too, is another spinner who is regularly among the wickets. HTS Louis Botha are going to be up against it.<\/p>\n

In Friday’s other Group A fixture, Ho\u00ebrskool Fichardtpark<\/strong> takes on the Bloemfontein Hub.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Group B, Bethlehem’s Ho\u00ebrskool Witteberg<\/strong> faces Welkom Gimnasium. <\/strong>Action in the group began last Friday, when Ho\u00ebrskool Goudveld <\/strong>beat St Dominic’s College<\/strong> by eight wickets.<\/p>\n

Group C and D fixtures<\/strong><\/p>\n

Grey College owns one of the most impressive sporting histories in the country, including in cricket, but their form during a mid-year tour of the United Kingdom and early in the third term has been somewhat inconsistent. They’ll be aiming to dominate their group stage matches, however.<\/p>\n

Last weekend, Potchefstroom Gimnasium thumped Grey by 155 runs<\/strong> <\/a>in a 50-over fixture. The Botshabelo Hub<\/strong> is likely to face a backlash from that defeat.<\/p>\n

Henru De Wet<\/strong> is a key player for the Grey boys, a reliable performer with both the bat and ball, and he’s a sure handed catcher, too. After scoring only 22 against Potch Gim, he’ll be intent on scoring another rapid century, like he did against Selborne College<\/a> <\/strong>almost two weeks ago. The longer he’s at the crease, the more confident his teammates become.<\/p>\n

In another Group C match, Ho\u00ebrskool Jim Fouch\u00e9<\/strong> takes on Ho\u00ebrskool Sentraal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Group D, Ho\u00ebrskool Trio<\/strong> tackles the Kroonstad Hub<\/strong>, while Sasolburg High <\/strong>takes on the Bethlehem locals, Ho\u00ebrskool Voortrekker<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Group A and B fixtures St. Andrew’s School was crowned the regional champion of the Free State, North West, and Northern Cape back in the summer. They also defeated Grey College on multiple occasions and delivered many of their best performances when it mattered most. Considering that they’re coming up against the top dogs in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":83106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/83106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}