{"id":88639,"date":"2026-01-18T09:55:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T07:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=88639"},"modified":"2026-01-18T09:55:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T07:55:04","slug":"menlopark-outclasses-kempton-park-in-finsbury-league-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=88639","title":{"rendered":"Menlopark outclasses Kempton Park in Finsbury League opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It was a tough return to the top flight of the annual Finsbury League<\/strong> for Ho\u00ebrskool Kempton Park<\/strong> on Saturday, with the visitors suffering a comprehensive seven-wicket defeat to Ho\u00ebrskool Menlopark<\/strong> in Pretoria.<\/p>\n

Parkies<\/em><\/strong>, perennial powerhouses in the competition, asserted their authority by brushing aside Kempies<\/em><\/strong> in a contest that lasted only 70.2 overs to claim their first victory of the new campaign.<\/p>\n

Asked to bowl first on home soil, the Pretoria outfit made early inroads through Monr\u00e9 Koekemoer<\/strong> (1\/16), before Jordan van Eck<\/strong> and Johan Bosch<\/strong> inflicted the bulk of the damage.<\/p>\n

Van Eck<\/strong>, who shared the new ball with Koekemoer, was the home side’s leading bowler, claiming three wickets for 28 runs across two spells. He was ably supported by Bosch<\/strong>, who picked up 3\/26 from his six overs.<\/p>\n

With Kempton Park in deep trouble on 88\/8, Kamogelo Matlala<\/strong> led a spirited resistance with a patient 39 runs. Useful contributions from Anthony Stockigt<\/strong> (25) and Hanroux Siemens<\/strong> (24) provided further support, which helped Kempies to a total of 146 all out.<\/p>\n

In reply, Koekemoer<\/strong> once again played a decisive role, this time with the bat. He struck an unbeaten 45 from 65 deliveries, while Jacques de Villiers<\/strong> added a composed 25 not out as the pair’s unbroken 45-run partnership steered the home team to a comfortable victory.<\/p>\n

The platform for the successful run chase had been laid by opening batsman, Andr\u00e9 Kruyshaar<\/strong>, who top-scored with a measured 49. His innings blunted the early threat posed by Matlala<\/strong>, who again impressed with the new ball, claiming two of the three wickets with successive balls in the sixth over, including the prized scalp of Jan-Willem Pienaar<\/strong> for a first-ball duck.<\/p>\n

It was not enough to halt the momentum, however, as Ho\u00ebrskool Menlopark<\/strong> opened their 2026 Finsbury League campaign with a commanding home victory.<\/p>\n

Summarised scorecard<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ho\u00ebrskool Kempton Park 146\u00a0<\/strong>(Kamogelo Matlala 39, Anthony Stockigt 25, Hanroux Siemens 24; Johan Bosch 3\/26, Jordan van Eck 3\/28); Menlopark 149\/3\u00a0<\/strong>(Andr\u00e9 Kruyshaar 49, Monr\u00e9 Koekemoer 45*, Jacques de Villiers 25*; Kamogelo Matlala 2\/26).\u00a0Menlopark won by seven wickets.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a tough return to the top flight of the annual Finsbury League for Ho\u00ebrskool Kempton Park on Saturday, with the visitors suffering a comprehensive seven-wicket defeat to Ho\u00ebrskool Menlopark in Pretoria. Parkies, perennial powerhouses in the competition, asserted their authority by brushing aside Kempies in a contest that lasted only 70.2 overs to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":82643,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88639","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\/88639","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/82643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}