{"id":90385,"date":"2026-02-12T13:58:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T11:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=90385"},"modified":"2026-02-12T13:58:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T11:58:00","slug":"menlopark-bosses-waterkloof-in-key-finsbury-league-a-section-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=90385","title":{"rendered":"Menlopark bosses Waterkloof in key Finsbury League A Section clash"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Satisfied smiles from Die Ho\u00ebrskool Menlopark 1st XI after a convincing win over Waterkloof. Photo: Provided<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wicketkeeper-batsman Jan-Willem Pienaar<\/strong> and all-rounder Johan Bosch<\/strong> guided Die Ho\u00ebrskool Menlopark<\/strong> to\u00a0a second consecutive victory over\u00a0Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof<\/strong> <\/span>in the A Section of the Finsbury League<\/strong> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

With the Klofies<\/strong><\/em> travelling to KwaZulu-Natal for the Clifton T2o Tournament<\/strong> <\/a>over the weekend, a fixture likely to be repeated in the Finsbury A League final on Saturday, 21 February, was brought forward and played across Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.<\/p>\n

Playing at home, Parkies<\/strong><\/em> won the toss and elected to bat. An opening stand of 53 between Juan Lombaard<\/strong> (35) and Andr\u00e9 Kruyshaar<\/strong> (16) provided a solid platform, and their teammates built upon it, advancing the total to a strong 275 all out.<\/p>\n

Fresh off a recent century, Pienaar continued his rich vein of form. In another commanding display, he struck six sixes and three fours in his 91, the highest individual score of the match.<\/p>\n

Bosch, batting at seven, enjoyed an excellent all-round match, beginning with a blistering 55 from just 27 deliveries. Notably, his boundary count mirrored that of Pienaar – six sixes and three fours – as he shifted the momentum decisively in Menlopark’s favour.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, he followed up with a fine spell of bowling, claiming the last three Waterkloof wickets, to return 3\/25.\u00a0Murray Hofmeyr<\/strong>, with 2\/27, and Wihan Spanneberg<\/strong>, with 2\/37, had earlier made important breakthroughs at the top of the order.<\/p>\n

It was, however, two crucial run outs in the middle order, which included Waterkloof’s leading batsman, Johan Feuth<\/strong>, that proved pivotal. Feuth had appeared to be well on his way to a potential match-winning knock before he was dismissed for 71.<\/p>\n

Juan Swart<\/strong> (34) and AJ de Villiers<\/strong> (32) added useful contributions, but the defending champions were restricted to 215 all out, falling 60 runs short of Menlo’s total.<\/p>\n

It was a must-win outing for Menlopark, so an emphatic win over Klofies was a huge boost to their morale. Not only did it secure their place in the final, but it also handed the defending champions their first defeat of the season.<\/p>\n

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

Menlopark 275\u00a0<\/strong>(Jan-Willem Pienaar 91, Johan Bosch 55, Juan Lombaard 35; AJ de Villiers 3\/33, Rian Klopper 3\/41);\u00a0Waterkloof 215\u00a0<\/strong>(Johan Feuth 71, Juan Swart 34, AJ de Villiers 32; Johan Bosch 3\/25, Murray Hofmeyr 2\/27, Wihan Spanneberg 2\/37).\u00a0Menlopark won by 60 runs.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wicketkeeper-batsman Jan-Willem Pienaar and all-rounder Johan Bosch guided Die Ho\u00ebrskool Menlopark to\u00a0a second consecutive victory over\u00a0Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof in the A Section of the Finsbury League on Wednesday. With the Klofies travelling to KwaZulu-Natal for the Clifton T2o Tournament over the weekend, a fixture likely to be repeated in the Finsbury A League final on Saturday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":90395,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90385","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\/90385","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=90385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/90395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}