{"id":90534,"date":"2026-02-16T14:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=90534"},"modified":"2026-02-16T14:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:42:11","slug":"one-hurdle-remains-with-middies-on-the-brink-of-promotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=90534","title":{"rendered":"One hurdle remains with Middies on the brink of promotion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"As large parts of the Noordvaal experienced a rainy Friday and Saturday, Valentine’s Day, only the clash between Ho\u00ebrskool Middelburg<\/strong> and Ho\u00ebrskool Pietersburg<\/strong> was played in Polokwane in the C Section of the Finsbury League<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n

Middies<\/strong> <\/em>were already in a commanding position in their quest to earn a place in the promotion\/relegation game, and they confirmed their place in it with a resounding 208\u2011run victory over Pieties<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

The visitors took first strike and, with several players in impressive form, posted a formidable 280 all out despite batting only 47 overs of their allotted 50.<\/p>\n

Nijan Swart<\/strong>, a valuable addition to the side since the start of the year, led from the front and anchored their innings with a well\u2011played 54 from 64 deliveries.<\/p>\n

Hendr\u00e9 Nel<\/strong> and Wilr\u00e9 Cilliers<\/strong> produced important cameos to bolster the Middelburg innings. Both contributed 48, although Nel’s knock was the more entertaining. Playing with freedom, he faced only 28 balls, while Cilliers batted at a run-a-ball to close out the innings.<\/p>\n

Hennie Schoeman<\/strong> was the best of the Pietersburg bowlers. Despite Middelburg’s substantial total, he claimed an impressive 3\/38 in nine overs. Stephan Schoeman<\/strong> also claimed three wickets, including those of Swart and Nel, but went for 78 runs.<\/p>\n

Pietersburg was unable to match the fluency with which Middelburg batted. Ricardo Ras<\/strong> quickly derailed the run chase, tearing through the Pieties’<\/strong><\/em> order. In only 4.5 overs, he captured 4\/17, inflicting severe damage from which the home side was unable to recover.<\/p>\n

Nel followed up his fine innings with excellent bowling figures of 2 for 14, while Eduan Strydom<\/strong>, who had earlier scored 28, matched Nel\u2019s bowling return.<\/p>\n

In the end, Ho\u00ebrskool Pietersburg mustered only a disappointing 72 all out, which left Middies with substantial momentum as they prepare to play for promotion to the A Section.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Summarised scorecard\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ho\u00ebrskool Middelburg 280\/10 <\/strong>(Nijan Swart 54, Hendr\u00e9 Nel 48, Wilr\u00e9 Cilliers 48, Eduan Strydom 28, Extras 24, Puren Nieman 20; Hennie Schoeman 3\/38, Stephan Swanepoel 3\/78, Willem Viljoen 2\/27, AJ Galloway 2\/63); Ho\u00ebrskool Pietersburg 72\/10 <\/strong>(Willem Viljoen 19; Ricardo Ras 4\/17, Eduan Strydom 2\/14, Hendr\u00e9 Nel 2\/14).\u00a0Ho\u00ebrskool Middelburg won by 208 runs.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As large parts of the Noordvaal experienced a rainy Friday and Saturday, Valentine’s Day, only the clash between Ho\u00ebrskool Middelburg and Ho\u00ebrskool Pietersburg was played in Polokwane in the C Section of the Finsbury League. Middies were already in a commanding position in their quest to earn a place in the promotion\/relegation game, and they […]<\/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-90534","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\/90534","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=90534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90534\/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=90534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}