{"id":91663,"date":"2026-03-01T11:30:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T09:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=91663"},"modified":"2026-03-01T11:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T09:30:23","slug":"swart-and-strydom-lead-middies-to-finsbury-b-section-berth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=91663","title":{"rendered":"Swart and Strydom lead Middies to Finsbury B Section berth"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_91665\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-91665\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-91665\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hoerskool-Middelburg-vs-Marias-Viljoen-Finsbury-League-400x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-91665\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ho\u00ebrskool Middelburg was in high spirits after a hard-fought 24-run victory over Ho\u00ebrskool Marais Viljoen secured them a place in the Finsbury League&#8217;s B Section in 2027. Photo: Supplied.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Ho\u00ebrskool Middelburg<\/strong> will contest the B Section of the Finsbury League in 2027.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>On Saturday, <em><strong>Middies<\/strong><\/em> secured their promotion with a 24\u2011run victory in a low\u2011scoring thriller against <strong>Ho\u00ebrskool Marais Viljoen<\/strong> in Alberton.<\/p>\n<p>All\u2011rounders <strong>Nijan Swart<\/strong> and <strong>Eduan Strydom<\/strong> were at the forefront of their side&#8217;s winning performance.<\/p>\n<p>Swart delivered the contest&#8217;s pivotal knock in difficult batting conditions, facing 67 deliveries, four of which he hit to the boundary and two of which he dispatched over it, on his way to a match-winning contribution of 52.<\/p>\n<p>Strydom supported him well with a valuable 27 from 48 balls at the top of the order.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, the visitors battled their way to a modest 145 all out.<\/p>\n<p>Marais Viljoen&#8217;s first\u2011change bowler <strong>Hendr\u00e9 Cilliers<\/strong> got stuck into the Middelburg batsmen, capturing 3\/20 in just five overs.<\/p>\n<p>His impactful spell followed hard work done with the new ball by <strong>Ziam Hashim<\/strong>, who claimed three wickets of his own while conceding 44 runs from his nine overs. <strong>Daymian Coetzee<\/strong> chipped in with 2\/15 from four overs as the home side&#8217;s bowlers rose to the challenge.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Trent Shrives<\/strong> then led Marais Viljoen&#8217;s reply, opening the innings with 42 runs. He and Jared Mentz, who made 29, provided the hosts with a solid foundation, but Middies&#8217; quick <strong>Hendr\u00e9 Nel<\/strong> hamstrung their efforts when he hit his straps, picking up two crucial wickets, on his way to 2\/29 from seven overs.<\/p>\n<p>Strydom followed up his good work with the bat by returning 2\/36. The decisive spell, however, came from <strong>Herman Potgieter<\/strong>. After missing out with the bat, he redeemed himself with a match\u2011winning 3\/25, which included the vital scalp of Shrives.<\/p>\n<p>The well\u2011oiled <strong>Middelburg<\/strong> attack eventually proved too much for the home side, who were bowled out for 121, with the final wicket falling to the first ball of the 32nd over.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Summarised scorecard<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ho\u00ebrskool Middelburg 145\/10 <\/strong>(Nijan Swart 52, Eduan Strydom 27, Extras 23; Hendr\u00e9 Cilliers 3\/20, Ziam Hashim 3\/44, Daymian Coetzee 2\/15);\u00a0<strong>Marais Viljoen 121\/10 <\/strong>(Trent Shrives 42, Jared Maritz 29; Herman Potgieter 3\/25, Hendr\u00e9 Nel 2\/29, Eduan Strydom 2\/36).\u00a0<strong>Ho\u00ebrskool Middelburg won by 24 runs.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ho\u00ebrskool Middelburg will contest the B Section of the Finsbury League in 2027. On Saturday, Middies secured their promotion with a 24\u2011run victory in a low\u2011scoring thriller against Ho\u00ebrskool Marais Viljoen in Alberton. All\u2011rounders Nijan Swart and Eduan Strydom were at the forefront of their side&#8217;s winning performance. Swart delivered the contest&#8217;s pivotal knock in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":91665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91663","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\/91663","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=91663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/91665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}