Sports Round-up

The women's soccer team suffered an ignominious return to the SAFA WP premier league after the recent vacation, going down 0-5 to Stellenbosch on Saturday, July 24. UCT fielded an overhauled team, having lost a number of players over the break. Many players are international students on UCT's semester-abroad programme who returned home when their four-and-a-half months exchange to UCT ended last semester.

After winning the B section at the recent SASSU games, the UCT netball first team would have hoped that its lowly fortunes in the WP Super League would also change. Sadly it didn't. UCT lost 30-37 to Cape Tech B in its first game of the semester, played on July 24. After trailing 7-8 and 16-19 after the first and second quarters respectively, UCT was still in with a chance at the halfway stage. But the side was down eight points (22-30) after the third quarter, and, even though UCT outscored Cape Tech by one goal in the final quarter, it wasn't enough to catch up to their rivals.

An under-25 rugby envoy contested for honours at the inaugural FNB Superbowl, hosted by the University of Pretoria recently. UCT didn't fare too well, losing 26-40 against Maties and 13-42 against Pretoria Tech before restoring some pride and running away to a 60-34 win over the Western Cape XV, a team made up of players from the University of the Western Cape and Bellville and Peninsula technikons. The Superbowl is a joint initiative between First National Bank, the South African Rugby Football Union and the South African Students Sports Union (SASSU). It features the top eight teams from South African tertiary institutions, based on results from a SASSU tournament staged at the University of Stellenbosch in April. Back home, a combined under-20 squad played a friendly against a touring side from the University of Nottingham in England. UCT beat the English side by 24-12.