On Sunday the 2nd of February 2020, Groot Drakenstein Games Club, just outside of Franschhoek, held their annual ‘John Faure’ Six-A-Side tournament. The weather was glorious and the eight participating teams and spectators were treated to an array of local food and craft beer on tap while watching the cricket in one of South Africa’s most picturesque settings. Groot Drak boasts the country’s oldest turf wicket, which played true, allowing the batsmen to score plenty of runs, with some enormous sixes being deposited to all corners of the historic ground. Celebrity players, Darren ‘Whackhead’ Simpson, Johann Louw, Frikkie Welsh, Ryan Bailey, Luther Bakkes and others treated the crowd by showing off their skills with both bat and ball.
The Boland Invitational team claimed third place overall, while there was an exact repeat of 2019’s final, with Durbanville CC and Maties battling it out for this year’s title.
Maties emerged winners for the second year in a row in an enthralling final match as Durbanville had to settle for second place. There were, however, no losers as all the teams and players walked away with a plethora of prizes ranging from locally-produced wines, cricket gear, craft beers, vouchers and more, valued at over R40,000 – all kindly donated by businesses and individuals in the area.
The individual prizes largely ended up in the hands of Maties players as Tebogo Faas (best catch), Ben Ward (best bowler), Luke Holland (best batter) and LJ du Preez (biggest six) pocketed even more goodies, while Jaco Castle from Durbanville was awarded best all-rounder for the day.
Enormous thanks to the generous sponsors and all involved in making the day a huge success and congratulations to Maties on retaining the title!
