What a Waste

The 112km Pick ‘n Pay Brackenfell Hypermarket Tour d’Winelands took place on Sunday 3^rd December and despite 70km/h winds and driving rain, over 90% of cyclists participating completing the race.

The Cape Town Cycle Tour Trust and Brackenfell Lions Club joined forces to manage the race which has been held for 17 years in early December and is the final seeding event on the calendar for the 2007 Cape Argus Pick ‘n Pay Cycle Tour. The Tour provides a testing 112km route through the picturesque scenery of the Cape winelands.

The men’s race was won by Chris Botha of Richard Kane in a time of 2:53:18 with second and third going to David Garrett of Powerbar Oakley in a time of 2:53:18 and William Robinson of Abvest UCT in a time 2:53:20, respectively.

The women’s race was won by Cape Argus Pick ‘n Pay Cycle Tour winner Anriëtte Schoeman of Proline in a time of 3:23:37, followed by Cathy Carstens of Hottentots Holland CC in a time of 3:23:37 and Jane Seggie of Hottentots Holland CC in a time of 3:23:38.

Speaking on behalf of the organising team, David Bellairs of the Cycle Tour Trust said, “The race went very well and despite the bad weather, 2331cyclists started the race and 2124 completed it. However, the race was marred by serious traffic transgressions by the Elite racing group.

“As a consequence, the Tour D’ Winelands has, with immediate effect, withdrawn the results of the Elite men’s racing group from this past weekends event,” he said. “This has been at the request of PPA and the Cycle Tour Trust, following serious infringements of the traffic regulations. The results will be withdrawn until such time as the investigations into the transgressions is complete.”

“The Pedal Power Association and Cape Town Cycle Tour Trust cannot condone the flagrant disregard of the traffic regulations and safety that the elite cyclists displayed at Sunday’s Tour D’ Winelands. Despite being warned that they were disobeying the traffic regulations by cycling on a number of occasions in the yellow line of the right hand lane and endangering themselves and other road users, they continued this practice on a few accessions up until the finish line.”

Photographs of this type of riding is evidenced on http://www.thehubsa.co.za/forum_posts.asp?TID=8617.

“As a consequence, all the results of the elite men’s group will be suspended until the matter has been investigated and the transgressors identified. To this end, we would appreciate anyone being able to identify the cyclists in the photographs and informing us by e-mail at info@pedalpower.org.za,” concluded Bellairs.

INDIA FACE PACE BARRAGE IN WARM-UP MATCH

India will have the benefit of playing on one of the best batting pitches in South Africa as they warm up for a Test series against the host nation - but they will also have to deal with another battery of fast bowlers.

The Rest of South Africa team which faces the Indians in a four-day match starting Thursday includes Mornantau Hayward, one of the fastest bowlers in the country, and Morne Morkel, a rising star who has been tipped for Test honours soon, as well as Garnett Kruger, who has been on the fringes of the national squad for the past two seasons.

The Indians go into the warm-up match low on confidence after being beaten 4-0 in a one-day series during which they failed to deal competently with the South African fast bowlers.

Hayward, 29, played in 16 Tests up until 2004. He fell out with the country's administrators early in 2003 when it was revealed, while he was playing in a Test against Pakistan, that he had signed a contract with English county Worcestershire which gave the county first call on his services, ahead of his country.

One of South Africa's more volatile cricketers, Hayward has been in good form for the Warriors franchise team this season and the Indians can expect to deal with plenty of fast, short-pitched bowling from him.

Morkel, 22, is the taller and younger brother of Albie Morkel, who played for South Africa in a Twenty20 international in Johannesburg last Friday.

Whereas Albie Morkel has become known for his big-hitting feats, Morne is an out-and-out fast bowler, who has been one of the most impressive performers in franchise cricket since being promoted to the Titans team midway through the domestic one-day competition this season.

Kruger, 29, toured Australia with the South African team last season without playing in a Test match and has been a consistent wicket-taker at domestic level.

Provided they can weather the first bursts of the fast men, it could be ideal preparation for the tourists, who play the first of three Tests against South Africa in Johannesburg from December 15 to 19.

The pitch at Potchefstroom consistently yields high scores and will be a chance for the Indian batsmen to play themselves into form.

The Indians have been strengthened by the inclusion of experienced batsmen VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly in their Test squad. They will join Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and the currently injured captain Rahul Dravid to form a potentially solid core of batting for the series.

Teams:

Rest of South Africa: Jacques Rudolph (captain), Alviro Petersen, Morne van Wyk, Jean Paul Duminy, Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Justin Kemp, Vernon Philander, Paul Adams, Morne Morkel, Garnett Kruger, Mornantau Hayward.

Indians (from): Rahul Dravid (captain), VVS Laxman (vice-captain), Virender Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer, Gautam Gambhir, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, VRV Singh, Irfan Pathan, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh.

Final Post from Sun City

IT is the final post, at least until the end of January when i will be back for the Women's World Cup of Golf.

For now, it is the day after having played the Gary PLayer COuntry Club with the same layout as the pro's played it on Sunday. All you really need to know is that it is long, very very long. For someone like me, that doesn't really make much of a difference because I can't reach the green in two shots anyway, so that wasn't a HUGE problem. What was problematic for me was the rough. The long grass is more than ankle deep and tough as nails. Getting a ball out of that is a tough ask for the best golfers in the world, forget about a 24 handicap.

My 4-ball scored 50 points with 2 scores counting and the winning 4-ball shot 67 points. I have been to compititions where 75 won the day. That shows how difficult the COuntry Club is.

Thanks very much to the Sports Trust for letting me play and also to Sun City and Sun International for a fantastic week at the Nedbank Golf Challenge.

See you soon Sun City and I will keep posting your favourite sports stories here.

Me and Miss South Africa

There are pics up of me with the whole group of Miss South Africa finalists. See them here. Sorry about the fat guy on the middle. That would be me.

There will be a couple more posts from Sun City as I play the Gary Player Country Club tomorrow afternoon. I will bring you all the tears and lost balls later.....

Nearing the End

With only a couple of holes left to play, Jim Furyk has already sealed the Nedbank Golf Challenge for 2006. He was just behind on day 1 but from day 2, took total control. Ernie has thrown his clubs a couple of times and has been fined for it, as had Sergia Garcia. Do they deserve a fine?

I make R200 because of my bet on Jim and Charl did very very well to place well. I will post details soon.

Final day betting

I have just had a chat with Neil Andrews of Super Saturday fame. In his previous life, Neil was an ardant better. Neil explained that, with Jim Furyk at 3/10 this morning to win, then you bet R10 and, at the end of the day, should he win, you will get back R13, minus tax.

Seems like a good way to make lots and lots of money. Bet R10 000 now!!!!

Overall winner is not a bet today.

The bets today are Lowest Round and Day 4 Pairings.

Ernie Els is at 9/2 with Harrington at 11/2 to score the lowest round of the day. The good thing about a day like today is that there is no sure bet. Even Colin Montgomerie could do it and his odds are at 20/1.

I like playing the daily winner of a round. Each player in a pairing is given odds to win the day against their partner. You can bet on each pairing so plenty of money can be won or lost here. Again, it really is a little bit of a lottery and the odds aren’t fantastic. Even money for Davis Howell to beat Chris DiMarco, Retief Goosen is at 6/10 to beat Charl Schwartzel while Charl is at 13/10 to beat the Goose.

You can find out all the odds and how to go about spending your hard-earned cash at Bettingworld.

The Marshals

There is a certain breed of person here at the Nedbank Golf Challenge. Their job is to make sure that when one of the golfers are about to execute their golf shot, the people in the gallery stop moving, making a noise and being general louts. They are the famous marshals. They walk with a pairing over all 18 holes and ensure that we, the regular Joes, comply with the etiquette of golf. The marshals wear a different colour golf shirt every day too. They all wear the same colour so that they can easily be seen. They also wear the most unfortunate pair of white pants with an elastic waist-band. Each of these marshals is issued with a little red flag on the end of a very long stick. The flag isn’t too big to block the view of the spectators around the marshal, but the stick is really long so that people at the back of the gallery can clearly see that the player is about to play.

Now, give a man a stick and he is going to want to hit something with it. We have the great games cricket and baseball because of this. So far, I am yet to see anyone being hit by a marshal on the course, but at night, things change.

The identifying call from the lesser-pastel-shirt-wearing Marshal is, “Stand still please!”
Suddenly the whole world stands still and if it doesn’t, is the whole world in trouble or what? There is also the mating call which can be identified as, “Golfer ready, quiet please!”
You can still keep moving with that call but you better not need to sneeze.
Then there is the call of the really important one. He tends to make that all bases are covered with, “Stand still and quiet please!”

Now that you can find these VERY important people in the course, let me tell you about them after the day.

The marshals make their way to the Cabanas Hotel and wallow in the watering hole that is the pool and pool bar. Most of them have a good time and relax after, what must be a really tough, thankless job on the course. Accommodation and a free meal a day as payment to walk right next to some of the best golfers in the world is not a hell of a lot. Remembering that that golfer will earn at least $200 000 just for arriving at the tournament.

After wallowing in the waterhole and making a noise, most of these marshals quietly find a place to rest for the night and have a good rest before another tough day in another colour shirt…..but some….

No, not these guys. They HAVE to go out and be important. Should some journalist type person walk up to them and tell them to “Stand still please!” or “Quiet please”, suddenly the rath of everything that is evil is thrown at you! Why is it that people think that they are soooo important? If you have a thankless job, deal with it. You volunteered for it. You were never forced to be here. If you don’t like it and you can’t handle the abuse, then go home. Find people that like you. Part of the job is the abuse and you KNOW you are going to get some. Especially from stupid little radio announcer, slash blogger.

I don’t want to paint all of these marshals with the same brush. Most of them are great and a few of them are actually quite fun, but you have to get rid of the bad apples and now before they infect the rest and the tournament. Either that or some little English idiot should really get a life.