The oldest tennis club in South Africa

Did you know that the Port Elizabeth Lawn Tennis Club in St Georges Park was founded on 1 September 1879, making it the oldest active tennis club in South Africa?  The club hosted the first South African Lawn Tennis Championship in 1891 and today the club is still situated on its original site.

2018 70.3 Ironman World Champs host city video

On the 1st and 2nd of September 2018, Nelson Mandela Bay is playing host to the 70.3 Ironman World Championship here in Port Elizabeth. Check out this stunning host city video that has just been posted by Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism.  Not just is Port Elizabeth one of the best Ironman venues in the world, it also boasts fantastic scenery, history, culture, wildlife and food for visiting competitors and their families and supporters.

Returning to high school rugby

I used enjoy watching DF Malherbe, my alma mater, play rugby and netball on a Saturday. A few years after school I actually helped to coach the u14 team for a year or two but as time went on I got to go less and less as life got more and more busy.  Now Chaos Boy is at DF but he doesn't play rugby so we probably only got to go once or twice last year.  This weekend was the first big home derby of the season against Volkskool from Graaff-Reinet and we went to hang out there a bit.  DF's first team pulled off a two point victory in a nail biting game.  I'm sure going to try to go and watch more often this year.

Our little SA champions

Over the past week the South African Indoor Cricket junior championships took place in Port Elizabeth and Miggie was in the under 10 EP Elephants side taking part in the tournament.  It's been close to 8 months of preparations and the team did not disappoint.  They came through the round robin rounds undefeated although they gave the coach, parents and supporters a few very stressful moments and took on Boland in the final.  After all the stress of close results during the week, the team put in a clinical performance and convincingly beat the Boland team to grab gold and be crowned the SA u10 champions.

To put a cherry on the cake for us, Miggie was selected to the SA Junior Girls team while three of the boys made the u10 SA team.  The team also has a non travelling reserve in the boys team and the other two girls in the team were also selected as non travelling reserves for the girls team.  We really are so proud of her for this fantastic achievement being included as a 12 year old in a junior team along with 14, 16 and 17 year old girls.

Final preparation

Life has been hectic and everything is coming in the way of blogging.  Or more importantly, taking photos for the blog.  I'm just not finding time to get out there with my camera and has been snapping pics with my phone to keep going.But like I said, life gets in the way.  Work, family, kids sport, trying to find time to just relax.  To tell the truth, I've even considered taking a break from blogging, but then one looses part of your audience and I have worked too long and hard to build it up.  The next few weeks aren't going to be much different with Miggie playing at the Indoor Cricket SA junior champs here in PE next week before I head to Cape Town for the World Travel Market.  At the moment Miggie's mind is just on cricket and she literally waits for me with bat and ball in hand to get home so we can go and practice in the street.

Tee off at PE Golf Club

I'm not a golfer.  Not really by choice, more by the fact that I just don't still have time for it as well.  I'd rather be out looking for Geocaches somewhere.  It's not that I've never tried though.  I played the 9 hole Kragga Kamma course probably three times and twice at Sardinia Bay's 9 holes but I don't think anybody who knows how to plat would want to play a round with me.  Perhaps one day.  Last week I spent a little time with Stefan of Fish River Sun manning a sponsored tee box at a golf day at the Port Elizabeth Golf Club.  Yeh, perhaps one day.

Shooting arrows like a boss

Robin Hood does it.  Legolas killed orcs doing it, Princess Merida did it in Brave, Hawkeye and Green Arrow are seen as superheroes for doing it,  Katniss Everdeen has been doing it and Rambo even took down a helicopter doing it.  Did you know there is an archery club at Londt Park?  Well, on the SAACI Amazing Race a few weeks ago we got to shoot arrows like all the characters above.  It's not as easy as it seems though...

Little Miss Cricket

 

Today's post is a more personal one.  Why? Because I can and I feel like bragging a bit.

When your daughter's idols are Kagiso Rabada, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Imran Tahir then you know she's a cricket fan.  The difference from other girls who are just cricket fans though is that mine has a set of pads, gloves, a helmet and two bats (one for outdoor cricket and one for indoor cricket) lying around her room along with her girly stuff.  When her favorite shirt is her Lighting Legends Indoor Cricket team shirt then you know I have a cricketer on my hands.  

Miggie has been playing cricket since grade one and at 11 (nearly 12) she's mixing it up with the boys in the Newton Park Primary School's under 13 team.  She's also started playing for DF Malherbe High School's Girls Cricket First team (under 19) along with playing in the Indoor Cricket junior league.  In the photo she's bowling in the game between DF Malherbe and Linkside High School this week where she took 2 for 8 in her 4 overs, taking her tally to 5 wickets in three games.  To say I'm a proud dad is an understatement. 

Cricket at St George's

The first One Day International of the cricket series between South Africa and Sri Lanka took place here in Port Elizabeth today and I was there.  It's been a while since I've been to an international cricket game and it was really a treat being able to go and enjoy it with Drama Princess.  Other than the fact that the South African's totally dominates the day, the other thing that really caught my attention was how diverse the crowd was.  There was a time when cricket was seen as a white sport but today it was clear that those days are long gone.  This was even more evident when white boys stand next to the field shouting to try and get the attention of their new bowling hero Kagiso Rabada and black supporters chant "AB! AB! AB!" when AB de Villiers came in to bat.  All I can say is "I love this game".  Now I need to go and administer some after sun to my legs... 

Athletics at the Oval

Drama Princess' school had their interhouse athletics at the Oval today and I volunteered to help out on track side.  Arriving and walking onto the track immediately brought back memories of my own school athletics days.  The smell of the tartan track, kids singing on the stand, cheers for the runners, chants of "hou bene hou" (hold legs hold) during the long distance events and so many other little things one seem to forget when you don't do it anymore.  One thing that has changed though is my age and that I realised once again halfway through my leg during the the parents / teachers relay.  I may just feel it tomorrow. 

The hallowed green grass of St George's Park

With the first ODI in the series between the Proteas and Sri Lanka taking place in Port Elizabeth this Saturday I thought it appropriate to post a photo featuring the hallowed green grass of St George's with the Duckpond Pavilion in the background.  Hope the boys make the home crowd proud.

An evening at St Georges

The cricket season is in full swing and the Warriors were playing the Knights in a T20 match in PE tonight.  Having a cricket mad daughter we headed over to St Georges for a bit of action and action we got.  The Warriors totally outplayed the Knights on all fronts and we even got to see a one handed spectator catch off the last ball hit to the boundary. The next game in PE is next Friday, 9 December, against the Cobras, so make a plan and get out there cause it's lots of fun.  Even better if you take your camp chairs and park yourself on the grass.

Saturday morning parkrun

We've started doing the weekly Hobie Beach parkrun as a family, both to get us all active and more fitter as well as for the Discovery Vitality points.  Chaos Boy is running a lot faster than what I've ever been able to do while the Damselfly is walking it at this stage as she's not in 100% shape after her last ops yet.  Drama Princess isn't a slouch and at 11 is doing the 5 km at about the same speed I am currently doing so the two of us stuck together yesterday. I'm seriously unfit and carrying a bit too much weight around my middle, but hopefully parkrun will get me active and motivated to go and jog more often again.

Disclaimer - The photo isn't my own and was taken by a parkrun volunteer on photo duty at the Lolipop Beacon turning point.

Ironman 70.3 World Champs coming to Port Elizabeth in 2018

Probably one of the biggest pieces of sport news of the year broke about two or three weeks ago when Port Elizabeth and Nelson Mandela Bay was announced at hosts for the Ironman 70.3 (also known as Half Ironman) World Champs in 2018.  The event is even bigger than the annual Ironman African Championship that takes place in the city and attracts over 3 000 competitors from around 70 countries along with all their families, supporters as well as international media.  It also takes place over two days with the women competing on 1 Sept 2018 and the men on the 2nd. Huge news for the city and a boost for tourism with the international exposure we will receive in addition to the money that will be coming in along with the competitors and their supporters. Check out this awesome promotional video they have put together for the announcement. 

Baakens Valley mountain biking

Last week's Video Friday post was a video featuring mountain biking in the Baakens Valley.  Following that post I found another video about mountain biking through the Baakens Valley and seeing that it's such an awesome mountain biking venue I decided to post it as well.

EP Indoor Cricket trials

Drama Princess started playing Indoor Cricket at the Hunters Retreat Indoor Cricket Arena about two months ago and over the last two Sundays played in the EP junior trials.  The SA junior champs take place right here in Port Elizabeth in April next year with teams being selected to represent the province in the u10, u12, u14, u16 and u18 age groups.  For the junior teams there are no girls teams and the girls have to compete to get into the boys teams.  The advantage that the girls have though is that they are allowed to play in an age group team two years younger than they are which meant that Drama Princess was playing in the under 10 age group in the trials. 

Although we really hoped and believed she would make the team, we didn't really want to put our hearts on it just in case she didn't so huge was our surprise when her name was called second when the EP Elephants A team was announced.  WOW, we are really proud of her.  Now to save up for the entrance fees and kit that needs to be bought.

Team building at Falcon Rock

After a morning coffee at Crossroads Country Kitchen we headed to Falcon Rock for lunch (it was all about checking these places out as options for the Damselfly's office Christmas lunch at the end of the year).  There was a youth group busy with team building activities and I enjoyed watching them for a bit trying to do a bag jumping race with groups of about six kids in a bag.  It was so funny and I wasn't the only one who thought so.  Those not in the bags actually cracked themselves... till they had to do it as well.

Mountain biking at Crossways

An activity I would really like to take up if I had the time and the money for a proper bike, is mountain biking.  We have some great mountain bike tracks around Port Elizabeth at places like Norm Hundlin, the Baakens Valley, Hopewell Reserve and then out at Crossways where I stopped by on Saturday morning.  Crossways has various trail options ranging from easy and moderate to hard.  Some of the Crossways trails link up with the Jbay Bike Park on the other side of Thornhill as well as the rest of the Three Rivers Trails in the area.

Abandoned tennis courts

A little Geocaching detour allowed me to take notice of something I have passed many times before.  Have you ever driven down Conynham Road in Parsons Hill and noticed the abandoned tennis courts on the right next to St Peter's Greek Orthodox Church.  I've noticed them but I've never taken notice till this week.  I wonder why the courts wasn't used anymore which led to it falling to ruin like this.

Run dad, keep up

This is a scene that played itself off over and over at Saturday's Ironkids event.  Fathers doing the run leg along with their kids (often with mothers a few steps behind).  But if it only was as easy as it sounds.  Most of us huffed and puffed along carrying bags and cameras, taking photos, encouraging the kids to keep going and sidestepping other parents and the general public along the way.  Not quite as easy (or dignified) as it sounds.  Specially when you're trying not to look like you're gasping for air or wiping the sweat from your eyes the whole way.