The Western Province Cricket Association held a Women's Cricket on Sunday, 17 August 2014 at Sahara Park Newlands.  The purpose of this indaba that was attended by 56 women's cricketers, coaches and administrators was to strategize the season ahead and how to overcome the challenges to administer women's cricket . 

The biggest highlight of this Indaba is the new Leadership initiative that will be launched during the course 2014/15 season. An initiative that has never been done by WPCA before. This initiative will see women's club captains and those striving for provincial leadership opportunities undergo a Captains and Leadership course with the purpose of creating better leaders not only in the cricket field but in the communities as well.

A special General Council Meeting was held at the conclusion of the indaba to elect the Convener of Selectors and an additional selector for the 2014/15 season. Ex Womens Provincial players Heidi Siljeur has been elected as the new convener of selectors and Nuraan Pipers as the additional member.

The selection panel:
Heidi Siljeur (Convener of Selectors)
Nuuran Pipers (Selector)
Cobus Roodt (Coach)
Clinton Du Preez

After a team building camp in Grabouw, Western Province Women’s Cricket coach, Cobus Roodt has finalised his squad that will play in the 2014/2015 season. The team spent three days at the Koggelberg Farm Hostel, an exercise that coach Roodt is making a regular thing as he says it builds team spirit and allows for them to discuss various team matters. 

Roodt said the third trip, under his leadership, to Grabouw was a highly fruitful one. “The camp went extremely well and all the objectives we set out and planned were achieved. Topicsthat we discussed on the camp included new season game plans for different formats, player’s roles within the team, coping with pressure as well as some other mental toughness topics.”

Alexis le Breton remains the team captain with four new players joining the squad. Michelle de Preez joins the squad from the Eastern Cape, Caileigh Pentz joins the squad from WP club cricket while Hlumelo Mati and Laura Wolfvaardt come from the under-19 team. 

The squad for the forthcoming season is as follows:

Alexis le Breton (Capt),Robyn Appels,Shandre Fritz,Bernadine Bezuidenhout,Carolyn Esterhuizen,Nicole Hendricks, Tatum le Roux,Moseline Daniels,Shabnim Ismail,Leighshe Jacobs,Ashton Heldsinger,Candice Daniels, Michelle du Preez,Caileigh Pentz, Zinzi Mdebuka,Hlumelo Mati, Laura Wolfvaardt,Tala Ross, Lara Goodall

Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA) on Thursday congratulated the Western Province (WP) Women’s team on reaching the final of the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Women’s Provincial One Day Challenge. They did so by beating Northerns Women by 73 runs at Sahara Park Newlands in the semi-final on Saturday, the 8th of March 2014.

The Western Province women had a good run in the group stages only losing their opening game, against Boland in Cape Town.

Road to final:

• 03/11/2013 – Boland beat Western Province Women by 119 runs in Cape Town.
• 09/11/2013 – Western Province Women beat Kei by 302 runs in Despatch.
• 10/11/2013 – Western Province Women beat Border by 7 wickets in East London.
• 23/11/2013 – Western Province Women beat SWD by 10 wickets in Oudtshoorn.
• 24/11/2013 – Western Province Women beat Eastern Province by 145 runs in Port Elizabeth.
• 11/01/2014 – Western Province Women beat Kei by 347 runs in Cape Town.
• 12/01/2014 – Western Province Women beat Border by 36 runs in Cape Town.
• 26/01/2014 – Western Province Women beat Boland by 2 wickets in Worcester.
• 01/02/2014 – Western Province Women beat Eastern Province by 250 runs in Cape Town.
• 02/02/2014 – Western Province Women beat SWD by 155 runs in Cape Town.

1. 08/03/2014 – Western Province Women beat Northerns by 73 runs in Semi-Final, Cape Town.

General Manager at Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA), Nabeal Dien,  said,” The Western Province Women’s team have had a very good run over the past two years only missing out on one trophy and we wish them well in delivering once again. The coach and team are united in defence of this title and their energy and commitment cannot be faltered.”

The final will take place at Kingsmead Stadium in Durban against KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday, 15 March 2014.

WESTERN PROVINCE (WP) Women advance to the final of the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Women’s Provincial One Day challenge after they utilized their home ground advantage to sail to an easy 73 run victory over Northerns Women at Sahara Park Newlands on Saturday, 8th of March 2014.

Northerns won the toss and elected to field as Newlands is a favourable fast bowlers’ pitch. The Northerns bowlers took full advantage of the pace and swing that the pitch allowed and restricted the home side to 147 all out in 49.1 overs.

WP lost their first wicket in the third over of the game after opening batter, Carolyn Esterhuizen, was clean bowled by Maggie Mphohlele for just 1 run. WP struggled to cope with the visitors bowling attack and slumped to 82/7 at a stage before a well constructed 50-run 8th wicket partnership between Leighshe Jacobs and Yolani Fourie revived WP’s innings. The partnership ended when Fourie was caught for 28 off the bowling of Marcia Letsoalo. Jacobs was run out shortly afterwards only adding an additional 5 runs to the teams tally and signalling the end of WP’s recognised batsmen. Lara Goodall was the last wicket to fall when she was bowled out for 1 by Odine Kirsten.

With a reasonable total of 147 to chase down, Northerns’ job looked easy, however, the Newlands pitch which favoured the visitors in the first innings, continued to favour the bowlers as  WP ran rampant through the visitors’ batting line-up and dismissed the Northerns for 74 within 30 overs. Odine Kirsten was the only batsman to reach double figures when she scored 31 off 77 balls, a clear indication that the WP bowlers are a force to be reckoned with.

Moseline Daniels was the star of the day by taking 4 wickets for 9 runs in her 8 over spell. Shabnim Ismail picked up 3 for 27 in 9 overs while all-rounder Robyn Appels took 2 for 18 in her 7 over spell.

WP will travel to Durban where they will be defending their title against the KwaZulu-Natal team in the final on Saturday, 15 March 2014.

Defending champions, Western Province (WP), will take on 2012 champions, Northerns, in the semi-final of the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Women’s Provincial League in Cape Town on Saturday.

This will be the second consecutive year that the sides meet at this stage of the competition. Last year, Western Province were the victors in Cape Town.

WP captain, Alexis le Breton, is looking forward to a competitive match against one of the strongest sides in the country. She believes that Northerns will put up a better fight than they did the previous year.

“We can’t rely on what happened last year,” she said. “A whole year has passed since then and both our sides have experienced some changes. We’ve prepared really well for this match so far, obviously with them (Northerns) being one of the toughest sides in the competition, we want to bring our A-game when we meet on Saturday.”

Le Breton is confident her side have done what is needed to produce the goods once again.

“We’re confident in our ability to play our natural game. We haven’t done anything extraordinary in preparation for the match, we’ve just kept to our winning formula and focussed primarily on ourselves,” she continued.

When asked whether they will be targeting any individuals in the opposition Le Breton said; “We tend to look more to ourselves rather than the opposition, that’s how we’ve gotten ourselves this far. We have a great coach in Cobus (Roodt), who has really toughened us up mentally and we are ready to take on whatever comes our way come Saturday.”

The visitors have not had a lot of outdoor practice time with all the rain that has been falling on the Highveld, but captain Mignon du Preez is cautiously optimistic about her side’s chances.

“The weather hasn’t been good to us lately so all of our preparation has been indoors but we’ve done all that we can do to make sure we are at our peak on Saturday,” she commented. “It’s going to be a very interesting match, we have some new faces that are eager to prove themselves and there’s no better time and place to do it than in the semi-finals.

“I believe that WP will be under more pressure than us because they have a title to defend and more to lose, so we’ll just control what we can control and get on with business when we get to Cape Town,” Du Preez concluded.

In the second semi-final match, KwaZulu-Natal will host Gauteng in Durban. Both sides are on top of their respective logs.

The Western Province Cricket Women’s team are looking to continue their impressive run by defeating Border Kei on Saturday 11 January and Border on Sunday 12 January at Old Mutual Cricket Club when the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Women’s Provincial One-Day Competition continues.

Western Province (WP) head into the match as potential favourites as they have the home ground advantage and will be full of confidence having won four out of five matches while their opposition, Border have only won two matches and Kei have failed to clench a victory as of date. Kei and Border have only played three matches a piece which gives WP another advantage as they have more game time under their belts.

Captain Alexis le Breton, will be looking to lead her girls to victory over the weekend and secure their spot as leaders of the East/West log.

Games will commence at 09h45 and entry to the grounds is free.

The squad:
Robyn Appels, Carolyn Esterhuizen, Bernadine Bezuidenhout, Alexis le Breton (capt), Ashton Heldsinger, Zizi Mdebuka, Leigshe Jacobs, Nicole Hendricks, Yolani Fourie, Lara Goodall, Tatum le Roux, Bernice Crossman, Candice Daniels and Cobus Roodt (coach)

Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA) on Thursday congratulated Laura Wolvaardt and Lara Goodall on their selection to the South Africa Girls Under 19 Invitation squad. This selection came after the two girls performed superbly well in the 2013 Cricket South Africa Under 19 Girls Week held in Cape Town from 04 – 09 December 2013.

Laura Wolvaardt was the leading run scorer of the tournament. She scored 282 runs in just seven innings with one century and 2 fifties at an average of 94. She said, “I’m very proud of myself for making it. I enjoyed participating in this tournament and I’m grateful to Cricket South Africa for rewarding me this great opportunity.”

Lara Goodall was also in the top five of the leading run scorers of the tournament.  She finished with 200 runs in six innings at an average of 66.67. She said, “I’m very excited of this opportunity and I look forward to the new challenge ahead and will try my utmost best to contribute to the team in whichever way I can.”

“These girls have shown character in the tournament and played extremely well. Congratulations to both of them once again and we wish them well in their upcoming games representing our country,” WPCA General Manager, Nabeal Dien concluded.

The Squad:
 Laura Wolvaardt (WP), Robin Searle (GAUTENG), Izel Cilliers (FREE STATE), Lara Goodall (WP), Suné Luus (NORTHERNS)(CAPT), Sammy-Joe Klein (BOLAND), Esmaralda Olivier (NORTH WEST), Raisibe Ntozakhe  (GAUTENG), Nobulumko Baneti (BORDER), Lauren Booysen (EP), Andrie Steyn (NORTHERNS), Githe Koopman (BORDER) Coach: Kurt Human, Manager: Fatima Fortuin

The Western Province Women’s provincial team on Friday travelled to Kogelberg Farm, Grabouw on a two-day (12- 14 July 2013) Cricket Planning camp. The purpose of this camp is to reflect on the positives of the successful 2012/13 season and how they can build on them and also for each player to identify their role in the team for the ensuing season.

Although the squad for the 2013/14 season is not yet confirmed, the team management felt that this will also be an ideal opportunity for the possible new additions to the squad to find their feet within the group.

Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA) Women’s Cricket Coordinator, Clinton Du Preez said “With the successes of the 2012/13 season still fresh in the mind of the players, it is incumbent upon us (management) to ensure that we keep these players focused and prepare them for the new season mentally and physically.”

First and Second Division (1A-2A) clubs displayed their talents of the shorter format of the game of cricket in the finals of the WPCA Ama20 Competition at Sahara Park Newlands over the weekend.

In Saturday’s games, Fish Hoek Cricket Club (CC) beat Somerset West CC by 26 runs to win the 2012/13 Ama20 Competition for Division 1D.

Krisnan Oosthuizen smashed 93 not out off 51 balls to give Atlantis CC a 71-run win over Blue Bells CC to be crowned champions for Division 2A.

In the last game for the day, Bellville CC beat Cape Town CC by three runs to win the Division 1A Ama20 Competiton.

In Sunday's games, Bellville CC Womens beat Old Mutual CC Women in the Women's final to win the ladies Ama20 trophy.

Milnerton CC beat Edgemead CC by 8 wickets to claim the Division 1C Ama20 trophy and in the last game for the weekend, Faiz Kippie took five wickets for just seventeen runs for Montrose CC in the Division 1B final between Montrose CC and St. Augustine CC. Montrose CC won the match by seven wickets  to be crowned Division 1B Ama20 Competition Champions for the 2012/13 season.

Winners:

Division 1A Ama20 Competition:  Bellville CC
Division 1B Ama20 Competition: Montrose CC
Division 1C Ama20 Competition: Milnerton CC
Division 1D Ama20 Competition: Fish Hoek CC
Division 2A Ama20 Competition: Atlantis CC
Women’s Ama20 Competition: Bellville CC

Western Province (WP) put an end to their two-season final disappointment when they emphatically beat Gauteng by  nine wickets to claim the 2012/2013 Cricket South Africa (CSA) Women's Provincial League championship at the Bidvest Wanderers on Saturday.

In what was a decidedly one sided match, Gauteng were overwhelmed by a ruthless WP side that was determined to win after featuring in finals for the past two seasons and coming up empty in the end. They take home the championship and R20 000 in prize money, which features in the competition for the very first time this season.

Four ducks and a top score of 23 by Kirstie Thomson were simply not good enough in a final against their determined foes as Gauteng were bundled out for 76 in 32 overs.

The first wicket fell at the end of the first over as Shabnim Ismail removed her first of three wickets for the day as Robin Searle departed for a duck. It took another 10 overs for the second wicket to fall, but as soon as Thomson was gone, Nonkululeko Thatbede (0) was removed, followed by Savanna Cordes for 10.

Gauteng were 44/5 in the 17th over when they lost Jessica Engelbrechdt (2) to a run out thanks to the quick hands of Robyn Appels. Captain, Cri-Zelda Brits and Chené Bester tried to revive the innings but only managed a 22-run partnership for the sixth wicket before the skipper was dispatched for 12 by Leighshe Jacobs.

Ismail claimed the two wickets of Bester (16) and Jameelah Shaikjee (0) in the 30th over to leave their hosts reeling on 74/8. Tayla Wilmot succumbed to Moseline Daniels to finish off the painful assault after Yumna Plowker retired hurt without scoring.

In their batting reply, WP were clinical starting with a 37-run opening partnership by Appels (40*) and Carolyn Esterhuizen (12) before the latter was removed by Thomson. The subsequent 40-run partnership Appels shared with captain Alexis le Breton (21*) took the team all the way to victory, ending the match in just 24 overs.

Breton is delighted to finally win the trophy after two seasons of losing in the final. "This is such a satisfying win for us because every single person in the team contributed to us getting here. When the national team players were gone, the youngsters stepped up and did the job and this is just the result of all that hard work," she said.

WP coach, Cobus Roodt is thrilled with his side's achievement.

"The team played like champions today. They deserve this win because they went after what they wanted and didn't spare a thought for anything but their goal and most importantly to me, they did it as a team. It's been a very long season and for us to end it with a league victory away from home makes it just that much more special," he commented.

Kurt Human is a disappointed Gauteng coach today, but he is proud of the season his side has had.

"Our batting let us down today," he said. "We prided ourselves in our batting and for some reason it went horribly wrong today.  We spoke about batting out our overs and that just didn't happen but this is part of the learning aspect of the game."

Human does not believe in looking at only the bad, he prefers to pay attention to the good that his side can take from the season as a whole.

"Even though we missed out on the win, I am still proud of the team for getting this far. They gave their all this season and they have laid the foundation for the next one. A hard lesson was learned today and we will allow it to sink in and discuss it later but for now it's time for us to relax and rejuvenate so that we are back to full fighting strength when the season begins," he concluded.