BNSC’s mobile drinks Bar “The Coach” will be present at Northern Areas serving our Members and Visitors at sports games and events. Thanks as always to the forever reliable Wonderwall Murals.

A warm good day to you all….

There is definitely something going on with the weather….I was sitting outside on Sunday evening…and there was a bitingly cold wind that swept through Benoni…as though there had been snow in the Berg….but sanity had prevailed by yesterday and the temperature had returned to a warm and toasty day in the late 20’s…..I hope we don’t have to feel that pesky little wind again for a very long time….

Our national cricketers surprised us massively within two days….as we were humbled by a huge margin on Friday night….and after 75% of the match on Sunday it looked like we were in for another one….before the Aussies pushed the “self-destruct” button….playing silly shots and losing wickets far too quickly to lose by a narrow margin….if you were part of the SA bowling coaching staff, you would claim that they bowled disciplined lines and lengths, slowly throttling the opposition…I will believe them, but just this once….I fervently await the final showdown tonight in the three match series….

Record breaking T20 match on the Northern Areas “A” Field. The Ladies from Benoni Northerns faced Thembisa and ended the day by winning their second last match of the season by 290 runs!!! Good stuff girls keep it up 

Our Northerns cricketers seem to also seem to use the same “self-destruct” button that the Aussies used on Sunday…..as we had to once again eat humble pie to the other Boksburg side, CBCOB…..I am sure that the Boksburg Advertiser, will carry bold headlines as Boksburg sides beat us for the second week in a row… on arrival early on Sunday, it was found there was a hole in the cover that caused a very damp patch just about on a length on the one side…which was then worked on with a leaf blower and rolled over and over, which eventually allowed the umpires to make a decision to let a shortened match be played…. And we then won the toss and asked CBCOB to bat in the delayed match, reduced to  22 overs… and they started at a gallop scoring at almost a run a ball to reach 54/1, but some good fielding and two resulting run-outs meant this result did not help us at the end of both the “in” batsmen … then slowly but surely we started to haul them back in to end up on 116/8 at the end of our bowling tint….Stef and Daniel both being our most successful bowlers with 2/19 in their 4 overs….and so our chase began….and not very well I am afraid….with our progress being 37/6 and 64/7 before a bit of a reprieve once again from the bowlers…but we were squeezed out to only end up with 108/9 to lose by 8 runs….a most disappointing result in our quest to remain Easterns Champions….we have just made this task a whole bunch more difficult…with three really tough games coming up to end the league…this week we host Bedfordview at the North…and this is simply a must win situation we find ourselves…please come along to watch….they will definitely appreciate the support…..

Our hockey 5’s finished off last weekend amid much excitement….congratulations to the winners….and now we wait for the start of the winter leagues which should commence on March 21 for the Ladies and the following day the men will start… our hockey registration is this Saturday for both Juniors and Seniors….everyone that would like to participate this year, please come along on Saturday morning….all registrations will be in the beer garden (weather permitting)…otherwise they will be in the Hall…

Junior soccer registrations continue this Saturday from 8 to about 2 in the Ladies Bar….last week we had a steady flow of people in for first registrations and we are expecting an even better response this weekend….

Our Senior soccer sides were plagued with the foul weather last Saturday…. the first team match being abandoned at around the half way mark…….this result did not help us at all….as the all-conquering Robertsham proceeded to the finals from our group… Now with that the top 8 competition is over for us, and we will have to wait for next weekend for this year’s leagues matches to commence….

Our rugby boys also start their friendlies this weekend…I am sure the players are happy to get off the practice paddock and get involved in the excitement of playing a match again….all the best boys…I hope for a positive result….

Our Friday welcomed back Ryno and his Freedom Unfound crew….they maintained their excellent rapport with the faithful….and I was told he was taking requests late into the night….thank you Ryno and crew….this week we welcome back the 5 piece band Omega….I look forward t hearing them again….join is in the tent while they display their undoubted talent…

A little earlier on Friday night….we had Brad Knight’s name extracted from the beeeeg black box and being an old campaigner, Brad calmly strode up to the cabinet and confidently and pointed to the bottom row and showed us where the five of hearts was…..and now after 5 cards have been turned over, our jackpot edges up to R56489….still worth a dabble I would say….please join us this week to get your weekend to the right start….

I hope you all have a fantastic “leap day” on Saturday….. enjoy it…another four years before you can say that it will happen again….

If you have any whinges about the Club…please send me an email to rod.scheepers@gmail.com

Have a super week… Cheers Rod