Gary Lemke looks back at a jam-packed sporting weekend as the Springboks physically dominated Ireland at an electric Loftus Versfeld Stadium, as Oriental Charm came from 10/1 odds to win the Hollywoodbets Durban July.
NOT A DRY EYE AS HAMILTON WINS AT HOME
If you were chopping onions while watching Sir Lewis Hamilton win the British F1 Grand Prix late Sunday afternoon, we understand. Hamilton fended off Max Verstappen in front of a passionate home crowd of 164,000 fans, winning at Silverstone for a record ninth time. No other driver has won at a single circuit more than eight times.
He was in tears as the post-race national anthem was played and admitted he was feeling emotional after winning for the first time in two years and also in his final British GP appearance with Mercedes. It was hard to not have empathy for the 39-year-old seven-time world champion who has often said that South Africa (and Africa) should get a race on the annual F1 calendar.
Lewis Hamilton crying in his dad’s arms 🥺#F1 #BritishGP
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) July 7, 2024
pic.twitter.com/ShSnb3fVmW
BOKS GET THE SCOREBOARD ‘W’
Ultimately the number was seven. As expected, the Springboks downed world No1’s Ireland at Loftus, winning 27-20, and while it wasn’t the prettiest match on the eye, the “W” is in the comments column. The half-time score was 13-8 and yet that didn’t reflect the game as the Boks were erratic and lacking the final touches.
Ireland came back strongly late in the game and actually got within a converted try of the world champions. To highlight how tough it was to judge the actual merits of the match itself, one can see various publications’ match ratings.
The Citizen ranked all Boks at 6 to 8 out of 10. Rugbypass.com went from 5 (Handre Pollard) to 9, Planetrugby.com went from 5 (Faf de Klerk, Frans Malherbe and Ox Nche) to 9, while rugby265.com went from 4 (Pollard) to 9. Sport24.com rated Pollard lowest at 5.5 and Pieter-Steph du Toit highest at 8.5.
ENGLAND’S ICE-COOL PENALTY-TAKERS
Take your pick. We’re down to the semi-finals and one of France, Spain, England or the Netherlands will win Euro 2024. Three of the four quarter-finals went to extra-time and two to penalties. Spain have emerged as 2/1 favourites with Hollywoodbets, with England 5/2.
Much depends on which France side turns up for the game against Spain. However, should the knockout trend of extra-time and penalties continue, I doubt anyone wants to meet England in a shootout. They have some of the coolest penalty-takers on the planet, as they showed against Switzerland.
Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Ivan Toney, and Trent Alexander-Arnold are going to give any goalkeeper nightmares from the spot. The irony is that England lost the 2020 Euro final on penalties.
Team. 🤍 pic.twitter.com/vtsS75ZpYI
— England (@England) July 6, 2024
WOMEN’S UPSETS CONTINUE AT WIMBLEDON
There we were, in our weekend lookahead blog, saying how it was in the women’s singles at Wimbledon where you find the upsets in week one. And so it proved. The highest seeds left in the women’s draw are No4 Elena Ryabakina (playing in Monday’s fourth round) No7 Jasmine Paolini (into the quarters) and No11 Danielle Collins (fourth round).
The men have followed the form, with all of the No1, 3rd and 5th seeds reaching the quarters, while Nos2, 5 and 9 play in the fourth round on Monday. Britain’s remaining hopes were extinguished when starlet wildcard Emma Raducanu lost in the fourth round to qualifier Lulu Sun.
Living for the moment 🙌#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/5foY1SJO7i
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 8, 2024
OUR OMEN WORKED AN (ORIENTAL) CHARM
Oriental Charm, at odds of 10/1, won the R5m Hollywoodbets Durban July, beating home Cousin Casey in a rough race over the 2200m. We listed him as one of our two “omens” in our lookahead, being the only runner in the 18 that carried the same name of a previous horse (Oriental Charm, a filly in the 1990s).
The favourite was Green With Envy, who had little chance from coming from off the pace in a big field on a tight Greyville circuit, while See It Again was a touch unlucky when interfered with late. The interference cost winning jockey JP van der Merwe a 16-day suspension, but that will mean very little as he celebrated winning the country’s biggest race, along with trainer Brett Crawford and owners Greg Bortz, Gina Goldsmith and Leon Ellman and the entire stable team, sponsored by Hollywoodbets.
Wow, wow, wow! 🙌
— Hollywoodbets (@Hollywoodbets) July 6, 2024
ORIENTAL CHARM wins the Hollywoodbets Durban July in fine fashion! 🙌 Congratulations to the winning jockey, JP van der Merwe, who rode his first #HDJ victory, as well as Brett and James Crawford, who win their successive #HDJ 🐎🏆
Full #HDJ2024 Result:… pic.twitter.com/Th64yRibR0
AROUND THE WATER COOLER
In International rugby, the All Blacks squeezed past England 16-15, the Wallabies beat Wales 25-16 and France won 28-13 in Argentina …
The Currie Cup kicked off with wins for the Pumas, Lions, Cheetahs and Blue Bulls, which meant defeats for Griquas, the Sharks, Griffons and Western Province …
As with Euro 2024, we’re down to the semi-finals at Copa America. There we’ll see Argentina playing Canada (!) and Uruguay (who beat Brazil on penalties) taking on Colombia …
South Africa’s women’s Proteas remain 1-0 up in their three-game T20 series after their second encounter was abandoned after SA had made 177-6 … Brad Binder finished ninth in the German MotoGP, to stay seventh overall, as Francesco Bagnaia replaced Jorge Martin at the top after nine of the 20 races …
Tadej Pogacar holds a 33sec advantage over Remco Evenpoel and 1min 15sec over Jonas Vingegaard as we approach the halfway point of the Tour de France.
First win for 2024 in the books 👏
— All Blacks (@AllBlacks) July 6, 2024
Dunedin, you showed UP tonight 😍#AllBlacks #NZLvENG pic.twitter.com/vcYGMSBTFg
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