Gary Lemke looks ahead to an incredible sporting weekend which sees Chiefs and Pirates face off in the Derby, some eye-catching stuff from the Nedbank Golf Challenge and more from the sporting world!
‘AFRICA’S MAJOR’ DECIDED AT SUN CITY
The annual Nedbank Golf Challenge – they call it Africa’s Major, which is something I find overkill – started on Thursday at the Gary Player CC at Sun City this weekend. Tommy Fleetwood is chasing a hat-trick of wins in this event and opened the outright favourite, but golf doesn’t work like that. Tipping a golf winner is a lottery in many instances. And after an opening 71, he slipped down the board, five strokes off the pace. There’s a good line-up – not quite a line-up befitting a Major – but Fleetwood, Max Homas, Justin Thomas, Adrian Meronk and Justin Rose’s names wouldn’t be out of place on a Major top 10 leaderboard. Of those, Homa fared best with first round 66 to leave him in a four-way tie at the top, with Meronk one back. South Africa’s pre-event best hopes had appeared to lie with former champion Branden Grace, who has spent the last couple of seasons making money on the LIV Golf Series. He had a level par 72, with Hennie du Plessis opening with a 70.
Absolutely electrifying at #NGC2023! Watching golf's elite in action is unmatched. 👏 #GolfsGreatestPartner ⛳
— Nedbank Sport (@nedbanksport) November 9, 2023
📺 SS (CH. 213)
📲 https://t.co/VVlqYLK8xd
HISTORY CAN’T SEPARATE SOWETO RIVALS
The domestic football scene sees the huge Soweto Derby take place at the FNB Stadium, and the fact that Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates are currently 7th and 10th on the DStv Premiership table won’t detract from a full house crowd. Sundowns have been dominant in recent seasons and that trend is continuing this year, but Chiefs and Pirates remains the encounter that stops traffic. Here’s a couple of stats. This is their 60th meeting over the years. Both teams have won 17 times, with 25 draws. At the FNB Stadium it’s been 9 wins each with 16 draws. Their last 10 games have seen Chiefs score 9 goals and Pirates 8 goals. That’s how close things are. This one? Maybe Chiefs 1-0?
𝗦𝗢𝗪𝗘𝗧𝗢 𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗕𝗬 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘...
— #UNPLAYABLE (@UnplayableZA) November 9, 2023
So far, 80 000 tickets have been sold.#SowetoDerby pic.twitter.com/JPzk2S5qEB
UFC MAIN EVENTS HARD TO CALL
In the week that Dricus du Plessis’ middleweight challenge to Sean Strickland was announced for early next year, the UFC tour drops in at boxing’s famous Madison Square Garden in New York his weekend. UFC 295 features two headline acts. There’s a light-heavyweight showdown between Jiri Prochazka and Alex Pereira, with the latter possibly favoured to go on and win it. And there’s an explosive heavyweight match-up between Sergei Pavlovich and Tom Aspinall that will provide one of those “don’t blink or you’ll miss it” moments. Pavlovich has the highest knockdown rate in UFC history and is 18-1 heading into the bout. The Brit Aspinall’s (13-3) best chances are by taking the contest to ground and forcing a submission. At 1.91m and 1.96m these are two big units trading blows. If Aspinall can ride out the early onslaught he can win.
2024 is SIGNED and SEALED!
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) November 6, 2023
🏆 @SStricklandMMA vs. @DricusDuPlessis 🇿🇦
🏆 @AlexVolkanovski vs. @TopuriaIlia 🇪🇸🇬🇪
🏆 @SugaSeanMMA vs. @ChitoVeraUFC 🇪🇨 pic.twitter.com/tBhDFYazLL
QUIET BEFORE NEXT WEEK’S STORM
Talk about things fizzling out. The last match (45 of 48) of the Cricket World Cup’s league portion is played on Sunday with unbeaten hosts India taking on Netherlands. India will finish top of the log whatever happens, while Netherlands have been eliminated. It’s very much the quiet before the storm with next week’s semi-finals pitting India against New Zealand, probably, while South Africa will meet Australia in the other semi-final. We’ll remind you again next week no doubt, but the Proteas have featured in four previous semis at the event – twice against Australia – and have never reached the final.
🇿🇦 The Proteas are well represented in the ICC Men's ODI Rankings after some stunning performances at the #CWC23 🏆
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) November 9, 2023
3️⃣ Batters
1️⃣ Bowler #WozaNawe #BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/3BkHV6S2hv
WINNING AWAY IS NEVER EASY
The English Premier League continues this weekend, and yet again, those teams who competed in Europe during the week are on the back foot. Last week there were some surprising results and nothing suggests this round will be any different. The average for away teams winning per round is between three and four. So, from that, a possible away treble could be Tottenham (at Wolves), Newcastle (at Bournemouth) and Man City (at Chelsea). That treble is a juicy 11/2. I’ll be taking some of that.
Are you confident Chelsea can get something out of the game against Man City? pic.twitter.com/oK4fjmDuyH
— Vince™ (@Blue_Footy) November 8, 2023
MAGNIFICENT SEVEN FOR MISS GERIATRIX?
There’s a quality racecard at Hollywoodbets on Saturday, with the feature race being the R4000 Western Cape Fillies Championship, a Grade 2 event over 1400m. It sees the appearance of the Equus Champions Two-Year-Old filly from last season, Miss Geriatrix, from the stable of Sean Tarry. She is unbeaten in six starts, which is a phenomenal achievement. Her owners are the Magical Lady Syndicate, a big group, and who are showing the benefit of syndicated ownership. There’s that expression: “You can own 1% of a horse and have 100% of the fun.” Miss Geriatrix is understandable odds-on favourite, but there’s strong opposition, including Winter Cloud from the Bass Racing stable. I’ll be putting both in my Pick 6.
