Gary Lemke looks forward to the weekend's action as the Hollywoodbets Sharks host the Lions in the only URC fixture for the week, the big boys enter the FA Cup and more!
TWO-TEST SERIES? THAT WAS QUICK!
In a throwback world we would be saying, “this weekend sees days three, four and five of the second Test between South Africa and India at Newlands”. This Test though was never going to go the distance. Not after 23 wickets fell on a first day which saw the Proteas bowled out for 55 after winning the toss and opting to bat first.
At Centurion the Boxing Day Test was over inside three days and now the New Year’s Day Test was over inside two. In fact, it was the shortest completed Test match ever played in over 100 years of cricket!
These two Tests were over inside a combined five days, and constituted a series, which is a joke in itself. It also extends India’s drought of not winning a Test “series” on South African soil. The three biggest takeaways from the Newlands Test: a series should always be a minimum of three games.
Have SA’s groundsmen lost the art of preparing Test quality pitches? Has cricket’s sacrifice at the altar of the T20 format made batters lose patience in grinding out an innings?
CHARLES DICKENS TO WRITE HIS OWN SCRIPT
One of the big horse racing events on the South African calendar comes around at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday. The R2 million L’Ormarins King’s Plate looks a straight fight between start four-year-old colts See It Again (9/10) and Charles Dickens (13/10), with the third favourite, Snow Pilot, at 16/1.
This time last year Charles Dickens was being favourably compared to greats like Horse Chestnut and Sea Cottage, but now such hype seems to have been inflated. He is very good, even brilliant, but we really need to put things into perspective.
I fancy he will turn the tables on See It Again, who beat him over the mile in the Green Point Stakes last time. I feel that See It Again remains better over further than 1600m, while this is Charles Dickens’ best distance.
The Bass-Robinson stable reckon that their colt “is the fittest and best he’s ever been”. So, if he is indeed the best horse that they’ve ever trained, he should be able to win.
A YOUNGSTER CAN UPSET THE PRINCESS
There’s another Grade One race on the Saturday card and yet the Paddock Stakes over 1800m has only attracted a field of seven fillies. It features South Africa’s Horse of the Year for 2022/23, the six-year-old Princess Calla, but she has her work cut out against the Bass Racing duo of Red Palace and Beach Bomb.
The latter won the Fillies Guineas and the latter ran second to Snow Pilot in the colts Guineas. Princess Calla has to concede 6kg in weight to the younger fillies and I simply can’t see how she is at 6/10 in the betting. I’m sure you won’t get trampled in the stampede to back her at those odds.
‘BIG NAMES’ ENTER FA CUP STAGE
While the Premier League takes a break for a fortnight, the FA Cup introduces all the big guns at this third-round stage of the famous competition. Growing up, this was a huge competition for South African football fans and I know a lot of people who started supporting an English club based on a year’s FA Cup results.
I started supporting Chelsea in that way – fortunately, they beat Leeds United in the final – while racing personality Greg Bortz supports Tottenham, who beat Nottingham Forest in that year’s final, and popular racehorse owner Andrew Brand supports Southampton, because when he was just four their name sounded like “South Africa”.
Good luck to all the parents whose own children might start following an English club based on the 2023/24 competition!
SHARKS CARRY THE BIGGER BITE
Only one United Rugby Championship match to mention this weekend, and that’s in Durban where the Hollywoodbets Sharks entertain the Lions, who make the trip from Johannesburg.
If you were from Mars and had just landed on Earth you’d be forgiven for thinking the bookies have lost the plot. The hosts are about seven-point favourites to beat the Lions. And if they can back up the narrow defeat (16-15) to the Stormers last time out, then they should get the job done.
Those from Mars will point to the table: the Lions are 12th after seven matches while the Sharks are 16 (aka bottom) after eight games.
