Big Sports Festival in Porterville

The Porterville school in the lovely Boland town up the West Coast is holding a two-day rugby and netball festival at which they expect some 1 200 players to be taking part. It is the third such festival at the school.

Porterville is a small (pop. 8 000) town on the side of a mountain where water flows and caves fascinate,. It has a school - high and primary in one and co-ed.

The sporting festival started in 2012 with 200 school pupils. In 2013 there were 700 and this year it is expected that there will be 1 200.  It involves teams from Under-9 to Under-19. (The school itself runs 10 rugby teams and at times 18 netball teams de]pending on how many girls want to play.)

The festival takes place on 21 and 22 March. The primary teams usually play on the Friday, the high school teams on the Saturday, though there are teams that play their rugby on both days.

Inevitably for a country town, there will be lots of hospitality including potjiekos and braai.

Of the 1st XVs taking part,  there are Hoërskool Langenhoven of Riversdale, Schoonspruit of Malmesbury, Worcester Gymnasium, Dirkie Uys of Moorreesburg, Union High of Graaff-Reinet, Punt of Mossel Bay, Paarl Boys' High and the hosts Porterville.

Rugby Fixtures

Friday, 21 March

Under-15

16.20: Paarl Boys' High B vs Sentraal (Bloemfontein))

Under-14

14.20: Paarl Boys' High vs Sentraal (Bloemfontein))

15.20: Paarl Boys' High vs Punt

Under-13

09.00: Porterville vs Rijk Tulbagh

09.30: Mikro vs Noord-Eind

10.40: Overberg vs Hendrik Louw

11.20: Hugo Rust vs Noord-Eind

12.30: Mikro vs Rijk Tulbagh

13.00: Porterville vs Overberg

13.40: Hugo Rust vs Hendrik Louw

Under-11

12.00: Porterville vs Rijk Tulbagh

Under-9

10.10: Porterville vs Rijk Tulbagh

Saturday, 22 March 2014

Under-19

12.45: Paarl Boys' High 2nd XV vs Schoonspruit 1st XV

13.00: Porterville 3rd XV vs Paarl Boys' High XV

13.55: Dirkie Uys vs Union High

14.00: Porterville 2nd XV vs Paarl Boys' High XV

15.00: Laborite vs Schoonspruit 2nd XV

16.10: Augsburg vs Worcester Gim

17.20: Paarl Boys' High 1st XV vs Punt

18.30: Porterville 1st XV vs Langenhoven

Under-16

11.45: Paarl Boys' High vs Union High

16.00: Dirkie Uys vs Schoonspruit

Under-15

08.00: Schoonspruit vs Willemsvallei

09.45: Paarl Boys' High vs Stellenberg

10.45: Porterville vs Langenhoven

12.00: Sentraal vs Dirkie Uys

Under-14

09.00: Paarl Boys' High XV vs Tygerberg

10.00: Sentraal (Bloemfontein)) vs Dirkie Uys

11.00: Paarl Boys' High XV vs Stellenberg

15.00: Schoonspruit vs Punt

Under-13

07.30: Mikro vs Noord-Eind

08.15: Hugo Rust vs Overberg

09.00: Porterville vs Hendrik Louw