Tuks are Varsity Football champs

Fans who showed up for epic finale of the Varsity Football Challenge at Pretoria. Fans from both NMMU and UP-Tuks were in abundance on the stands. Photo: Provided.

After 31 matches, 87 goals and 23 wins, Tuks came out on top with a 4-1 win in the final game against the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University last night.

It was an explosive finale to the inaugural Varsity Football challenge. Out of the eight teams who participated in the 2013 Varsity Football challenge the two remaining teams, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) went head-to-head with Tuks from the University of Pretoria in the final.

NMMU, otherwise known as the Madibaz, had a solid defence in the first half of the game. They put their bodies on the line in an attempt at good defense against the home team.

With an atmospheric kick-off for the home team, Tuks plunged their way into dominating ball possession in the first 20 minutes of the game. The Madibaz probed on the edges, and by the 15 minute of the game all the jittery nerves had become a thing of the past.

Tuks tried hard to turn all their defences into attacks and in the 20th minute, defender Lawrence Ntswane opened up the scoring lines by executing a perfect header straight into the goal post. Madibaz goalie Lyndsay Jennings had no chance at stopping the ball just creeping in.

The Madibaz saw their best moment of attack in the first half when centrefold Lukhanyo Rasmeni from Port Elizabeth chanced a direct shot at goal, however with a disappointing result.

To end the first half off perfectly, 22 year-old defender Claudio Barreiro scored the second goal for Tuks in the 44th minute of the game.

Evangelos Vellios, coach for Tuks said: “It’s very pleasing and a wonderful thing that has happened for SA rugby and it’s a nice step from school level to professional level.”

The second half saw the Madibaz return with fighting spirits with quick and nippy kicks and clear strategy for goal attack.

Although Madibaz came back with fighting spirits they were unable to prevent Tuks from scoring their third goal in the 72nd minute of the game. Mbogeni Masilela pushed Tuks to a well deserved three goals. Masilela has scored a total of three goals himself in this tournament.

NMMU decided to make their first change of the game. Alexander Owusu was sent to the bench with number 25 Bradley Peterson replacing him.

Peterson, watching out for the counter attack along with Leroy van Rensburg, a player who was underestimated, together with a joint effort managed to score the first the goal for NMMU in the 77th minute of the game.

Although the Madibaz came back fighting, Tuks brought the game home on their own turf when Masilela once again performed his magic, and with effortless pace and shot the fourth goal for Tuks perfectly into the post in last minute of the game.

The post-match ceremony saw trophies being handed to the champions by Dennis Mumble, Professor Julian Smith and Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula.

Player of the Tournament was “Scara” Mnyamane from NWU Mafikeng and man of the match was Jarryd van der Berg who said: “ We pulled something out of the hat and we definitely saved the best for last.”

Tristyn Coetsee, goalkeeper for Tuks won the Debonairs Dynamite Goalkeeper prize and the Samsung Super Striker went to Niven Kops from NMMU who said: “We are going back to the drawing boards.”

Related articles: 

• Wits Vuvuzela. Big five in the posts. August 16, 2013.
• Wits Vuvuzela. Tuks tuk into Wits. August 2, 2013.
• Wits Vuvuzela. NWU hand Wits a drubbing at varsity football opener. July 24, 2013.

• SuperSport concentrating on Tuks clash (iol.co.za)
• Big five in the posts (thejourneytoadream.wordpress.com)

Featuring only the best!

The past week in the Wits Vuvuzela newsroom was quite an experience and a very exciting but busy week.

Varsity Football Launch

We started off with news conference and I pitched my stories but I was especially excited to do a sports story. I ended up doing the Varsity football launch with one of my colleagues. I took photos for the event. We attended a short conference at the Wits Club that afternoon and then proceeded to the Milpark Stadium on campus where I got to mingle with various important people in the sports industry and I met my favourite rugby hero Francios Pienaar. It was great to listen him and speak to him. He is a very humble person and quite friendly, to my surprise.

Francios Pienaar, 1995 rugby world cup winning coach and me at the Varsity Football Launch. Photo: Mfuneko Toyana

Attending the football match between the Clever Boys from Wits University and the North West University team was unreal. I realized that football in universities is quite important and there are some die-heart supporters who attended the event. The stadium shook with cheers and dancing from the crowd.

I was part of the media and had to photograph the whole event so I was allowed onto the field with the players. I learned a bucket full about sports photography and this was just by being on the pitch and figuring out for myself how to get the perfect shot. Practice makes perfect!

Feature writing hints

On the same day Nechama Brodie came to speak to the class. She is a freelance feature writer and she spoke about important techniques a journalist needs to make use of when writing features. She has been wri6ting features for 16 years and has written for newspapers and several magazines.

Nechama Brodie, experienced feature writer came to speak to Wits Vuvuzela this week. Photo: Provided

“Writing is something that takes practice,” said Brodie. Which showed me that even journalists and authors are not the best writers, we all can be better by reading and writing more. Brodie also explained that “the nature of feature writing has changed,” they are no longer 3000 words but 600 words rather. This seems to be quite a disappointment because the long-form pieces of writing are is the cornerstone of literature.

Brodie also explained that in order to be a good feature writer you “need to have access to the world” and read more international than local publications, such as: American GQ; New York Times; Daily Maverick and Vanity Fair. She also emphasized the importance of being a professional and not an artist. As a writer you have a job to do and you need to be efficient in doing it so that people in the industry want you to write for them. Pay attention to your briefs from the editors and stick to the word count and deadlines. “Be a functional writer” said Brodie.

Magazine feature writing

On Tuesday we met Aspasia Karras, editor of Marie Claire. She is the epitome of fashion, beauty and success. Karras gave us useful hints in developing a feature for a magazine. Most important was brainstorming with other people over a glass of wine and coming up with new and fresh angles on stories which will still be relevant in two months time, as Marie Claire works two months ahead of time. One of the main things that stood is when she said: ask yourself the question “Who gives a f**k” when writing your story.

Aspasia Karras, editor of Marie Claire spoke to Wits Vuvuzela this week. Funny and interesting women. Photo: Provided

Karras gave us great online publications to read every day to develop our skills such as: Vegenda, Jezabell and The Atlantic.

The week only got better when on Wednesday the editor of City Press, Ferial Haffajee came to visit us. Haffajee gave us a tough quiz off the top about South African affairs and this was to show us that as journalists we need to be in the know every day all day about everything happening in the world but most importantly in our own country.

Editor of City Press, Ferial Haffajee came to speak to us about reading, writing and so much more. Photo: Kenichi Serino

A very powerful women

She gave us some interesting features to read in the Mail & Guardian and the City Press and made us analyze it. This proved so useful in relating myself to what readers can relate to when you write a feature. She was one the best teachers we had this week and I learnt the most from the hour or so I spent with her. Definitely someone I aim to be like one day in this career.

I ended off the week by live tweeting from the debate around Mandela’s deception on Friday night with various comrades. The ANC, DA, EFF and the IFP were present for the debate. Jamie Mighti from the Wits Debating Union also took part in the debate. I must say that the whole even was a disappointment and nothing relevant was really said, and people’s mindsets in this country is quite distorted and shocking.

This discussion we will save for a future post!

Related articles: 

A superb photographer and photo journalist. 19 April, 2013