Hawston Cricket Club celebrated 30 years of sporting excellence during a gala event attended by distinguished guests such as the Overstrand Executive Mayor Archie Klaas and the Overberg District Municipality Speaker Lindile Ntsabo.
The crowning glory for the club’s milestone celebration was the fact that they were the 2024-’25 season winners in both the 50 and 20 overs competitions of the Overberg First Division. These remarkable achievements led to the club being promoted to play in the Boland Promotion League in the upcoming 2025-’26 season.
The club was officially established and registered at Boland Cricket Union in May 1995. It was started by Edmund Abels (coach), Theo de Villiers (secretary), Algervin Marais (additional member), André Johnson (treasurer), Verrell Herbert (Chairperson) and John Drubye (Assistant Coach) forming the first management committee of the club. The badge designer was a young Leeroy Henn.
Since its establishment, Hawston Cricket Club made a name for itself and firmly proved itself to be a club to be reckoned with. The club won the Boland Breederivier league in 1996-’97 but could not be promoted due to a lack of facilities at the time. Neels Momberg, an old teammate of Edmund Abels, gave the club a head start by donating a synthetic pitch, the first in the Western Cape at the time. Hawston Secondary School was the first field used by the club.
Award Winners
Currently the club boasts 44 senior and 43 junior players and nine management members. Two of its players achieved provincial colours and Lara Marais was recently selected to play in the Boland T20 franchise tournament while Robyn Appel has represented the ladies’ Western Province team. The club is also proud of the fact that former Springbok rugby player Gio Aplon and junior
Springbok player Boldwin Hansen also played cricket for Hawston. Hawston Cricket Club also won five Mayoral cups since 2012.
At the awards ceremony, the big winners of the night were:
• Six-a-side winners of the year: Archie’s Rangers (Darreu Jansen – Owner);
• Ladies’ cricketer of the year: Lara Marais;
• Upcoming player of the year: Marius Hendricks;
• 4. 50 overs category: Best batsman – Byron May – 158 runs (average: 32 runs, best score of 45 runs) and Best bowler – Brettleigh Mitchell – 14 wickets (strike rate 12,86, best of 6 wickets for 5 runs in 5 overs);
• 5. 20 overs category: Best batsman – Cano Hooneberg – 144 runs (average: 72 runs, best score of 75 runs) and Best bowler – Chadwell Koopman – 14 wickets (strike rate 26,4, best of 4 wickets for 18 runs in 4 overs)
• Player of the year award category: Dawid Gerber with combined performances in 50 overs and 20 overs of 238 runs (average: 25 runs, best score of 48 runs) and a total of 17 wickets (strike rate 10,88, best of 5 wickets for 38 runs in 8 overs).
Sponsors
Hawston Cricket Club thanked Overstrand Municipality as well as its generous sponsors namely Food Lovers, Herlaai Spa, and Dischem, Van Staaden Service Center, Ilke Gillion (owner of Gillion Fisheries) and Hermanus Towing for their support. “A special word of appreciation to the organising committee, the caterers for the wonderful platters, DJ Frik, Sound Factory for the sound equipment, the photographer Darren Maree, the members and everyone involved who ensured that this truly was a memorable event.”
Stanford and Gansbaai cricket fields are now included as Hawston cricket club’s playing fields as approved by the Overstrand Municipality. The club invites all cricket players in the areas to contact them if you are interested in playing cricket in the Promotion League of Boland.
“Watch this space!” said Llyle Tait, spokesperson of the club. “We hope to see many more supporters coming out in the next season as this club is going forward rapidly and is very excited for the future.”
You can follow the club on its Facebook page and YouTube channel.
