Standard Bank League: Trophy goes 'missing' as Northerns collect title (1 February 1999)

1 February 1999

Standard Bank League: Trophy goes 'missing' as Northerns collect title

Trevor Chesterfield

CENTURION (South Africa) - It was not that the sponsors so much forgot to hand out their trophy to Mark Davis at SuperSport Centurion last night.

They had already, in their wisdom, decided to wait until February 10 when the final round of matches of the league are played before dishing out the plastic and aluminium space age designed prize which covers as the Standard Bank League Trophy.

So we had Northerns Titans celebrating a weekend of success when they won their second major trophy in three seasons but nothing to show off to what would pass as a sparse, bedraggled if enthusiastic crowd as Davis and Co put together another professional performance to beat Griqualand West by 10 wickets in a rain affected match.

Little wonder there were those who asked the all too obvious:" Okay, so where's the trophy?"

What we are going to have, however, may make sense to a marketing boffin, but to many it is a slap in the face to Northerns. After all, being handed the trophy in front of a foreign crowd and at a venue in another province says much for logistics and has a lot going for it ...

Davis will finally get to hold it with the coach, Peter Kirsten, after they play Natal at Kingsmead on Wednesday week when a curious, dwindling group of disinterested onlookers will wonder what the "fuss is about". It has nothing at all to do with KwaZulu/Natal. And should Northerns lose, so what ... ?

Naturally the marketing guys who dreamed up this magic carpet ride felt the idea is not to take too much away from the limited-overs international series between South Africa and the West Indies and which ends at Centurion on Sunday.

After a victory over Gauteng on Friday, and described by Kirsten as "awesome", Northerns were only 90 overs away from winning the League Trophy. By beating Griquas they have pushed themselves beyond Border's dreams of triumph. The coastal side, who played Gauteng on Wednesday, need for Northerns to lose one the weekend's matches to stay within striking distance.

Hopefully Gauteng skipper Ken Rutherford won't be so disgruntled to extent that he also decides to boycott the after-match ceremony as he was last Friday. Gauteng are poor losers.

Yet last night's victory is one of three in which the Titans can earn three possible trophies: eyeing also the knock-out event, the Standard Bank Cup and the four day SuperSport Series award, not that the local support was in evidence at Centurion Park yesterday. But then, what can you expect from an area where the crowd has been raised on naartjies? And Davis would agree with that as well for the local media coverage has, despite the team's phenomenal record over the last three season where they have won 27 out of 33 games, been very low key to the extent that Friday night's "semi-final" against Gauteng was relegated to the ranks of a minor event.

Davis and the coach, Peter Kirsten, shrugged off the snub as they told how team effort was a motivating factor. And while the theme for the weekend was how 25 hours of hard work would result in the success, both men were full of praise for the two absentees, Mike Rindel and Steve Elworthy, who also had a hand in helping Northerns to achieve unrivalled success.

"It's a special occasion," said Kirsten. "But there's been a lot of hard work as well. We have spent something like 30 hours of preparation for this weekend.

"We knew if we beat Gauteng at the Wanderers on Friday and Griquas here (yesterday) we would end up winning the league.

"That we have won four of our games without Rindel and Elworthy shows our depth," said Kirsten. "The problem has been who to leave out. I have been unable to find a place for David Townsend in the side and that's been a problem."

Roy Pienaar, who is to skydive into Centurion on Sunday during the last limited-overs international, was pointed out by Kirsten as one of the reasons Northerns have batted so well when under pressure.

"Winning the crucial games and getting the critical factors in place during these games have also helped," he said. The innings played by Quentin Ferreira at the Wanderers was one of the areas where Northerns had put it together when it was most needed. The role by Dirkie de Vos also cannot be overlooked.

For Davis, however, winning the league is far tougher than the knock-out cup. "You can one bad game and that's your lot. In the league you have to be consistently good and we have proved that over the last three seasons," he said.

"Team effort, team commitment and team spirit have pulled us through this season. For one thing we did it without Mike and Shots (Steve Elworthy) for three of our games, so it is not as though we have relied on them. "We have been accused of being a two-man side, that they were the reason for our success. Well, we have put that one to rest."

Yet he also praised the role both have played in the team this summer, saying their contribution was always valued.

As for team effort, the Northerns squad spent 90 minutes at Centurion Park on Saturday, a team talk and a walk around the ground was part of the dedicated effort which has seen Northerns collect the first of a possible three awards this season.

Source :: Trevor Chesterfield, Pretoria News