The Assupol TuksCricket team can really claim to have gone down fighting at the Varsity Cricket Tournament in Potchefstroom.

The statistics will show that on Saturday Northwest Pukke beat Assupol Tuks by four wickets in the final but unfortunately the numbers never make provision for guts. What the Assupol Tuks players lacked in experience they made up with their never say die attitude on the field.

Their road to the final was never easy.  The team’s first game against Northwest Pukke got rained out. In the next game Assupol Tuks lost by eight wickets against the University of the Western Cape . They then went on to beat Ikeys and the Kovsies on the same day. It was followed by a tough duel against Maties.
The Assupol Tuks batsman only managed to score the winning runs with two balls to spare. The University of Johannesburg clobbered the Tukkies which meant they had to win their last pool game against the Madibaz to secure a playoff in the semi-finals which they did. 

Assupol Tuks beat Maties in the semi-final to go through to the final for the third consecutive time. Unfortunately for Tukkies their batsmen never really got going in the final.

They battled to a total of 116/8 which was always going to be difficult to defend. But the Assupol Tuks bowlers were up to the challenge and made the Pukke batsmen work for every run. If it was not for one or two chances gone begging their might have been a different result. In the end the Pukke scored the winning runs with seven balls to spare. 

Kruger van Wyk (Assupol Tuks head coach) had only praise for the way his players performed throughout the tournament. “Naturally it was a big disappointment to lose in the final, but we I am excited for the way forward. I have no doubt that this Assupol Tuks team is going from strength to strength in the future as they showed such a lot of character throughout the tournament.”

Eleven of the 14 players in the Assupol Tuks Team are still under-19 and it is the first time they competed in the Varsity Tournament. 

“What I appreciated about the players is the way the managed to fight back after each setback. The loss against the University of Johannesburg was a big blow to the player’s self-esteem. We spend a long time afterwards in the dressing room discussing what happened on the field. The lessons we have learned from that game and the final will stand us to good stead in the future.”

Van Wyk always hesitates to praise individual players as he believes cricket is all about teamwork and not individual stars. But he admits to being impressed by the performance of Migael Pretorius (opening bowler), the 18 year old Ruben Trumpelmann (bowler) and Rubin Hermann. 

The Assupol TuksCricket team’s immediate goal is try to be triumphant in the various competitions of the Northerns Cricket League.