CARLO RP COCK
TuksSport enjoyed a highly successful year in 2012, winning silverware in several sporting codes and producing some memorable moments. Few could have predicted the level of success TuksSport reached last year, winning everything from national club championships to Olympic gold medals.
One of the first highlights of the year came in April, when Tuks 1 won the Varsity Cup final at Tuks Rugby Stadium to secure the club’s first Varsity Cup title. Tuks built on an impressive year in 2011, when the club won the National Club Championships and Carlton Cup trophies.
In football, AmaTuks gained promotion to South Africa’s top football division, the Premier Soccer League (PSL) after winning the National First Division (NFD) in May. Having failed to even qualify for the promotion play-offs in the 2010/11 season, AmaTuks recruited several new players and began the 2011/12 season with the clear aim of gaining promotion to the PSL. After starting the season with an impressive 17-match unbeaten run, Steve Barker’s side overcame a mid-season wobble to finish first on the NFD log, gaining promotion to the PSL. After securing promotion, Barker was adamant that AmaTuks would be competitive in the PSL. “We’re not just going there to make up the numbers. We’re a good team and I think we can be competitive,” Barker told Perdeby.
Those words were proven to be true at the start of the 2012/13 PSL season, when AmaTuks went unbeaten in their first six games, holding three-time PSL champions Supersport United to a draw at home before beating Moroka Swallows 2-3 in Dobsonville and thrashing Ajax Cape Town 1-5 in Cape Town. AmaTuks’ flying start to the season was ended by Orlando Pirates when the defending champions beat AmaTuks 1-3 at Loftus to hand Barker’s side its first defeat of the season.
Few TuksSport clubs enjoyed more success in 2012 than TuksCricket. Inspired by coach Pierre De Bruyn, Tuks 1 claimed an incredible four trophies in 2012, winning the National Club Championship, the USSA Championship, the Northerns Cricket Union (NCU) Premier League and the NCU 20/Twenty Knockout League. Having won all trophies available to them in 2012, TuksCricket will have to work hard if they are to repeat this success this year.
The highlight of the 2012 sporting year was the Olympic Games in London, which saw South Africa win a total of six medals, the country’s best medals tally at a post-isolation Games. Tuks athletes won three of those medals, with sprint canoeing sensation Bridgitte Hartley winning bronze in the 500m K1 event and the rowing team of Sizwe Ndlovu, James Thompson, Matthew Brittain and John Smith winning gold in the Men’s Lightweight Four event. Swimmer Cameron van der Burgh, who trains at Tuks, won gold in the 100m breaststroke, setting a new world record along the way. Tuks’s Oscar “Blade Runner” Pistorius became the first double leg amputee to compete at the Olympic Games when he ran in the 400m heats in London. Pistorius managed to qualify for the semi-finals, but did not progress any further. He went on to dominate the Paralympics, as expected, winning two gold medals and one silver medal.
With Olympic glory, PSL status, a rugby double and a cricket quadruple all coming in the space of 12 months, 2012 was a vintage year for TuksSport, with levels of success that may not be seen again for some time.
