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A winning team! Anglers from the Flurian Angling Club at AFB Makhado, pictured during the annual Defence Freshwater Bank Anglıng Champıonshıp at Bloemhof. They went on to win the championships, with four of the team members being selected for the SANDF angling team. In front, from left to right, are WO Pıet Smıth, WO Joe Mphela and F/Sgt Louıe Kruger. At the back are Sgt Eddıe Engelbrecht (team captaın), W/O Rıchardt Lambert, W/O Marıus Botha, F/Sgt Mark Thomson and W/O Dawıe Stoltz. Photo supplied.

Flurian comes out tops at national champs

Date: 29 May 2015 By: Andries van Zyl

The officer commanding of Air Force Base Makhado outside Louis Trichardt, Brigadier General Schalk van Heerden, hailed members of the base’s Flurian Angling Club for being crowned the SA Natıonal Defence Force Angling Champions for the year 2015.

The annual Defence Freshwater Bank Angling Champıonshıp was held at the Bloemhof Dam (North West) from 2 to 9 May. Van Heerden furthermore congratulated four of the club’s anglers for being nominated into the SA National Defence Force Angling Team that will participate at national level.

The chairperson of the Flurian Angling Club, warrant officer (W/O) Koos Erasmus, thanked his team members for a sterling performance during the championship. According to Erasmus, the purpose of the competition was to promote friendship among its members through angling as a sport. Additionally, the main goal was to select the best individuals who will then represent the South African National Defence Force Team at national level.

Erasmus said that the championshıp was very tough this year since they were competing against the toughest teams from across all provinces. Some of the provinces which participated were Gauteng, Free State, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, Limpopo Province and North West Province. Each province had three teams, with some of these teams boasting anglers wearing the Protea and SAFBAF colours.

The Lımpopo team was represented by at least six anglers, one development angler, a team captain and one official. The competition became tougher each day, which left many anglers battling to land the most fish and weigh in the heaviest bag in the allocated time given for fishing. The Limpopo team, which had been struggling to win gold for the past eight years, did exceptionally well this time around, with anglers such as flight sergeant (F/Sgt) Mark Thompson, who netted the most fish. He was subsequently crowned Victor Ludorum (overall winner) for most fish and heaviest bag. Teammate WO Joe Mphela took the honour of being Victor Ludorum in the development section.

A 12-man team was chosen to represent the SANDF Angling Team, where four of the anglers were from AFB Makhado. They are W/O Dawıe Stolts (11th overall), W/O Richardt Lambert (fifth overall), F/Sgt Louıs Kruger (eighth overall) and F/Sgt Mark Thompson (first overall). Captain Frikkie van Deventer of AFB Makhado was one of the officials who was overseeing that the rules of the game were properly followed.

Building on the team’s success, Van Heerden urged members of the base, and in particular those participating in sports, to unite through sports within its ranks. In addition, he said, it was the duty of every sportsperson to promote the spirit of camaraderie to all members as, after all, sports promote a healthy life style. Adding to this, Erasmus said that angling as one of the sporting codes at the base, was open to all members of the base, including defence civilians who were interested in joıning, regardless of their age, ethnicity, gender, colour or creed.

 

 
 
 

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Andries van Zyl

Andries joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in April 1993 as a darkroom assistant. Within a couple of months he moved over to the production side of the newspaper and eventually doubled as a reporter. In 1995 he left the newspaper group and travelled overseas for a couple of months. In 1996, Andries rejoined the Zoutpansberger as a reporter. In August 2002, he was appointed as News Editor of the Zoutpansberger, a position he holds until today.

 
 

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