The BPL is underway, the Master bows to the Student…
And we are underway, we had matches in three provinces and as expected the action was electric and there were no major upsets really unless you are using an outdated version of the Oxford English Dictionary to define ‘upset’. We hope you had a great time at the Durban July, welcome back to reality. Students are usually as good as their masters but if your master is Hawkeye, it may seldom or never happen that the student gets to be the conqueror and as such I suppose Sbu ‘Chillies’ Gumede is a mutant. Yulan Govender got owned yes but these two were definitely in synch, watching them play was no different to watching a very well rehearsed dance routine. They play a very similar type of game, they have the same kind of approach and they are a lethal pair. The match could have gone either way and had it not been for the Chillies in Yulan’s eyes we could be talking about something different. Chillies didn’t stop there, Sunday was no different, and although Kyle put up a good fight he found out the hard way that Mr Gumede was no ordinary Durban curry flavour. Sbu has had a very solid month or two and with the weekend’s performance adding the cherry on top, Sbu earns the Sheriff’s Toast of the week. He is already on 5 apples and that’s definitely not a bad start at all.
Paul Bennett didn’t disappoint either, he did well to turn around a 4-1 first set loss to win the next two 4-2 and 4-3 respectively against a very tough Ace who was always going to be a difficult customer. Vishen wasn’t so lucky this weekend, he lost both his matches 2-0 to both Kyle and Yulan but as the saying goes, it is not about how you start but how you finish that matters and The Dish can and might still turn up the heat.
The African Champ was also rock solid in both his matches setting up the trend as early as possible, in fact Ishmael and his travelling partner Nicky Erasmus ganged up on the KZN duo of Sylvester Henry and Lenny Ramghulam, Rushin Bowers also took the wind out from under Keeyam Schoeman’s sail in the other derby at the mother-city establishing the status quo and in the process depositing 2 apples in his account. Rushin has been tipped by many to win the 1st Division but well I don’t know about that, if you haven’t seen Ishmael Mthethwa play in recent months then you might agree but only time will tell.
The Second Division brought the Eastern Cape to life when Gauteng and Mpumalanga made their way to the coastal city of Port Elizabeth. Donovan De Donker and Jandre Jonck hosted Zaid Kara and Mabuti ‘Olwethu’ Mbotyeni of course Mabuti is form the EC himself but this wasn’t exactly a typical home coming at least not according to Donovan, the match went all the way to the wire but Mbotyeni was out-muscled eventually, De Donker did show at the Randshow earlier this year that he was no pushover, he went on to add to Zaid Kara’ woes thwarting him 2-0 and thus adding salt to an open wound already inflicted on Saturday by Jandre with the same 2-0 margin. Mabuti was not going to come back home empty handed and Jonck had to be the sacrificial lamb to set up an exciting complexion in the 2nd Division. I have a feeling that the 3rd tier could be the toughest this year with the likes of hard nut to crack Thami Jabavu and Yacoob Shaik in the mix. We are in for a thriller of a season and the loud voice of the Super Supporters could be the much needed inspiration that the athletes need to spur them on.
Remember participating in the Super Supporter Competition could book you an awesome experience at the Arnold Classic next year with your BPL Heroes and Arnold Schwarzenegger himself.
THE BPL NEVER DISAPPOINTS!!!
