Ken Borland

The view over the Franschhoek Valley from the pass leading to Mont Rochelle Nature Reserve.

Driving up the Franschhoek Pass to the car park of the Mont Rochelle Nature Reserve, the views over the famous wine-producing valley are already spectacular, but once I had parked, I was more interested in the beautifully chirpy, melodic twittering loudly emanating from somewhere close by.

Dashing off, I found a Cape Grassbird prominently perched on some scrubby Restios and singing away in the early-morning sunshine. For me, it is one of the prettiest calls around and I felt doubly blessed to also have such a good, clear sighting of an impressive bird that can look quite dapper with its black stripes on rusty red and a long tail.

Usually, the Grassbird is skulking around in dense vegetation, but in the fynbos areas of the Western Cape, it apparently becomes quite territorial and brazen in its calling from prominent perches.

Mont Rochelle protects prime mountain fynbos and although there are not great numbers of birds to see, especially when the mists come over the mountain, there is much of interest.

The view into Mont Rochelle Nature Reserve.

A lovely little Karoo Prinia, another streaky bird with a long tail, was also spotted as the undulating trail became more wind-swept, while Yellow Bishop were buzzing around the Proteas in the drainage lines and Cape Canary were also easily spotted.

The pretty town of Franschhoek itself is, understandably when you consider the name means “French Corner”, full of alien vegetation, most notably the vineyards that produce the marvellous wine, but that does not mean the birding is bad.

Some of the beautiful gardens of the town host Swee Waxbill feeding on the grasses in Spring time (late September for this trip), while the impressive Malachite Sunbird can find lots of nectar sources in town.

There are alien vertebrates to go with the introduced vegetation, with Grey Squirrels reaching the northern-most limit of their range in Franschhoek, and enjoying all the big trees of the urban areas, while Mallards frequent the Franschhoek River alongside the bird they most often hybridise with, the Yellowbilled Duck.

Helmeted Guineafowl are the most common bird of the actual vineyards, although we now call them “Wine Turkeys”.

That’s because the charming English couple we met on their honeymoon saw we were birders while we were on the wine tram (a magnificent way to do a tour of the estates) and started telling us about all the “Wine Turkeys” they had seen during the trip!

Sightings list

Egyptian Goose

Hadeda Ibis

Reed Cormorant

Swee Waxbill

Grey Squirrel

Helmeted Guineafowl

Chacma Baboon

Rock Martin

Cape Grassbird

Karoo Prinia

Pied Crow

Yellow Bishop

Cape Canary

Mallard

Cape Bulbul

Blacksmith Plover

Yellowbilled Duck

Blackshouldered Kite

Whitethroated Swallow

Cape White-Eye

Malachite Sunbird

Redwinged Starling

Sacred Ibis

The Proteas want to take young, courageous cricketers without the old baggage to the next World Cup, and much of the coming season will be dedicated to finding those players, according to the captain Faf du Plessis.

The 2018/19 season was officially launched in Centurion on Tuesday and, despite the attraction of the Test series against Pakistan, the focus of the summer will be on what happens at the end of the season – the World Cup in England.

“Our focus is not on the short-term, everything is looking ahead to the World Cup, so sometimes the team that is selected might not be the best available, but that’s how we get guys more experience ahead of our goal, the World Cup. We want to give a few guys more time and we will speed up that process now, even though our results have not been as good as we would have wanted.

“But it means we can see some young, courageous cricketers, and I believe that’s how we can win the World Cup, by losing the baggage. We don’t want the players to be limited and so mentally challenged; the mental side of things is the only hurdle we have left to conquer because we have the skills and we’ve done the planning, we’ve just lacked in mentality,” Du Plessis said on Tuesday.

The road to the World Cup includes ODIs against Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Sri Lanka at home, as well as a short tour to Australia, and Du Plessis said the matches will be used mostly to fine-tune the side mentally as well as sift through the last few pieces of the selection puzzle.

“We want to try and free up the guys mentally, so there’s no fear of failure, the players must get out there and be able to do the job, and we must equip them for that time. That extra 10-20% mentally is where we have not been as good as we could be. I’ve been to two World Cups and we’ve had different approaches in the lead-up and also mentally.

“So I’ve seen the benefits of what has worked and we will try and take from that, but I’ve also seen the bad. A few guys have shown that they are made for international cricket, they’re ready, and a few guys need more time. So we’ll probably only have a more settled team when we play Pakistan and Sri Lanka next year, then we can look more at the style of play we want for the 15-man squad,” Du Plessis said.

https://citizen.co.za/sport/south-african-sport/sa-cricket-sport/2004903/faf-proteas-want-fearless-men-without-baggage-for-world-cup/

Christiaan Basson is one of the more consistent performers on the Sunshine Tour so his blistering eight-under-par 64 to claim the lead in the first round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek is not a total shock, but the 33-year-old from Cape Town is battling his own mediocre record in co-sanctioned events with the European Tour.

Basson has played in 30 previous European Tour tournaments, making the cut in just 14 of them, with just a single top-10 finish, in the 2013 South African Open at Glendower. He has gone low in the first round a few times in co-sanctioned events, including last year’s Alfred Dunhill Championship when he opened with a pair of 69s before fading on the weekend with rounds of 74 and 75.

“It’s a funny game and you never know when you’re going to get it right, so when you get it going you must capitalise on it. I think I need to stick with the same game plan – I just tried to hit fairways and tried to play for the right areas of the greens – it worked well, so why change it?” Basson said after his brilliant round at the prestigious course alongside the Crocodile River.

Basson is three shots ahead of the chasing pack on five-under-par which includes three-time champion Charl Schwartzel.

Schwartzel could not finish his round due to a thunderstorm that stopped play at 5.26pm on Thursday, but is looking in ominous form as he collected seven birdies through 17 holes, and missed a couple of makeable putts as well.

Mark Williams of Zimbabwe and Englishman Matt Ford, both of whom collected eagles – on the par-four fourth and par-five 13^th holes respectively- are the other golfers tied for second.

Niclas Fasth of Sweden, playing his 500^th European Tour event (the 31^st golfer to reach the mark) and Joost Luiten of the Netherlands are amongst the large group of golfers on four-under-par, while 2008 champion Richard Sterne is on three-under after 17 holes.

Another former champion, Pablo Martin, the winner of back-to-back titles in 2009/10, was rapidly climbing up the leaderboard as he moved to six-under-par through 15 holes. The Spaniard had started on the 10^th, but by the time he walked off the ninth green he was practically weeping as he closed with three successive bogeys to drop down into the group tied for 12^th.

Englishman Jeff Inglis had a similar story, starting with five successive birdies but then dropping two shots at the par-four eighth and picking up further bogeys at the 13^th, 16^th and 17^th holes to also finish on three-under.

Louis Oosthuizen started on the 10^th and birdied the par-four first hole to go to five-under-par and a share of the lead, but was then derailed by a double-bogey seven on the second, eventually finishing on a two-under-par 70, while defending champion Branden Grace was a stroke further back.

A new contracting model that stops certain unions from hogging all the talent as well as expanded South African participation in the Pro14 are both in the pipeline for SA Rugby, president Mark Alexander said on Wednesday.

The two initiatives are certainly linked as the success of South African teams playing in the Pro14 will depend on them performing well on the field, and there is little doubt the Southern Kings and Free State Cheetahs need to improve their depth to be competitive this year and beyond. Adding two more franchises to the mix will also put more of a premium on player resources.

“We are going to have more South African teams involved in the Pro14, possibly from 2020, we’re in negotiations about it and we are excited about it. We will then have four teams in the southern hemisphere and four in the north, which gives our players more opportunity. The Pro14 works financially for us, especially when we become full members in 2019/20.

“Griquas and Mpumalanga are now part of our franchise system and we are preparing them to play in Europe. We ignored the north for too long, it’s a very strong competition. Sanzaar is also a great competition for us, but the biggest problem is the distances you have to travel. Playing in the Pro14 helps with player welfare and being in the same time zone helps the broadcasters,” Alexander said at the tournament launch at SuperSport studios on Wednesday.

Alexander said that there had also been broad support for a new contracting model that limits the number of senior players each union can have on their books, as well as providing for a loan system that will help all the franchises.

“The new contracting system will allow for a draft. We cannot sustain a system with 990 professional players, but I believe we have enough players. But some franchises are sitting with six locks they have signed from Craven Week and a lot of them are sitting in the storeroom and not playing. They need to be playing instead of sitting around waiting for someone to get injured.

“The new player contracting model is vital in this regard, it will limit the number of players a union can sign to around 45-50 senior players, but there won’t be any pay limit in terms of budgets. This new model has come from the players’ association and it is a very good document. We have created a false market in this country and we need to be responsible because the first thing junior players do when they get signed is stop studying,” Alexander said.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-kzn/20180830/282063392835512