Tuesday 14 February 2012 GENERAL People’s Post Grassy Park Page 11

Mardi Gras 2012 enjoysa huge successSHERISE DREYER

MARDI GRAS made a big splash thewith attendance of 25000 people atthe Wynberg’s William Herbertsportsground which ran fromThursday 26 January to Saturday28 January and Friday 3 February.

Peoples Post Editor Feroza Miller-Isaacs has praised the collaborativeefforts of BGS Consultants and allthose who sponsored prizes for theMissMardiGraspageant.The spon-sors were, Velocity Cars, Sound-tech, Kenilworth, Long Beach Malland the Baxter Theatre.

The Chairperson of BGS Consult-ants Rashied Cloete expressed thatthe Mardi Gras was “definitely” ahuge success. “We had children un-der the age of 12 years come in forfree and that aspect was a huge suc-cess, we do not have exact figuresbecause no tickets were colleccted,but the kiddies rides run by the Cityof Cape Town was a huge success.The Mardi Gras also treated or-phans from Habibiya Childrens’

Home and Heavens Nest which en-ter for free on Friday 3 Februaryand was given access to free ridesand free meals.

The Boy Band Competition waswon by Vibe and they received R10000. Marche Martin was crownedMiss Mardi Gras and received tick-ets from the Baxter Theater, avoucher for two at De NoordhoekHotel which includes dinner, bedand breakfast and R1000 vouchersfrom Long Beach Mall. The secondprincess also received tickets fromthe Baxter Theater, a voucher fortwo at De Noordhoek Hotel whichincludes dinner, bed and breakfastas well as R1000 vouchers fromLong Beach Mall.

“Hearty thanks to everyone inthe community who has supportedthe Mardi Gras, contributing to itssuccess this year.” Miller-Isaacsadds that “Peoples Post is proud tohave been the print media partnersof this important initiative andlooks forward to a continued part-nership.”

STUNNING: Miss Mardi Gras 2012 contestants struting their stuff.Photo: Rashied Isaacs

Carnival Kings yet againTAURIQ HASSEN

THIS year’s annual minstrelcarnival has come to a close,with Santam District Six En-tertainers being crowned aschampions for the second yearrunning.

The concluding phase of thecompetition unfolded at the Ath-lone Stadium on Saturday, withtop teams eyeing the title of “Car-nival Kings”.

Malick Laattoe, owner of San-tam D6, was over the moon say-ing: “This is what we worked forand it’s an unbelievable feeling,winning the carnival for twoyears in a row.”

Santam District Six Entertain-ers walked away with 13 trophiescomprising of first prizes forAdult Drum Major, Junior Com-bined Chorus, Group Song, Eng-lish Combined Chorus, Afri-kaans Moppie and English Mop-pie, second prizes for JuniorDrum Major, Junior Sentimentaland Minstrel Song, fourth prizesfor Grand March Pass, Exhibi-tion, Best Board and a fifth prizefor Best Band.

“We beat the second placedcompetitor by 27 points; what anachievement,” says the excitedowner. Laattoe believes that“hard work, strategic planningand setting achievable goals” wasthe secret behind the team’s suc-cess and most importantly, rack-ing up back-to-back titles.

“This year it was a collectivecommitment from all role-play-ers that made our goals attaina-

ble, from the two-year-old young-ster to the 80-year-old pensioner.Pressure was definitely on us andwe could feel the heat,” says Laat-toe. Supporters from all over con-gratulated the team on their suc-cess, most saying that SantamDistrict Six were “deservedlycrowned as Carnival Kings”.

Ayesha Galant has four chil-dren, three grandchildren andfive son-in-laws all walking in thetroupe and says winning the com-petition brought “excitement tothe house”.

“They all rushed in here jump-ing up and down in the earlyhours of the morning, and thenthey rushed out to link up withthe team again to go and cele-brate. This troupe really knowshow to entertain the masses andwinning the competition provedthey are true entertainers,” saysGalant.

Ebrahim Jacobs, another fan of

the team, said: “Congratulationsto the Santam District Six Enter-tainers, because throughout theyear, everybody involved withthe team works around the clockto improve their performanceand they deserve to be crownedchampions.”

The top five teams in the SuperLeague of the competition were:Santam District Six Entertain-ers, Shoprite Pennsylvannians,Ashwin Willemse Orient Com-munity Entertainers, HappyBoys Entertainers and Salt RiverCrooning Minstrels.

Laattoe concluded by saying:“The year ahead has much morehard work and we are revisingour strategy, as the competitionlevel has been raised. To all teamsthat made this carnival a success,we are all winners. We as SantamD6 salute you and our motherbody, Cape Town Minstrel Carni-val Association.”

WAITING PATIENTLY: Members of Happy Boy’s Entertainers, left, San­tam District Six Entertainers and Shoprite Pennsylvannians, await theresults. Photo: Riedewaan Wagiet

Ikeys believe in themselvesLIAM MOSES

It is a well-known saying in sportthat getting to the top is a lot easierthan staying there, and it seemsthat the University of Cape Town’sVarsity Cup team will learn justhow true that is this season.

The Ikey Tigers became only thesecond team to win the competi-tion last year, when they defeatedthe University of Pretoria 26-16and wrestled the title away fromlocal rivals, University of Stellen-bosch, who had dominated thecompetition since its inception in2008.

Since the team’s excellent per-

formance last year, several oftheir star players graduated intothe senior team at the Stormers,leaving them short on experienceand quality. But head coach KevinFoote believes that the loss ofthese players cannot be blamed forhis team’s poor showing in theiropening game against the Univer-sity of Free State.

“Obviously those players werefantastic and that’s why they havegone up the ranks. But the majori-ty of players we now have, hadplayed in the Western Capeleague, and we won the WesternCape league, so there is no real ex-cuse,” said Foote.

“We planned for this, but justdidn’t execute well on Monday. Istill believe this team is goodenough to win. If I don’t back theplayers, who will?”

Nick Fenton-Wells, DonovanArmand, Eben Etsebeth, NizaamCarr, Demetri Catrakilis, NicGroom and Marcel Brache aresome of the players who were notavailable for selection when UCTlost 38-10 to Shimlas.

Foote has put the defeat down topoor execution from his side aswell as the excellent defence ofUFS, forcing errors from UCT.

“Shimlas played well and put alot of pressure on us. I think it

showed in our ball handling. Ithink it was two-fold. They put usunder pressure and we didn’t copewell.”

The defeat came as a surprise tomany UCT fans, and the early sea-son enthusiasm of many support-ers seems to have faded away.

Foote said that although he un-derstands the disappointment, histeam should not be written off justyet.

“I think I understand why peo-ple are having a negative responseto some aspects of the defeat,” saidFoote.

“At the same time, it was onegame and we created a lot of oppor-

tunities for ourselves but didn’tconvert them into points. It’s notall doom and gloom.

“We know we disappointedsome of our fans, but it’s one game.We will move on and we will comeback.”

Foote added that his playerswere confident in their ability toretain the title this season.

“For some of the guys it’s thefirst time they lost in the first teamjersey. Maybe not in the VarsityCup because it was their debut,but they played 9 or 10 games inthe first team jersey and they won.They definitely believe they canwin it.”

SPEEDY: Devon Koff of Athlone Athletics sends in a pitch dur­ing the Major League Baseball match against Blaauwberg atAthlone Athletics Baseball Club on Saturday.

Photo: Peter Heeger

SAFE: Ricky Lloyd of Blaauwberg beats PJ Abrahams of AthloneAthletics into second base during the Major League Baseball atAthlone Athletics Baseball Club on Saturday. Photo: Peter Heeger

OUT: Casley Ripepi of Athlone Athletics is run out by Matt Soder­land of Blaauwberg during a Major League Baseball match be­tween the sides at Athlone Athletics Baseball Club.

Photo: Peter Heeger