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Sport Sport has proved to be a wonderful way of bringing together the people of South Africa and various steps to break down the traditional racial stereotypes of certain sports have been taken and seem to be working well. Four big sports dominate life in Cape Town. These are rugby, soccer, cricket and horseracing. The city is home to one of rugby’s most famous teams, the Stormers (website: http://stormersrugby.com), who – despite a run of unsuccessful seasons in the Super 12 series – are still rated as one of the toughest teams in international competition. Newlands Rugby Stadium, 11 Boundary Road, Newlands, is home to these local heroes as well as the comprehensive SA Rugby Museum (tel: (021) 659 6768). This is a sport that commands a massive following from all sections of the South African public. The home union is the Western Province Rugby Football Union (tel: (021) 689 4921; website: www.wprugby.com). South Africans are also soccer mad, although most of the top teams are based in Johannesburg. The three top local teams – Ajax Cape Town (website: www.ajaxct.com), Hellenic and Santos – all feature strongly in the national Premier League, with Santos the most recent winner, when it took the title of the Premier Soccer League Championship 2002. This was a particularly impressive feat, seeing as the team had been in the Federation League during the apartheid years and sustained itself without a sponsor. Football’s governing body, based at Hartleyvale Stadium, Willow Road, Observatory (tel: (021) 448 8653 or 8652, for bookings), is the Western Province Soccer Association (tel: (021) 448 1648). With a strong English colonial history, Cape Town is one of the main feeding grounds for the South African international cricket squad, the Proteas. The home of Western Province cricket is at the Newlands Cricket Oval, 146 Campground Road, Newlands, where the governing body, Western Province Cricket Association, 161 Campground Road (tel: (021) 683 6420; e-mail: info@wpca.co.za; website: www.wpca.cricket.org), is located. Matches are played on most weekend in summer, with international tests between South Africa and its main rivals – Australia, England, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and New Zealand – regularly on the agenda. The Cape Town venue is popular with both local and international teams, largely due to the beautiful location and the super-friendly crowds, whose cheerful antics and laid-back attitude set players at ease. Night cricket is probably one of the most popular pastimes in Cape Town and a good excuse to down beer and cheer at every ball that gets hit. With South Africa all set to host the World Cup Cricket in 2003, Cape Town has been chosen as the home base for the national heroes – although the final will be played in Johannesburg. Horseracing is as much a social event in Cape Town as it is a sporting one. The annual J&B Met (website: www.jbmet.co.za) is held at the Kenilworth Race Track, Rosmead Avenue, and is an event where the hats seem to receive more attention than the horses. The daily newspapers carry regular racing supplements. Tickets to sporting events are available for purchase from Computicket (tel: (083) 915 8000; e-mail: info@computicket.com; website: www.computicket.com). Adventure sports: The spectacular natural setting of the city means that adventurous sports enjoy a huge following. There are several operators who offer a range of adventure sports, from mountain biking to abseiling, rock climbing to sky diving, hiking to bungee jumping, surfing to shark diving and canyonning (known locally as ‘kloofing’, which entails hiking into romote mountain ranges and then swimming and jumping down the gorges). Daytrippers (tel: (021) 531 0722; fax: (021) 531 3274; e-mail: tripper@iafrica.com; website: www.daytrippers.co.za) offers tours, bike hikes and kloofing, while Adventure Village (tel: (021) 424 1580; fax: (021) 424 1590; e-mail: thrills@adventure-village.co.za; website: www.adventure-village.co.za) offers a full range of adventure and extreme sports options, tours and expeditions. Fitness centres: Virgin Active (tel: (021) 710 8500; fax: (021) 710 8800; website: www.virginactive.co.za) has the monopoly on the fitness centres around the Western Cape, each offering a variety of facilities including gym equipment, swimming, squash, tennis and other sports. Club locations include Claremont, Main Road (tel: (021) 683 2402), Constantia, Main Road (tel: (021) 794 5010), Durbanville Palmgrove Centre, Main Road (tel: (021) 975 5210) and N1 City Value Centre, N1 (tel: (021) 595 3030). Membership is required and a one-month pass costs R500. Golf: There are many golf courses in and around Cape Town, as well as almost every small town outside the metropolitan area providing courses. Many are open to the public. The Western Province Golf Union (tel: (021) 686 1668; fax: (021) 686 1669; e-mail: wpga@global.co.za) is the umbrella body. Eighteen-hole golf courses that are open to the public include the Rondebosch Golf Club, 3 Klipfontein Road (tel: (021) 689 4176; fax: (021) 685 1447), the Royal Cape Golf Club, 174 Ottery Road, Wynberg (tel: (021) 761 6551; fax: (021) 797 5246), and the Clovelly Country Club, Clovelly Road, Clovelly (tel: (021) 782 1118; fax: (021) 782 6853). Green fees vary from R210 for 18 holes at the Rondebosch Golf Club to R280 for 18 holes at the Clovelly Golf Club. Further afield, Spier Country Club, off the R44 toward Stellenbosch (tel: (021) 809 0669), is an 18-hole course located beneath the Helderberg Mountain range. The club hosts the Golf Summer Festival as well as a Ladies Day on the last Thursday of every month, when 18 holes cost just R100, as well as a Twilight Round every Friday (tee off 1500-1600), costing R80 for nine holes and sundowners on the balcony of the clubhouse (booking is essential). Swimming: The City of Cape Town’s Parks and Bathing Amenities (tel: (021) 400 3823) oversees Cape Town’s public swimming pools. Newlands Pool, Sans Souci Road, Newlands (tel: (021) 674 4197), is the centre of competitive swimming, diving and water polo. The Long Street Baths, Long Street (tel: (021) 400 3302), is an indoor, heated pool, adjacent to the Turkish Baths (tel: (021) 400 2202). Entrance to the pools is R6. Many Virgin Active clubs (see Fitness centres above) provide swimming facilities. The Camps Bay Tidal Pool, Camps Bay beach (tel: (021) 438 1244), provides an alfresco bathing opportunity. Tennis: Although there are scores of recreational tennis clubs dotted around the city, it is extremely difficult to access the courts unless accompanied by a member. Several of the golf clubs (see Golf above) also provide tennis and lawn bowl facilities. Likewise, many of the Virgin Active clubs (see Fitness centres above) also provide tennis courts, as do several major hotels. Tennis Western Province, Lovers Walk, Rondebosch (tel: (021) 686 3055; fax: (021) 685 5293), can provide further information. Watersports: Cape Town is an extremely popular destination for watersports enthusiasts. African Sea Kayaking (tel: (021) 788 8288) offers sea kayaking, which is a new and popular pastime, involving gentle coastal cruising to more energetic wave surfing and adventure paddling. Zandvlei, in Muizenberg, is still quite popular with windsurfing and small craft yachting, although hardcore windsurfers have tired of the area as it has developed and consider it a beginner’s beach, prefering to brave the breakers off Blaauwberg, Long Beach and Cape Point or the Dungeons off Hout Bay. False Bay is considered somewhat dangerous, as this is the favourite spot for other watersports enthusiasts, namely Great White Sharks. Ocean yachting mainly takes place in the Table Bay and False Bay. The Royal Cape Yacht Club, Duncan Road, Table Bay (tel: (021) 421 1354; fax: (021) 421 6028), can provide further information. The Wind Report (tel: (021) 788 8226 or 5965) provides regular updates on the wind situation, while the Surf Report (tel: (021) 788 1350) keeps surfers up to date on wave conditions around the peninsula. Surfing information and tips are also available online (website: www.wavescape.co.za). |
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