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UFS under SAs top three tennis clubs

01 March 2019 | Story Ruan Bruwer

Ruben Kruger, one of the four Kovsie team members who helped his side to the second place at the national tennis club championship.

The impressive tennis team of the University of the Free State, the national student title holders, came very close to also being crowned as the national club champions on Monday (25 February 2019).

The team from the University of the Free State lost to Marks Park in the final of the Top guns national club tournament at Sun City by two games to one. Matches consisted of men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles, with optional rotation at the end of each set.

The team members from the UFS were Arne Nel, Ruben Kruger, Lienke de Kock, and Ester de Kock.

In the finals, the UFS won their one match in the mixed doubles thanks to the double pair of De Kock (Lienke) and Kruger.

In the second version of the tournament 18 of the best clubs, including all the provincial tennis champs, competed for the honours as national club champions. The students’ second spot was an improvement on the fourth position the team achieved last year. That team also included Nel and De Kock. Last year they also lost to Marks Park, on that occasion in the play-offs for the third position.

On Saturday and Sunday, the UFS defeated both Aces (Limpopo) and Old Mutual (Western Cape) by 3-0 but lost to Brighton from KwaZulu-Natal in die final round-robin match.

In the semi-finals they were too strong for Kuils River of the Western Cape, winning by 2-0.

The team received prize money of R10 000 as runners-up plus R10 000 to be shared among the players.

News Archive

Pres Steyn turns pink in anticipation of Vryfees

2014-06-06

Video clip
Live streaming

Australian artist Cigdem Aydemir vacuum packed the Pres Steyn monument on the Bloemfontein Campus’s Red Plain – in pink. Aydemir’s project, ‘Plastic Histories’, forms part of a public art project that encourages us to evaluate public monuments in their historical context.

By vacuum packing monuments, Aydemir alludes to their significance and preservation. At the same time, though, it reveals the nature of their contentious and gendered historical function. This is because most monuments in post-colonial countries typically celebrate men’s achievements in serving their nations.

In response, this project acknowledges the contribution of women from all races, communities and sexual orientations to the grand narrative of a post-apartheid South Africa.

Aydemir is also developing an app in collaboration with Australian artist Warren Armstrong. This will be used for augmented reality viewing of three city monuments – those of President Brand, General De Wet and General Hertzog. This means that visitors will be able to hold a smart phone or iPad in front of the monuments and view the monuments as if vacuum packed in pink plastic.

In conjunction with the public art project there will be an exhibition of digitally manipulated photographs of nineteen-century and contemporary male monuments in Bloemfontein. These photos will be exhibited at the Johannes Stegmann Gallery at the UFS Sasol Library from 15 July – 1 August 2014.

Public tours on the Bloemfontein Campus and into the city will take place on:

• Tuesday 15 July at 11:00,
• Wednesday 16 July at 14:00, and
• Saturday 19 July at 11:00.

Aydemir’s ‘Plastic Histories’ public art project is part of the UFS Programme for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD) and the Vryfees arts festival’s partnership with the Australian-based SituateArt in Festivals initiative. This partnership is managed by the Salamanca Arts Centre in Tasmania.