Zimbabwe’s Hamilton Masakadza is in excellent form and twice scored more than 150 in the recent one-day series against Kenya, which is a record.

Whilst it can be argued that Kenya are not the best team in the world, it is still an impressive performance as Hamilton Masakadza made 156 against Kenya in the first match of the recent series in Harare, and 178 not out in the fifth, also in Harare.

This is the first time a batsman has made 150 or more twice in the same one-day series. There have been instances where other batsmen have come close, with Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya passing 150 twice in successive innings three days apart, but they weren’t in the same series: on July 1, 2006, he made 152 against England at Headingley, and three days later he smashed 157 against the Netherlands in Amstelveen.

Hamilton is in good company as only Sachin Tendulkar from India and Chris Gayle, Brian Lara and Viv Richards from the West Indies have reached 150 three times in ODIs, with Jayasuriya the only person to have done it four times.

A map of Kariba showing the under-water topography has been published and is offered in both hard copy and digital version.

The map information covers the eastern basin from Charara to Photo Corner just beyond the narrows.

The height and river information was compiled from the state topographical maps, completed in 1955. Mapping technology has since vastly improved so the accuracy of these old maps is not great. To improve accuracy the vectors were adjusted to fit, as best as possible, more modern data. The maps were then re-projected onto the WGS 1984 datum (spheroid).

The contour intervals are at 25 FEET vertical distance and water supply level is taken at 1600 feet a.s.l. and thus this is the level depicted by the shoreline.

At a scale of 1:100 000 the physical map size is approximately 1100mm x 600mm. Due to the small size of the market lithographic reproduction is uneconomic and so the prints are generated on demand. They are printed on a 150 gram gloss art paper through a colour laser printer that produces an excellent image which is colour-fast and waterproof. However the restriction on the print size means it has to be produced in two halves and joined down the length. Unfortunately they are relatively expensive. The map can be personalized to include photographs and other specifically provided detail. This option may well be popular for house-boat owners.

The digital version comes on CD with an application that needs to be installed on a desktop/laptop. Global Mapper is a simple application and experimentation will familiarise you with its workings. As the map is geo-referenced the cursor position is shown with a lat/long readout. Zooming in and out, measuring distances and adding your own data are primary functions of this application. You can change view parameters from kilometres to nautical miles, for example A search tool allows you to find any of the named data features.

If you have a data cable you can plug your GPS into your desktop/laptop and experience live tracking. Global Mapper 5 only works with serial port connections so if your data cable is USB you will need to purchase GM version 7 or later. Please note that the map cannot be up-loaded to your GPS instrument.

The digital data also includes A4 sized bitmaps of the lake (Zim side only). These have been supplied so that you can print out copies of specific areas at a larger (1:50 000) scale.

This product is the result of thousands of man-hours and is a very useful tool for planning, navigating, recording and analysing. The cost of one hard copy is USD45 and the digital version is USD40 (includes installation on a laptop). Bundled in a package deal the cost together is USD75.

A copy is displayed in the Fishing Shop in the Golden Stairs Nursery complex – come along and see it when you have time.

Contact Kevin Philip on 744067, 0912 709 350 kevnlea1@yahoo.com for more information.

Kariba on Amazon.co.uk

“I have stated heretofore in print and am still ready to maintain my pronouncement, that the tigerfish of Africa is the fiercest fish that swims. Let others hold forth as advocates for the mako shark, the barracudas, the piranah of the Amazon, or the blue fish of the Atlantic. To them I say ‘Pish and Tush’.” L. J. McCormick, 1949.

On October 21st 2009 one of the biggest annual fishing events in Africa and certainly in Zimbabwe will begin. The Kariba International Tiger Fish Tournament has been recognized by the International Game Fish Association as one of the greatest Game Fish tournaments in the World and KITFT was made a qualifying round of the IGFA Inshore World Game Fish Championships.

History

The Kariba International Tiger Fish Tournament started way back in 1962, when a bunch of farmers deciding to go fishing.

Since then the tournament has grown and in 1991 there were 333 teams – some 300 more teams than the first tournament. At last year’s tournament 186 teams participated from 6 countries.

The biggest haul was recorded in 2000 when 9 910.700 kgs of fish were caught. The biggest fish was caught by Mike Otto in 1989 weighing 10.210kg. Ladies have also become a force to be reckoned with and both the ladies records were broken in 2000. The top Ladies Individual Aggregate stands at 58.890kg held by Char Ward, and the biggest fish by a lady being 8.850kg, held by Merinada Wheeler.

More About the Tournament

• You can find more information on the official KITFT Website

More about the Tigerfish

• You can find more on the Tigerfish (Hydrocynus forskalii) on the Safari Guide website.

Kariba on Amazon.co.uk

The Zimbabwe Cheetahs 7′s rugby side will compete in a tough group in this years Dubai Rugby Sevens tournament.

To be held from the 4th to the 5th of December, Zimbabwe were drawn in the same pool with former champions Fiji, Samoa and Scotland in the 16-team competition. Zimbabwe will go into the tournament with mixed emotions as they managed an impressive run to get to the final  of the recent Trustco international tournament in Windhoek, but then lost heavily to South African in that final ( 14-61).

Zimbabwe’s match against Samoa is will be the second game of the opening day’s fixtures, from there the Zim Cheetahs take on Fiji before meeting Scotland in their final group game.

South Africa have the  number one seed at the Dubai tournament followed by Fiji, England and New Zealand.

Although they did well in Namibia, the Cheetahs know they have to be at their best at the Dubai to progress past the pool stages of the tournament. How well Zimababwe do is also important for them to be considered for more world series tourneys.

IRB Sevens manager Beth Coalter said Zimbabwe could be invited to the Hong Kong tournament should they impress the world rugby governing body in Dubai and in South Africa.

“I am pleased to confirm Zimbabwe’s Sevens team’s participation in the 2009/2010 series in the Dubai tournament (4-5 December) and South Africa (11-12 December). “Following the team’s performance in these two tournaments, Zimbabwe would also be invited to participate at the Hong Kong tournament (26-28 March). “I look forward to Zimbabwe participating once again in this year’s series,” read part of the letter from Coalter.

Cheetahs manager Bruce Hobson believes his side has the potential to impress in Dubai and South Africa and win a call to more IRB events. “We will do our best to be invited to Hong Kong,” said Hobson. “Our Sevens campaign has intensified this year with more interest as a result of the positive things from the Sevens World Cup.” “We have concentrated on developing a squad of 22 players who could be competitive enough to play in the IRB World Series.” “In this respect our Sevens Academy continues to provide the training vehicle for our Sevens throughout the year so that we build on our player base in case of injuries and player non-availability,’’ said Hobson.

Zimbabwe  won the Castle Sevens in Zambia in June, managed their first silverware at the World Cup where they won the Bowl, and were brilliant at the Trustco International where they beat such experienced sides like Argentina and Portugal.

Key players like Cleopas Makotose, Gerald Sibanda, Gordon Pangeti, Wesley Mbanje, Daniel Hondo, Willis Magasa and Ryan Manyika, have recently been missing from the side and it is hoped that they will return for Dubai, so that Zim can field the strongest team possible.

The new faces to look out for in Zimbabwe 7′s colours include Scotty Jones, Bruce Chibesa, Graham Kaulbach, and Busani Ndlovu.

More information on Zimbabwe Rugby: http://www.zimbabwerugby.com

I was  introduced to the South African Vetkoek, whilst studding to be come a field guide (safari guide) in the Limpopo region of  South Africa, but their history goes back to the days of the Voortrekkers who found it much quicker and easier to make than bread.

Pronounced ‘Fet Cook’, they are delicious alternative to bread and can be eaten as a savoury dish, served with a beef mince sauce, or sweet with golden syrup or apricot jam and a with a cup of strong black coffee.

Basically Vetkoek are deep fried dough balls (buns) and are similar to Dutch “oliebollen”, the main diference being that oliebollen are sweet and contains raisins.

The traditional way to make vetkoek is to use a yeast bread dough, but as with this quick and simple vetkoek recipe, you can use baking powder as the raising agent.

Vetkoek Ingredients

• 2 cups (500 ml) flour
• 2 teaspoons (10 ml) baking powder

Or you can replace the flour and baking powder with self-raising flour

• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ½ t (2 ml) salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup (250 ml) milk
• Enough oil for deep-frying (about 12 cm deep)

Method

1. Sift the flour, baking powder and the salt together
2. Whisk the egg, milk and sugar
3. Make a well in the dry ingredients, add milk and egg mixture and mix to very soft dough. Add more milk if necessary.
4. Heat the oil to between 180 °C and 190°C.
5. Ladle level spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil (12 cm deep) and bake until brown on both sides, before removing from oil.
6. Use towel paper to absorb the excess oil.

Done. It is as simple as that!

Long before you could just go to the shops and buy “Ouma Rusks”, real life grannies would actually make them for their families. It’s true I promise!

In South Africa, the are known as Beskuit (South African rusks) and are brilliant to dunk in your morning tea or coffee and make great snacks for rumbling tummies; morning, noon and night. They are also still used as a traditional way to treat stay-over guests by waking them with a tray of freshly brewed coffee and rusks.

So if you now live somewhere where you can’t just go to the store and buys rusks, or if you just fancy making them for yourself, below is the recipe:

Ingredients:

The North Bradley Baptist Church in Wiltshire will host an evening with former Zimbabwean cricket star Henry Olonga as part of a free entry, fundraising night in aid of Cancer Research.

Pastor Ben Midgley said that “It’s about building a bridge between ourselves and the local community.” and that “Outreach events like this are essential. You can’t expect people to come to the church if we can’t make the effort to introduce them to what we have to offer.”

All are welcome to enjoy an evening of cricket chat and Henry will speak about life now in the UK, as well as share his own personal passion for singing.

Where: North Bradley Baptist Church, Wiltshire
When: 7.30 pm, Friday 30th Oct 2009

Henry’s Faith:
Henry became a Christian at a youth camp at the age of 16. Some friends who were Christians invited him along to a youth camp. He heard messages each night and on one of the final evenings a man got up and preached the message of the gospel. It was to this message that he responded and gave his life to God.

For more information: Henry Olonga comes to North Bradley