Michael Fridjhon (Class of 1970) wins 2012 Louis Roederer International Wine Columnist of the Year Award. The presentation took place in the Ballroom at the Four Seasons Hotel on Park Lane and was attended by wine writers, journalists, artists, members of the wine trade and publishers from around the world. Entries in 2012 from International Writers, was up by 1/3 and the Book category was huge, adding to the Judges already heavy workload!

Michael Fridjhon has been the Business Day’s wine columnist since the paper’s inception 27 years ago. No-one outside the UK has won the International Columnist Award before. The winners leading up to Michael are Anthony Rose, Tim Atkin M.W., Andrew Jefford and Victoria Moore in that order.

He is chairman of the judges at the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show and judge at numerous other competitions including the international Wine and Spirit Competition (UK), the Australian National Wine Show, the Tri-Nations Challenge as well as benchmark tastings in France, the United States, Chile and South Africa. Author, co-author and contributor to a number of wine books including The Oxford Companion to Wine, ICONS (SA), The Global Wine Encyclopaedia, and John Platter (SA).

The winners in 2012 are:

Category 1 – The Artistry of Wine Award 2012
– Colin Hampden-White

Category 2 – Emerging Wine Writer of the Year 2012
– Erika Szymanski for www.palatepress.com

Category 3 – Online Wine Columnist / Blogger of the Year 2012
– Andrew Jefford for www.decanter.com

Category 4 – International Wine Website of the Year 2012
– Peter Liem for www.champagneguide.net

Category 5 – International Wine Publication of the Year 2012
The World of Fine Wine Johanna Wilson, Publisher, and Dr. Neil Beckett, Editor

Category 6 – Regional Wine Writer of the Year 2012
– Tom Bruce-Gardyne Articles from The Glasgow Herald

Category 7 – International Wine Book of the Year 2012
– Summer in a Glass Evan Dawson

Category 8 – International Wine Columnist of the Year 2012
– Michael Fridjhon Columns from Business Day, South Africa

Category 9 – International Wine Feature Writer of the Year 2012
– John Stimpfig The Financial Times How to Spend It

Congratulations to King Edward VII School Old Boy, Michael on this fantastic achievement!

Record-breaking Springbok winger Bryan Habana walked off with the WP Back of the Year, for his performances at Super Rugby level, whilst hooker Scarra Ntubeni, despite also still being eligible for the WP Under-21 team, was awarded the prize as the union’s Most Promising Senior Player.

The Annual DHL WP trophy presentation was held at Kelvin Grove on Wednesday with the Western Province Rugby Football Union recognising all club performances within the union and also rewarding those professional players who have performed well in 2012. The big winner on the night was WP & Stormers and Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth, who was presented with the WP Forward of the Year Award and the WP Players’ Player of the Year Award (the latter as voted for by his peers).

Congratulations to the King Edward VII School Old Boys on their awards and good luck to them as they face the Lions in the upcoming Currie-Cup Semi-Final on Saturday.

In a special assembly on the 28 September, King Edward VII School bid a fond farewell to K.E.P.S Headmaster, Mr John Foote. Acting Headmaster Mr Hansen expressed his gratitude and thanks to Mr Foote for his 25 years dedication & commitment to the education of the Prep School boys. Mr Foote responded by thanking the High School and wishing all of the boys much success into the future.

The Choir & Pipe Band honoured Mr Foote during and after the Assembly & Mr Hansen handed over gifts from the High School to Mr Foote.

 

In a special assembly on the 28 September, King Edward VII School bid a fond farewell to K.E.P.S Headmaster, Mr John Foote. Acting Headmaster Mr Hansen expressed his gratitude and thanks to Mr Foote for his 25 years dedication & commitment to the education of the Prep School boys. Mr Foote responded by thanking the High School and wishing all of the boys much success into the future.

The Choir & Pipe Band honoured Mr Foote during and after the Assembly & Mr Hansen handed over gifts from the High School to Mr Foote.

 

Siyabonga Ntubeni, King Edward VII School Old Boy, earned the ‘Man-of-Match’ Award at the Currie Cup clash for WP vs the Bulls on 1 September 2012. Scarra delivered a fantastic performance in his first start for the WP side and the Super Sport commentators were highly impressed with his work-load and high praise was given for ‘grabbing his chance’ and showing his worth. WP thrashed the Bulls 42-6.

“There’s so much belief in the camp,” said the young hooker after the game.

“But the coaches have also always remained positive; they still believed in us even when we didn’t perhaps reward them with results. There are six of us U21 players in the team and the coach backs us all.”

Congrats to Siyabonga, the RED Community will be continually cheering you on and watching from the side-lines for even more appearances for WP!