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Oscar July's Star Performer?

Cape Town - After much debate and head scratching, the Sport24 team have announced their Performers, Plonkers and Pictures of the month for July 2011.

Click HERE to cast your vote - and WIN!

Every month the Sport24 editorial team will announce nominations for a sportsperson or team (people who stole the limelight with a specific performance that month), a plonker (a team or person who has not covered themselves in glory) and a sports photo of the month (the one that makes you go "Ahhh"). You then get a chance to vote for the person, team and picture that best deserves the award...

So without further ado, then, the July nominations are...

PERFORMANCE:

Narrowing down the nominations for the July star of the month proved tricky with several candidates returning performances worthy of recognition.

ERIN BURGER
The South African netball team consolidated their No 1 ranking in Africa with a fifth-place finish at the World Netball Championships in Singapore. The Proteas’ fortunes were in no small part thanks to Erin Burger who scooped the Player of the Tournament award at the conclusion of the event.

FREE STATE CRAVEN WEEK TEAM
The Free State Cheetahs side continued the region’s proud history in the Craven Week when they walked away with the overall honours at the 2011 edition in Kimberley. The Grey Bloem-laden team accounted for the Golden Lions in the final and were rewarded with five players in the SA Schools side selected at the end of the tournament.

OSCAR PISTORIUS
South Africa’s “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius realised his dream of running at the Olympics when he met the qualification standard for the 2012 Games in London. Needing to run 45.25 in the 400m to qualify, Pistorius clocked 45.07 in Lignano to book his spot on the team.

JORDY SMITH
South Africa’s surfing golden boy, Jordy Smith, successfully defended his title at the Billabong Pro at Jeffreys Bay in front of a raucous, yet adoring crowd, putting him firmly in line to clinch his maiden ASP World Title.

SA UNDER-19 CRICKET TEAM
Under the coaching eye of former Proteas great Ray Jennings, the South African Under-19 cricket team beat their English counterparts 4-2 in their ODI series in England. Packed with talent, look out for a number of the team to knock on the Proteas door in the near future…

PLONKERS:

And in the not so serious plonker category... Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the biggest plonker of them all?

DOCTOR CRAIG ROBERTS
Given that SARU would be in breach of their contract with SANZAR were they to use the words “rested” when speaking of the 21 players the Boks left at home, one can understand the good doc calling those players “injured”, but to send Heinrich Brussow and Johann Muller on tour only for Muller to pull out before the first game and Brussow not to play at all has to necessitate a call to the incompetence police!!

SARU
Speaking of the 21 players the Boks left at home ... It seems that both SARU and Peter de Villiers, were so nervous of finding themselves in breach of their contract with SANZAR that they decided to deny the fact that said players were in a camp with Rassie Erasmus in Rustenburg. A simple press release a few days earlier saying that the players were in a central place getting the best medical attention money could buy would have solved all the embarrassment. 

VICTOR MATFIELD
Seemingly unaware of this sword of Damocles SANZAR contract that has forced everyone to look pretty foolish when talking about the 21 “Injured” Boks, Victor Matfield, missing the Tri-Nations tour due to various injuries listed by Doc Roberts, was happy to go hunting and Tweet a picture of himself and team-mate Fourie du Preez Du Preez standing over a bloodied zebra they had just shot and killed.

SA SWIMMING TEAM
With just three medals in total, all of them bronze, Team South Africa had a pretty disappointing 14th FINA World Championships in Shanghai. Taking the cake, though, were the synchronised swimming and water polo teams. The former did not advance from the first round in any event, the men’s water polo team lost every game and came last, while the woman won their last game to come second last overall!

STORMERS FRONT ROW
In an embarrassingly one-sided Super Rugby semi-final, the Stormers exited the tournament at the hands of the imperious Crusaders at Newlands. The white flag was effectively raised at only the second set scrum of the evening when Wyatt Crockett, Corey Flynn and Owen Franks brothers made proper mince meat of Brok Harris, Tiaan Liebenberg and Wicus Blaauw, and the home side crumbled accordingly.

PHOTOS:


In a bid to deservedly salute the photographers doing the hard graft on the sidelines. Sport24 have put together a gallery of the "Best of the Best" pictures of the month of July. They're guaranteed to leave you speechless. Click HERE to view our selection of the: Best of the best pictures

Reader voting

Readers monthly votes will decide the 12 finalists in each category, and it is from those 12 finalists that Sport24 will decide their Star, Plonker and Picture of the Year in December.
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