Despite the shortage of club umpires to officiate, northern league general manager Tswinkie Kesebonye said the programme went smoothly. He said most of the outstanding games especially for the Mahalapye-based Rail Giants, are due to work commitments. "The league went well though we had challenges because the club umpires sometimes failed to officiate the games and we are working on this to ensure the second round runs more smoothly. We encountered a problem of not having certified umpires," he said. Kesebonye said in order to close the gap they had in the first round, they would be going to secondary schools where they hope to engage certified umpires to assist in officiating league games.
In what could be a mouth-watering duel for the weekend, Rebels take on Orapa-based Carats before they battle it out with Rail Giants. Rail Giants will play Carats in their last game of the first round. The on-form Francistown-based Scramblers are on top of the log with eight points from four games played.
