Twenty young people, dressed in confidence, strode, sashayed, danced, glowered and grinned their way into the hearts of a supportive crowd at St Thomas Catholic Church Hall last weekend. The 2025 Mr & Miss Kowie United 2025 competition drew friends, families, neighbours and club supporters for an entertaining and uplifting evening.
After struggling to break out of the bottom ranks, it’s a new era for Kowie United Rugby Football Club as they prepare to start the 2026 season in the Adams Cup league. Saturday night’s event was to help raise funds for the considerable expenses that will entail, and to celebrate the club’s members and supporters.
The organisers could not have found better compering than the duo of Somila Kunkuma and Mandy Peters, who set each other off marvellously as they kept the audience and participants engaged and at ease. DJ Liny (Lionel Faro) made sure the beat matched the vibe.
Kowie United will start their 2026 season with a young executive, club president Norman Denston told the gathered families and supporters.
“We are entering a new era,” he said. “We’re no longer in the ‘bush league’.”
Explaining some of the expenses the team would face in its Adams Cup campaign, Denston said a weekend trip to Kariega, for example, cost R10 000.
“It will cost this team R80 000 a year, just to play rugby,” he said.
Appealing to the Station Hill community, he said, “For some of our young people, this [club] is the only place where they can express themselves. If we don’t stand together to support them as they follow their dreams, we will lose these children.”
Addressing the players’ partners, he urged them to be supportive, too.
“Maak jou man los, asseblief, op ‘n Saterdag!” he said, to much laughter.
The Mr and Miss Kowie United mini pageant allowed a diversity of personalities to shine through the participants’ individual styles. Some relished the long walk up to and across the stage, stepping into their choreographed moves as if they were born to it; others were amused, defiant or sassy.
Duo Reguchan Smith and Jenay Burger brought the house down with their rendition of Lay me down, by Sam Smith.
When judges Antoinette Cannon, Etienne Abrahams and Elethu Nqoba finally reached their decision, it was Lihanna Cockera who was named Miss Kowie United, with Amber Prince and Linray Hilpert first and second runners up.
For 2026, Kowie United’s first-team centre Dayne Jacobs will hold the title of Mr Kowie United. Runners up were Jonny Mthembu and Mihlali Gqokoma.
Denston said afterwards he was pleased with the inaugural event.
“It was the first time we’ve hosted the event for the community,” he said. Next year we’ll go really big.
“I think we’ve won some hearts with our event and I hope that will translate as support come next season. The main thing was to be inclusive and have fun. It was a community builder.”
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, November 13, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
