Until I got to high school I never really appreciated sport.
My first memories of national sport were when I was with my Irish friend in Welkom, David Roche Kelly. One time he was practising show jumping with a horse. I had to hold the radio and tell him of the score. Dutifully I listened and told him every time he asked me. The Lions (a British Rugby team) was playing the Springboks in South Africa and the Lions were his team naturally. Today I can’t remember what scores I told him but I know he was very pleased with what I was saying. I remember being happy for him being so pleased. The game meant nothing to me then. Of course when I got older I realised the horror. The Lions soundly beat South Africa in the test series, it was a national disaster and I didn’t even know it at the time. My Dad and Grandfather Lofty loved rugby yet nothing related to sport had rubbed off on me at that stage of my life. It was 1974.
My earliest memory of a major sporting event was when my Dad took me to the Drive In with him to watch the 1974 Soccer World Cup.
Now the "Drive In" was the major social event for families in the "pre-television" era. All the cars would get there when the sun was setting and wait for it to get dark. The kids would all go play in the front where the giant screen was. Then we would see "attratractions" (my pronunciation when about six years old) for coming movies. Then there would be a news snippet (heavy propaganda of world events) and a cartoon would show for the kids. It would then be interval for every one to buy snacks (popcorn, peanuts, toffees, cooldrink called Canada Dry and so on). Then the movie would start. We had friends called the Nels; my mother would shake her head when talking to my Dad about the scandalous fact that they often went to the Drive In "three times a week!!!" You would get the early show and then the late show afterwards where age restricted movies would be shown. During the show a man with a torch would walk around and peer into suspicious cars where youngsters may be having a groping/smooching session or there could be underage kids in the car watching age restricted movies. The first time I saw an age restricted movie was with the Parkins family, it was a war movie where viewers had to be older than twelve. I was only eleven and a half years old and I was quite anxious in case I would be caught! But the Dad reassured me that I had nothing to worry about.
Anyway after the main show had finished, we arrived and settled down to watch the match between Germany and Holland. It started after 11pm, so it was very late for me but it made the event all the more exciting. Johan Cryff was the superstar who played for Holland. I remember that Holland kicked off and soon got a penalty in the box. The Dutch opened the scoring with a converted penalty. The commentator said that the Germans had not even touched the ball up until that penalty was scored. The Germans came back and scored twice. I remember a third goal was scored by the Germans but was incorrectly disallowed by the English Referee. The Germans won the World Cup. We had no television in South Africa at that time and this was the only way to see such a sporting event.
Drive ins were very popular in South Africa. The cars would all park and the kids would go to the front where the giant screen was and play on the grass. The adult would go and buy take aways before it got dark and then wait for the show to start. Parking the car was an exact science, it had to be, as there were five kids and my parents in the car. There was lots of whining until the Old Man got the angle and position on the slope correct for all the kids on the back seat to see.
The radio was very important to all South Africans at that time. The next soccer world cup was in Argentina in 1978. I was doing my military conscription at the time. I remember listening on the small radio in my barracks lying on a blanket on the floor to most of the games while my fellow Afrikaner troops slept. I was the only one interested in soccer, all the rest were only interested in Rugby. We had televisions by then. I was the only person who watched the final of the Soccer World Cup. It was between Argentina and Holland once again. It was a very closely contested game, in the dying seconds of regular time the Dutch narrowly missed scoring the winner. The game went into extra time and Argentina won the title. I was disappointed as I was supporting the Dutch. I felt the Argentinians often took a “dive” to get penalties. One time the camera zoomed in on an Argentinian who was rolling on the ground in agony, you could see the rogue was having a good laugh while he was looking away from the referee.
Then the next major sporting event in South Africa was when the British Lions toured here in 1981 under Billy Beaumont. South Africa won that tour 3 tests to 1. At this stage there was an intense Anti-Apartheid drive to stop the Lions from touring here. Why am I mentioning this tour? Several reasons; the first was that now I was a passionate supporter of the Springboks. The second reason was that I was very close friends with the Beattie brothers and they supported the Lions, not the Springboks. Inwardly I was furious, how could they?? They had emigrated from England to South Africa and they were now living here and I felt that they should surely support the local team! But I never said anything directly to them, however I admit to celebrating the victories of the Springboks in a gloating manner. Sadly, I was a typical South African supporter. The distorted local emotions of “patriotism” through sport, generated a great deal of anger, frustration, even hatred of the opponents the local teams played against. It was very much “US” verses “THEM”. Referees were biased against “US”, we were the eternal victims of sporting prejudice (IRONIC, as we felt we were poorly treated by overseas press and anti-apartheid activists but we never seemed to consider the plight of our own people in our own country).
The sporting boycotts grew more intense but the local sports administrators did all in their power to get international teams to tour here in South Africa. Various sportsmen came here but the penalties that they faced back home were severe, however the financial rewards were very tempting.
In the 1980’s, rebel cricket teams from Australia and the West Indies in particular, excited me enough to start having an interest in the sport of cricket.
The big fast bowlers from the West Indies really fascinated me. They were big glowering men. My favourite overseas player was a fellow by the name of Sylvester Clarke. I remember so vividly the one game where a one – dayer was being played at the "Bullring", the Wanderers cricket stadium between the West Indies Rebel team and our South African Team. Clarke was bowling to Peter Kirsten who was a great player on the English County scene. But Clarke was bowling too quick for Kirsten and I think about three or four deliveries hit Kirsten in the ribs, in a row! Kirsten must have been in considerable pain and when the next delivery came down, Kirsten just swung his bat wildly at it and the ball crashed into his wickets sending them flying everywhere. The West Indies wicket keeper was David Murray and I suppose he had been “chirping” Kirsten, for when Peter Kirsten was bowled out he lost his temper and ran after a rapidly retreating Murray while brandishing his cricket bat at his verbal tormentor. I was killing myself with laughter at that incredible spectacle. The West Indies beat us in that series and there were several amazing players in their team; my Dad loved their style of Calypso cricket. It made a huge impact on many white South Africans, seeing these superstars of world cricket, a black team playing such wonderful cricket. Sadly, they were banned for life from playing cricket. I believe that West Indian cricket has never recovered and is no longer a dominant force in world cricket.
In 1990 was the time when Nelson Mandela was released from prison and international sporting relationships restored.
Then the incredible excitement of a brief tour to India. One of the games was played at Eden Gardens. South Africa had never played cricket in front of such a huge crowd, over a hundred thousand fanatical Indian supporters. Those images and the roars from such a huge crowd will forever remain in my mind. India is a financial powerhouse in world cricket today because of their huge supporter base.
Now cricket is my favourite spectator sport, I really love watching the combat between such great players and their teams.
Sport is still so important for me but at least now I don’t watch it with such silly fanaticism.