Wonderful words drown out cheers, vuvuzelas and tears
On Tuesday night at the Exclusive Books store at the Rosebank Mall, I sat and listened to two old colleagues talk about sport. There may be fewer things I like better.
It was the launch of Vuvuzela Dawn, a book of 25 sports stories from the 25 years of South African democracy, written by Luke Alfred and Ian Hawkey, sports writers of some repute and talent.
I worked with Luke at The Sunday Independent, where he was one of the founding team of the newspaper under the editorship of the legendary and late Rodney Hartman.
I commissioned work from Ian when I was sports editor at The Sunday Independent for a few years. This book reminds me of those days, when we would take a lot more time and care with the stories we published, giving them the space to breathe and grow, and, most importantly, entertain.
I haven’t had time to read all of Vuvuzela Dawn. It’s been less than 24 hours since I bought the book, so this is not so much a review as it is a whetting of the appetite.
A quick dip into the book and it is a cracker, packed with behind-the-scenes detail and interviews of the sporting moments that gave SA some sense of identity and commonality. Or, as the cover puts it better, stories that shaped a new nation.
They have split the book into five themes: “Honeymoon”, “Innovators”, “Hard Times”, “Celebrating Afresh” and “Higher, Faster, Longer”.
The stories you would expect to be there are there: the 1995 and 2007 Rugby World Cups, the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations, the double gold by Penny Heyns in Atlanta, Orlando Pirates and the 1995 African Champions Cup, the Awesome Foursome of Athens, the Oarsome Foursome of London, Caster Semenya, Wayde van Niekerk, Josia Thugwane and the 438 game.
The nonsense of Kamp Staaldraad is told with help of an interview with Rudolf Straueli, while the chapter on Hansie Cronje is short and sad.
Remember the 1999 Cricket World Cup final? Well, so did Ian and in the aforementioned detail. You might not want to. Run. Stop. Go. Done. Tears.
Luke tracked down the Ellis Park change-room attendant, Robbie Schlemmer, to talk about the day of the 1995 Rugby World Cup final. Schlemmer arrived at the stadium early. He put soap and shampoo in the showers, checked the toilets had paper, filled up the ice machine and laid out the kit with a match programme for each player. He stocked the fridge with Castles. Kitch Christie told Schlemmer that he was his lucky charm.
The players prepared in their own way. James Small was listening to music on his Walkman. The song, as described in Winter Colours by Don McRae, was Hymn of the Big Wheel by Massive Attack.
After the match, when SA was going off its rocker with joy, Schlemmer eavesdropped at the All Black change-room. Zinzan Brooke and Josh Kronfeld were playing guitar, singing “sad songs the Maori boys only sung when they were lonesome and far from home”.
On Tuesday night, Clinton van der Berg, who was part of that fine team at the Sunday Indy for a spell, interviewed Luke about Vuvuzela Dawn.
Luke rolled through parts of the book with a smile and emotion. Three of the lightweight four rowing team who won gold at the London Olympics were at the launch: John Smith, Sizwe Ndlovu and James Thompson.
Smith is the only one still rowing competitively at the age of 29. He was just 22 in London. All three are still in good shape. I was in London in 2012 and I well remember the moment they won. It shocked the world, and the commentator who thought they were Australian.
I got the three of them to sign my book. Thompson wrote “London 2012. One Goal”. Ndlovu put “Gold 2012”. Smith scrawled: “London 2012. Brakpan”. Sigh: those Brakpan boys always trying to put one over on us Boksburg lads.
I suspect I will finish Vuvuzela Dawn over this long weekend, if not before.