Farewell, and thanks for all the memories
WITH this being my final column for the Sunday Tribune before I head off for green pastures, please forgive me for being a bit nostalgic here.
In retrospect, it all began when I found a book tucked away in a nook in a home we had just moved in to. It was 1977, I was 12, and as a junior footballer at the De Beers club in the Strand, outside Cape Town, quickly became captivated by the 1970-71 Rothmans Football Yearbook. I still have it, as evidenced by the picture above, taken yesterday.
Of course, the seeds had been sown back in the 196970 season, when my Dad had taken me to watch Leicester City at their Filbert Street grounds. In goal was the rising star who was to become an England stalwart, Peter Shilton. It was Shilton that Diego Maradona punched the ball past at the 1986 World Cup.
By that stage I had become a reporter, working for the Natal Mercury, which was owned by the Robinson family and had its offices in Devonshire Place, off Smith Street in central Durban.
By 1989 I had begun working for the Daily News sports department in Field Street, a cog in a large department filled with “old hands” who had been around the block several times. The likes of John Waters, Clyde Bawden, Michael Tarr and Brian Brown were heavily influential in refining my raw talents.
So let’s look back at some of the most memorable moments in sport that have occurred during my career.
Rugby
The 1990 Currie Cup victory, Natal’s first, occurred in their centenary year and was the result of a masterstroke by coach Ian McIntosh in bulking up the pack to take on Northern Transvaal by fielding three locks and dropping flank John Plumtree to the bench.
The Natal team were to produce possibly the best rugby I had seen in the early days of the Super 10, against Western Samoa in Auckland. It had been a very close game, but early in the second half Mark Andrews was sent off for “clotheslining” a Samoan and the Natal team took umbrage, running in almost 30 points in a devastating performance which approached perfection.
Then there was the 1995 World Cup and that game against the All Blacks in the final. At 4.30am the following day, on the back of very little sleep, some 2 500 of us ran and walked the Sardine half-marathon on the South Coast, where the only things that kept us going were the regular refrains of “Shosholoza” and lots of euphoria.
Fast forward almost a decade to 2004 and the closing game of the Tri-Nations championship at Kings Park against Australia. The sponsors had decided to ramp up the atmosphere by handing out 25 000 plastic Djembe drums. It was intense, victory was assured, and it took me three days to recover my hearing.
Cricket
The best atmosphere at a cricket match didn’t feature the Proteas or any other international team. But it did feature the mighty Transvaal “Mean Machine”, who would have beaten most international line-ups at the start of 1982.
It was January 9, and the second leg of the 55-over Datsun Shield semi-finals. A blazing Durban sun and high humidity was taking its toll on a full house, none of whom dared to leave in the twilight as the game finally ended around 7pm.
Natal had lost the first leg of the semis at the Wanderers and were facing elimination. Opener Chris Wilkins knocked up a typically flamboyant 84 before being bowled by a ram- pant Clive Rice.
The lower order came to the party and took the score from 119-6 to 191 all out in 51.1 overs – at least they had built a total to defend.
Fotheringham and McKenzie went without scoring, removed by “Big Vince” van der Bijl and Mike Procter respectively, and the battle was on.
While Jimmy Cook played a cautious knock of 43, the middle order struggled. By the time Ray Jennings was bowled by Big Vince for 42, the fingernails had been bitten to the quick, the crowd was up on its feet and cheering the local lads home.
Victory by eight runs ... but wow, it was tense.
Another personal cricketing highlight, while I was still a student, took place at the Jan Smuts Oval in Pietermaritzburg, where Natal were hosting Northern Transvaal.
At the morning tea interval, Barry Richards could not be bothered to walk over to where the team were having a refreshment in front of the main stadium and sat down on the ground.
From the open embankment I walked on to the field with a large bottle of cool drink and two mugs and went and sat down on the ground next to the batting great at square leg and we had a cola and chat together. As the players walked back out, I trotted off to rejoin my mates, to much applause. When last did you see 3 000 spectators at a mere first-class match?
Golf
It wasn’t until I became Sports Editor of the Tribune that I decided to “give golf a bash”. I had played a wide variety of sports and gone on to compete at national and provincial championships, but hitting this little white sphere became the ultimate challenge. It still is.
Golf opened doors to meet and play with a wide variety of sports stars, including the likes of Andre Joubert, the Rolls Royce of full-backs on the rugby field, Proteas star all-rounder Shaun Pollock, and many others who swing a club for recreation.
But playing with some of the best professional golfers around opens your eyes. The US PGA slogan is “These guys are good”, and that is a massive understatement. As an example, even during Tiger Woods’s “slump” two years ago, had he been an amateur he would have still been playing off a +6 or +7. Quite staggering.
I’m often asked who the best pro is that I have played with, and my answer is always the same: Annika Sorenstam.
The former world No 1 was simply in a class of her own at her peak, and the chance to play with her at a course she had designed, Euphoria in Limpopo province, was too good to miss. A 2 000km round trip was worth the drive.
I hit my 3-wood really well that day and found myself outdriven by 15m ... and Annika was hitting a 5-iron!
George Coetzee was fun to play with, and he has gone on to be a big hit on the European Tour, and is currently representing South Africa at the World Cup. Many others have been tournament winners on the Sunshine Tour, and these lads really are a great bunch who deserve every success.
Then there are the up-and-coming amateur stars ... South Africa’s golfing future is looking very healthy.
Others
Among the other leading sportsmen I have had the chance to meet and interview are squash legend Jahangir Khan, who once took on the entire five-man Natal team and destroyed them in an evening. A young Adrian Hansen was sent out first to STARTING POINT: My eventual career in sports journalism can be traced back to finding this book and becoming captivated by it at the age of 12.
Picture: SUPPLIED BEST GOLFER: Annika Sorenstam of Sweden, with a golf ball with ”59” written on it after she became the first competitor to shoot a 59 in an LPGA tournament in 2001. She was the best player I had the opportunity to tee up with during my tenure as Sports Editor of the Sunday Tribune.
Picture: INDEPENDENT ARCHIVES GENTLE GIANT: Ernie Els was one of those superstars who always had a moment to spare for us journalists. Here the gentle giant celebrates after winning the US Open in 1997, at the Congressional Country Club.
Picture: INDEPENDENT ARCHIVES HAND OF GOD: Argentina’s Diego Maradona, left, beats England goalkeeper Peter Shilton to a high ball and scores his first of two goals in a World Cup quarter-final in Mexico City in 1986. Maradona’s second goal is still regarded as one of the best ever in a World Cup.
Picture: INDEPENDENT ARCHIVES run Jahangir off his feet ... it didn’t quite work out that way. Hansen would become the country’s top player and win the national championship a record 10 times. His passion for the game, and winning the Jarvis Cup inter-provincial tournament, is legendary.
Among the watersports fraternity, they don’t come much bigger on the world stage than paddling stars Oscar Chalupsky and Hank McGregor, surfer Jordy Smith, Olympic swimmers Chad le Clos, Ryk Neethling, Darian Townsend, Terence Parkin, their coach, Graham Hill, and many others. You have all played a huge part in making my career fulfilling.
Then there are the Com- rades Marathon stars like Bruce Fordyce, Andrew Kelehe, the Russian squads of superstars; and Durban’s cycling stars like Dean Edwards and Nolan Hoffmann... I’ve interviewed them all and shared their thoughts with you.
Of course, the story is only half of what we give you, and the images that accompany the writing play a massive role too. In that respect I have had the privilege of working with veteran newspaper lensmen like Terry Haywood, Richard Shorey, Philip Littleton, Peter Duffy and Mark Wing.
And latterly, freelance photographers who specialise in sports photography have provided me with the chance to be a part of the story told through the lenses of Pierre Tostee and Ben Myburgh. From surfing to bodybuilding, your images have been superb.
And you, dear readers, have been a part of my life for so many years, especially those who so regularly correspond. The likes of John Nortier, Karl Schmidt and Hymie Sibul have kept me grounded and challenged some of my ideas. Your input is valued.
Will I miss it all? It will no doubt take some time to adapt from a deadline-driven corporate lifestyle to something a little slower-paced on a farm.
So thank you all for providing me with so many wonderful memories. Adios