CHALMERS ON THE MEND
BUMPED into Bobby Chalmers the other day at Club Mykonos in Umdloti just past Umhlanga on the KZN North Coast and had a long chat with him.
Not everyone may be aware that he spent 11 weeks in Gateway Hospital recently, recovering from a triple heart by-pass and then had the misfortune to suffer kidney failure, and remains still on dialysis three times a week.
He has bounced back and returned to work running his garden services business specialising in tending to the roses. Bobby and I go back a long way, to 1961 as a matter of fact, Bobby playing for his football club Queens in Bulawayo and me for my club Salisbury Callies (short for Caledonians) in what is now Harare.
The highlight of the football season was always the visit of a touring UK First Division (Premier League) club side. I had emigrated to Southern Rhodesia with my family from Scotland in 1952 while Bobby was born Robert Barry Lionel “Bobby” Chalmers on February 19 1941 in Bulawayo and grew up in a sporting family, showing promise in football, rugby and cricket at Milton High School.
Meanwhile I enrolled at the University of Natal (Durban) and graduated in 1959 with a Bachelor of Science degree and was set to return to Rhodesia, much to the disappointment of local Durban soccer guru, Topper Brown, who tried to persuade me to remain in South Africa and sign for Durban City owned by entrepreneur, Norman Elliot. I remember ‘Topper’ trying to persuade me to remain in Durban and to play for City but I was eager rather to return to Rhodesia which I did and I rejoined Callies in 1960 and was selected that year to play on the right wing for Southern Rhodesia in both games against Blackpool, that year’s touring side from England.
The following year, 1961, saw Leicester City coming to play two games against the national side which saw Bobby gaining his first ‘cap’ at right wing and myself on the other side of the field at left wing, which saw local football reporter, Len Brown, posing the question of: “Why was Ballantyne playing on the left wing?”
“He is a right-footed player and if he does so much as score a goal with his left foot I will eat my hat!”
Well, it’s history now, but in the second game against Leicester City which was played in Bulawayo, Leicester, who had been beaten 2-0 by Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium only the previous weekend, were leading 4-0 with a quarter-of-an-hour left to play.
The Rhodesian coach, former Aberdeen FC player, Frank Dunlop, then signaled for me to switch places with our centre-forward.
I found myself with the ball at my feet and inside the Leicester penalty area with only the goalkeeper to beat.
I wasted no time in teeing the ball up and sent it flying into the back of the net. With the clock running down I was presented with two more scoring opportunities and the game ended with Leicester the 4-3 winners.
And who was in goal for the England FA Cup finalists you may ask? None other than Gordon Banks, soon to become rated as one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
Brown was quick to swallow his words in his report the next day with a picture of him attempting to chew his way through his old golf cap!
Meanwhile, ‘Topper’ wasted no time in coming to Rhodesia and offering Bobby a contract with Durban City and within a few weeks Bobby was on his way to Durban for the start of an illustrious career with Durban City (1962-1966), and later with Durban United (1966-1968) and Maritzburg United (1968-1974).
Bobby will be remembered as the all-time top goalscorer in the now defunct NFL where he scored 303 goals in all competitions in a career spanning 13 seasons.