For some reason, around this time of year, as the grind slows down for the festive season, nostalgia sets in, and my mind starts filling with memories. The Windsor Castle is one of those great memories – and there’s an addendum to this one.
In 1974 my parents emigrated from the UK to South Africa. My father flew over, but couldn’t afford for the rest of us to fly (my mother and three kids), so we were loaded aboard the last outward bound voyage of the mailship Windsor Castle to Cape Town. An incredible expedition for an eight year old boy and his brother. For two weeks, we terrorised that ship, the staff, the passengers and the purser. From putting soap powder into the only swimming pool on deck to playing ‘tok-tokkie’ up and down the corridors. Hey, we were young, hyper-active and temporarily fatherless, we were going to enjoy it whilst we could. My poor mother was permanently being hauled before the ships purser over our antics, and good on her, she always stuck up for us. You can see why this fond memory has remained with me for so long.
So imagine my joy, when trawling the web earlier today, I came across an article about the ship upon which I have such fond memories. What, you may well be wondering, has my childhood memory got to do with rugby? Well I came across an article about the 1931 Springbok trip to the British Isles, and here it is.
‘The Windsor Castle liner from South Africa to England was no place to train for a rugby tour. The roll of the ship made keeping one’s balance difficult and the sun decks were not an ideal surface on which to throw rugby balls. The Springboks, however, needed the occasional run around to relieve the rigours of travel, but they paid a price. They lost three balls overboard and, in a heroic bid to stop another ball plunging into the Atlantic, Jock van Niekerk injured a knee.
‘The South African winger recovered sufficiently to be chosen for the first match of the tour against Midland Counties but he injured the knee again, this time so badly that he was carried off and never played rugby again.
‘There was further anguish for the South Africans. George Beamish, an Irish forward, led Midland Counties to a 30 – 21 win against the Springboks. Then the tide turned. The South Africans did not lose another game, beating Wales 8 – 3, Ireland 8 – 3, England 7 – 0 and Scotland 6 – 3. The Springbok selectors had plucked Danie Craven from obscurity for the tour and the South African press greeted his selection with disdain. Craven however, mastered the dive pass developed by Dauncey Devine. Craven played 16 Tests for the Boks.
Amazing to think that one of my greatest rugby heroes – Craven – may well have sat at the same dining table, lent on the same rails and walked the same decks as I.
Great story there JFK… Makes a change someone leaving England for S.A, usually the other way round!
Nice that GBS encourages a bit of variety here in the quiet season! 🙂
As there’s absolutely no rugby news of any interest anywhere on the wires I had to look elsewhere!!!
Great story Kickers….
…. like they say in the classics…
“Seems you’ve got a lot of miles on the clock”
Humm, makes me wonder what topic I would choose if I were singled out to ‘Head a Thread’ !!
Would you like….The day I first saw Percy play live?
4 @ Blue Bird:
Your story would probably be about horses and hay… in the Cotswolds…. hehehe
@ Blue Bird:Thats twice you’ve mentioned Percy, what happened between the two of you during his sojourn to Wales?
6 @ Just For Kicks:
Psssttt, Blue Bird has the hots for Percy… don’t tell anyone!
@ grootblousmile:
I have about 100 horses and hay and the rolling Cotswold Hills stories!!
Where to start? Ho Humm………
@ Just For Kicks:
A lady never tells…… !!
@ Blue Bird:I spent some of the best years of my life in the Cotswolds – RAC to be exact – have some great stories from there too!
@ grootblousmile:
Oh, my well kept secret is out….
Hope the press don’t get hold of this!
Being ‘papped’ is such a pain in the arse!
@ grootblousmile:It wasn’t for his IQ, I’m sure!
@ Just For Kicks:
Probably some excellent stories, the RAC crowd know how to have fun. I went ot one of the best ever May Balls there.
12 @ Just For Kicks:
Nooooooooo, not his IQ… if it was it would mean Blue Bird aims very, very low… hahaha
11 @ Blue Bird:
If it’s a ‘Pain in the arse’, you’re doing it wrong…. hehehe
@ Just For Kicks:
His ego may be huge but his IQ is quite small!!
However I can over look small problems like that when they are wrapped in such a neat package!
Percy is a lovely guy, but he wasn’t blessed with a basket full of eggs, but the one with the emptiest basket in the hen house that I have come across has to be Justin Swart. Once had the luck of joining him at the dinner table – how he remembered the rules of rugby is a mystery to me!
Supper time….good to catch up.
See you about.
@ Blue Bird:Talking about packages, I came across this wonderful story earlier, I quote
‘The groupie girl outside Wigan’s Riverside Club eyed up the town’s new Rugby League hero – and liked what she saw. ‘’Hiya, big boy,’’ she said to burly South African Nick Du Toit, her eyes settling on the most personal part of the 6ft 3in forward’s anatomy. ‘’Tell me, are you built in proportion all over?’’ ‘’Listen, lady,’’ replied Du Toit in his clipped Afrikaans tones. ‘’If I was built in proportion, I’d be 12 foot ten!’’’
10 @ Just For Kicks:
The Cotswolds is a funny place…. I watched a documentary on Travel Channel (I think), about the Cotswold Olympics…
Amongst others, they have this funny kicking competition, where you stuff your trouser legs with hay, then proceed to kick the shit out of your opponent, on the shins… to make him lose his balance and fall…
Weeeeeeeeeeeiiiirrrrdddddddd!
17 @ Just For Kicks:
Bwahahahaha
Yip, Justin Swart was no brain surgeon!
@ grootblousmile:One day, over a beer, I’ll regale some of the stories, a great place with some very weird traditions!
22 @ Just For Kicks:
Great!
That dude from Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson, stays on the next door farm to Blue Bird… I really dig the humor of that program… in fact English humor is so much better than the typical American humor and that type of slap-stick shit.
I suppose one has to be brain-dead or American (same thing) to enjoy American humor…
@ grootblousmile:I agree, I’m afraid, but perhaps it’s because I’m and Englishman, and like the dry sense of humour, and so I don’t watch American programmes. Clarkeson is a very astute businessman, and has made a heap of money out of that programme. He got some great characters together, and took what was to most people, is an incredibly boring subject, and turned it into one of the most watched tv shows in the world. Top Gear is translated into over 100 languages!
Right, time to turn in, catch up tomorrow. Cheers
25 @ Just For Kicks:
Yes, cheers.. I’m out for the count too.
Going to hurt a mattress now!
@ Just For Kicks: The real version of that is what Joel Garner said to an overzealous Aussie bird on a tour down under.
@ Pam Anderson:If you’re talking about the Du Toit comment, cool, whoever said it deserves a medal, I love those ‘on the spur of the moment’ comments, especially when they’re light hearted and inoffensive.
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