Memory Bank - Can anyone remember?

Being from the Southern Cape I remember the reception I got when going to work in Pretoria,   My Afrikaans accent identify that I was a foreigner in Pretoria,  I travelled by train to Pretoria and at the station was met bny another Saayman from Riversdale from the Forestry Department    He adjusted to the Pretoria Rugby environment and was a icious supporter of the then Northern Transvaal Team and the accusation followed that I must be a WP supporter.   The reception immediately turned me into a WP supporter.

Be is as it may 0 if you were not a Northern Transvaal supporter you were a traitor and not worth anything from a rugby perspective.   So come along 1964 and WP was playing the Northern Transvaal in the Currie Cup Final in Pretoria and for weeks before the game the only thing the papers wrote about how poor Jannie Engelbrecht and how he would be outplayed by the better Northern Transvaal wing,   Every player from each team were compared and the WP players were all useless compared to the wonderful Northern Transvaal players.

So a friend of mine - the late Neels Combrinck - who studied at the Forestry Faculty at Stellenbosch - ad myself decided it was essential to go to the game and show our real colours.   He wore his Stellenbosch Blazer and I his Stellenbosch cap.   as we reach a rain of "naartjes" (tangerines),  We managed to survive the onslaught and got to our seats feeling rather soggy.    We got our revenge though/    The match was something to see and the "despised Jannio Engelbrecht" as it went on the  Northern Transvaal supporters got quieter and quieter as the match got towards the end  and the stands got emptier and emptier.

So eight years on and the hype went on and on.  The Tukkies (University of Pretoria) was the strongest club team ever I the history of the game. The despised Maties (Stellenbosch University) were accused of being too cowardly to play against Tukkies because they would be beaten by a huge margin.   In the and the hype got so overwhelming Dr Craven  agreed to the intervarsity,  

The match was not televise - SA did not have a television service yet and the SABC did not broadcast the game either,   Now for the big question,   Dr Craven selected a center nobody had ever heard about before,   The guy's name was SLANG KRITZINGER.   He scored two tries and we all thought he would have a brilliant career as a center,   He was a player from the hostel competition and a total unknown.   After the game we read the match report and everybody thing here was a new Springbok center,   Yet he as far as I could make out never played for the Maties again and definitely not for the WP either,   Does anybody know what happened to this miracle player later on?

No Maaik, a bit before my time, but after reading that, how did you ever manage to turn your back on WP? I can understand having loyalties to a team like the Sharks, but not at the cost of your WP support.

You had me...train ride from CT to Pretoria Mike.

What is the furthest you ventured west of Pretoria while working for the forestry department?

On another thread we were talking about the stone ruins towards Nelspruit/Mpumalanga. 

Did you ever come across any of them?

Draad and Plum

I travelled om the train ride from Mosselbaai to Pretoria via George and Oudtshoorn.  Those days the train ride took one and a half day,   While at school I went on a school tour by train with children from schools from mainly Cape Town and the Western Cape via Kimberley and Bloemfonteiin to Natal for three weeks in July 1957.    We stayed in hostel facilities at schools in Natal.    

Due to medical reasons my parents at the time were in serious financial trouble basically because my little sister was a bleeder being treated in Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town for up to 6 months at a time as a patient of a Dr Rabkin.    She had the problem basically from birth.  My mother had to stay in Cape Town  for that time and she stayed with the grandparents of Marita van der Vyver - the Afrikaans writer,  Her grandmother was a cousin of my father,     My uncle and grandfather paid for the school trip.

Now back to Forestry Department in the HR department .   In the ten years I worked for them I travelled the forestry areas in the Eastern Transvaal, Natal, the Garden Route and WP extensively.   The fact is that I was quite famous in the Department and amongst others was responsible for the appointment by the Department of Klaus von Gadow - later a Professor in the Forestry Faculty of Stellenbosch University and one of the famous experts in Forestry worldwide.   He retired and is now living in Kleinmond.   His daughters and their families are still living in Stellenbosch,.

I did not travel much to the area West of Pretoria other than one tri to Rustenburg.   I was promoted in 1970 to work in the Department of Water Affairs in 1970 when my official cvisits took me to the Western Transvaal and the Upington area, as well as what is nowadays  Namibia.  It was in 1973 that I took a six-month holiday in Europe.   

But that is enough of my travels.   Now back to rugby,   Jannie Engelbrecht broke his collarbone when in a tackle Uli Schmidt kicked him in the shoulder area,   Nowadays that would have led lead to a long ban - those days all was fair in the "war situation".    What was worse was that after scoring his first try the same Uli Schmidt arriving very late fell on Jannie Engelbrecht - but Jannie remained on the field and scored another long distance try.  Men of steel those days.  

For the younger generation Jannie went on tour with the Springboks and was so famous that a Maori family in New Zealand name a son of theirs Jannie Engelbrecht.   While Springbok coach coach on tour in New Zealand he visited the family.   

Draad - I never supported the Bulls - Northern Transvaal ever,   After moving to Durban in 1974 I became a Natal supporter - other than when they played against WP when I was more or less  neutral;.

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Mike, I was jesting.

Draad

Sure - but it is hard to support the WP-Stormers nowadays,  The system is selfodestructing the present Union.   

You are from Stellenbosch - but may know the Klaus von Gadow family or could trace them quite easily. .    

This is amazing - Uli he referred to  had aa father with the same name who played for Northern Tranvaal  - I do not respond to this idiot at all - because he is the most stupid liar  and i diot I ever came across in my whole life.  Had to correct this one though,  

The liar changed what hew rote about the three-year old.   Pathetic - just prove that he is a habitual liar.    Cannot trust him for 5 minutes. to ever be honest.     

The liar changed what hew rote about the three-year old.   Pathetic - just prove that he is a habitual liar.    Cannot trust him for 5 minutes. to ever be honest.     

Draad

Sure - but it is hard to support the WP-Stormers nowadays,  The system is selfodestructing the present Union.   

You are from Stellenbosch - but may know the Klaus von Gadow family or could trace them quite easily..    

Mike I'm not from Stellenbosch....I'm about 25 km from Stellies, but I know the place well and has worked in or around there I grew up in another Boland Town...and I'm well aware of the self destructing path my WP is on.

I should know better - the bastard orc changed what he wrote initially and when I pointed out he is  a total idiot - he changed the posting.   Should have known better - the skunk did it before.so what I should have done was to copy his posting and then comment on it.   Low life is now claiming he was right and what he wrote was a joke.   It was not - he claimed that I was an idiot making the remark I did.   .   

Can the two orc's please stop posting on threads of mine,   The orc assistant suddenly discovered some mythical mistake,  by claiming that Schmidt father was called Louis Schmidt.   Both father and son was called the same name in rugby circles and on team sheets called "ULI".  The name  Louis was NEVER used to describe the father, 

So if you have nothing but BS to offer - bugger off,

Because of the BS of the dunce orc I responded - should not h ave knowing that one cannot deal with idiots.                  

"The name  Louis was NEVER used to describe the father, "

Ou Maaik, Uli's father Louis was known as Louis and until this thread, I didn't even know he was also Ulrich Louis. 

He's referred to as Louis in all the rugby books from that era and if you look him up on Springbok Rugby you'll find him under Louis.

So basically you can change your upper case "NEVER" to "ALWAYS".

Well if there's any Loui or Uli in the future they'll be wearing NZ colours.Read some time ago he emigrated there.

Rooinek in official documentation the elder Schnidt  would be called his real name - in the media and in the rugby circles he was definitely called Uli.  

Nice insight into the past Mike,you and Mozart should share more from that era,not many of you fellas left.

Now see if you remember which Springbok played flank,hooker,prop,lock and eighthman for the Boks officially.

" And although his friends called him Blokkies, his wife called him Joubert."

The same people get called different names by different people...I don't know the details here and frankly I don't care. I recall a certain prop called Pieter Durandt and there are many more examples. What I find amusing is that some people are so hell bent on being right all the time ...or proving someone else wrong all the time, that they lose track on what is really important. Well, atleast it's still funny most of the time. The ugly stuff don't  surface that often.

Yep Boy Louw .His boet Frans played prop too for the Boks and another brother drowned while on tour at the coast,he was playing for Transvaal .
Boy Louw made the famous comment  "I just looks at the scoreboard"

He's one of very few players if any to have won home and away series against the All Blacks and Wallabies as well as wins against all four home unions.