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Day 2 - Kingswood versus Schnoozles rugby match
While most people decided sit in a dark smoke-filled toom watching the Springboks on TV, a few of us left to watch the Big Match between Kingswood and St. Andrews. It was held at Schnoozles this year. Kingswood had lost for nine Years in a row, so Naas (Mr. Ferreira) didn't feel that he had any reason to give up smoking yet. The Kingswood supporters were very hungry for a win.
As for me, well, I have absolutely no interest in rugby unless Kingswood is playing, so I was of course very excited to be in the crowd supporting our team.
A tunnel of hundreds of Kingswood supporters encouraged the top 15 as they ran onto the field. Here the tunnel is seen breaking apart as play is about to begin.
I joined the girls from our class on the stand. In fact, I was going to sit on the grass, but a polite young Kingswoodian offered to make space for me, and indeed she later even gave up her own seat for another Old Kingswoodian. Throughout out visit to the school, we met notably well-mannered kids. My mother, who accompanied me on the trip to Grahamstown and visited her former colleagues at the Junior School, was equally impressed.
Action near the St. Andrews try-line. (How do you spell try anyway? Trie? Tri?)
Kingswood led from near the start of the game. It was very exciting rugby -- even Marjorie and Lynette's husbands said that it was far more interesting than watching the Springboks (who lost 16: 52 that day, by the way, leading to jokes about Jan van Riebeeck's arrival at the Cape!).
Joshua walked around the field and told me later that the Kingswood tackles had been excellent and fearless. I couldn't always see the detail, because when there was exciting action, all the kids jumped up, obscuring the view. People would shout, "Sit down!", but it took a while, and once a kid on the back of the stand threw a big rucksack into the crowd of juniors to flatten them. (Unfortunately, he missed them all.)
This is Kerabo, one of the three cheerleaders at Kingswood. We urged him to lead us in a cry of Sana Madoda, but he said that it had been banned! Weeeeeeeeird! Well, who cares, when Kingswood scored a really spectacular try, all of the guys in our class who were there stood up and shouted it anyway, and with voices like Andy Joseph's in the group, we ensured that we were heard.
Here's Andy (way left), next to Jenny (Black), and Bruce (Lynette's husband), and the other Jenny (Knight). I can't remember for sure, but I think the little boy on Bruce's lap was Jean (Knight)'s son. I remember her son being at the match. In the front are Ulla (Gossow) and Lynette (Knight), the latter wearing a reunion cap.
 
These boys were part of a line chased up by the cheerleaders to perform a kind of song-and-dance cheer.
Watching the action near the Kingswood try-line.
There was quite a bit of injury time. What I noticed, though, was when a player was down and none of the other players paid him any attention, he recovered and got up; but when people noticed that someone was injured, he generally remained injured, and was helped off the field. The moral of the story is, I suppose, that if it were not for medial science, everyone would be healthy.
In the end, after a really exciting game led by Kingswood for most of the time, we lost. The players were absolutely devastated; Schnoozles had won the match for an entire decade. I went to one of the players and congratulated him on a truly brilliant game, but no amount of encouragement could lift his spirits in that moment.
What I thought was pretty cool, though, was that in the eyes of the Kingswood supporters, these guys are still loved and held in high esteem. Sadly this is so different from the way in which South Africans in general regard their national team.
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