Unique rugby record
MY OLD SHIPMATE John Crickmay, of Uvongo, tells me his old school, Kearsney, has a rugby record that has to be unique.
Earlier this month when the British and Irish Lions played Australia in the First Test, they had in their line-up two Kearsney old boys, Brad Barret (centre) and Matt Stevens (prop). On the very same day the Springbok Under 20 side played Wales with Robert du Preez, also a Kearsney old boy, at flyhalf.
Therefore three Kearsney old boys played international rugby for two different countries on the same day. (Actually five countries if you look at the Lions as a composite side – England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales). Can any other school say the same?
Robert is the son of former Springbok and Natal scrumhalf Robert du Preez. His other two sons, twins Daniel and Jean-Luc (lock and flank respectively), play for the South African Schools and KwaZulu-Natal Schools sides.
Where are they at school? Er, Kearsney.
Able Seaman (Reserve List) Crickmay says he's sure I will find this interesting, though he doubts if I would publish it, being hopelessly biased in favour of Maritzburg College.
On the contrary, I'm delighted to spread this information. I'd no idea they were playing rugby at Kearsney.
Cool dude dogs
BEWARE of flying bulldogs … In Lima, Peru, there's a sudden craze for getting bulldogs onto skateboards. Three dogs named Otto, Biuf and Benito have been taught by their owners to use skateboards.
They practice every weekend in a car park and have developed a growing fan base on YouTube and Facebook. So popular has the thing become that one of the owners, Ivan Juscamaita, plans to open a skateboarding school for dogs.
Whatever next? Poodles on pogo-sticks?
Robin Hood defence
THEY don't have much truck in Wyoming with the merry men of Sherwood Forest. A man who claimed to have robbed a Wyoming bank so he could give money to the homeless has been handed almost six years in jail.
Corey Donaldson, an Australian living in America, attempted to use the Robin Hood defence when accused of a heist of some $140 000 (R1.4 million) last December, saying he passed on most of the cash to people who really needed it.
"You haven't lived until you have served others in such a way that they can never pay you back," he told the court.
But it didn't wash with the jury and he has to sit, after which he will probably be deported back to Australia.
Donaldson came to live in the US after marrying an American girl. But they are now divorced.
So sad. It didn't work out with Maid Marion either.
Fossil find
AUSTRALIAN workmen have uncovered crocodile, frog, fish and plant fossils believed to be 50 million years old. They relate to the period after dinosaurs died out.
The fossils were trapped in a layer of oil shale, found during excavation works near a Brisbane railway station at a depth of only about 15 m.
Queensland Museum chief executive Suzanne Miller is quoted as having told a radio station: "These could be some of the earliest mammals ever found."
We trust she is misquoted. Crocodiles, frogs and fish are not mammals.
She knows
OVERHEARD in the Street Shelter for the Over-Forties: "A man on a date wonders if he'll get lucky. The woman already knows."
Action Man
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin continues on the Action Man trail. Having been photographed doing macho things like darting whales, darting a tiger, riding on horseback bare-chested, fighting forest fires and riding Harley-Davidsons, he has now taken a mini-submarine deep underwater.
In his latest photo opportunity, he took the small submersible craft 60m under in the Gulf of Finland, in the Baltic Sea, to look at the wreck of a naval frigate which sank in 1869. He resurfaced smiling after half an hour.
Attaboy! Obama, Cameron, Hollande – none of them come close in the Gung-Ho Stakes.
Tailpiece
First Ms: "Congratulations, I hear you've published a book. What's it about?"
Second Ms: "Thanks. It's about sexism."
First Ms: "Wow! That's socking it to them!"
Second Ms: "Yes, it's even got pictures so men can understand."
Last word
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
