The bugle calls
MATTERS are becoming fraught with all these injuries in the Sharks camp and the
insistence of Saru that our Springboks should be rested – just when the Waikato
Chiefs are in town.
The permutations of this enforced R&R are by no means clear, but it would be a
travesty if a team that gelled so nicely last weekend were not allowed to keep ramping
it up because of enforced personnel changes.
But a crisis is a crisis and we of the rugby brotherhood will rally to the cause.
As it happens, I attend a regular rugby colloquium in Durban North of players of
yesteryear. We have earnestly discussed the crisis and come up with a makeshift
solution.
Keith Parkinson is available to stand in for Bismarck if necessary over coming weeks.
Pete Ripley-Evans similarly for Jannie. Trix Truter is available on the wing for JP
Pietersen. My old clubmate Freddie Davel can stand in for Patrick Lambie. And Brian
Schabram is available at scrumhalf if Cobus Reinach has to stand down. (And then I
will be on the bench for Schabie in case, at the age of 83, he should run out of puff).
It was fairly late by the time we came to this decision. The horse mentioned in the
Book of Job comes to mind: "He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha;
and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains,
and the shouting ..."
Avante! Avante! These rugby colloquiums can get quite lively.
Sixty-yarder
EARLIER this week Zoltan de Rosner mentioned an Under-19 inter-provincial at
King's Park in the late fifties when a Transvaal prop forward took off his boot to goal
a penalty from his own 10-yard line.
Now Bernard Ravno tells us he actually played in that game, which he thinks was
against Northern Transvaal, not Transvaal.
"Zoltan is quite correct – a burly opposition prop forward did indeed kick a penalty
over from his own 10 yard line. However I don't recall him removing his boots to do
so, but then I also cannot recall the final score, so he may well have done."
Bernard says the Springbok trials were held the following week. At the last moment
one of the prop forwards in the D team could not play and so they called up the Under
19 "mighty booter" to fill in.
"What happened thereafter I cannot recall, nor his name – except that I had played
against him the previous Saturday."
Yech!
A WEEK or so ago, Sally Bosch was unable to read this column
because we also had a picture of a cockroach with a radio tag
attached. Cockroaches give her the hebbie-jeebies, even a picture
of one, and she couldn't bear to look at it.
And it gets worse. She can't stand insecticide spray. It makes her
physically ill.
Sally has strung together a few lines on this twin aversion. It's titled
Don't Bug Me!
I don't like ugly bugs,
But I cannot stand the spray.
I'd rather have the goggas
And noo-noos any day.
I really do not like bugs,
Roaches scare me silly,
But bug-spray is what bugs me most.
In fact it drives me dilly.
Keep your spray away from me,
And leave those bugs alone!
I beg of you, I'm on my knees.
Please wait until I'm gone!
Water sommelier
NEWS from America – a restaurant in Los Angeles
offers diners a list of 20 types of bottled water.
Water sommelier Martin Riese also offers regular
"water tastings" – like wine tastings – where people
are able to discover their favourite blend.
Selections at a recent tasting included Iskilde,
Danish glacier water that evokes childhood
memories of tasting raindrops, and Roi, a high-
magnesium water from Slovenia that has a metallic
taste.
There's nothing strange about this. At the Street
Shelter for the Over-Forties we have regular water
tastings. The preferred blend usually involves The
Famous Grouse (aka Die Beroemde Tarentaal) or
Klipdrift.
Tailpiece
"HI, you logged a call with tech support. What
seems to be the problem?"
"It's this damned computer. It does whatever in the
hell it wants. It's supposed to do only what I tell it
to."
"Listen lady, it's a computer not a husband."
Last word
Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
Mark Twain
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