The batter, the immediate target of that missile, had to contend with the unexpected…………. A most unwelcome, low-trajectory, snorter or an equally-feared beamer.

In both these instances, the crucial common denominators were the crude playing surface of the “hallowed” Queens Park ground in historic Fietas, (Vrededorp – a total misnomer for PEACE TOWN) in down town Johannesburg.

Those diabolic, prevalent circumstances notwithstanding, the perpetual production of GREAT sportspersons, especially in football and cricket, who had plied their trade there, borders on the unbelievable. This tract of ‘sportsfield’, in area a little more than half of the ‘majestic’ Lenasia Cricket Stadium 30-odd kilometres away, had nurtured, and subsequently introduced into the sporting arena, a legion of sporting icons in the true sense of the word.

Suffice it to name, at this conjecture, just a few of these giants.
Cricket had witnessed the likes of Dawood Hassen of Rangers (popularly believed to have represented “white” South Africa against India in the 1940’s). Hassen was fair of complexion. Muslim’s Abdullah Majam. A wicket-keeper batsman who would not have disgraced any national side, and J “Marlie” Barnes, an aggressive opening batsman, were two others.

In football, the names of Dave Julius, a central defender who had left South Africa to represent Benfica, as well as Portugal internationally, and Hassim Rasdien, nicknamed ‘Jesse Pye’ (after a Scottish forward, could have arguably represented South Africa both at soccer and cricket but for apartheid, and Manny Davids, a goalkeeper par excellence.

Queens Park, home to these legends, and countless others, was a few acres of wasteland, adjacent to the ‘whites-only”, Mayfair and Brixton. Its so-called playing surface could best be likened to a cobbled thoroughfare, with outcrops of tufted grass, loose gravel-filled trenches, undulating rocky level, strewn with broken glass and stone.

The ground was bordered on the two sides with metal palisade fencing, a girls’ school, and a tennis court-cum-indoor sports complex, among other structures. On the other hand, the venue in comparison to even the most basic facilities elsewhere was hopelessly not conducive to hosting any sporting event.

However, the sheer stoicism of the sporting communities overcame all obstacles, man-made or otherwise. This abnormal lack of even the most elementary (sub-standard) facilities, and the total isolation of people of colour, hardly dented the steadfast resolve of the sportsmen and women of the time.

In addition to the inadequate and quaint facilities mentioned above, trees sporadically planted within the fenced-in playing ‘veldt’, interspersed with wood and concrete benches on one side, merely added to their determination and prowess to overcome all obstacles.

A total lack of any form of change-room amenities meant that the player had to strip and change into sporting gear in his car, or even behind a tree. Others did so while hiding among colleagues and friends.

The batting strip comprised a roughly-moulded, domed stretch of 20-odd metres, crudely hand rolled on match days. The players on each team took turns to lay, and remove a mat, borne on stumps, and held by two to three men on either side, at the start and end of a match. When it rained, and the Highveld storms are quite severe at times, the mat was exposed to the all the elements’ ferocity.

Sometimes, two or even more days later, the mud-caked, rain-soaked mat was religiously returned to the groundsman’s yard, only for the entire process to be repeated for the next weekend’s fixtures.

The pitches also served as parts of the areas of the circles that constituted the boundaries for the two matches played simultaneously on match days. Due to the size of the field, or rather the lack of it, the perimeters would bisect each other. A square-leg fielder in one match inadvertently offers his back, because of circumstances, at short third man in the other.

In soccer, two matches are played, also at the same time. Due to the dimensionally-restricted areas, spectators who had initially stood between the two lines along the pitches were exposed to unforeseen knocks, crushing contacts with overzealous tackles from players in a match being played behind them.

“Half-crowns” (a former coin equivalent to 2 ½ cents today, and about the size of a R5 coin) were the order of the day. Knuckles, elbows, and wrists, as well as thighs, knee-caps and ankles, were invariably always exposed to these trademark bruises and wounds.
To attain legendary status, the sportsperson, had to withstand, and overcome, all manner of handicaps and hurdles, some natural and others unwarranted.

Where there is a will, there’s a way…………………………………………. And so the saying goes!