‘Neath the Grey Clock Tower

‘How are you travelling to Grey, Sir?’ asked a Grade 8 boy to me as we were walking across the field on the Wednesday before Grey.

‘I am going up after you on the Red Bus,’ I replied semi-truthfully and he scampered off satisfied.  I did feel a trifle guilty as I settled into my 1-Time aircraft seat with the Cape Times the following morning.   And then I was only half-way through the paper when the plane landed.

I need not have felt guilty though – the boys on the buses loved the camaraderie, the jokes, the banter and the spirit that only a group of boys can engender.  About 500 boys boarded the buses for the 700 kilometre trek to Grey High School in Port Elizabeth.  One parent wrote afterwards:  My son couldn’t wait to get into the car on Thursday afternoon to meet his friends on the bus .  To be honest I don’t think he slept at all that night as he woke me at 3:20 am to tell me it’s time to get up – THAT NEVER HAPPENS!!

The buses did not leave without incident.  One bus had to wait because the 1st XV full back had left his boots at home!   Another bus had a puncture before even making it out of the suburb of Wynberg.  Another bus was pulled off the road at Swellendam to be weighed and was found to be overweight (Huh? With schoolboys who were told to bring only two small bags?? Maybe it was all the tuck they brought…).

Anyway, someone resourceful told the boys to move to the back when the front axle was weighed and then reverse the procedure when the back axle was weighed.  This seemed to do the trick.

Shaun Hewett, our second team hockey coach, took the easy way out and swallowed some sleeping tablets.  Unfortunately for him, they had an interesting effect on his digestion and he visited most of the rest rooms of the petrol stations on the way up.  Those rest rooms were a popular destination later that day as various boys had to learn the hard way about the quality of meat pies purchased in roadside cafes!

All this was lost on Gregg Davis, our u16B coach.  He found his seat, curled up and was asleep before the buses had left Lover’s Walk.  He did not get out of the bus once and had to be woken in PE.  ‘I am a professional traveller,’ he told an group of bemused teachers that night who were astounded that anyone could sleep through the noise and the thumping music (?) of the bus.

It is hard work being a first-year teacher – you have to take forty winks whenever  the opportunity arises!

Spare a thought for Mike Leresche, coach of the u14C rugby team, who had to ease his six foot seven frame into a seat designed for a normal torso.  He was very grumpy by the time he arrived at Grey, and collecting his boys together the following morning,  told them in no uncertain terms that he had not spent 13 hours in a bus to watch them lose.  The message was not lost on his boys who repeated the instruction at every scrum:  ‘Remember that bus trip, Chaps!’

It worked and the u14C emerged as 24 - 12 victors!

I spent the first night as a guest at the Old Grey Reunion Dinner in splendid surroundings of a marquee in the grounds of the Old Grey Club.  450 Old Greys attended. It was a wonderful occasion and I was treated royally and not put off at all by the fact that 449 Old Greys took it in turns to inform me what the results of the rugby game would be on Saturday.

I failed to make it the following morning to see the fishermen off to the Sundays River, the surfers and bodyboarders off in their quest to find the perfect wave and the golfers destined to enjoy a windfree day at the Humewood Golf Course.  Instead I went to the Reunion Assembly in the Grey High School Hall where I was invited to address the school and a number of Old Greys who had survived the previous evening festivities.

I informed the assembled company that the first contacts between Wynberg and Grey went back to 1841 when six schoolmasters were brought out from Scotland to assist with the starting of various new schools around the Cape Colony.  John McNaughton took six months to start Wynberg  which opened on June 1st while John Paterson took 15 years to push-start the Grey Institute. No-one found my comment that things move slowly in the Eastern Cape – even in those days - particularly amusing.

I told them about our Rugby Festival a few weeks before where some Wynberg old boys, wearing their Old Boys’ ties had come up to greet me.  They had some Old Greys in tow who were also proudly wearing their Old Grey ties.  One of them  told me that he was visiting ‘his’ Cape Town school and was sharing university digs with the same Wynberg boy who had hosted him in his trips to Cape Town with Grey over the years!

Now that makes the whole Grey / Wynberg exercise really special.

After the assembly, I did the rounds of the table tennis, squash and biathle.  I eventually settled into listening to a fascinating senior debate.  Grey were proposing that Malema was now no longer a threat as he had no future out of the ANC.  This was vigorously opposed by Michael Cheney, Sphu Mnikina and Siyabonga Beyile.  They succeeded in convincing the judges that Malema would remain a threat wherever he was which is not particular good news for South Africa.

Grey Trooping the Colour

Pleased with the result of the debate but a trifle depressed for the Rainbow Nation,  I then went to watch the magnificent Trooping of the Colour and had my positivity restored.  The Cadet Band, resplendent in their red uniforms, led the 150 marching cadets in a slow march round the field which was lined with Grade 8’s.  Behind the band, the colour Ensign, escorted by an armed guard,  impressively paraded the school colours to the crowd.  As the colours passed the Grade 8’s, they stood up and proudly saluted their colours.  A most inspiring and emotive ceremony. 

I wish Wynberg offered cadets.

No doubt roused by the Ceremony and by the huge crowd which came to the Astro, the Grey hockey team rocked Wynberg on their heels with a quick two goals.  What followed then, was a magnificent display of fast, furious, passionate hockey from both sides.  No-one, whatever their allegiance,  could possibly have left that ground unimpressed with the quality of hockey.  Honours were even after Jason Smith pulled two goals back in the second half.

I sat watching the game with Kevin Musikanth, our Director of Rugby, and Daniel Ramage, Master in Charge of Hockey.  Daniel spent the entire game on his ipad sending updates to the Hockey Facebook Page.  He couldn’t keep up with the number of people who were coming back indicating they were viewing the site.  The same happened on Saturday with the rugby as well.  Peter Murison, a past Wynberg rugby coach, now in Korea, later emailed me to say that although it was early hours of the morning in Korea, following the exciting rugby match had kept him up.

The power of the social media continues to astound me.

It was a beautiful day on Saturday with not a cloud in the sky.  The Grey fields were awash with rugby and hockey matches – and the atmosphere was festive.  I have never seen so many Wynberg parents attend the Grey festivities and I found myself greeting parents at every turn.  ‘All matches at Grey will be test matches,’ warned Mr van Schalkwyk to the boys in assembly the previous week – and how right he was.  Nothing exemplified this more than the gutsy display on both sides in the u16A rugby match where the lead exchanged hands a number of times – eventually ending up in favour of Grey.

With the 2nd XV setting the tone with an exciting win, we were finally ready for the big match.  As we settled into our seats, one of the Grey staff near me remarked that he thought that this was the biggest crowd he had seen at a Reunion Weekend.  We later heard that they had taken in R25 000 at the gate.

Accompanied by the beating of a bass drum and the school flag, the team came on and stood before their Wynberg stand to sing the school song together.  Something must have worked because first blood went to Wynberg when the skipper, Justin Scott, scythed through the defence from a set move after a scrum.  Penalties were then exchanged and the match settled down at 10 –  3.

My phone went off.  It was Jeff Sternslow, an Old Boy Committee member in Cape Town. ‘You are not going to blow this, are you?’ he said. ‘I have a R50 bet with an Old Grey, Keith Clark.’

No pressure.

Keith Clark must have sent an urgent message to the Grey coach because the home side slowly fought back and eventually with twenty minutes to go were in a convincing 21 – 10 lead.  The Grey stand were enjoying the moment.  Play on the field was temporally put aside.

‘You are not singing anymore,’ they admonished the Wynberg boys.  Stung into action, the Wynberg stand responded, singing lustily:

Men of Wynberg… We come to sing….. All your pride again……   Fought and paid for…….

The Grey stand then responded in turn by shouting:  Scoreboard, Scoreboard and in case anyone missed the point, eight hundred Grey boys pointed in the direction of the scoreboard.  Now that they had the way pointed out to them, the Wynberg rugby team moved inexorably towards the Grey try line  conveniently situated in front of the said scoreboard. Left wing, Josh de Stadler, delighted the Wynberg crowd by scoring in the corner.  Jordan Lamoral, relieved that he had his rugby boots after all, unerringly eased the conversion  over - off the inside of the post -  and the match was on.

Wynberg sent wave after wave onto the Grey line which stood rock firm.  Fortunately with less than a minute on the clock, which was on the same scoreboard pointed out to us by Grey, Wynberg opted to move the ball down the line in a move which eventually ended up with outside centre, Jarryd Sage, putting all of us out of our misery.  A one point victory – the first ever victory over Grey by a Wynberg lst XV rugby team!  Boys Own Magazine would have waxed lyrical!

Later in the week, the rugby report on the Grey website suggested that an infringement had been missed by the referee.  This was of no concern to 500 ecstatic Wynberg boys who poured onto the field to congratulate their team.  Never was the school song sung with such gusto!

Kevin Musikanth and I walked across the field to congratulate the boys and met an excited Wynberg boy.  ‘You must be a proud Old Boy,’ he said to Kevin.

‘I am always a proud Old Boy,’ he replied. ‘Now I am even more proud.’

I hope Keith Clark remembers to pay his R50.

Later that evening, I asked Vice Captain, Riaan O’Neil , what they did after the game.  ‘The Grey players came and had pizzas with us,’ he said.  ‘They were really nice guys.’

Quite right too.  He might be sharing digs with one of them in a few years time.

The following morning, Neil Crawford took me to the airport to catch the Red Bus home.  In the car, his cell phone bleeped with an incoming SMS.  He read it out to me:  Some good news, Rector. All is not doom and gloom.  Grey won the interschools dancing competition at Collegiate yesterday.

The sentiment was appreciated, but for the sake of the Rector’s blood pressure, it probably wasn’t the most tactful time to inform him of this news.