CRICKET GALA Wednesday, November 10th, was a lovely day: very hot, almost too hot for England fast bowler John Snow (who nearly melted), and not dissolving, as so often is the case, into mist or rain or thunderstorms. School stopped at 10.20, and boys and staff assenibled at the Oval, where the Headmaster welcomed Mr. Wilfred Isaacs and his XI, Mr. and Mrs. P. Jacubowicz,and Old Boy Mr. Jack Hulett. Coupled with the cricket match was the official opening of the new score-board, by Jack Hulett. He also presented a solid silver salver, carved with cricketing symbols, as a gift from himself and his three sons, Michael, Roderick, and Bruce — ail four having been Kearsney cricket captains in their time. This trophy to be awarded annually to the House that provides the largest number of boys for School Teams. Then Mr. Jacubowicz, driving force in the Johannesburg area, presented to the Chairman of the Board, Mr. H. W.Haley, a cheque for R3,(X)0 for the Foundation Fund,this having been collected from a Premiere in Johannesburg. Then the match. This is recorded elsewhere. Mr. Isaac's XI contained four Test players — Jack McGlew, Roy McLean, Gerald Innes, and John Snow of England; others were of near Provincial standard. The XI was a little overawed before lunch, but neither Snow nor Procter took any wickets, and it was the spin of McGlew and Innes that caused trouble. 65 for6 did not look promising, but Hipkin(148 not out)and Sawyer(36 not out) put on 153 in 81 minutes and we declared at218for 6.Opposition batting wastoo strong,asexpected; McLean made his usual century,in 75 minutes,and with a few minutes to go theIsaacs XI had reached 219 for 7. In a delightful match of this kind,no-one was the loser. THE NEW SCOREBOARD Without wishing to disparage the A. H. Smith scoreboard on the Oval,even though Mr. Smith had insisted on its being the best school scoreboard in the Province, we could see that all the Oval really lacked now was a built-in score board where the scorers could sit in proper comfort. An enthusiastic Old Boy, when approached for a quote, mentioned the figure of Rl,680. This was laughed off, and I said,"Why,we can build it for R400." Having made a half-in-earnest joke of it, we now began to consider the possibility seriously,and thought we could do it with a bit ofluck. So began a most entertaining six months. We started at the tail end of the '61 cricket season,foundations were dug, hard core pounded in,and the cement floor thrown. Mr. Best talked Mr. Murdoch into building the face for us, and scrounged the windows and doors. The bricking I did in the Christmas vac,and in the first few weeks of my long leave. Helpful advice and notso flattering com mentsfrom staffand boyssaw the walls arise nearly vertically. The only qualified man, one Reverend B.Sc.(Q.S.), no less, paused in his circumambulations to offer advice:"Pull it down and start again."(He had done bricking, you see,as part of his degree.) Despite all this help we had the walls up above the board height before very long. We visited the almost derelict scoreboard at Kingsmead and saw how the numbers game was played;so after he had made the roof-trees Mr. Best set Mr. Blamey on to making the boxes. Mr. Currin was talked into helping with the metal plates, as his father had connections with an engineering firm. It was quite a day when the tiling was completed, the platform rigged,the boxes and number-belts assembled. We really felt we were getting somewhere and the boys were asking"When are you going to get it going,sir?" The answer was"At the start of the season," and then,later "After Christmas." Some even 87
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