Archive for the ‘Sport’ Category
by Thando on Mar 1st, 2013
In an interview with Bruce Dennill of the Citizen, Greg Mills, author of Agriculture, Furniture & Marmalade: Southern African Motorsport Heroes, spoke about how being from a family involved in the sport of motor racing made him keen to get into the field, although he and his brother were not pushed into it.
He also discussed how the era that produced some of the country’s greatest racing heroes was a golden one, and how the country has “produced a disproportionately high number of great drivers”. He says: “In any sport, only a tiny percentage of participants can make it at international level, and we tend to forget the rest of those involved. We’ve consistently delivered performers from a small competitive base.”
“MOTORSPORT is all about foundations,” says Greg Mills, grandson of Grand Prix racing driver William Arthur Frank “Billy” Mills and author of Agriculture, Furniture & Marmalade, a celebration of nearly a century’s worth of South African motorsport and many of the marvellous characters involved in it.
“South Africa has had car assembly and manufacturing industries for decades. Cars became a lifestyle, which impacted on economics, which meant that education and development of technology became important, resulting in a system that produced a lot of engineers, who then designed more cars,” Mills says.
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by Thando on Feb 25th, 2013
Greg Mills, author of Agriculture, Furniture & Marmalade, recently spoke to Polity’s Shannon de Ryhove about his reasons for writing a book on Southern African motorsport heroes.
Mills said his family has a “long-standing involvement” in motorsport. His grandfather was a famous driver, and Mills himself is an amateur racer. In 2014 he is set to head the first African team to race at Le Mans, with a car decked in the African Union’s yellow, green and black colours.
An African team is set to race in the famous Le Mans 24-hour sports car race in 2014 – and the man behind the wheel is Brenthurst Foundation director Greg Mills.
Mills is an avid amateur racing driver. He was a South African karting champion in the 1980s, competes in historic car series and raced with distinction as South Africa’s representative in a Formula 5000 event as a curtain-raiser to the 2011 Australian Grand Prix.
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by Thando on Feb 13th, 2013
New from Pan Macmillan, Agriculture, Furniture & Marmalade: Southern African Motorsport Heroes by Greg Mills:
Jody Scheckter, to date South Africa’s only Formula One World Champion, received the following advice from Jackie Pretorius on his departure for fame and fortune to England in 1971. ‘Jackie pulled me to one side and told me that I had to learn some big words to impress the Europeans. He said he would give me three then and there – ‘Agriculture, Furniture and Marmalade – preferably to be used in conjunction with one another.’
Many the drivers and designers covered here pursued their careers in an era when deaths in motorsport were commonplace, a reflection on the tracks, the cars, and on the cavalier attitude of drivers themselves. For them, it was an era of la dolce vita; for the public, braaivleis, sunny skies, Formula One and international sportscar racing.
This book covers those southern Africans who made it as drivers, engineers, mechanics, and promoters in international motorsport, from Woolf Barnato’s three victories in the Le Mans 24-Hour classic to the era of Sarel van der Merwe.
‘Greg … [has] delivered an extraordinary book … It will stand out as both a marker and reference for future generations interested in the sport, one from which lessons of hardship, courage, derring-do, sportsman (and woman) ship, ingenuity and excellence should be drawn.’ – Howden Ganley, March, BRM, and Maki F1 driver
‘This book perfectly captures the spirit and the characters of the time.’ – Sir Frank Williams CBE, Team Principal: Williams F1
About the author
Greg Mills, the head of the Brenthurst Foundation, is probably best known for his political books, most recently Africa’s Third Liberation (2012) and the bestselling Why Africa is Poor (2010). But he is also the grandson of pre-war South African Grand Prix driver William Arthur Frank ‘Billy’ Mills and his other interests include restoring and racing historic racing cars. He has previously co-authored and self-published five acclaimed books on southern African motorsport: For the Love of It: John Love and an Era of Southern African Motorsport (2005); Springbok Series: An Era of Sports and Saloon Car Racing in Southern Africa (2006); “Love First, Tingle Second”’: Sam Tingle’s Motorsport Scrapbook (2006); “PIPES!” David Piper and the Springbok Series (2007); and “Paddy – Who?” A Driver’s life of Bikes and Cars (2009).
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by Tarryn on Jul 19th, 2011
2011 marks an important milestone in the life of rugby in South Africa – the first rugby game was played on South African soil in 1861 making this the 150th year of rugby in South Africa. Wim van der Berg’s book, 150 Years of South African Rugby, chronicles the development of the game from its earliest beginnings to its status as a national obsession following the players and the teams through the history of South Africa.
With words and photographs the rugby fan is shown how far the game has come and yet how the spirit of the game has endured. Van der Berg follows the changes in provincial rugby, the move from an amateur game to professionalism, the growth of the major tournaments that TV viewers follow so passionately, but never loses sight of the people behind the game – the players the coaches, the administrators and the fans. Detailed statistics on important rugby games through the 150 years of its history in South Africa – who played, who scored, final scores and more.
About the author
Wim van der Berg is a seasoned sports writer and author of several books on rugby including Blue Bulls: 70 years of glory and Great Moments in Currie Cup History. He has contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers including Blou, Oggenblad and Die Vaderland. He has been involved in rugby as a player, a referee, a coach, a manager and an a club administrator.
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by Tarryn on Jun 20th, 2011
To add an “extra punch” to Youth Day, Nechama Brodie joined members of the Wildcats Gym and headed into Soweto to train some young boxers:
In the 15 months since taking up boxing, I’ve competed in three White Collar bouts, so it’s more than a hobby.
I’ve learned it is harder to get back in the ring the second time; that the strongest right won’t win a fight if you don’t win it in your head; and that the real brutality often happens outside the ring.
I’m no boxing expert. I’m a mother of two who writes for a living. Until last year, I’d never watched a boxing match on television, let alone live. That changed when I started training with Isaac Chilemba.
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by Nina on May 20th, 2010
In an interview with Stephen Brunt of The Globe and Mail, Kevin Bloom reveals his hope for the 2010 World Cup as an event for South Africa to unite around, if only for a moment:
He is no naïf, and his eyes are anything but wide, as anyone who has read his new book, Ways of Staying, can attest. Journalist Kevin Bloom sees his country, depicts his country, South Africa, in raw and honest terms, and back home it has caused quite a stir.
But there is also an underlying sense of hope in what Bloom writes and in what Bloom says, little shafts of daylight that can’t help but poke through the gloom. It is the nature of the place and of its people.
“South Africa has the ability to galvanize itself around an event,” he says over coffee. “We are a manic depressive nation. In democratic terms, we’re a 16 year old. We are volatile teenagers. We can get depressed real easy. But we can also get excited real quick.”
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by Nina on Jan 11th, 2010
Following the African Cup of Nations tragedy in Angola’s Cabinda province, which saw the Togo football team come under attack – three men in the convoy were killed – longtime Africa correspondent Alex Perry calls for the world media to show restraint when tying the development to the FIFA 2010 World Cup. “The distance between Paris and Kosovo is around half that between Cape Town and Cabinda,” he writes:
South Africa’s success or failure shouldn’t be written off five months before the first ball is kicked. But that’s exactly what has happened following a Jan. 8 attack on a bus carrying the Togolese national team in the northern Angolan province of Cabinda, where an Angolan rebel group killed three people — the bus driver, a coach and the team’s press officer —, and injured at least two players on their way to an Africa Cup of Nations match. Even though the attack took place in a country other than South Africa, Britain’s Daily Mirror declared the incident “a disaster for the forthcoming first-ever World Cup in Africa. The machine-gun attack on the Togo players may have taken place in northern Angola last night but the shots would have been heard around the world.” Fox NewsCHK said “the fatal attack on the Togo national team in Angola has increased concerns the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa will be targeted by terrorists as violence continues to rage on the troubled continent.” The London Daily Telegraph told its readers that “Africa’s dream is in tatters.” “It is hard to measure the damage that has been done,” it intoned.
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