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1970 – 7th Danie Craven Week

7th Danie Craven Week

12-18 July 1970

The Craven Week is an annual rugby union tournament organised for schoolboys in the Republic of South Africa. The tournament started in July 1964, and is named after the legendary Springbok rugby union player and coach Dr Danie Craven.

In 1970, Craven Week was held in Salisbury to mark the 75th anniversary of the Rhodesian Rugby Football Union. The teams all arrived on Saturday, July 12, and settled in. This process continued until Sunday evening when a service was held in English and Afrikaans. Hard on its heels followed speeches from Mr. Jan Preuyt who is chairman of the South African Schools’ Committee and from Dr. Craven himself.

On Monday, the rugby proper started after the march past of the 24 teams participating. The proceedings opened with Rhodesia ” A” being beaten by Eastern Province. Matches were played throughout the day, half the teams playing one day and the other half the next. Thus there were six matches a day, each team playing two games before Friday. The programme for Saturday was worked out according to the performances put in during the week. As a rough guide, the later in the day a team played, the more it had impressed the officials in its previous encounters.

Evenings were also lull, taken up with mayoral receptions, speeches, film shows and dinners. In addition, on the Friday, when there were no matches, all the teams were taken out to New Sarum, the Rhodesian Air Force base, where an interesting and impressive display was put on. That afternoon the Police presented a dress rehearsal of their annual display and impressed our visitors very much.

Saturday, 18th, the last day, was crammed with activity as 12 matches had to be played. The morning was spent watching Rhodesia “B” thrash their opponents and resting for the afternoon match, a most trying time for the nervous system. As already noted Rhodesia “A” lost to Natal 8-24.

Commemorative Cachet

Commemorative Covers

Reference

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