Bishops Platinum Blue 2018 full mag crop

“We slumped crestfallen into the changing
room, with the odd sob from a Founders
boy breaking the slience...”
already seen off the muscleencrusted
specimens of the Paarl
and Stellenbosch schools and we
only had, I think, Strand High
School and, of course,
Rondebosch to go.
This was a splendid time of
the season, especially when you
are unbeaten and you have
Rondebosch at home to finish as
your coronation and then go on
to that most sacred of
institutions, housematches. I
could go on about those Black
Southeaster September
afternoons in which the results
of furious internecine rivalry
filled the sanatorium, but safety
is important these days, sigh, and
soon we will have to drive to
school in crash helmets with the
mitre on them…
Now Strand, whose parents all
apparently worked at the
dynamite factory nearby – this
was long before the area boasted
a Mugg & Bean – I don’t think had
won one game the entire season.
Well, they would’ve beaten SACS,
because everybody did.
With brilliantly shined
brogues, our hair polished and
teeth combed, we went out there
in the normal glittering convoy
of parents’ cars (mine excluded,
our ageing, yet sensible, Peugeot
404 didn’t glitter) – and lost.
We slumped crestfallen into
the changing room, with the
odd sob from a Founders boy
breaking the silence, until
Rubber Duck walked in,
clutching his shooting stick
and wearing a broad smile.
“Thank God,” he said, “I
was worried that we were
going to go unbeaten.”
Golly, we thought, what’s the
Duck on about? His logic was, of
course, that the point of being at
the school was our broader
education (for most of us) and
that we would learn far more
from this defeat than we would
have had we gone unbeaten. He
was, of course, completely right.
I know in recent years we
have probably made overuse of
this lesson and probably become
quite proficient in processing
defeat, but it is very important in
the school of life to know how to
handle these setbacks. Trot out
the clichés, blame the ref if that’s
all you can do, but most
importantly, pick yourself up
and look forward.
I suppose the key is not to
become too adept at it.
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