Talk 18 November 2021

12 Advertising & Newsdesk: (046) 624-4356 Find us on Facebook 18 November 2021 TALK OF THE TOW N
The city is renowned for its
educational institutions, for
being the national seat of
the judiciary and for its
cultural events
makhanda
festival city
with SID PENNEY
Send your news of local events
and achievements, or of any
issues you might be having to
sidp@imaginet .co.za
or call (046) 624-4356
picture © bernard mackenzie / 123RF.com
AND THE RAINS CAME
Not only are local gardens showing off
their bright colours thanks to the
proliferation of gazanias, pansies,
petunias, roses and alyssums, but
lawns are beginning to take on a
healthy new life, with the green grass
growing profusely, and the Rolux
Magnum, Ryobi and LawnStar mowers
bound to be working overtime this
weekend.
All of this thanks to the copious
rains that Makhanda (Grahamstown)
and surrounding districts enjoyed a few
days ago.
Over a period of four days, the
following measurements were
recorded in various areas, according to
social media posts: Somerset Heights
50mm; Railway Station area 50mm;
Westhill 50mm; Sunnyside area
between 50mm and 60mm; Stones Hill
93mm; Belmont Golf Club 70mm;
Waainek 65mm; Settlers Dam 60mm;
and Highlands area 55mm.
Hopefully the Settlers Dam
catchment area to the west of
Makhanda also received good rains.
GOING EXRA MILE
L E AV I N G
Rhodes University examinations end
officially on December 1, matric
exams end six days later, and by then
all other school grades will have
completed their end-of-year exams.
However, as Rhodes students
complete their exams they take their
leave of Makhanda and return home,
as will be the case with school
boarders.
Soon, the city will say “g o o d bye ” to
several thousand young people for a
couple of months.
To the matrics and students
completing their studies, go well as you
venture out into the wide world. Take
care!
AUCTION YIELDS BIG BIDS
The Grahamstown and Sunshine Coast
Hospices, as well as Makhanda-based
Food4Futures feeding scheme,
received a little more than R60,000
each as beneficiaries of the Rotary Club
of Grahamstown’s ‘grand finale’ to
their highly-successful auction.
The final dinner and auction took
place at the Wyvern on the Kingswood
SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT: Ray Erasmus, left, from Port Alfred did
the 58km route in the recent G2C mountain bike race from Makhanda to
Port Alfred, while Diederick Stopforth opted for the tougher 75km route
Picture: JON HOUZET
PORT ALFRED BRIDGE CLUB
BBO Teams event Saturday, 13 November 2021
Board 12, Session 2 Dealer W, N-S vulnerable. No 29778
With Eskom again causing widespread load
shedding the Port Alfred Wednesday night
pairs event was severely red uced . This
interesting deal was taken from a team game
played on the following Saturday.
The bidding started as shown
What action
do you take as
East?
One of the
(many) disadvantages
of playing 5 card major suits is that
you often have to make difficult choices as a
rebid. In this case it looks as though the points
are reasonably evenly divided between the opposing pairs; so do you pass,
rebid the hearts, or support partner’s clubs? When the hand was played the
last alternative was chosen; thereafter the bidding proceeded as follows.
What action do you take as West?
As West you have first round control in
spades, hearts and diamonds; you have a
6 card club suit, admittedly only headed by
the Queen, but partner was able to compete
in clubs at the three level, so hopefully has at least three, and possibly four
clubs headed by one, or even both of missing top two honours. The bidding
is interesting, seeming to announce a very skewed distribution. The jump to
4S over 3C looks to be an advance sacrifice against E-W’s game in clubs. If
the hearts work well it may be possible to make 6 club tricks, five hearts and
a diamond, so you bid not 5C, but 6C; much to partner’s displeasure when
she discovered the you are missing the top two clubs!!
1st Sarita & Vivek Mathur…….64.7% 2nd L Kolesky & L Lombard….57.1%
2nd J Browning & H Malan…..62.3% 3rd H Huisamen & P Gillespie..57.5%
College campus, and it was there that
the winning bids were announced.
These included R15,000 for a twonight
stay for two adults at Kwandwe
Private Game Reserve; R50,000 for a
two-night stay for two adults at any
Classic Camp in Botswana; R3,600 for
a chocolate ganache cake; framed
prints ranging in price from R500 to
R2,800; and a wide range of estate and
connoisseur wines.
A THORNY ISSUE
It’s almost as if a thorn tree forest is
growing on the southern sidewalk of
Rivers Street between George and
Hope streets up there in the Sunnyside
suburb.
There are dozens of them, and a
couple are even encroaching into the
roadway. In fact, one near George
Street is already protruding more than a
metre into the street.
The presence of these rather fastgrowing
thorn trees and bushes was
reported to the relevant municipal
department some months ago, but
nothing has been done about them.
BOOK A MARKET TABLE
Individuals and organisations wishing
to book tables for the ‘Christmas
Market’ being held at PJ Olivier High
School on Saturday, November 27, can
do so by contacting Ilze on 076-151-
3050.
The market runs from 10am to 3pm
and visitors will find tables packed with
local products, arts, crafts, gifts and
baked goods, plus entertainment and a
food court.
ON THE JOURNEY
The Grade 10 pupils of the Diocesan
School for Girls (DSG) and St Andrew’s
College have been on the annual John
Jones Fish River Journey for a little over
a week, following the Fish River from
its source near Graaff-Reinet to its
mouth almost 30km east of Port
Alfred.
The 21-day adventure will see the
teenagers and staff of the two schools
hiking, cycling, running, canoeing,
abseiling, camping and undertaking
community service work along the
way. They return to their respective
campuses on November 30.
CHAMPIONS ON THE GREENS
Trevor Frost (Port Alfred Bowling Club)
and Louise Vincent (Grahamstown
Bowling Club) were the respective
winners of the men’s and ladies’
divisions when the Eastern Areas
Bowling Association’s ‘Champion of
Champions’ competition was
contested on the Grahamstown greens.
Allie Daniels and Marlene Mitchener,
both of Albany Bowling Club, were
runners-up.
LEADERS
Lara Pinheiro has been elected leader
of the Kingswood College concert
band for 2022, while Isabella Domingo
has been elected leader of the
Kingswood senior choir.
LEADERSHIP
Congratulations to Graeme College
pupil Andrew Muir on receiving the
Grade 7 Leadership Award for 2021 as
selected by his Grade 7 peers and the
Junior School staff.
NEXT YEAR’S PUPIL LEADERS
PJ Olivier High School has announced
its prefect body for 2022, with Junaden
Kadie the head prefect and Sinekamva
Plaatjie the deputy head prefect.
The prefects are: Thangolwethu
Coko, Quinn Dirkse, Vivicadu du
Plessis, Lindokuhle Harmans, Zurayda
Jackson, Eden Matroos, CJ Saterdag,
Bianca Schoonbee, Jordyn-Lee Smith,
Zane van Wyk and Tina Williams.
RHODIANS COMPETE
The Rhodes University Cricket Club
has announced its squad to compete in
the University Sport SA (USSA) cricket
tournament in Gqeberha (Port
Elizabeth) from December 8 to 12.
The players are Garwin Dampies,
Denham Shepstone, Allister de Blocq,
Adrian Wright, David Blenkinsop,
Brian Ngugi, Bradley van Heerden,
Viwe Makeleni, Nicholas Dettner,
Sphamandla Mungeka, Sanele
Ngezana, Siyo Qupe, Robert Klopstra
and Junior Mobodla.
Marquin Loutz is the manager,
Tando Ngcete the coach and Ethan
Shukor the assistant coach.
‘HM’ AND THE ODEON
The “Grahamstown Guide of 1947”,
published by the then City Council and
distributed free of charge to residents,
has been loaned to me by a reader of
this column (thank you, GS!) and
contains some rather interesting
information.
For instance, the guide describes
His Majesty’s Theatre in Hill Street as a
bioscope with a seating capacity of
“over one thousand”.
The guide also mentions that the
Grand Theatre in Bathurst Street “will
be entirely re-built as soon as a
building permit can be obtained”.
Did the Grand Theatre later
become the Odeon Theatre at the
corner of Bathurst and Queen Streets?
SPORTS STARS ON THE HILL
Litha Zabo and Shirley Retief were
named Sportsman and Sportswoman of
the Year respectively at PJ Olivier High
S ch o o l ’s recent senior prizegiving
function. Both are all-rounders when it
comes to sport.
Zabo captained the PJ Olivier 1st
tennis team, winning every match he
played, and represented the combined
Makhanda/Port Alfred team.
He was also captain of the 1st
cricket team and was a member of the
Eastern Province Coastal cricket team.
Zabo also excelled at athletics.
Retief captained the PJ Olivier 1st
hockey and tennis teams, was a
member of the 1st netball team, and
participated in athletics and crosscountry
running. In 2020 she
represented the Albany tennis squad.
HEADING FOR THE COAST
There are ditches and streams that
criss-cross the city and one will
encounter them in upper African Street
(alongside the Rhodes campus), Fitzroy
Street, on the western and southern
sides of Fiddlers Green, lower High
Street and Kowie Street.
Sometimes the ditches and streams
are dry, sometimes overflowing after
copious rains as in the past few weeks.
They all meet up to form what is
commonly known as the Kowie Ditch
that heads for the coast.
A Sunnyside resident pointed out
that the stream from Beaufort Street
into Belmont Valley is not only
overgrown with weeds and bushes,
there is also plenty of litter.
A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE
To the ‘oldies’ out there, I thought I’d
take a walk down memory lane, from
the dip in Bathurst Street to upper High
Street. Take a walk with me.
The Odeon Theatre, under the
ownership of Laurence ‘L o cky ’ S u t t n e r,
was actually a bioscope on the southeastern
corner of Bathurst and Queen
Streets, but these days the building is
occupied by a furniture store and a fastfood
outlet. Amazingly, after all these
years since it retired as a bioscope, the
large “Odeon” sign is still there on the
side of the green building.
Across Bathurst Street is Rentall,
and of course that was Town & Country
Supplies a long time ago. Remember
the business and Messrs JC Bates and
HC Carmichael?
Then we take a hop, skip and jump
into and onto Church Square where
we’ll find the present-day Lewis Stores,
furniture and appliance stockists.
Remember when it was once Bayes &
Co ladies’ outfitters?
Not too many doors farther up in a
westerly direction is the current Home
City Store which, of course, was once
Grocott & Sherry stationers and
booksellers under the ownership of the
Grocott family. The deeper one
ventured into the building you would
find the printing division and, of
course, the editorial offices of the
newspaper, Grocott’s Mail.
Next door is the present-day Clicks
store – before that it housed Checkers
and even before that Muirhead &
G ow i e .
Crossing over Hill Street one comes
to Capitec Bank at 98 High Street,
which decades ago was Espin & Espin
Attorneys. Who remembers partners
Gilly Hutton and Ralph Bartlett?
As we continue our walk in a
westerly direction and cross over High
Street we come to Steers fast-food
outlet, once a vehicle sales showroom
in the form of Westaway’s Motors,
agents for Volkswagen, Studebaker and
Ja g u a r.
Oh, memories! We’ll take another
walk sometime.
HARDLY NOTICED
An acquaintance told me the other day
he often drives through Makhanda’s
CBD but, strangely, sees the cloudreaching
spire of the Cathedral of St
Michael and St George but doesn’t see
it anymore, “if you know what I mean,”
he said.
Yes indeed, I know exactly what he
means. You’ve seen it so many
thousands of times over the years you
don’t notice it anymore.
The same possibly applies to those
living in Port Alfred and who see that
handsome bridge over the Kowie River,
but don’t really notice it anymore.
I spent the first 17 years of my life in
the Cape Town suburb of Milnerton
adjacent to Table Bay and facing the
beautiful Table Mountain.
Walking, cycling, running and
cavorting on the beach, playing in the
streets, hanging out with mates, driving
back and forth in cars, buses and trains,
and even drawing aside the curtains
each morning, there it was staring you
in the face.
But you never saw it, if you know
what I mean. It was there, but you
didn’t really see it.
Y E S T E RY E A R ’S BEAUTIES
A recent post on social media by the
Cape Town Historic Society displayed
more than 50 fine photos of the city’s
CBD streets from the 1940s to the
1960s, showing off the cars, buses and
trams of the period.
Which of the following vehicles did
either you or your parents own or drive
back then? These makes and models
appeared in the Cape Town street
scenes, together with the pedestrians’
fashions of the day.
Which of these do you remember?
Fiat Topolino; Ford Taunus; Chevrolet
Corvair; DKW Auto Union 1000;
Volkswagen Beetle; Ford Zephyr; Nash
Rambler; Studebaker Silver Hawk;
Peugeot 203; Renault Dauphine; VW
Kombi; and Opel Kapitan.
I remember in the Cape Town
suburb of Milnerton, neighbours on the
corner of Union Road and Algoa Road
owned a Henry J sedan, while the
family on the corner of Park Avenue
and Beaufort Road owned a 1958-ish
Ford Fairlane and a BMW Isetta
‘bubble car’ from the same era.
Another neighbour owned a Nash
R a m b l e r.
Then, Mr Basson, Afrikaans teacher
at the school I attended in Newlands,
owned a stunning late 1950s Volvo
PV544 round-back sedan.
Oh, the beauties of that era!
A STREET NAMED LUKE
Luke Street runs parallel with African
Street and stretches between Hill Street
and Douglas Lane, being the main
drop-off point for Oatlands Prep
School pupils. Ever wondered how it
got its name?
George Luke was mayor of
Grahamstown in 1868, and in fact he
died in office. Unfortunately, Douglas
Lane is not listed in the schedule of
local streets.