For those of who follow the game that involves leather on willow - there was an article in the Independent today which said that Colin Cameron had a meeting in a pub near Lords and spoke to Basil (who, for you lot who dont follow cricket or too young to understand Apartheid was attributed by some as being the man who started bringing down the wall of Apartheid) - and Basil said that he had sent a letter to Charlton asking for a trial at Footy , as he was in the national non-white team, but never recekived a reply. Charlton had a long history of South African players such as Stuart Leary and Eddie Firmani- and someone mentioned recently that the club contemplated moving to SA. I remember sitting in Newlands Cape Town watching England v SA at cricket and chatting to a 'coloured' guy next to me who said that Charlton was the team all young non-whites wanted to play for 30/40 years ago- whereas now, if you go there, all you see is ManU and Liv shirts. Basil D'Oliveira RIP - a gentleman too.
Interesting post, Stu. There is a lot of talk these days about the "big four" in the Premiership and whether or not it is now the big "five", "six" or "seven" (maybe there is now only a big "two"). It is hard for our younger fans to realise that immediately before and after WWII Charlton were briefly one of the big five or six in English soccer and with the right club ownership could have cemented that position indefinitely. We had the team (runners-up in last pre-war season and twice Cup finalists immediately after the war), we had the attendances (73,000 odd at the Valley for an F.A Cup tie), and we had the scouting network with a stream of talent from South Africa (myself, Leary, Hewie, O'Linn, Chamberlain, and many others). WWII meant our best-ever team lost six years of its peak years, then in the fifties and sixties followed a string of bad decisions which resulted in a nosedive to the depths of the third tier. (Sound familiar?).
Lovely story, Stu. At a game in 1955-ish at The Valley, the entire Charlton forward line was made up of South Africans - Fermani, Hewie, Leary, O'Linn and Chamberlain. This is a pretty good read, there's an entire chapter on Charlton Athletic's involvement in bringing South African footballers to England after the Second World War. http://www.google.co.uk/#pq=sid o'l....,cf.osb&fp=afba954cc67558fd&biw=1010&bih=580
Not sure why you are apologizing. Thanks for the great link. Super read, though very sad in parts. I love this quote: I feel the idea of bringing âforeignersâ to play in league football is repulsive to the clubs, offensive to British players and a terrible confession of weakness in the management of clubs - the words of Football League vice-president Charles Edward Sutcliffe in 1930. I think we have a few Sutcliffes among our present-day posters here.
