The Wanderers Club

Although the past decade was a screwy one in many respects and brought to light many new trends and tendencies in the world of sport, here at the Wanderers it was also eventful and was marked by some significant developments.

Early in the decade, during the third week of February, we witnessed the third cricket test match in the four-test series between South Africa and the touring Australian team. There were 32 000 people at the stadium on Saturday February 21 to watch the South Africans, on top of the world, inflict another defeat on their redoubtable opponents. They were described as a remarkably orderly crowd, so different from the unruly mobs who were becoming a common feature at big cricket matches overseas. It was the last international cricket to be seen at the Wanderers.

A stadium crisis blew up shortly afterwards, when it became known that the Transvaal Cricket Union (now the Transvaal Cricket Council was considering moving its headquarters elsewhere. After many months of negotiation between the Wanderers, the TCU and the Johannesburg City Council, it was finally agreed that the cricket headquarters would remain at the Wanderers for another 20 years, with the council subsidizing the maintenance of the stadium.

Although deprived on its international cricket fare, the stadium continued as the venue for provincial cricket matches and several hockey internationals were staged there. But seldom, if ever, were its tall stands filled to capacity.

In 1979, the Transvaal Rugby Football Union was granted the temporary use of the stadium for two years during the winter as its headquarters pending the reconstruction of its premises at Ellis Park.

In the same year, the club introduced multi-racial sectional membership as a means of offering people of racial groups other than white opportunities to share in the renowned amenities of the Wanderers Club.

Author : Eric Brunette January 1980