The Wanderers Club

Author: Mr Alfred (Sonny) Kahn (87 years old), Wanderers Club Member since January 1937


I read with much interest the article from George Cohen which you published and although I cannot compete with him in relation to the tenure of our membership at Wanderers we are both very long standing active members and old personal friends. It is interesting to record that my maternal grandparents who arrived from England in the 1880’s and George’s parents were life-long friends.

Before and subsequent to my election to the Wanderers Club as a junior member I used to watch my grandfather playing bowls at the Old Wanderers Club adjacent to Park Station. In those days the bowling greens were on the northern extremity of the Club premises bordering on Wolmarans Street.

With hardly an exception I was a spectator on Sunday afternoons to watch baseball and in particular to be intrigued by the witticism and sportsmanship of Bertie Price. I think that Bertie was more personally instrumental in drawing spectators to the baseball than the team for which he played.

In the latter part of Bertie’s life he became an ardent bowler (as a member of the Houghton Bowling Club) and if my memory serves me correctly, he was selected to play for Southern Transvaal in an Inter-District tournament.

In any event I had very many pleasant experiences with Bertie when we played bowls together at the Houghton Club and in the same way in which he was entertaining as a baseballer so much more so was he unique in his bowls activity specifically in a sporting environment. But his contribution to the overall camaraderie of his wonderful competitive game was unforgettable.

Before the War started in 1939, my father who until then was a Wanderers member but also a golfer at Houghton (where he was a foundation proprietary member) joined my grandfather as a bowler at the Old Wanderers Club and my dad was considered a good player. In those days he was associated with some of the nationally renowned Wanderers bowlers such as the Lawson’s, Van Oordt’s, the Lobban’s and Bob Coats. Again I believe I am correct in proudly recalling that my father won the Wanderers Single Championship on four occasions, the first of which was before the Club move from town to where it is presently situated which at that stage was known as “Kent Park” and somewhat adversely criticised by the Wanderers members as being out in the country side.

An abiding personal memory was when as a youngster at the age of twelve I was invited by my cousin, whose name was Elias Hart, at that stage in his early 20’s, to join him as a spectator at the Wanderers Club to watch the test match against Australia which was a four day game played from the 24th to 28th December 1935. Amongst the famous Australian team cricketers was Vic Richardson (captain) and fellows like Jack Fingleton, Bill Brown, Stan McCabe, Bert Oldfield (behind the stumps) and two of the all time great Australian spinners, Clarrie Grimmett and Bill (Tiger) O’Reilly. In the South African side I clearly recall Bruce Mitchell, Eric Rowan, Dudley Nourse, Dooley Briscoe, Herbie Wade (captain) and Bob Crisp our opening seam bowler.

Incidentally on the other side of the Wanderers ”A” ground situated behind the clubhouse was another large sports ground but peculiarly it wasn’t part of the Wanderers Club but it was then the Pirates Club which incidentally still exists near Greenside in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. It was on that ground where we as school boys from K.E.S. attended net practice every Sunday morning and our coach was none other than the famous Eric Rowan albeit that he himself was a Jeppe High School old boy.

Within the confines of the Main Wanderers Clubhouse was a magnificent gymnasium which I attended as a junior Wanderers member and the gym instructor was a man who served the Wanderers Club for many years Mr Viera. I wonder how many of the present Wanderers members remember him and in particular his gymnastic expertise.

The Wanderers Main Clubhouse in which the members and their guests were accommodated was situated on the west side of the ground and therefore broadside onto the wicket.

From my point of view the greatest moment was during the lunch interval when all the players and members and their guests partook of lunch in the same dining room. This was an awesome opportunity to meet the contestants and for me as a youngster to obtain all their autographs.

During South Africa’s second innings, Dudley Nourse scored 231 runs, but it was an hilarious drunk sitting under the main scoreboard on the east side of the ground who shouted in a voice which could be heard all over the ground “You will never get him out” after every single ball bowled to Dudley Nourse. Nourse was at the wicket for the best part of two days and this inebriated voice boomed across the ground throughout the entire innings. It was extremely humorous and he had the spectators in fits of laughter. For many years thereafter it became a “war cry” whenever a South African batsman was performing in a test match.

We thought that South Africa would win that test but to their credit in Australia’s second innings Stan McCabe scored 180 runs not out and participated with Jack Fingleton and Len Darling in forcing a draw.

I think it will be of great interest to your readers to examine the complete details of that match which I have extracted from the internet and is enclosed herewith.

Incidentally my cousin Elias Hart was killed in the tank-core in Italy in 1943 and his name is commemorated with others who gave their lives in both World Wars on the magnificent war memorial which the Club has erected on the west-side of the Clubhouse facing the car park.

My own primary sporting activity was golf which I played at Houghton Golf Club followed by some 30 odd years of competitive and administrative bowls there. I am a life member of Houghton Golf Club as indeed I am also an honorary life member of the Wanderers.

I became an official bowls umpire and coach and it is of interest that George Cohen and I jointly pursued the concept of inaugurating bowls as a sport at schoolboy and schoolgirl level. We were of the opinion that the future of this great game of bowls could be assured by introducing participants to the game at grassroots level. We also realised that in most schools more than 60% of the pupils do not participate in any sport whatsoever either because they are not up to standard technically or they are not happy to play contact sport. The two of us assisted by Donny Piketh a springbok player addressed the school bots at two of the Johannesburg northern suburbs high schools during their break and by permission of their respective head masters we encouraged many of them to indicate in writing that they would be interested in pursuing bowls as a sport which could be contested in team categories at each school and which would also create subsequent opportunities of becoming inter-district and international competitors.

Initially we had a fairly large number of youngsters who turned out at the Wanderers on a Sunday afternoon where we introduced them to the technique of bowls but more importantly got them playing without much delay in singles and pairs. We felt that we would prefer to exclude trips and fours because we were afraid that this would not give youngsters sufficient activity.

Our Sunday endeavours had per force to be moved out to Northcliff where we continued for some weeks coaching and encouraging the youngsters amongst whom we found great enthusiasm and enjoyment. There were however technical difficulties in carrying on with the Sunday afternoon school boys and girls bowling programme, but having proved its viability the concept was introduced in general to the Executive of the South African Bowling Association. We tried to encourage that body to inaugurate school competitive bowls on a provincial and national basis but unfortunately the task was apparently too extensive for them to undertake. We are still of the opinion that the game of bowls would have thrived throughout the country both from a short and long term prospective had the South African Bowling Association pursued our recommendation and at this stage the game would have been thriving. Unfortunately we are now witnessing an overall decline in bowling activity to the extent to which it has become a sport which has been relegated to an increasingly inferior category – much to be regretted!