Everything happens at Kimberley

Press, 16 September 1976, Page 36

Everything happens at Kimberley

NZPA staff cones Kimberley Everything happens, it seems, when the All Blacks visit Kimberley. Yesterday's match against Griqualand West featured the ordering off of a flank forward, Jimmy Young, and strong vocal support for the All Blacks from the Coloured section of the crowd at one end of the ground.

There was, however, no sign of rioting or unrest, which was a sorry aftermatch of the visit to Kimberley by the 1970 All Blacks.

Back in town, though, it has been an eventful few days for the All Blacks. Hordes of police, some in riot uniform, swarmed to the team’s hotel last night after a car crash outside the foyer. Several of the player 3 saw the incident, during which one car rammed the side of another, then sped off down the road. Earlier, the All Blacks’ coach, Mr J. J. Stewart, had exchanged words with hotel staff, who had most forcefully evicted a young Coloured autograph hunter from the hotel’s reception area. Mr Stewart and several players were passing as the Coloured was thrown out the door, and Mr Stewart challenged the hotel men.

“No human being should be treated like that,” Mr Stewart told them, in a somewhat tense and bitter confrontation. The previous evening, two of the AU Blacks watched ..another incident in one of the hotel bars when a young woman drew a knife on a male companion and there was an ugly scene as onlookers wrestled to take the knife from the screaming woman.