SOUTH AFRICAN TOUR Last March the U.S.C.F. Trampoline Team that toured South Africa made a memorable trip through that beautiful countr y that took some six weeks to complete. The team covered 6,000 miles by car durin g that six weeks and it w~ s a long. and man y times tiring but alwa ys enjoyable tnp . The host for this team tour was Mr. aile Areborn and his letter to the U.S.C. F. Office was so well written and comprehensive that we decided to present it here as the final report on that tour. Report by OLLE AREBORN South Ajrican Amateur Trampoline Union I t is a pleasure for me, fir st of all to convey my thanks and also on behalf ofi th e S. A. Amateur Trampolin e Un ion to ex tend to th e U.S.G.F . our gratitude for makin O' this wonderful tea m available to us. I am certainly hopin g that" thi s will be a regular event, to have a team from the United States in So uth Africa. This team ~er tainl y boosted th e sport here and we will for a Ion 0' time benefit h'om the many excell ent exhibitions the tea m put Ol~ ri O'ht throughout South Africa. . " . On March 10th, whi ch was a bi g day for us here, the United States team a rrive d and after a short press conference at th e Airport, the team wa s taken to town and booked into a hotel in which they staye? until the 31st of March, when th e actual tou;in g started. The fll's t appea rance the team was go in g to make was in Durban on the 13th of. March, whi ch was also the first Test Match a O'ain st South Africa. l'vIr. Brinkmeyer was asked whether the team ~vould lik e to l e~ve imm ediately th e same day for Durban, or wait until the followm g day. Aft er our explanati on that Durban is one of our biggest holiday reso rts on the coast, the team unanimously decid ed that they want ed to leave ri ght after dinner on th e 10th. They were taken down by car and the distan ce between Durban and Jolmnes· burg is approx imately 400 miles, which was done in 7·8 hours The team spent th e 11th and 12th on the beach and seemed to enjo; It th oroughly. In between, we had several press conferences and a visit to the .Mayor of Durban and on Friday the 13th the Test Match took place be fore a crowd of 4,000 people in the Ice Drom e. Un· fortu nately, th e hall co uld not seat more and therefore we had to turn away almost a thou sand people. The Tes t was a great success and, as expected, United States won with 55.95 points against South Africa's 52.54 and the individual result s were as follow s : U.S.A. Voluntary Total Set Frank Schmitz 9.46 9.63 19.09 Steve Johnson 9.50 18.73 9.23 Nancy Smith 9.40 7.73 18.33 55.95 So uth Africa 8.96 8.93 17.89 Martin Trimmer P eter 1'I'Ielvin 8.20 9.10 17.69 Marij ke van den Boogaard 9.06 7.90 16.96 52.54 It was felt that in all fairn ess and as we do not have an y experience of your judging in the United States, that Mr. Gil Brinkmeyer should be asked to act as a judge, to which he kindly con· sented . This was very helpful to our judges, as they could see an expert in action and many fruitful discussions ·on the matter of judging were held during Mr·. Brinkmeyer's stay in South Africa. The team returned to Johann esburg on Saturday morning, the 14th and tok part in th e So uth African Games competi tion in the
Johannesburg City Hall. This is a Bi-Annu'al Games ,ve hold in So uth Africa for all sports and here again Frank Schmitiz won, followed by Steve John son. Nancy Smith won the wom en's event. From the 16th - It8h the team spent their day s in J ohannesburg practisin g for the Rand Easter Show Display, whi ch started on the 19th. The Rand Easter Show is a big industrial show which' takes place annuall y in Johann esb urg, and there is always some kind of exhibi tion in the main arena, as the case was this year with the trampoline tellm; Th e U. S. team was part of an 18 persons synchronized trampolin e display. They performed as part of this big team as well as individually, and the display s durin g that period were extremely well received by the public. Even Mr. Brinkmeyer too kpart as a clown and we all think .that he has got the makin gs for an outstandin g comed ian. . On the 31st of March we started our tour of South Africa, and here a vote of thanks mu st be given to Gil, as he drove one of the cars ri ght throughou t the whole tour. We tran sported 2 trampolines on a truck, which I my self drove. Our first stop was Kimberley, which is a great diamond mining area. Here the team performed twice a day from the 1 - 4th April under similar conditions as at the Rand Easter Show. The night of the 5th Gil became very ill and was treated with inj ections and drugs and had to stay half a day behind. Fortunately he soon recovered and was able to travel to the next place, Kroonstad. H ere our hosts were the Prisons Services Training College . This is a college where they tra in prison wardens for our prisons in South Africa, and as they are extrem ely sports minded, especially gymnastics and trampolinin g, they undertook to organize a display in Kroonstad. Unfortunately, we struck the only rain during th e whole trip, hut in spite of th e bad weather, 3,000 people turned up' to see the U. S. team. Our next exhibition was held in Welkom, a city oiIly 10 years old, extremely modern and the centre of gold mining areas in the Orange Free State. Here the Rotary Club in Welkom had organized 2 displays, on e in the afternoon and one at night , whi ch " rere fairly well attended by loca l people. The team was here, for the fir st tfm e, put up with famili es and I am sure they enjoyed their inside glimpse of how a South African family lives. . On Wedn esday, 8th April, we left for Bloemfontein, which ·is the capital of the Oran ge Free State, and here the team performed twice daily in a similar show as th e Rand Easter Show, and we also had our second Test Mat ch on April 10th. The Test Match here was not as well attended as in Durban, also we did not have a venue as big as Durban, but approximately 1,500 peo ple witn essed South Africa winning again st the United States. By now you probably heard the reason for this r esult, as Nancy unfortunately hurt her ankle during the warm-up prior to the Test Match and the United States team had to compete with only 2 members against South Africa's three. The results were South Africa 46.05 against United States 37.50. The indi vidual results were as follows: Set Voluntary Total South Africa Marijke van den Boogaard 8.7 8.25 16.95 Neil Yelseth 7.35 7.95 15.30 46.50 Peter Melvin 6.3 7.5 13.80
U. S. A. 18.95 9.45 9.5 Steven J ohn son 37.50 8.95 18.55 Frank Schmitz 9.6 It was also a very interes tin g Test Match from the point of view that Steve John son beat Frank Schmitz. On the 12th April we again hit the· road and travelled to East London , which is a coas tal town, and here we performed in one day 4 displays, which was rather heavy. However, 1 must again stress that Continued on page 32"
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