Mean Maroon 1st XV 1978: More memories

Gerald Walker was a first former in Mitchell house in 1978. here he remembers Mean Maroon 1st XV 1978...

The game was 1978, Lenana XV vs. Kenya Army, on Upper Ridge. Army XV had this bloke built like a tank, never bothered side stepping coz of his sheer mass/speed, but Jimmy Owino (Speke House) put a stop to all that, gave him a body check, it sounded like a head on collision (I was not far from the scene of ‘accident’)…his feet barely touched the patch between the side line and the bush about 5 m away; he appeared to recover, but when he tried to get on his feet and run, his legs gave way and headed in the wrong direction for the next bush cluster, head first. It was embarrassing for the guy; I think he retired from playing after that match.

I had a similar encounter years later in 83, vs. RVA on Stirlings, head on collision with Kikwai, I would tackle by going low at the very last moment possible before impact, well for this particular tackle he also went low, mean point of impact was our heads….why lie, kichwa ya huyo mjamaa ili kuwa jiwe!

Jimmy Owino by the way had the craziest side steps, where most players would have kicked for touch in the 22, Jimmy would clutch the ball in his left hand, then pretend to scan the horizon first with his other hand, it never mattered how close the charging opposition was….then he’d side step himself out of trouble, side step 1, scan; side step 2 scan etc…always very calm, he made it look deceivingly easy.

Head of School Lenana 1978, 1979, 1980

Plus the head of school who crafted the words of the school anthem

The office of the head of school in Lenana has an interesting history. Campaigning for head boy has destroyed many Changerians who have failed to make it, it has also destroyed many who have unexpectedly ended up as HOS. But admittedly the folks in the majority are those who have been spurred to work even harder for success out there after they failed to get to the ultimate office in school.

That is just my informed opinion that has emerged from very careful observation over the years I was at Lenana and also research on head of schools long before I got to changes. We will probably discuss this issue in greater detail later but for now I want to say a few things about the head boys at Lenana in 1978, 1979 and 1980.

In 1978 the head boy was Ken Sagala. A rather tall guy with good looks who hailed from James House. Am told that the choice was a little unexpected and took many by surprise.

In 1979 the head of school was a guy called Mogere who came from Carey Francis. I remember him as a huge bulky guy who played rugby for the first 15 somewhere in the scrum and had a high-pitched voice which was unusual for a guy built like that.

In 1980 the head of school was Andy Mwenesi. In my mind Andy stood out in those 3 years. He was the kind of guy who comfortably carried a lot of authority. The corridor up-school would empty in seconds when he was spotted as far off as the music class coming from block 5.. And it did not matter that the 2:00pm bell for classes had not yet rung. Nobody wanted to get on the wrong side of the Head of school that year.

Mwenesi was from Mumia house and played rugby in the scrum for the first 15. In sixth form I believe he was 8th man.

But Andy had another achievement that will forever etch his name in the history books at Lenana. He was responsible for coming up with the words of the school anthem which I am told is still used today.

The thing about Andy is that he knew when to get really serious but also knew when to really get loose and have fun. He seemed to always so effortlessly shift gears. Still he was one of the most respected head boys in Lenana over many years.

Lenana Mean Maroon 1st XV 1978

As we shall see later, 1978 had many similarities to 1983. !978 was the year after Lenana had lifted the Eric Shirley shield in 1977 and 1983 was the year after Lenana had won the Prescott cup unbeaten in 1982.

In both cases the side still had a substantial number of the star players but the key players in critical departments had departed leaving behind boots that were too large for less experienced players to quickly fit into.

Although I was in first form I still remember that we had 6 regular players in the first XV who came from our house. They would all leave the house together for a game, their boots making considerable noise on the corridor as they walked out. They included Eric Ayodo and Ganesse whom I have already mentioned as well as Willy Angawa (wing forward) and Thairu (A very fast winger who was built like a tank with his neck hardly visible. The advantage he had was that desperate high neck tackles just didn’t work with him). Unfortunately I can’t remember the other two.

Evans Vitisia is a prominent banker these days and was a member
of the 1978 side

Other notable players on that side were Evans Vitisia (hooker and main kicker for the side) Jimmy Owino (no relation to Jimmy Green) who played at full back but hardly ever kicked for touch. There was also a mzungu guy from Lugard house called Davies who was a very good prop forward.

My two favourites on that side were Eric Ayodo and Jimmy Owino. Interestingly I later met Jimmy Owino (now deceased) in Kisumu (around 1985) when he was down and out after serving a short prison stint. I really felt sad looking at him then. Somebody whom I had really idolized reduced to nothing. Jimmy was also head of house Speke and he was the most daring Full back I have ever had the opportunity to watch. He would catch a high ball in his own 25 and right next to the try line and then he would calmly swing around the posts a few times before suddenly letting go and hurtling in a very unexpected direction gaining considerable ground in a devastating counter attack for Lenana. It always worked and he hardly believed in kicking for touch. When things got too tight he would do an up and under to gain ground. This made him such a joy to watch even during a boring match that Lenana was losing.

I have already talked about Eric Ayodo’s devastating side-steps and crash tackles in an earlier post. It was also interesting the amount of Vaseline that Eric would apply to his thighs. It made him extremely slippery in the early stages of the game and probably difficult to tackle. Eric is a serious golfer these days and I see his picture in the newspapers all the time.

In those early days when I was just learning the game I hardly took notice of the forwards. Sadly this has always been a problem at Changes. Most schoolboys eager to see sheer speed and side-steps have never really realized the importance of forwards in the XVs game. In my few travels to other corners of the world to play rugby I have even seen a sevens side run rings round another side with very fast runners by simply denying them possession. You can’t run without the ball can you?

Still in retrospect I can say that the 1978 side had a devastating front row. There was Evans Vitisia, Davies and I can’t remember who the other guy was. The way they would go down on a scrum down, you would literally feel the ground under you tremble as they made impact. Many weaker opponents quickly lost appetite for the game after a few scrum downs.

That was the first Lenana XV I saw. In retrospect it was not a bad side. The usual flair was there and they were entertaining to watch. But I have a feeling that they failed to retain the Eric Shirley shield because they lacked the depth and weight in the pack which they had the previous year.

From that side Eric’s kicking greatly inspired me to later become a pretty useful kicker myself for both touch and goal. Many years later we played on the same Impala side with him. He was by then a mere shadow of his old self and I was just knocking on the door to play for Kenya. Still I had great respect for EO even then.

Post 1: What this blog is all about
Post 2: I was laughed at on my first day in Lenana
Post 3: Eric Ayodo's side step
Post 4: Lenana Mean Maroon 1st XV 1978

Hilarious Ganesse claims rabbles wanted to kill him

One of the first things we were taught on arrival was how to answer to a rabble call. Rabble calls were only made by house prefects and if we heard any of them shout “rabble” we were supposed to ran as fast as possible to where they were. Sometimes they would just scream “one rabble” and the first person who got there would be sent on whatever errand the sixth former house prefect wanted accomplished. This could be polishing his shoes, making him tea or running to another house several kilometres away (like Lugard or Speke) to get him some music cassette.

I soon realized to my great shock that rabble was an English word and even had a meaning.

rab•ble
Pronunciation: \ra-bəl\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English rabel pack of animals
Date: 14th century
1 : a disorganized or confused collection of things
2 a : a disorganized or disorderly crowd of people : mob b : the lowest class of people.
So we were rabble just because we were first formers. And the second formers too. Our only crime was being too low in the school hierarchy.
Sometimes a prefect would notice that you were not running fast enough and deliberately hanging back so that somebody else would get there first. In this case you would get punished seriously, usually some serious beating (I will come to that later). In the first few weeks many second formers got punished for reacting too slowly to a rabble call, probably expecting first formers to get there first.

And so when somebody shouted rabble nobody wanted to get there last and suffer some serious repercussions.

Now there was this house prefect called Ganesse (I can’t quite remember how to spell his name) who was a real clown. I think he was Italian and the only white man in Kirk house. One day he made a rabble call and then started running away. You can imagine 30 rabbles running after him at full speed and Ganesse looking terrified like he was running for his life. He headed straight to the house prefects common room where other prefects were seated. Out of breath he announced to them that rabbles had gone on strike and had run after him to beat him up. Some of us found the whole incident very funny until we started receiving some very hard ngotos from E.O. (Eric Ayodo) as punishment for “trying to kill a sixth former just because he was a mzungu.”

Ganesse was a devastating wing forward for Mean Maroon who tackled hard and was a member of the legendary 1977 Lenana School side that won the Eric Shirley shield (the only school side to ever lift the trophy). The Eric Shirley shield is for club second 15s which was entered by Lenana. Eric Ayodo too was a key member of that Lenana rugby team that made history. Ayodo played second centre like nobody else I have ever seen. His side steps were very emphatic (like he would literally jump high in the air to change direction). But oh my, were they effective? But even more effective were his tackles. He always crash tackled. Always. That meant hitting the opponent head on from the front and low on the thighs. Ouch!! The effect was that few second centres enjoyed playing against him. Then his kick for touch was that of a full back rather than a second centre. High spinning torpedoes that gained enormous ground from deep in the 22. In 1978 Lenana School was defending its’ Eric Shirley Shield title and although they didn’t retain it, they still defeated quite a number of strong club sides but I shall talk more about that team in later posts.

Post 1: What this blog is all about
Post 2: I was laughed at on my first day in Lenana
Post 3: Eric Ayodo's side step
Post 4: Lenana Mean Maroon 1st XV 1978

Learning to eat in full view of the block 2 dining hall

What this blog is all about

I joined Lenana barely five months after the most traumatic event of my life—the passing away of my mother in August 1977. I went to that school totally by accident. Or shall I say a stroke of fate. Here is what happened.

I have always believed that I am a tough boy but my mother’s death had its’ toll on my life and one of my wise teachers (bless her) noticed that life was going to be difficult for me unless I got some toughening and so she changed my first choice school from Alliance boys (where my dada wanted me to go) to Lenana School.

The primary school I had attended, (Lavington Primary) was not too badly off as far as facilities went but I was awed as we drove all the way from the school gate to Kirk in block 2, going through the swimming pool and squash courts. I was excited and sensed that I was going to be very happy in this place. Little did I know of the horrors that awaited me in the coming days. In retrospect I am certain I would have had an easier time in Lanet doing military training for six months. I kid you not.
It was a Sunday and so we went into the dining hall dressed in our blazers.

But I must admit that I was made to feel very welcome. At least I knew Fred Ochieng in Form two from Lavington Primary. We used to play a lot of soccer with him. I also knew fellow rabble, Christopher Ngovi who was also from Lavington.

The bell rung and we were ushered into the huge Block 2 dining hall where Form twos were still serving. Nesbitt Wesonga (whom we were to play rugby with up to national team level was there hurrying around with a huge tray of spaghetti, which was what we had for our first supper at Changes).

And then my first embarrassing incident at Lenana happened. We occasionally ate spaghetti at home where I usually preferred a spoon. But here we were with only a fork and knife as the sole tools to maneuver those slippery things into the mouth. I ended up putting my knife in my mouth at one point. The second I did that, there was loud laughter all around me on the table. I had not noticed that everybody was looking at me. Opposite me Memba Muriuki (now a lawyer cum boxing promoter) was the other first former on the same table with me. He had been at Nairobi primary and also had an elder brother in fourth form and so he knew exactly what to expect. Obviously he had been much better prepared for all this. Hen the others laughed I remember he smiled. As if to say “at least I am not a mshamba like that big guy opposite me on the table.”

We exchanged a few words with Ngovi after supper and before we went to bed. He told me that we would have to brace ourselves for the worst because the school had a reputation for serious bullying. I didn’t really feel frightened because I had no idea what was coming. But also because of the death in the family the previous August. I told myself nothing worse than that would surely happened to me. Ignorance is bliss and sometimes it is good that we are not able to glimpse into the immediate future. There definitely would be more suicides around if we had that ability.

What was your first day in form one like?

Post 1: What this blog is all about
Post 2: I was laughed at on my first day in Lenana
Post 3: Eric Ayodo's side step
Post 4: Lenana Mean Maroon 1st XV 1978

I shall not sneak because I am a man: What this blog is all about

I was at Lenana School between 1978 and 1983 (first form to sixth form). It was a fascinating time when so many changes were taking place and I have always known that there was a story to tell there. But always I hesitated, remembering how we were told in first form to sing and repeat many times, “I will not sneak because I am a man.” I always write too honestly and so did I fear deep in my subconcioousness that I was sneaking? Albeit many years later. As bizarre as that seems, I suspect so.

Then the other day I came across some recollections of the time and was horrified at how the writer had gotten some of the key details wrong mainly because they were juniors at the time (no offence intended). That was the day I realized that mine was a story that I just had to tell. Hence the birth of this blog.

Blogs are wonderful tools because they allow the full participation of others in the comments area thus quickly building up a rich pool of facts and information. It is my hope that this is exactly what this blog will grow to be. I also hope that we will be able to extend to the time long before me and the time long after, and hopefully up to the present time.

I have no doubt on my mind that Lenana School was an extraordinary place in those days but I will try my best to be blunt and tell it as it was.

Changerians have always been an odd lot and hopefully even spouses will be able to understand their men better when they fully understand what happened in the six highly impressionable years they spent at Lenana. And I hope all those who went to this great school will also be able to understand themselves much better.

Post 1: What this blog is all about
Post 2: I was laughed at on my first day in Lenana
Post 3: Eric Ayodo's side step
Post 4: Lenana Mean Maroon 1st XV 1978