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.