My thanks and deep appreciation to Kiddo and Okello for helping to fill in the gaps where memory has faded about the residential training prior to the 1982 season.
But there is something that happened during the residential training that I can never forget. It happened towards the end. I suddenly lost my confidence.
I guess it happens to a lot of players playing any game. In soccer folks say the player is off form. In my case I just couldn't tackle any more. How do you play fullback if you can’t bring down the opposition? In one embarrassing incident I even used my feet to trip somebody. I started feeling that maybe I wasn't going to make it playing my favourite position for Mean Maroon after all. I am certain that if I had had a strong challenger for the position that would have been it. Barely two years later during a trial for the Kenya team that toured Zimbabwe, I was playing for the Possibles versus the Probables when the very dependable Mwamba RFC full back then whom I greatly admired lost his form right in the middle of the trials. I was a strong challenger and that was it, I was switched to the Probables and ended up on the team to win my first and only cap for Kenya. Naturally his fellow players and colleagues who knew him well felt that the selectors were rather harsh and should have stuck with the more experienced full back.
Back to 1982. Mercifully for me I stayed on the team. I guess the captain had a lot of confidence in me after all the years of playing together in house matches. And even more fortunate I exploded back into top form as the season started.
Meanwhile the rest of the team was clicking into shape like some well oiled machine. While other schools were coming in to start rugby training this side had been together since 1981 and now we had just completed a 2 week residential training.
One of the first schools to be on the receiving end was Patch. In the previous year they had seen a struggling Mean Maroon side. They were more than a little shocked at what they suddenly faced. Indeed that year matches were less serious than training sessions except for when we met RVA and also during the two 7s tournaments for schools in those days.
Maroon fans were delighted at what they now saw after the disappointments of 1981. In particular they were delighted at the brand new winger we had from Lugard house called Andy Kimwele. Now in 1981 we also had a guy from Kinyanjui called Opondo. He hardly got enough quality ball to work with but in the few times that he did, he would bring the crowd to its’ feet with his numerous evasive side-steps. He had been in sixth form and so had left.
At his peak Andy was like no other winger I had seen thus far. He had admirable pace but the reason why he was so difficult to stop was because he had the ability to maintain and even accelerate his speed a split second after a side-step.
One move in particular during that Patch game sticks in my mind. And it was all captured on video by Dave Anderson.
The ball rapidly went down the line and I joined for the overlap only to find myself almost crowded out by the Patch pack, looking back am not sure how that happened because those who understand the game will know why they shouldn’t have been where they were. I danced around and prepared to do an up and under but heard Kimwele calling for the ball on my outside and he was breaking all known speed limits. I fed the ball to him just as I went down from a tackle. What Andy did next had me and am sure many others as an awed audience. He danced his way right through the scrum and got clean over the try line. Sadly he dropped the ball just before he could put it down. Had I been the ref I would have given him the 4 points anyway just for the entertainment (kidding). The fans went crazy with delight and you would have thought it was a try. I could understand their joy watching what must have appeared such fluid co-ordinated play capped by some of the craziest dancing ever seen on Sterlings for a long time right through an entire scrum. He was quickly forgiven for not scoring the try.
Later at Andersons’ house we watched clips of the game and although everybody scolded Kimwele for dropping the ball while making all kinds of jokes like the one about him dropping it because he too could not believe he had side-stepped right through a whole scrum, we all greatly admired this brand new winger who had exploded onto the scene and were sure glad that he was on our side and not playing for RVA or something like that. Anderson also made a comment about my powerful running caught on video as he made numerous other comments about the abilities of others in this great new side. This was said alongside the adjustments and mistakes he pointed out that had to be corrected before we met RVA.
The 1982 Mean Maroon squad had arrived. Terror would spread across all school sides who would mostly lose all appetite for rugby when they knew they had to face Lenana. But I don’t think RVA had been quite prepared for what they saw that season in chilly windy Kijabe.
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