Death of the oldest Bull

LM Smit played for Northern Transvaal in its very first match – against Transvaal on Monday, 18 April 1938. He died gently on 8 December 2014, three weeks short of his 102nd birthday.

Northern Transvaal had been a subunion of Transvaal and so Smit had played for Transvaal in 1937 but in 1938 Northern Transvaal was upgraded to a union and he was chosen as a prop. Those were years of few provincial matches but the tough man played prop or flank for Northern Transvaal 10 times, ending his provincial career in 1942.

There were six Springboks in that first Northern Transvaal team – Ferdie Bergh, who captained the side, Roger Sherriff, Ben du Toit, tough Lukas Strachan, Tallie Broodryk, Nic Bierman and the scrumhalf Major Danie Craven who captained the Springboks that year  and in fact took over the Northern Transvaal captaincy after that first match. Transvaal, who had five Springboks, won 22-9.

Lourens Martinus Smit, generally known as LM, was born in Perdeberg west of Kimberley, site of a critical battle in the South African War, and went to high school in Hopetown where he learnt to play rugby. After  school he worked as a labourer on the railways and, as a 17-year-old, played for Lichtenburg before becoming a travelling salesman and moving to Pretoria where he joined Pretoria Harlequins. Later he bought a farm in the Dullstroom District and carried on playing rugby, first for Machadadop and then for Belfast, finally hanging up his boots in 1950.

In 1971 Smit left the farm Waaikraal in Mpumalanga and settled his family in Middelburg where he lived in his own house well into his Nineties before his health required him to have greater care. His last years were tough. But his son At said he was a fighter. He fell of a chair and broke his hip and then had a stroke about three years ago. After that he was bedridden, becoming weaker. Eventually he died quietly in his sleep. His wife Lizzie had died in 1985 and he is survived by his four sons (At, Fanus, Louwtjie and Gert), six grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Smit's great rugby disappointment was that he never played for South Africa, missing out on two notable occasions.

In 1938 he was a favourite for a Test place against the touring British & Irish Lions but was on a train going to investigate farming opportunities in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and the selectors could not contact him.

The second time was when he was told he would be chosen but suffered a bout of malaria.

Going to Zambia did him no favours and he never did farm there.

LM Smit's death  ends an era.