Craven Week venues over 50 years
It's the Golden Jubilee of the Craven Week this year – 50 years of venues and 50 years of enthusiastic organising local committees, all proud to show their environment off to the rest of South Africa.
East London was the first venue and it was also the second venue as well. In fact the gentle city on the Indian Ocean has been the venue for thew Craven Week five times.
Twice the venue has been outside of South Africa – in 1970 when they went to Salisbury in Rhodesia, now Harare in Zimbabwe, and in 1982 when they went to Windhoek in South West Africa, still Windhoek but now in Namibia.
This is the first time they have gone into subtropical Limpopo, the old rugby province of Far North. And then suddenly they had two Craven Weeks this year for the Under-13s held their tournament in Bela-Bela.
There were some watershed venues. East London was obviously one for it that it was there that the Craven Week was born and grew sturdy. There was the 1974 Craven Week in Johannesburg when SA Schools was brought into being. There was the 1978 Craven Week in icy cold Middelburg when the main sponsor, Toyota, told the schools that even though three of the national rugby bodies in South Africa (Board, Federation and Association, had joined up and all senior structures were open to all people, that they wanted Craven Week open to all races. Jan Preuyt objected. He was still objecting at Stellenbosch in 1980 when it became the first Craven Week at which races were mixed.
Look at the venues and see how the Craven Week has crisscrossed South Africa, and wherever it has gone it has done so in hope with a spring in its step. It is after all a joyous thing – Craven Week.
Craven Week venues since 1964:
1964: East London
1965: East London
1966: Pretoria
1967: Cape Town
1968: Bloemfontein
1969: Pietermaritzburg
1970: Salisbury – now Harare
1971: Kimberley
1972: Potchefstroom
1973: Stellenbosch
1974: Johannesburg
1975: Pretoria
1976: Wolmaransstad
1977: Oudtshoorn
1978: Middelburg (Transvaal)
1979: East London
1980: Stellenbosch
1981: Worcester
1982: Windhoek
1983: Upington
1984: Bloemfontein
1985: Witbank
1986: Graaff-Reinet
1987: Paarl
1988: Port Elizabeth
1989: Johannesburg
1990: Durban
1991: East London
1992: Pretoria
1993: Secunda
1994: Newcastle
1995: Bloemfontein
1996: Stellenbosch
1997: Kimberley
1998: Vanderbijl Park
1999: George
2000: Port Elizabeth
2001: Rustenburg
2002: Pietermaritzburg
2003: Wellington
2004: Nelspruit
2005: Bloemfontein
2006: Johannesburg
2007: Stellenbosch
2008: Pretoria
2009: East London
2010: Welkom
2011: Kimberley
2012: Port Elizabeth
