Colin Dowdeswell

  A SCRUFFY YOUNG MAN with hangdog hair and a nonchalant air captured the hearts and imaginations of the Wimbledon crowds in 1975.

 He was Colin Dowdeswell, then only nineteen and a triple holder of Rhodesian tennis titles. With the help of his partner in the men's doubles, Tasmanian, Allan Stone, Dowdeswell became the first Rhodesian to win through to a Wimbledon final.

 Strangely enough, he made his first appearance at the hallowed home of tennis nineteen years before when he was born there. He came to Rhodesia to live in 1956 and his boyhood was dedicated to tennis under the guidance of his mother, tennis coach, Shelagh Evans, herself a player of no mean ability.

 Dowdeswell and Stone eliminated two seeded pairings on their way to the 1975 final and provided the British Press with a lot of colourful copy.

 The young Rhodesian was due to have played in the doubles with his older brother Roger who was a professional coach in America, but Roger decided to return to America a week before Wimbledon, leaving Colin without a partner.

 However, opportunity knocked once and Colin eagerly grabbed his chance when Ray Ruffles, who was to have partnered Stone in the doubles, was injured.

 In typical fashion, the quietly spoken, well-mannered Dowdeswell approached Stone in the players' restaurant at Wimbledon and introduced himself: "I'm Colin Dowdeswell. Would you mind if I played with you in the doubles?"

 Thus was born an unusual but highly effective partnership which had the staid Wimbledon crowds talking animatedly over their strawberries and cream.

 The mature, neat Stone was much older than his young partner and the pair were a complete contrast on the court. The cool, experienced Stone and the exuberant Dowdeswell, shirt-tails invariably hanging out, made a dynamic combination.

 Stone's steadiness from the baseline and Dowdeswell's excellence in volleying and net play took them steadily to the final against the Americans. Vitas Gerulaitis and Sandy Mayer.

 The seeded pairing of Tom Okker and Marty Riessen were the first to fall to the Rhodesian-Australian combination. Dowdeswell and Stone eliminated them 3-6, 9-7. 6-3, 6-2 and caused quite a stir on the terraces.

 They next came up against the time-proven pair of South Africans, Bob Hewitt and Frew McMillan and general opinion was that they would meet their Waterloo.

 The critics were again wrong and the third-seeded South Africans were brushed aside 6-3, 6-4, 8-9. 9-8 to allow Dowdeswell and Stone through to a semifinal against Australian Dick Crealey and Yugoslavian Nikki Pilic.

 This was a tighter match for them but with Dowdeswell serving very strongly and his net play again outstanding, they eventually triumphed 9-8,3-6,4-6.9-8,6-3 to make the final.

 It was a big occasion for the young Dowdeswell and the enormity of it all seemed to affect his game. He was brilliant at times but also showed bad lapses in concentration at crucial moments and Gerulaitis and Mayer took the title in straight sets 7-5, 8-6, 6-4, ending a fairy-tale challenge the likes of which make Wimbledon the truly great tournament that it is.

 Dowdeswell showed above-average ability in tennis from an early age. His natural inclination for the game was carefully nurtured by his mother and he soon outstripped players of his own age. He won his first title at the age of six — in an under-10 tournament — and progressed ever upwards.

 Another milestone in his career was his triple crown in the Rhodesian Open in the same year as his Wimbledon doubles final. This feat had not been accomplished since 1950 when C. V. Irvine won three titles.

 As a junior he was undoubtedly a match for the world's best. In 1974 he lost the final of the under-18 singles at Wimbledon to American Billy Martin and he also made the final of the American Forest Hills junior championships.

 He won numerous Rhodesian and Mashonaland junior and senior titles and scored regularly on the South African Sugar Circuit.

 Dowdeswell's form continued in 1976, which all round was a very good year for him. He led the Rhodesian Davis Cup team in their first-round tie against Switzerland at Berne, recording Rhodesia's only wins when he beat both Heinz Guenthardt and Max Huerlimann in singles. Switzerland won the tie 3-2.

 Later that year he reached the last eight of the U.S. Forest Hills championships (ranked alongside Wimbledon in importance), beating the eighth seed, Mexican champion, Raul Ramirez, in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.

 He then beat Bob Lutz 7-6, 6-2 and the American later said of Dowdeswell: "He's a real surprise packet. Now I know how he beat Ramirez." Dowdeswell's challenge ended when American, Eddie Dibbs, beat him 6-2, 6-4.

 Not content with that, Dowdeswell teamed up with Australian Chris Rachel to make the quarter-finals of the doubles at Forest Hills.

 In the quarter-finals they beat the second-seeded pair of Fred McNair and Sherwood Stewart 2-6, 7-5, 7-6. Earlier they had beaten Argentinean Guillermo Vilas and Rumanian Ion Tiriac 6-2, 6-3.

 At Wimbledon that year he was beaten in the first round of the singles, but reached the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles with American, Betty Nagelson, as a partner.

 His efforts in world tennis in 1975 and 1976 deservedly led to his being one of the five finalists for the Rhodesian Sportsman of the Year Trophy.

 After a relatively quiet period in 1977 in which he beat British number five, John Feaver, to gain the second round of the singles at Wimbledon, Dowdeswell came to the fore in 1978.

 The top player in 1977 was the Argentinean bombshell, Guillermo Vilas. Dowdeswell beat him in a semifinal of the South African Open to record his finest singles triumph.

 It was a great match and a great victory for the young Rhodesian who had been unseeded and forced to qualify for the 32-man event Playing controlled, error-free tennis, Dowdeswell endeared himself to an 8 000 crowd at Ellis Park and earned the nickname 'Cool Hand Luke' as he demolished top seed, Vilas, in a thrilling 6-1, 6-7, 6-4 encounter.

 When Dowdeswell put away his seventh match point to win the third set 6-4, the crowd, who had been rooting for him throughout, erupted in a deafening tribute. They shared the agony and the ecstasy of three excruciating sets and every one of those match points Dowdeswell had held and lost to Vilas in the crucial second set

 That was another of Dowdeswell's finest hours but again he could not sustain the momentum and lost the final to American, Cliff Richey, 6-2, 6-4. The strain of too many matches and a badly blistered right foot did not help the young Rhodesian.

 One wonders how far Dowdeswell could have gone in world tennis had he concentrated the whole of his time on the game.

 But his quiet, reserved manner, dream-like air and slow smile all mask resolute determination and a sharp intellect. He knows that there are other ways to make a living and to this end he has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Wits University and has been studying languages. He is also taking a banking and finance course in Switzerland where he has a tennis contract with a club.

 His studies have often forced tennis to take a back seat and his achievements on the court are made all the more remarkable. Family life also looms — on a quick visit to his family in Salisbury in 1979, Dowdeswell brought with him Parisian Marie-Christine le Goasguen, whom he plans to marry in 1980.

 — McDERMOTT.

 End

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 Ref. Rhodesia

Simon Hobday

Any sport is blessed when a player of exceptional ability comes along, more so when the player happens to be a colourful character as well.

 Such a player did much to put Rhodesia on the world golf map during the 1970s. The man was Simon Hobday, who became to Rhodesians what Gary Player was to South Africans.

 Born at Mafeking, South Africa, Hobday played golf and rugby for Northern Rhodesia after his family, all of whom were above-average sportsmen, moved there. Hobday's father was a scratch golfer and brothers Humphrey and John were also good at the sport. But it was Simon who really excelled and in 1969, at the age of twenty-eight, he decided to turn professional and took up a post at the Lusaka Golf Club.

 A year later he and his family moved to Rhodesia where he continued playing in relative obscurity until 1971, when he achieved his first major triumph by winning the South African Open. It was a startling victory with Hobday holding off a sizzling seven birdies on-the-trot challenge from Gary Player in the final round.

 It was the year that Hobday came of age, so to speak. On the South African circuit he equalled or broke par in 13 of the 20 rounds he played, and he finished the circuit with an average score of 71,6.

 Better things were to come. In 1972 he finished 13th in the South African Professional Golf Association's order of merit, but slipped to 15th the following year. Hobday was beginning to establish himself, but unhappy with his 1973 performances, he took up a teaching post at Kevin Quinn's driving range at Salisbury where he was also able to put in a great deal of work on his own game. A knee injury kept him from going to Europe in 1974. He had planned to play in the Portuguese, Madrid, Spanish and French Opens.

 In 1975 Hobday continued quietly accumulating winnings on the South African and European circuits, and he also took prize-money in Britain, despite the United Nations sanctions ruling on Rhodesia.

 Hobday was emphatic that he would be known as nothing other than a Rhodesian when he played the overseas circuits, and he stuck to that decision the following year when he played so well that the authorities just had to notice him.

 He started by winning the 1976 German Open, and then he collected about £14 000 in Britain by finishing sixth in the Benson and Hedges International, and by being a member of the World side that finished second in the Double Diamond event, and reached the semifinals of the match play championships. After that, the British PGA were ordered by the Bank of England not to pay Hobday any more four-figure cheques.

 Thereafter Hobday had to rely entirely on his winnings in Europe to survive overseas — all the cheques he picked up in Britain were immediately frozen in his Channel Islands bank account.

 Despite being unable to use a good portion of his winnings, Hobday by then was playing well enough to earn a good living from the European and South African circuits. In 1977 he finished second in the Martini International in Scotland, third in the Madrid Open and sixth in the Kerrygold in Ireland and he had also been offered, and accepted, the post of professional at the new Gary Player-designed Elephant Hills course at Victoria Falls.

 Anecdotes galore surround a player like Hobday. In 1977 he was fined $20 for swearing during the Scandinavian Open but Hobday paid $25 — "It was worth it," he said. His driver had broken while he was hitting a tee shot at an easy par four hole. The shot went out of bounds and Hobday finished the hole in six. "What was I supposed to say?" he asked.

 There was also the time when Hobday stayed up very late during an important tournament and was paired with Gary Player the next morning. "Simon," Player asked, "how could you stay up enjoying yourself like that when you knew you were playing with me?"

 "Gary, I sleep fast," replied Hobday in typical cool fashion.

 In 1978 Hobday picked up prize money of more than $7 000 in Europe with a second in the Portuguese Open, a third in the French Open and a seventh in the Scandinavian Open. He finished third in the SAPGA order of merit.

 But 1979 was to be his greatest year and during it he won Rhodesia's highest sporting honour — the John Hopley Memorial Trophy for the Sportsman of the Year. It was also a unique honour in that when he won it, the title was Zimbabwe Rhodesian Sportsman of the Year.

 The achievements that led to his winning the John Hopley Trophy were impressive. Hobday won the Madrid Open, finished tenth in the Portuguese Open, won the Victoria Falls Classic and won the inaugural Rhodesian Open at Royal Salisbury by a massive seven strokes from nearest rivals John Bland and Dale Hayes. He also won the Springmaster Open and was second in the Victoria Falls pro-am. His Rhodesian Open and Falls Classic wins were in the late part of 1978 but counted towards the 1979 Sportsman of the Year.

 Hobday was lying third in the European order of merit in 1979, but he quit the circuit after the first round of the French Open after a close golfing friend, Salvador Balbuena of Spain, died. He was also depressed by the worsening security situation at home and was worried about his wife, Jean, and their three children. The death of Balbuena had been the last straw. "I just couldn't take it any more." Hobday said when he arrived home.

 But you can't keep a good man down and after a few weeks of rest and relaxation Hobday returned overseas where a second in the English Classic and a fourth place in the Irish Open at Portmarnock boosted his season's winnings to $16 000. He finished 11th in the European order of merit.

 Hobday's ebullient personality made him popular at home and abroad. There was always a large gallery to follow him round in Rhodesia for there was inevitably a lighter side to a serious tournament when Hobday was playing.

 Celebrating into the early hours of the morning after winning the John Hopley Memorial Trophy did not deter Hobday when he teed off at Chapman course at Salisbury for the Zimbabwe Rhodesia Open the following day. In a dramatic finish he shot four birdies in the last five holes for a new course record of 65. It was his third course record in consecutive tournaments. In the Victoria Falls pro-am, he shot a record 66 and followed that with a spectacular 64 at Wingate in the Springmaster.

 His Chapman course record round started with a birdie three at the first hole and Hobday immediately claimed — his late night the evening before was no secret — that he was playing 'by radar'.

 It was this sort of open attitude that earned him much admiration and it probably had a lot to do with his golfing success. Hobday could laugh at himself, even when the going got tough.

 - McDERMOTT.

End

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Ref. Rhodesia

Basil Hill

Basil hill spins a yarn as well and as often as any other fisherman and after forty years in the sport his repertoire is extensive.

But there's a striking difference about the fishing stories that Hill tells because they are invariably about the ones that didn't get away.

For a land-locked country, Rhodesia produced, proportionately, a phenomenal number of successful deep sea anglers. But the king of them all is undoubtedly Basil Hill, who modestly maintains that luck has played a big part in his angling career.

An often-repeated anecdote about Hill is, that if a bucket of rain-water was left in First Street, Hill could put a line into it and pull out a fish.

In fairness to Hill, his 'luck' is more often than not the result of intelligent use of his extensive knowledge of the fish he is after. Completely dedicated to the sport, a lot of Hill's time has been spent in studying the habits of various species and in charting the vagaries of coastlines and shorelines.

The reward for Hill's dedication is nine African game-fish records, five of which still stand. One of his records, for garfish, was eclipsed by his son Robert, twenty-two years later.

His greatest achievements were two records for black marlin and a record tarpon caught in Angola. In his own mind, his finest moment was on 5 November 1971 when he was fishing off Bazaruto on the Mozambique coast and landed a black marlin of 860 lb. — the biggest of the species to be caught in African waters.

It was a unique catch in more ways than one, for Basil never actually hooked the 11 ft. 6 in. monster. Line was wrapped around its tail and the fish drowned through water entering its gills as it was dragged backwards during a fifty-five- minute struggle. The fish gave Hill his second record involving black marlin.

Bazaruto was also the setting for the first record. On 23 October 1967, Hill hooked another black marlin, while the bait, a live bonito, was being let out. Using 50-lb. line, Hill fought the fish for an hour and twenty-five minutes, during which the marlin jumped twenty-nine times — an extraordinary performance.

It tipped the scales at 431 lb. which was a new record for Africa on 50-lb. line and tackle. The previous record had stood at 308 lb.

Another momentous struggle for Hill was in the International Tarpon Tournament at Angola in December 1971. On the last day of the five-day competition, one of the Angolan anglers hooked the first tarpon to be caught — an 80-pounder from the Cuanza river.

With only one and a half hours left in the competition, the Rhodesian team, headed by Hill and encouraged by the success of the Angolan, struck it rich. They had begun fishing at the point where the first tarpon was caught and at 1.30 p.m., with the competition due to finish at three o'clock, Hill felt a series of gentle tugs on his line and struck.

The tarpon is a massive freshwater fish, which, Hill says, pound for pound, gives as good a fight as the black marlin. Hill eventually boated the fish four miles downstream after a tussle lasting two hours and forty minutes.

The fish was a beauty. Seven and a half feet long, it weighed 205 lb. which gave Basil another Africa record. He had used only 30-lb. line and this catch was testimony to his skill as an angler as during the fight to boat the fish, the vessel had broken down six times and sprung a leak. So Hill had triumphed in the most trying conditions. The previous tarpon record had been 161 lb.

Hill's fishing career began as a child. His father had a great interest in the sport and this rubbed off on young Basil, who clearly remembers catching a 51-lb. sand- shark when he was eight years old.

Hill was born on 26 April 1934 at Bethlehem in the Orange Free State but spent most of his youth at Durban where he went to Durban Technical School. After leaving school he went to work with a Durban sports-goods company (in their angling department, of course, because by that time he was well and truly 'hooked' on fishing).

He first represented Natal in 1951 and between 1950 and 1956, fishing for six hours on one Saturday afternoon a month in competitions, he landed an estimated 86 000 lb. of fish from the surf along the coast and the Durban South Pier.

He moved to Rhodesia in 1956 and three years later started his own fishing- tackle business, the Fisherman's Corner, in Salisbury. The same year he was chosen to captain national fishing teams in both the freshwater and deep sea fields.

Such was his skill that he became an automatic choice for national teams from 1959 onwards. During his career, Hill fished in internationals against South Africa, America, New Zealand, Switzerland, Brazil, Mozambique, Britain and Angola. He has also fished virtually every square inch of Southern and Central African coastal waters.

But Hill's achievements have not been confined to deep sea angling and he can claim to have founded the annual Tigerfish Tournament at Kariba, which has in the past attracted international competition. He rates the tigerfish as being the equal, pound for pound, of some of the deep sea game-fish. His freshwater records include a 53 lb. 12 oz. carp taken in Mazoe dam in August 1965 on 12-lb. line, a 10-lb. tigerfish taken on 2-lb. line and a 54-lb. vundu on 4-lb. line at Kariba which took more than two hours to land.

He started the Ultra Light Tackle Club in 1960. Under Hill, this team won the Tiger fish Tournament at Kariba six times and still holds the record for the most tiger fish caught — 107 in a single tournament.

Hill says fishing has been his life and certainly there is no doubt that he has done a great deal to promote the sport. With his family also taking a great interest in fishing, Hill was primarily responsible for getting Rhodesian juniors and women to participate at international level.

He has held a variety of administrative posts and since 1977 has been the chairman of the National Anglers' Union with which are registered 87 clubs representing 17 000 paid-up members. A former chairman of the Central Africa Deep Sea Angling Association, he has been on the committee for thirteen years.

National colours for deep sea fishing came his way in 1959 and he was also awarded colours for freshwater fishing in 1973, the first year colours were awarded for this sport.

Sharks provided one of his favourite fields in fishing and Hill estimates that he caught 42 of these creatures from the Durban South Pier, each weighing in at between 200 and 1 020 lb. Another of his Africa records is for a white pointer shark off Durban's South Pier in June 1958, when he landed an 810-lb. monster on an 80-lb. line. It took him three hours and ten minutes to beach the shark using a wooden Scarborough reel.

Hill's Africa game-fishing records are: tarpon, black marlin (two), yellowfin tunny, caranx (kingfish), white pointer shark, hammerhead shark, queenfish, bonefish and garfish (subsequently broken by Robert Hill).


- McDERMOTT.

End

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Ref. Rhodesia