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Cheeky Watsons’ Loaves and Fishes Moment

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The president of EP Rugby, Cheeky Watson, is well known for whipping out his bible and reading a few verses, pages and even books from it on occasion.

I was reminiscing with the Longhair about our trips many years ago to the aging Boet Erasmus Stadium to watch and report on the Mighty Elephants, as they were known then. By the way do you know what happened to the die hard supporters who used to stand with the Mighty Elephants banner on the field at the start of every game? Remember the one guy invariably wore pink fluffy slippers?

In those days one was lucky to be part of a crowd of 100 die hard supporters. It was quite disheartening to see the then president of EP Rugby trundling around for 2 minutes shaking each supporters hand and thanking them for coming out.

Then a change happened and Cheeky Watson became King (sorry, President) of EP Rugby and a change was seen emanating from the Throne Rome with new players being enticed back and then a new coach in Alan Solomons – at the time people thought that the wily far sighted Solomons was well, just a bit crazy to come back to Port Elizabeth to coach a bunch of no-hopers.

But, the EP Kings went on to win the Vodacom Cup.

The haters of EP and it’s admin embarked on a campaign of obfuscation (look it up!) directing their bile at a man and opting to NOT contribute to the discourse in a manner that would build rugby up but to rather,  in a manner that displayed their obvious weaknesses and prejudices, attempt to tear down the Eastern Province. What the haters forgot was that for every finger they pointed at the Kings, at least three were pointing back at them.

What the haters never realised is that the men and women of the Eastern Cape are forged in battle – English, Afrikaans and Xhosa have a long history of conflict over the soil that bears and protects and us.

This bile directed towards the Eastern Cape has succeeded in uniting the true sons of the soil in a mighty battle against the forces ranged against us – erstwhile (look it up) Xhosa, Afrikaans and English combatants have united under a common purpose to defend the soil against the invaders from within our national borders and from over the seas – the Southern Kings have won two battles so far; one against a foreign Force and the all important one for the hearts and minds of local rugby against the Sharks last night. We look forward to see how the rest of this war plays out.

The 42 000 odd spectators that cheered themselves hoarse as the Southern Kings held the Sharks to a tryless victory of 21-12, against all the odds, bear tantamount witness to a true miracle as the Southern Kings bask in Cheeky Watsons’ “Loaves and Fishes” moment that turned less than 100 supporters into many thousands of rabid fellow combatants.

Justice is being served.

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.