Dear Hamiltonians
Thank you very much for the messages re my dad, Cecil John Bradley.
He was always a good supporter of Hammies and really enjoyed his outings to support the club, not so much in recent years, but managed to get up the stairs last year to have dinner there and remines.
He was as you mentioned very active with organizing the annual Bowls Derby, and has files relating to the organization of this event.
When I was tidying up my dad’s house I did come across some notes that he had written re Hammies which I would like to share, as there is a possibly that there is a Hamiltonian that could relate.
This is re a blind date he took my mother on in 1952 – “Things went well at the cocktail party which ended at about 10pm.
On the way home I stopped at the beachfront Elizabeth hotel where I knew Hamiltons Rugby club were holding a Saturday night dance and as I was playing for Hammies 2nd team at the time I knew most of the players attending. From there on things deteriorated a little. During the dancing the band played a few Paul Joaneses and I saw Alison being crushed by a red faced burly lock among others. She appeared to be a bit nervous and out of her depth.
After the completion of the dancing the crowd moved across to Uncles Road House next to the Sea Point Pavilion and they started singing some uncensored rugby songs which eventually led to them chanting uncle why are you so ugly until he put a stop to proceedings by firing a few shots from his revolver into the air. I thought that was it and my chances of future dates were finished.
But to by utter surprise before the evening was out she asked me to partner her to the Nurses Ball in a fortnight’s time. And so started a journey that to date has lasted more than 60 years”.
In a separate note he mentioned the following – “ During my lifetime I have been a member of Hamiltons Sea Point Rugby Club, Green Point Cricket Club, Olympics Sports Club, Western Province Cricket Club and Kelvin Grove. Since the age of 11 I have passionately supported Hamiltons Sea Point Rugby Club, not because they played excellent rugby – on the contrary, from early on until the professional era they have always ended near the bottom of the Grand Challenge Competition. I supported them because I lived with my parents in a second floor block of flats, called Camberleigh Court in Glenside Road, Green Point, which was very close to the Green Point Track, Hamiltons home ground.”
Once again thank you for the wishes
Kind regards
Andrew