The cyclone test
August 5, 1961. I went to the footy. We called it footy six decades back, as distinct from soccer, (later to be confusingly called football).
I went to New Zealand vs France on August 5, 1961, at Wellington’s Athletic Park on its windswept Newtown hillside. This was the first French team to tour here, and, just 16 years aft er World War II in mostly monocultural Godzone, they were foreign and fascinating.
Some played with socks drooping over their boots. How sloppy. They drank wine with their meals. How peculiar. They were rumoured to kiss women’s hands
