1955 — Russell Endean, 17 overnight, scores an unbeaten 116 as South Africa make 500 in the fourth Test in Leeds, leaving England a target of 481 runs to win.
1958 — Grant Webster leads South Africa’s boxers to a haul of four golds at the Empire Games in Cardiff, beating Englishman Stuart Pearson, the British champion, on points for the light-middleweight crown. Henry Loubscher, an Olympic bronze medallist, won the light-welterweight gold and Jopie Greyling, a former polio victim, downed Thomas Kawere of Uganda in the welterweight decider, giving South Africa gold in three straight weight divisions. Heavyweight Daan Bekker won the country’s fourth gold. Phillipus du Plessis had to settle for the silver in the middleweight class. With two bronze medals, South African boxers won seven of the country’s 31 medals. Webster, a nine-time national champion who competed at the 1952 and 1956 Olympics, never turned professional. He was considered the outstanding amateur of the era and used to spar with professionals. Webster agreed to act as chief sparring partner for visiting American professional Jimmy Martinez in June 1957. But when he saw that fans were being charged money by the owner of Kuppy’s gym in Eloff Street, he pulled out. Neither Webster nor Martinez were going to get a cut. The archaic amateur rules forbade fighters from participating in sparring bouts where admission fees were charged, though they were allowed to fight in amateur tournaments with admission fees. Charging fans money to watch professionals spar was common practice in the day.
1960 — Roy McLean scores 109 in the fourth Test against England in Manchester.
1964 — The worst run in Springbok history of seven consecutive losses begins against France at the Pam Brink stadium in Springs as they go down 6-8. Centre Dave Stewart scored a try and kicked a penalty for the Boks. Christian Darrouy dotted down for the French, with flyhalf Pierre Albaladejo slotting the conversion and adding a penalty.
1970 — The Springboks win the series opener against the All Blacks at Loftus Versfeld 17-6. Captain and scrumhalf Dawie de Villiers and right wing Syd Nomis scored tries for the home team, with fullback Ian McCallum landing a conversion and two penalties and flyhalf Piet Visagie adding a drop. Bryan Williams scored the only try for New Zealand.
1987 — Matthews Temane runs 33 seconds faster than the world half-marathon best time as he wins the South African 21.1km championships in East London. He won a sprint finish to clock 60 min 10.00 sec, just one second ahead of Zithulele Sinqe, who was also inside the mark set by Kenyan Mike Musyoki in England the previous year. Temane earned R13,000 for his effort — R10,000 for the world record, R2,000 for the win and R1,000 for beating Xolile Yawa’s South African record. But it didn’t count as a world best because of apartheid South Africa’s pariah status.
1998 — The Springboks beat New Zealand 13-3 in a Tri-Nations contest at Athletic Park in Wellington. Pieter Rossouw scored the only try of the match, with fullback Percy Montgomery adding the conversion and kicking two penalties. Substitute Andrew Mehrtens landed a lone penalty for the All Blacks.
1998 — Allan Donald takes five wickets as South Africa bowl out England for 336 on the third day of the fourth Test in Nottingham.
2003 — Graeme Smith, resuming on 178, makes 277 before declaring South Africa’s first innings on 594/5 in the first Test against England in Birmingham.
2009 — The Springboks beat New Zealand 28-19 in a Tri-Nations match in Bloemfontein, with flyhalf Ruan Pienaar and Jaque Fourie scoring tries. Centre Conrad Smith scored the only try for the All Blacks.
2010 — Rower Kirsty McCann becomes the first South African woman to win a medal at the under-23 world championships, taking bronze in Brest. Home girl Alena Kryvasheyenka won Belarus’s only gold and Atsumi Fukumoto of Japan the silver.
2011 — Cameron van der Burgh takes 100m breaststroke bronze at the world championships in Shanghai, finishing in 59.59. Norwegian Alexander Dale Oen won in 58.71 with Italian Fabio Scozzoli second in 59.42.
2015 — Chad Ho clinches world championship gold in the 5km open-water swim in Kazan, edging Rob Muffels of Germany to the title. Both men were credited with the same time of 55 min 17.6 sec. Italian Matteo Furlan was third in 55:20.0.
2015 — The All Blacks fight back to beat the Springboks 27-20 in a Rugby Championship contest at Ellis Park. Kiwi captain Richie McCaw scored a late try to give his team a narrow two-point lead. Flyhalf Lima Sopoaga kicked the conversion and a penalty to secure the victory. Fullback Willie le Roux and centre Jesse Kriel scored tries for the Boks.
2015 — For the first time, the Proteas fail to beat Bangladesh in a Test, playing to a draw in a weather-hit contest in Chattogram.
2022 — Tazmin Brits scores 59 as the South Africa women are limited to 138/6 to lose the final third T20 against England in Derby by 38 runs, and the series 0-3. Nonkululeko Mlaba took 3/22.
2023 — Tatjana Schoenmaker takes silver in the 100m breaststroke at the world championships in Fukuoka, touching in 1 min 05.84 sec behind winner Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania in 1:04.62.
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