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Tokkie Smith and the Colour of Rugby: Creating the Hong Kong Sevens
Tokkie Smith and the Colour of RugbyCreating the Hong Kong Sevens "The colonial rugby elite sat in stunned silence. He had been accused but not heard. Never before had they been required to make such an emotional and personal decision. Slowly, one by one, they raised their hands and his life was over." The Hong Kong Sevens produced a burst of brilliant rugby which brightens the world. It didn't just happen but was created through progressive inclusion. In the process Founder South African Tokkie Smith was caught up in the turbulent forefront of the game's move from white domination and into the clutches of big money. It brought him personal tragedy but gave the world Sunshine Rugby. Author John D’Eathe is a product of the golden years of amateur rugby. He has seen the game transform from elitist and non-inclusive into the brilliant, open Sunshine Rugby of today. He met Tokkie Smith in 1959 in exotic Hong Kong and joined him for a decade in the waning days of the Empire and of Colonial rugby. Discover the life of Tokkie Smith and his impact upon world rugby.Review by Martin "WHILE this book is essentially about Tokkie Smith and his contribution to rugby union in Asia and the world, it is about much more.It is about the fight against the elitist rugby bodies and their double standards, it is about the stranglehold of world rugby’s governing body, it is about Hong Kong in the colonial era, and above all it is about the birth of one of the biggest and most exciting events on the international rugby calendar – the Hong Kong Sevens.The author John D’Eathe met Cape Town-born Tokkie in 1959 in Hong Kong and through rugby formed a lifelong friendship. One of the main reasons the author wrote this book was to shine a light on someone he felt was an unsung hero of today’s modern game and through the book hopes to establish Tokkie Smith’s rightful place in rugby history. If you are a rugby union fan this book is well worth a read."
200 pages, Paperback
Published April 8, 2019
About the author
John D'Eathe
6 books7 followersJohn D’Eathe was educated in the United Kingdom in law and urban land economics.
After training in the City of London, he set off blithely for an adventurous business life in Colonial Hong Kong and Asia.
A decade later he moved to Canada, commencing a long international career in property investment.
He travelled extensively and witnessed the various cultural subtleties of getting things done.
His previous books are: ‘Tokkie and the Colour of Rugby,’ celebrating the end of racism in international rugby; ‘Laundering the Dragon,’ a contemporary novel, dramatizing unchecked money crime in Canadian real estate; and ‘Celebrities who have met me,’ his memoir of the British Empire’s final tumultuous years.
He and his wife Lane live a busy life in West Vancouver and enjoy visiting their widely located family and friends.
After training in the City of London, he set off blithely for an adventurous business life in Colonial Hong Kong and Asia.
A decade later he moved to Canada, commencing a long international career in property investment.
He travelled extensively and witnessed the various cultural subtleties of getting things done.
His previous books are: ‘Tokkie and the Colour of Rugby,’ celebrating the end of racism in international rugby; ‘Laundering the Dragon,’ a contemporary novel, dramatizing unchecked money crime in Canadian real estate; and ‘Celebrities who have met me,’ his memoir of the British Empire’s final tumultuous years.
He and his wife Lane live a busy life in West Vancouver and enjoy visiting their widely located family and friends.
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June 1, 2020
Tokkie Smith and the Colour of Rugby: Creating the Hong Kong SevensJohn D'Eathe
Remembering a forgotten figure of rugby's golden era.
There was a time every club and every rugby association had someone like Tokkie Smith… if they were lucky. Someone who put in hours of unpaid, unseen work just to make sure things got done. At community level, this club man was there hours before kick-off of game day, cutting the grass, marking the lines, sticking poles in the ground, playing a game, refereeing a game, opening up the bar, serving in the bar, drinking at the bar (the last to leave!), buying a round for the visiting alickadoos, providing various strays a couch on which to crash… you know the sort. At a higher level during the amateur era, he was managing tours, squeezing more funding or land out of local government, seducing potential sponsors and selling hospitality space. In short, he was the heart and soul of the place.
And just like Tokkie Smith, they were underappreciated and overlooked. And if there was money to be made or glory to received, they were usually pushed to fringes by the more political, tactical or elitist of rugby animals.
‘Tokkie Smith and the Colour of Rugby’ by John D’Eathe seeks to redress some of the perceived injustices done to this enigmatic and charismatic South African, who the author claims was one of the key architects of the Hong Kong Sevens as we know it, “an unsung hero of today’s all-welcoming game” who was “deprived of his legacy and cast into obscurity by a confused, self-absorbed and elitist rugby establishment”. Through the telling of Smith’s story, the book seeks to “re-establish his rightful place in rugby history”.
And it is an interesting story that took this child of Durban to the Gloucester Bar, an infamous rugby haunt in Hong Kong, via London, back to South Africa and a few other places in between. Apart from being a well-told account of the eventful and often tragic life and rugby career of an interesting character, ‘Tokkie Smith and the Colour of Rugby’ is also a rare and welcome glimpse into two worlds now consigned to history – that of top level rugby in the amateur days and that of Hong Kong during its colonial end-times. So whether you love your rugby and want to find out more about the iconic Hong Kong Sevens tournament and those who helped make it the phenomenon it became, or you wish to see a microcosm of the role Britons and other anglophones played in shaping modern-day Asia through an imperialist lens, then this book is for you.
[As an interesting aside, the book's author, John D'Eathe, is an uncle to Erika Rowe, who made a name for herself as the first – or at least most memorable – streaker that Twickenham rugby stadium has ever seen. Her topless run across that hallowed ground just before the second half got underway between England and Australia in 1982 has lived long in the memory of many people, including those of us you were young, impressionable boys caught by surprise.]
Remembering a forgotten figure of rugby's golden era.
There was a time every club and every rugby association had someone like Tokkie Smith… if they were lucky. Someone who put in hours of unpaid, unseen work just to make sure things got done. At community level, this club man was there hours before kick-off of game day, cutting the grass, marking the lines, sticking poles in the ground, playing a game, refereeing a game, opening up the bar, serving in the bar, drinking at the bar (the last to leave!), buying a round for the visiting alickadoos, providing various strays a couch on which to crash… you know the sort. At a higher level during the amateur era, he was managing tours, squeezing more funding or land out of local government, seducing potential sponsors and selling hospitality space. In short, he was the heart and soul of the place.
And just like Tokkie Smith, they were underappreciated and overlooked. And if there was money to be made or glory to received, they were usually pushed to fringes by the more political, tactical or elitist of rugby animals.
‘Tokkie Smith and the Colour of Rugby’ by John D’Eathe seeks to redress some of the perceived injustices done to this enigmatic and charismatic South African, who the author claims was one of the key architects of the Hong Kong Sevens as we know it, “an unsung hero of today’s all-welcoming game” who was “deprived of his legacy and cast into obscurity by a confused, self-absorbed and elitist rugby establishment”. Through the telling of Smith’s story, the book seeks to “re-establish his rightful place in rugby history”.
And it is an interesting story that took this child of Durban to the Gloucester Bar, an infamous rugby haunt in Hong Kong, via London, back to South Africa and a few other places in between. Apart from being a well-told account of the eventful and often tragic life and rugby career of an interesting character, ‘Tokkie Smith and the Colour of Rugby’ is also a rare and welcome glimpse into two worlds now consigned to history – that of top level rugby in the amateur days and that of Hong Kong during its colonial end-times. So whether you love your rugby and want to find out more about the iconic Hong Kong Sevens tournament and those who helped make it the phenomenon it became, or you wish to see a microcosm of the role Britons and other anglophones played in shaping modern-day Asia through an imperialist lens, then this book is for you.
[As an interesting aside, the book's author, John D'Eathe, is an uncle to Erika Rowe, who made a name for herself as the first – or at least most memorable – streaker that Twickenham rugby stadium has ever seen. Her topless run across that hallowed ground just before the second half got underway between England and Australia in 1982 has lived long in the memory of many people, including those of us you were young, impressionable boys caught by surprise.]
Displaying 1 of 1 review