Milton High School

Selborne Avenue, Bulawayo

Craven week representatives -1970 onwards


Alphabetical By Year
  Brian Barbour 1970   Neville Davies 1964
  Anthony Blaylock 1972   Clive Davey 1966
  Clive Davey 1966   Neville “Dingy” Gordon 1966
  Neville Davies 1964   Michael Hardy 1966
  Wessel Goosen 1968   Peter Jones (Capt) 1966
  N. “Dingy” Gordon 1966   Hugh O’Mahoney 1966
  Brian Graham 1970   Neil Thompson 1966
  Michael Hardy 1966   J. “Kobus” Kirschner 1967
  Peter Jones (Capt) 1966   Wessel Goosen 1968
  J. “Kobus” Kirschner 1967   John Mills 1969
  W. MacDonald 1980   Brian Barbour 1970
  John Mills 1969   Brian Graham 1970
  Hugh O’Mahoney 1966   Sid Versveld 1970
  M. Slater 1977   John Wilson 1970
  R. Slater 1977   Anthony Blaylock 1972
  Neil Thompson 1966   M. Slater 1977
  Sid Versveld 1970   R. Slater 1977
  John Wilson 1970   W. MacDonald 1980

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1966 Craven Week rugby 7 representatives from Milton
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Clive Davy, Hugh O’Mahoney, Neil Thompson, Neville ‘Dingy’ Gordon, Stan Schmulian, Peter Jones (Captain), Mike Hardy, Reserves: Walt Wilson (Reserve), N. Peck (Reserve)

Craven Week

The Craven Week is an annual rugby union tournament organised for schoolboys in the Republic of South Africa. The tournament started in July 1964, and is named after the legendary Springbok rugby union player and coach Dr Danie Craven.
The tournament has its humble beginnings in an idea by Piet Malan, then Springbok flanker, in 1949, around the time of the South African Rugby Board's 75th anniversary. He wanted schools to feature in the celebrations and approached Danie Craven in Potgietersrus on how this could be done.

Dr Craven took the idea to his board who decided on getting the 15 schools unions together for a week. The man who kept the idea alive however was one Jan Preuyt, a former student at the University of Stellenbosch and teacher at Port Rex Technical School in East London. Preuyt had played rugby for Griqualand West and was also the chairman of Border Schools.

At the time there was no such thing as a South African Schools organisation, and the South African Rugby Board were not involved, so Preuyt and Border Schools arranged the first Craven Week tournament on their own.

The competition began with 15 teams in 1964, growing to 28 in 1987 and 32 in 2000. The format was changed in 2001, and now allows for just 20 teams.

Each year since 1974 a South African schools team has been selected, and the competition has been open to players of all races since 1980 when Craven himself requested that it be done. The competition has since become a hunting ground for talent scouts trying to find the best new players for their provinces and many young upcoming stars see the tournament as an opportunity to further their careers.