Today in SA sports history: December 8
1906 — The Springboks play England for the first time, and have to settle for a 3-3 draw at Crystal Palace in London. Forward Billy Millar scored for SA in the first half, but that was cancelled out by a try from England winger Freddie Brooks. Ironically, both try-scorers made their debuts that day.
1951 — Flanker Basie van Wyk scores two tries as the Springboks trounce Ireland 17-5 at Lansdowne Road in Dublin to win their second Test on their end-of-year tour. Wing Chum Ochse and centre Ryk van Schoor scored SA’s other two tries, with flyhalf Hansie Brewis adding a drop and prop Okey Geffin a conversion. Centre Anthony Browne scored a try for Ireland, converted by fullback Gerry Murphy.
1964 — Manuel Francisco fires an amateur world record break of 518 while playing Gus Redmond of New Zealand at the world amateur billiards championships at Pukekohe near Auckland. He broke the mark of 390 set by Jack Karnehm of England a few days earlier in the same tournament. The only higher break at the time was 608, achieved by professional world champion Clark McConachy. Francisco, who was nine points down when he went to the table to land his record break, beat Redmond 2,061 points to 628. They played under the 15-pot rule which was later changed, leaving Francisco with the all-time mark.
2001 — Sebastiaan Rothmann retains his WBU cruiserweight title with an eighth-round technical knockout over Crawford Ashley of England in Dagenham. Ashley was a former European champion who had been beaten previously by name fighters including Graciano Rocchigiani, Michael Nunn, Dennis Andries and Virgil Hill.
2002 — Jonty Rhodes scores 98 as the Proteas trounce Pakistan by 132 runs in Durban in the first ODI of a five-match series. The home side made 272/7, with captain Shaun Pollock contributing 57 and Graeme Smith 56.
2013 — Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla both score centuries as the Proteas beat India by 134 runs in Durban in the second ODI for an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. Lonwabo Tsotsobe took 4/25 to help dismiss India for 146.
