Let’s visit our sports heritage |16 April 2016
More than a century ago, sport was a pleasurable occupation of leisure time for many inhabitants of Seychelles. In the momentum of progress and development many of our old buildings have disappeared. Fortunately, a few recreation grounds and buildings have survived to this day.
On behalf of Seychelles’ Branch of Icomos (International Conservation of Monuments and Sites), Tony Mathiot returns to those first sites in Seychelles where sports where played….back to the late 19th century.
On Wednesday June 16, 1937, there was an interesting function held at Carnegie Hall (the actual natural history museum building) when Mrs Arthur Francis Grimble, the wife of his Excellency the Governor, presented the Bradley Challenge Cup to Albert Malvina (1908-1999), the captain of the Seychelles XI football team. The trophy proudly donated by Dr John Thomas Bradley (1872-1942) was given to Seychelles XI on their victory for 1937 during which they played 9 matches, won 8 and drawn 1. In the first game of the newly formed Seychelles football league which was played on Gordon Square (now known as Freedom Square) on Saturday February 6, 1937, Seychelles XI defeated Ascot 3-2.
Gordon Square
No, football was not the first sport to trample on the sacred turf of our country’s most popular playing field. It was that most British of all sport: cricket! Almost exactly a century after the game became popular in England (1780), a group of colonial officers working in the government of commissioner Arthur Cecil Stuart Barkly (1843-1890) decided to introduce it to Seychelles. Therefore, on February 24, 1883, the Seychelles cricket club took a lease on “a valuable piece of land with a frontage of 130 feet on Albert Street and a depth of 420” for five years at R5 per annum. The land was situated between a disused fibre factory and the offices of the collector of customs, and the length of the jetty extended not much further than the retaining wall of the land. The land was partly created by the great and terrible landslide (Lavalas) of October 12, 1862. After many days of torrential rains, torrents of water washed down the hill slopes above Victoria, dislodging boulders, uprooting trees and breaking off an entire cliff face, dissolving as they went into a mighty river of mud and debris that ended up here on the coast. During the next decade the tract of land was enlarged as the adjoining sea was filled in. In 1885, the chief civil commissioner acceded to a petition by a group of inhabitants to proclaim the land a public square. It was named Gordon Square, after the British General Charles George Gordon (1833-1885) who visited Seychelles in the 1881 to assess the defensive measures of the islands in the event of an enemy attack. By the late 1880s, there was hardly any interest in the game that it was impossible to form two teams in order to organise matches (in cricket, one team consists of II players). Consequently, the Seychelles cricket club did not renew its lease on the land. Thus, Gordon Square was the first venue in Seychelles where any sport activity was held. During 1939-1940 this square was doubled in extent by the reclamation of the foreshore.
In 1941, when the Seychelles Football Association was formed, matches between various teams were held on most Sundays. Inhabitants of Victoria converged on Gordon Square in their hundreds. The colony’s first and only gridiron was also a site where the first Seychellois pugilists sparred.
In 1947, for instance Finley Roselie, Phillip Labrosse, Roch Pool and Coopoosamy held boxing sessions against visiting British Naval Ships. In 1957, on the departure of Governor William Addis (1901-1978), a boxing tournament was held on Gordon Square. Finley Roselie (1930-1988) would later become the founder president of the Saba (Seychelles Amateur Boxing Association) and established his own boxing gymnasium at his place in Hangard Street. He was the mentor and trainer of one of Seychelles’ greatest sport hero Michael Pillay – outstanding boxer in 1973.
During the colonial era, Empire Day which was celebrated on May 24, was marked with sporting activities on Gordon Square which saw the involvement of all schools in the colony. In 1971, when dredging works were being carried out to create the New Port, the level of the field was raised by three feet when tons of coral sand and earth were laid on top of it.
Seychelles College
In 1947, the Seychelles College opened at Mont Fleuri. Part of the establishment amenities included a large field and bleachers. For many decades, students experienced the glory of winning on that pitch when the annual inter-house athletic competitions were held. In 1956, our great Rolly Baker discovered his football prowess on that field when he was a sportive lad of seventeen. Fourteen years later he would, as centre midfield player in the national team, scored the first goal against the Kenyan team, Feisal, at Mombasa. (It was a 2-2 draw match).
Many others achieved champion status in their preferred discipline and became sports idol of their respective ‘house’. Many, who are now aging civil servants will have the cherished souvenirs of the medals or trophies they won for high jump, pole vault or javelin. They may recall those sweltering PE afternoons and the pedantic incitation of Brother Austin O’Donell.
It was not only Scott, Hillary, Cousteau and Flemming who sweated it out on the college field. Occasional visiting US navy ships together with their colleagues from the American Tracking Station at La Misère found the spacious ground ideal for baseball. Officers of the Royal Navy played rugby against local players.
The Happy Youth Club
In 1963, during the episcopacy of Mgr Olivier Maradam (1899-1975), a group of enthusiastic and able-bodied young men of Victoria, with the support and guidance of Brother Imier Montavon (1933-2013) built the Happy Youth Club on a piece of land donated by the Catholic Mission. Its objective was to have a place where the youths of Victoria could gather in the weekends and socialise in the convivial spirit of brotherhood. Recreational games like darts and dominoes kept the youth happy. Later, there were dumbbells. A decade after it opened, the Happy Youth Club was equipped with weightlifting apparatus. Those lads who heeded the advice of Mr Atlas soon discovered the thrill of adrenalin.
The club organised the first-ever bodybuilding contest at La Salle D’oeuvres (the actual Deepam Cinema building) on Saturday May 4, 1974. It was a 23-year-old, Rene Youpa, who was crowned the First ‘Mr Seychelles’. On August 31 of that same year, the club organised the first weightlifting competition. The Happy Youth Club can rightfully claim to have contributed to the progress of football in Seychelles…by winning quite a few trophies. On December 4, 1966 the club’s team, Everton, won the coveted Football Association Jubilee Cup when it defeated college A 4-0. In 1970, the team won the Castle Beer Championship League with 19 points from 12 games. The few players from Everton who are now in their late 60s must surely recall the honour they brought to their club and the exhilaration they gave to Brother Imier. Indeed, during the early years of its existence, the Happy Youth Club created quite a few national idols.
Victoria Gymnasium
Another sport amenity which has so eminently been of great service to athletic and physical culture enthusiasts is our ever popular gymnasium – Victoria Gymnasium. The Seychelles Bulletin of December 17, 1968 announced the prospect of the first gymnasium in Seychelles. At that time, the Government under the administration of Governor Sir Hugh Norman Walker (1916-1985) wanted to fulfill its road development programme which included tarmac surfacing and construction of car parks, financed from the Colonial Development and Welfare Funds. Since it was clear that no official funds could be provided for the purpose of building a gymnasium, the two British Civil servants who had initiated the project, Mr E. Garvey and Mr E Hillier, appealed to the Boardof the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Portugal. The Foundation was established in 1956 at the bequest of Calouste Gulbenkian (1869-1955) a wealthy British businessman and philanthropist of Armenian origin. The foundation promotes arts, charity, education and science throughout the world. After a submission of detailed proposals and plans, the Board made a generous grant to Seychelles for the purpose of building and equipping a gymnasium.
The site that was most conveniently available was adjacent to the disused tennis courts at the entrance to Government House grounds, opposite the Victoria District Council Offices (The actual Mayors’ Office). At the end of 1969, the gymnasium was completed and by early 1970 it had become a favourite hang-out for the school children of Victoria – the Governor soon became accustomed to their loud spasmodic cheers. Every afternoon!
The establishment of a gymnasium in town gave impetus to national interest in sports. The early 1970s saw the creation of netball teams: Speedbirds, Juventus Rovers, Wanderers Flamingoes and RM Evergreen. A volleyball league was established in January 1970 with 10 items – for from the four houses of Seychelles College (Scott, Cousteau, Flemming and Hillary) and six others: Afterthoughts, Avengers, Rangers, Happy Youth Club, Cable and Wireless and Barclays Bank.
In April of 1974, the Seychelles national netball team toured Kenya and played 7 matches (won 2, drew 1, and lost 4). It was a first foray abroad for our sport girls. That same year also saw two of our best young boxers Micheal Pillay of Saba and Selwyn Medor of GWTBC (The Gymnasium Weight Training and Boxing Club) offered a training programme in England and Germany where they met world famous fighters like Henry Cooper (1934-2011 ) and Jose Ahumada (1946- ).
In the early 80s Rival Cadeau, (Sportsman of the year 1993), Roland Raforme and Jerry Legras (Sportsman of the year 1987 and 1996)trained at Victoria Gymnasium before grabbing gold in various African boxing tournaments.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s it was not unusual for matches of two different sports to be played simultaneously on Gordon Square – a game of hockey on one side and a game of football on the other side – with cheering spectators on their respective side.
Roche Caïman sports complex
Now, our new generation of athletes and sports devotees can avail themselves of modern sports infrastructures and state-of-the-art training equipment. We have the Roche Caïman sports complex which was built when Seychelles hosted the fourth Indian Games in 1993 – and we have, at least retained four of our first sports venues which are historical punctuation marks in the story of sports in Seychelles.