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The amazing Scottish TV commentator Bill McLaren commentated on the game for the BBC for over 50 years. The much loved Bill prepared assiduously before EVERY game he was to broadcast. His family tell us he would often start on Monday for a game to be played the following Saturday. The result were these handwritten 'Big Sheets' about every player and official to be involved. He left nothing to chance. It was often said 'Bill knew mre about each player that they knew about themselves!' Note how he used different coloured pens to separate each fact. That there so there was no 'searching' for them during a live telecast. This 'Big Sheet' was drawn up for his call of the All Blacks v Barbarians Club at Twickenham in 1993. Details of the scores, scoring, players, referees and reserves and even those who were to sit in the official box are all found here if you look closely. After this game Bill would file the sheet away and two days later would begin another sheet for his next call.
Bill McLaren's Big Sheets - done before every game he covered
26 September 2014
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APIA PARK
Headquarters for the game of rugby in Samoa. Apia Park is a ground with a colourful past. Just as Twickenham in London was once a market garden, and cabbages were grown at Lancaster Park in Christchurch during World War I, Apia Park in the capital city of Samoa was once a horse racing track and a golf course.
Situated close to the city, the ground was originally owned by the occupying German Government. The first horse racing was held on Kaiser Wilhelm II’s birthday in 1910. Later, Chinese, Melanesian and Samoan labourers ploughed the swampy land, aided by oxen-drawn carts. They levelled an inner field and plans for rugby were drawn up. The locals did not worry that a large, shady tree was left intact on what was to be inside the field of play.
Horse racing died out in 1939. The first rugby game on the park was in 1924 when an Apia Selection played a Pago Pago Naval XV. Apia won 33-0. During the same year a Fijian team on its way to play Tonga stopped in Apia. Its two games against the locals were split one win each. It is not recorded how the teams coped with playing around the tree!
These days the rebuilt ground, with its superb backdrop of palm trees and other native flora and fauna, must be one of the prettiest in the world.
Apia Park has always been a highly significant place for sport in Samoa. In 1991 before the advent of a home TV network, crowds used to come to the ground and sit for hours overnight waiting to watch on an imported giant TV screen the matches of (Western) Samoa at the World Cup in Britain.
For years the field was also used as a golf course, but in 1975 the inherent dangers of people walking near such a course led them to shift to a new venue, at the Royal Samoan Golf Club. Only then for the first time could rugby truly claim the grounds.
In 2007, Apia Park was one of the main venues for the 2007 Pacific Games. In 2015 it will play host many events at the Youth Commonwealth Games, the opening and closing ceremonies. It will also host the All Blacks from New Zealand for a much anticipated game against Manu Samoa. The ground has a capacity of 15,000.
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