THERE are plenty of Yorkshire connections out here in South Africa.
Rotherham referee Howard Webb (pictured) is England’s representative at the Confederations Cup and the New Zealand team has several squad members who played in the county.
Dave Mulligan, Jeremy Christie and Leo Bertos were all with Barnsley, Mulligan also played right back for Doncaster Rovers and goalkeeper Mark Paston had a spell with Bradford City, but perhaps the most remarkable story is of former Halifax Town striker Shane Smeltz.
After struggling to make an impact at the Shay, Shane returned to Kiwi land, scored enough goals for Wellington Phoenix to earn a lucrative move to the A League is Australia where he won the Golden Boot as top scorer last season for Gold Coast United.
He then went on to equal a long standing record by scoring in six consecutive internationals for New Zealand.
Smelt was even voted Man of the Match in the goalless draw with Iraq last weekend though he had to be the first to admit the honour should have gone to goalkeeper Glen Moss who helped his side to a first-ever point in the Confederations Cup at the eighth attempt.
Man of the match nominations really are a waste of time and often depend on who the sponsors want to meet after the match!
Avoid the baboons and crocodiles
THE most memorable aspects of trips like this trip to South Africa tend to come on days off.
Work is work so on match days it’s nose into reference books, and five or six hours later I come blinking into the sunlight hopefully ready to perform.
So you can imagine two rounds of golf on non-match days have been a colossal bonus – especially as one was at the fabled Lost City course in Sun City.
I swear there were at least 50 baboons to clear off the first tee, while the unusual water hazard at the 13th required an accurate nine-iron over a quartet of huge basking crocodiles.
Thankfully I made it!
The other round was at the spectacular Observatory club in the centre of Johannesburg where one of my playing partners was South Africa’s top referee Daniel Bennett.
If you think that’s a very English sounding name it’s because he was born in Dewsbury.