Sport

Leaflet publicising a demonstration at a game between the British Lions and a ‘rest of the world’ squad in Cardiff on16 April 1986. The world squad included six Springboks sponsored by the whites-only South African Rugby Board. The Welsh Rugby Union had close ties with South Africa. After a long campaign by Wales AAM, it finally severed its ties with the South African Rugby Board in 1989.

Demonstrators at Twickenham protested against the inclusion of Springbok rugby players in one of the teams in the International Rugby Board centenary match on 19 April 1986. Springbok supporters came from South Africa to Twickenham and Cardiff Arms Park for the centenary. In Cardiff, Wales AAM organised a big protest at the centenary game held on 16 April.

A South African Springbok rugby supporter taunts anti-apartheid demonstrators at Twickenham. The demonstrators were protesting against the inclusion of Springboks in a team taking part in the International Rugby Board centenary match on 19 April 1986. The Springboks were sponsored by the all-white South African Rugby Board. Springbok supporters came from South Africa to Twickenham and Cardiff Arms Park for the centenary.

Leaflet publicising a demonstration at the International Rugby Union’s centenary celebrations at Twickenham on 19 April 1986. The ‘rest of the world’ squad included several Springboks sponsored by the whites-only South African Rugby Board. The demonstration was organised by the AAM, SANROC and the British Black Conference against Apartheid Sport. There was also a demonstration in Cardiff, where the British Lions played a world squad on 16 April.

Anti-apartheid supporters protested outside the Wembley Arena in 1986 when British boxer Frank Bruno fought South African Gerry Coetzee. Britain’s welterweight champion Lloyd Honeyghan later gave up his world title rather than break the sports boycott by fighting a South African. The protest was backed by the Black British Conference Against Apartheid Sport, chaired by former Sports Council member Paul Stephenson. World boxing champions John Conteh and Maurice Hope also wrote to Frank Bruno asking him to call off the fight.

Tyneside AA Group supporters told Zola Budd she should not run for England at Gateshead Stadium on 30 January 1988. The sprinter continued to live in South Africa but obtained a British passport to get round the sports boycott against apartheid.

An English cricket team, led by Mike Gatting, planned to tour South Africa in 1990. This letter from the AAM’s President Archbishop Trevor Huddleston expressed dismay at Prime Minister Thatcher’s failure to implement the Commonwealth Gleneagles Agreement, committing governments to do all in the power to end sporting relations with South Africa.

The AAM campaigned to stop the 1990 rebel cricket tour of South Africa, led by Mike Gatting, picketing over 40 county cricket matches involving members of the team. This poster advertises a demonstration at the NatWest Final held at Lords cricket ground on 2 September 1989.  The tour was cut short by protests inside South Africa and made a big financial loss.