Pitched Battle

in the frontline of the 1971 Springbok tour of Australia

Nonfiction, Sports, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Social Science
Cover of the book Pitched Battle by Larry Writer, Scribe Publications Pty Ltd
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Author: Larry Writer ISBN: 9781925307658
Publisher: Scribe Publications Pty Ltd Publication: October 3, 2016
Imprint: Scribe Language: English
Author: Larry Writer
ISBN: 9781925307658
Publisher: Scribe Publications Pty Ltd
Publication: October 3, 2016
Imprint: Scribe
Language: English

A vivid story of the men and women who took a stand when sport mixed with politics

In 1971, when the racially selected all-white Springbok rugby team toured Australia, we became a nation at war with ourselves. There was bloodshed as tens of thousands of anti-Apartheid campaigners clashed with governments, police, and rugby fans — who were given free reign to assault protestors. Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen declared a State of Emergency. Prime minister William McMahon called the Wallabies who refused to play ‘national disgraces’. Barbed wire ringed the great rugby grounds to stop protestors invading the field.

Pitched Battle recreates what became of the most rancorous periods in modern Australian history — a time of courage, pain, faith, fanaticism, and political opportunism — which made heroes of the Wallabies who refused to play, played a key role in the later political careers of Peter Beattie, Meredith Burgmann, and Peter Hain, and ultimately contributed to the abandonment of Apartheid.

PRAISE FOR LARRY WRITER

‘Artful in its arrangement and humane in its spirit … Honouring the moral actions of its protagonists, it also confirms the efficacy of determined and creative resistance to social wrong.’ The Saturday Age

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A vivid story of the men and women who took a stand when sport mixed with politics

In 1971, when the racially selected all-white Springbok rugby team toured Australia, we became a nation at war with ourselves. There was bloodshed as tens of thousands of anti-Apartheid campaigners clashed with governments, police, and rugby fans — who were given free reign to assault protestors. Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen declared a State of Emergency. Prime minister William McMahon called the Wallabies who refused to play ‘national disgraces’. Barbed wire ringed the great rugby grounds to stop protestors invading the field.

Pitched Battle recreates what became of the most rancorous periods in modern Australian history — a time of courage, pain, faith, fanaticism, and political opportunism — which made heroes of the Wallabies who refused to play, played a key role in the later political careers of Peter Beattie, Meredith Burgmann, and Peter Hain, and ultimately contributed to the abandonment of Apartheid.

PRAISE FOR LARRY WRITER

‘Artful in its arrangement and humane in its spirit … Honouring the moral actions of its protagonists, it also confirms the efficacy of determined and creative resistance to social wrong.’ The Saturday Age

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