One of South Africa’s leading sports journalists, Ray Williams, was on Tuesday night inducted into the South African Journalists’ Hall of Fame.
Williams was one of the great characters in what could be termed the golden age of South African sports writing during the 1960s and 1970s. He was a true pro, with an eye for an angle, adroitness with words and original phrases, and an exceptional general knowledge.
He worked on the staff of several newspapers. He was sports editor on the Sunday Mail in Salisbury before relocating to Johannesburg, where he worked on The Star and then moved to Main Street, home of the Rand Daily Mail and the Sunday Times.
It was on the latter that he established himself as an authoritative national voice. He became assistant sports editor to the late Barry Glasspool and a noted tennis and cricket writer, before being promoted to sports editor. It was during this period that he was named SAB Sportswriter of the Year.
One of his former colleagues, Ron Steele, recalls: ”Ray was always cool under pressure. When we were battling to get a good headline, he’d tilt his head and tug on his cigarette and say, ‘Don’t worry boys … I’ve got it!’ And sure enough, it was a winner.
”Ray had a keen insight for the right angle. He was part of a breed of sports writers that not only kept readers informed, but also helped keep sports officials honest.”
Among his other achievements was the role he played, in association with Sunday Times colleague Norman Canale and former Springbok cricketer Eric Rowan, in getting limited-overs cricket started in South Africa in 1969. Some critics said it would never work.
After leaving the Sunday Times in 1990, Ray joined the South African Press Association (Sapa), where he became the agency’s much-travelled cricket correspondent after South Africa’s readmission to international cricket. As a ”punny” writer of the Sunday Times genre, he succeeded at Sapa in breaking the mould of traditional agency reporting style.
Bill McLean, his sports editor at Sapa, recalls: ”Moving to agency journalism from the more hyped-up style of the Sunday Times would require some considerable adjustment — but Ray accomplished it very quickly. We still encouraged him to continue his colourful style of writing because agency reporting is not meant to be boring, and Ray certainly wasn’t.”
In his later years, while covering many cricket tours for Sapa, Williams became an avuncular figure to the South African cricket team. He was called ”Uncle Ray” by virtually all the players, including the late Hansie Cronje.
Williams was also a fine sportsman who played provincial hockey, a highly inventive and effective game of golf, and first-class bowls. As an entrant in the national bowls championship, he was assigned by McLean to cover it for Sapa once he had been knocked out. He never got round to doing the writing, as he proceeded to reach the semifinals of the national singles championship. — Sapa