Keith Upton 1st XI Cricket 1961
Hi Doug,
Trust you are keeping well.
I was very sorry to hear that Roger Q passed away recently, and this coupled with my other school rugby coaches Taffy and Rod, brought an era to an end. They were all great guys!
Some time ago you asked me for a précis of my life which I found difficult because there is so much to say. It is difficult to know what to include and what to leave out. So, below you will find my life in a nutshell.
After school I continued playing cricket for Bognor Cricket club and rugby for the newly formed Bognor Rugby club. (I mention this as it is a vital step in the development of all our sports). I left the UK in 1967 and settled in Cape Town, where I lived for 10 years in Sea Point and 10 years in a suburb called Edgemead. My rugby club was Hamilton’s, before injuries to both ankles sustained on the hard grounds put an early end to my career. I carried on playing cricket for many years at a social club, Groot Drakenstein (near to Paarl), which hosted several overseas teams. It was a great club consisting mainly of league and provincial players from the Cape Town area. I joined a company called Burroughs, and left them in 2009 after almost 42 years, albeit after a series of name changes along the way: Burroughs, Unisys, Unidata, Unisys, and Unisys Africa. Beginning as a technical trainee I went through the ranks, eventually moving to Kwa-Zulu Natal in 1988 to run the provincial operation.
In 2000, I transferred into a newly formed consulting division within the company and spent until 2009 commuting to Johannesburg by air on a weekly basis (approx. 600 kms each way). I have been privileged to see enormous changes within the IT industry along the way (youngsters of today wouldn’t believe we had mechanical hand operated adding machines half the size of a desk J), and all with the same company.
Life in Durban saw me take up gym to keep fit, followed by road cycling until I was badly injured in an accident in August 2008 whilst out training with some friends. Until then I participated in many road races around the country and am still mad keen on the sport. Make that all sport! I still go to gym, but with the abundance of great weather in this part of the world I spend a lot of time down at the beachfront…swimming, walking and occasionally cycling along the cycle paths.
For holidays, and to some extent work, I have been fortunate to travel fairly extensively across the world, as well as throughout South and some of Southern Africa. In 2002 I was on the ill-fated cruise ship Oceanos when it sank off the old Transkie coast in a storm…………….that’s a story on its own!
I live just north of Durban and have a daughter who is an attorney, and a son who is about to complete his law degree.
I could add a lot more, but with only so much space available I kept it short. If you need to check anything with me, please feel free to do so. I hope to be over next year and if so, catch up with a few of my old school friends if possible.
All the best,
Keith
Keith Upton wrote to the Website responding to the Editor’s request for Old Cicestrians to send him a resumé of their lives so far.
Keith Upton 1st XV 1962