The Rosmead Tennis Court Affair revisited: 'of course, it was a whirlwind'

What was reported

In her closing essay Hind revisits the Rosmead Tennis Court Affair, fully told in chapter 13 of her book UFOs: African Encounters, as an example of debunking by experts who never look. A trail of destruction had been cut across the court's tram lines. A Witwatersrand University professor interviewed on television soon afterwards smiled and pronounced it a whirlwind without visiting Rosmead, questioning a witness or reading the report, and she contended with that verdict for years. She herself spent two days there, spoke with the area's Chief of Police, who called it the most puzzling case of his career, and corresponded with headmaster Harold Truter, the first witness to the damage; police, army and schoolteachers were involved. On later visits she found those present still insist it was neither a whirlwind nor lightning on a cloudless day.

What Hind made of it

Hind holds that the whirlwind and lightning explanations were offered by people who never visited the site, whereas everyone involved knows it was something they will never understand; she asks where an investigator draws the line.

Explanation offered
Whirlwind (Witwatersrand professor on television); lightning on a cloudless sunny day

In their words

• Of course, it was a whirlwind

• the most puzzling case of my career

• He did not once visit Rosmead, nor did he question a single witness.

Cross references

• UFOs: African Encounters, Ch 13, p 126
• Case 5 comments (Rosmead as a Karoo case)
• Zimbabwe Air Force balloon (contrasting case in the same essay)

Connected

• Rosmead tennis court: physical trace caseCase fileHind follow-up

  Issue 1 (July 1988) sets out the case; issue 2 (June 1989) revisits it as 'The Rosmead Tennis Court Affair revisited'. 02-23-1 explicitly refers back to chapter 13 of her book and to 'Case 5 comments (Rosmead as a Karoo case)'. No new observation is added, only her two days on site, the Chief of Police remark and later return visits.

• Rosmead Tennis-Court Case: whirlwind, then lightningCase fileSame behaviour

  Both are built on the identical anecdote: a Witwatersrand professor pronounced whirlwind on television without visiting, then switched to lightning when confronted with the burnt trees, on a warm cloudless day. 04-21-1 adds 'two of them facing the court'. This is a shared rhetorical set-piece, not a shared observation.

• Rosmead tennis court landing and the vanished stone (Final Comment)Case fileNamed person

  Harold Truter, headmaster of the Rosmead primary school, is named in four of the seven records (01-05-1, 02-23-1, 05-23-1, 21-04-1). He is the first witness to the damage and Hind's correspondent; he is one person, not four corroborations.

• Rosmead Tennis Court UAPCase fileSame place

  Identical coordinates (-31.4892, 25.1194), the centre of Rosmead village, 10 m from the mapped Rosmead military camp. These are the only cluster points that sit on the real site.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 2 (June 1989), spread 23

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