Southern Africa Unexplained

Case · UFO Afrinews No 5, January 1992

Rosmead tennis court landing and the vanished stone (Final Comment)

Rosmead, new tennis court beside the primary school, Middelburg, Cape, South Africa

What was reported

In her closing comment Hind recalls a case of her own from Rosmead near Middelburg in the Cape, brought to mind by John Keel's FATE article on mysterious holes. An unidentified object landed on a new tennis court and ruined its surface. Beside the court, Harold Truter, headmaster of the local primary school, had long been troubled by a large stone protruding about a third above ground that kept injuring children; when he tried to dig it out he found far more than half lay buried and gave up. The morning after the object appeared, the huge stone was gone. The sides of the hole were completely smooth, as though the stone had been drawn out by suction, and not a scrap of surrounding earth was disturbed.

What Hind made of it

Hind links the smooth, spoil-free hole to John Keel's reports of perfect holes that look machine-dug.

In their words

  • the sides of the hole were totally smooth, as though the stone had been lifted out by suction

    Cynthia Hind, spread 23

Cross references

  • FATE Magazine, September 1991 (John Keel on holes)

Connected

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

    Issue 5 (January 1992) Final Comment returns to one element only, the vanished stone, prompted by John Keel's FATE article of September 1991 on mysterious holes. The trigger is external reading, not new fieldwork at Rosmead.

  • Rosmead tennis court damage (editorial reference)Case fileSame behaviour

    Both centre on the large stone the headmaster had never managed to shift, gone overnight, leaving a smooth-edged, spoil-free excavation. 05-23-1 adds that more than half lay buried and that not a scrap of surrounding earth was disturbed.

  • The Rosmead Tennis Court Affair revisited: 'of course, it was a whirlwind'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: physical trace caseCase fileSame place

    Identical coordinates (-31.4939, 25.0067). This point is in Middelburg town, 10.7 km west of the actual Rosmead tennis court. Three cases (01-05-1, 05-23-1, 20-03-1) plus the story point sit here, so half the cluster is misplaced by about 10 km.

  • Rosmead burnt leaves (editorial recollection)Case fileSame place

    Identical coordinates (-31.4939, 25.0067), also 10.7 km west of the real site. 03-03-2 is worse still, at -31.5833, 25.05, which is 12.4 km south of Rosmead and near nothing in the record. The cluster's 9 km radius and its centroid at -31.5, 25.053 are produced entirely by this geocoding scatter over a single point event.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 5 (January 1992), spread 23

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