After the main prize-giving was over we made a special presentation of one of our T-shirts to André as a thank you for his generous hospitality and the marvellous organisation of the Rallye. Liz swears that André had a tear in his eye afterwards but I’m not so sure as it was a rather dry and dusty venue.
Right from the outset our T-shirts had been the subject of much discussion and were in great demand for swaps from the other crews. We were often asked about its design and the meaning of the various symbolisms on the T-shirts which Liz, together with her daughter designed, so here’s the story.
Black has been the standard colour for almost every New Zealand representative team since the first New Zealand rugby team toured Britain in 1905 and were christened “the All Blacks”. The silver fern (on the left sleeve of the T-shirt) is a tree fern common throughout New Zealand. A silver fern was on the original All Blacks jersey and it appears on the jersey of every New Zealand representative team.
The motif running down the right-hand side of the shirt is the Maori symbol for travelling safely over water. On the back of the shirt, in the centre, is the symbol for the Canal du Midi itself.
As for our name, “the Black Strokes and Spokes”, well in the tradition of the All Blacks (by the way no-one in New Zealand ever refers to them as either “New Zealand” or the “New Zealand Rugby Team”), most New Zealand representative teams have a nick-name. This involves some variation on “Black”, “Silver” or “Fern”, with the latter usually reserved for the female teams. So, the womens’ rugby team (also world champions) are the “Black Ferns”, the mens’ basketball team are the Tall Blacks, whereas their female counterparts are the Tall Ferns. (It does get a bit silly at times; apparently, the badminton team are officially called the “Black Cocks”!). The exceptions to all this blackness are the men’s soccer team who are called the “All Whites” and the women’s cricket team, the “White Ferns”.
blackstrokesrowingadventure 