By 1981, I'd been following the Miss South Africa pageant for a good 10 years. Whilst I have never claimed to be an expert, I did find that I had an eye for beauty from an early age. My favourite was ALWAYS in the Top 2, and at least 3 of my other choices were right there in the Top 5. But in 1981 I got it horribly wrong.As far as I was concerned, the battle for Miss SA 1981 was between the glamorous Arina van Aswegen and the classy Robyn Taylor. Then disaster struck. Robyn placed 4th, and Arina was no-where to be found in the list of finalists. Three contestants to whom I would not have given the time of day in the context of the pageant placed first, second and third.
The winner was Linda Phillips followed by Elmarie van Aswegen (not related to my favourite contestant), Susan Schuttler, Robyn Taylor and Sharon Griffin. Over the years I have met some of the contestants from the 1981 year group and they are unanimous in their opinion that they were as baffled by the results at the pageant as I was. Whilst none were bold enough to say that they should have won, not a single former contestant agreed with the Top 3.
Was it merely "sour grapes" or a case of "what were they (the judges) thinking"?
