It was vintage Bob Skinstad. Lurking quietly in space while the hard work was going on across the field, the ball suddenly spun out to the left, and the big loose forward glided into space, leaving two defenders flat footed, and a score looked completely certain.

Feint left, feint right, one man to beat ? and then an almighty swing of the right boot, a miss by the better part of a foot, and a simple gather for the goalkeeper, as the former Springbok captain followed his miss-kick with an ungainly pirouette, and then collapsed into a heap.

As a striker, Skinstad has the grace and poise of an Emile Heskey or a Nathan Paulse, charging up and down the field like a demented Labrador, a whirlwind of enthusiastic chaos. But that fits in with one of Cape Town?s more eclectic evening pick-up games: an assortment of Zimbabwean, Ugandan and Rwandan refugees, and Skinstad?s Noordhoek Vikings (a social sports team, although what sport exactly remains extremely vague), all galloping up and down beneath the shadow of Chapman?s Peak, and providing a platform for a large rugby player to play out his particular specialty: blocking his team-mates? shots on goal as they?re set to fly past the opposition ?keeper.

In part, it?s preparation for the World Cup, where Bob will join SuperSport?s extensive television coverage of the tournament; on Tuesday night, though, the chief aim of the football was as a warm-up for a braai challenge with Cape Town?s senior social sports side, the Pinelands Mighty Dodos (played two, won two in the Mother City?s fiercely competitive M4 league), as part of the build up to National Heritage Day on September 24, and the Braai For Heritage Campaign.

Two teams of weekend sportsmen, cheerfully talking up past performances with the help of a fire and a steady supply of cold Castle: nights don?t get much better than this.

Granted, Skinstad has a couple of past performances that gently overshadow those of his fellow Vikings, which is probably why he felt more at home with the Dodos last night; the Pierre Spies build of my hockey team-mates aside, we share a common sense of triumph at the highest level, Bob?s 2007 World Cup triumph in France mirroring the Dodos? victory in the M5 league last year with a clinical 4-1 victory over Durbanville in front of a crowd of nearly seven.

Much mutual respect between Skinstad and the Dodos, then, as the braaiing contest got underway.

If the football earlier in the afternoon had nudged towards the old Vauxhall Conference, then the braaiing was Champions League stuff, appropriate as Inter and Barcelona played out in the background.

There?s some debate as to whether a braai qualifies as sport, or as art, or perhaps both (Chris Thurman?s upcoming ?Sport Versus Art?, to be published this month, hopefully addresses the topic in some detail); it?s certainly a passion wherever you are in South Africa, and a source of great pride.

Usually the Dodos turn to team fitness trainer and nutritionist Martin Tucker to man the fire; Tucker is just out of hospital, having eaten three cheeseburgers complete with polystyrene packaging on Sunday night, and so his deputy, Douglas O (Korean surname) took over, although it was my inspired ingredients that inspired a marinade I may well opt to bottle and flog: assorted spices, soya sauce, and a bottle of generic hot sauce Sports Illustrated had sent out to the media with the Swimsuit Edition four or five years ago, and that I?d discovered in the back of a cupboard a week or so earlier.

The result was rump (at Tucker?s suggestion, Checkers Meat Market, and an inspired choice it proved to be) done brilliantly, the night?s winning effort by some distance, although Skinstad?s effort, produced in tandem with his younger brother Dan, a Stellenbosch hairdresser who?s having growing success with his Village People tribute band, was a fair effort. Plenty of lamb chops (or lamb ?malemas?, to use the original Xhosa) and several kilometres of boerewors, plus the requisite beer, and braai as an Olympic endeavour is now surely beyond debate.

Still to be settled, though, is the superiority of the Dodos over the Vikings; by the end of the night, we had hockey, cricket, touch rugby, lawn bowls and ballroom dancing challenges confirmed, as well as a proper football match.

The Dodos should be safe there, as long as Skinstad gets the number nine jersey; whatever the results, there?ll be a fire, meat and beer afterwards, much self-congratulation, and the apres match so fundamental to social sport. Which, as Bob Skinstad would be the first to agree, can be just as rewarding as the professional stuff.