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Interview with Mike Peel – 1978
Mike’s father went to Koch Street and Marist Observatory and his uncle was in the first class at
St David’s – Harold Morgan. He has cousins also related to the school, Paul and Anton Barale
and Renzo Brocco.
When Mike was in grade 2, his father was on the parish council at St Charles, Victory Park
when the lemon squeezer was built and set up a challenge match between Inanda and De La
Salle which went 1.0 to St David’s.
Mike began his career at St David’s in 1967, the year after his brother Kevin left and John, also
a pupil was 10 years older. Mike had just turned 5 and was too young to start school so he was
not too happy on his first day. He couldn’t read, write or draw but enjoyed sport.
His first teacher in grade 1 was Mrs Scarfsma. Br Lindsay coached soccer and used to teach us
to think about the game as he really loved it. Mike remembers playing in the quarter finals
against Blairgowrie and the team being knocked out 4-3 after leading 3-1, big disappointment.
Mike played U15 Transvaal cricket with Paul Ralphs. Br Aquinas was the Ist primary cricket
coach.
In standard 5 the boys had to play rugby and Mike was in the U13 C team. Peter Stringer, a
professional cricketer from Yorkshire was the coach for rugby and cricket and Br Bernard also
coached rugby. In standard 6 our U13A team won every game of rugby 20-0 victory against
KES at KES. until CBC Pretoria beat them. In standard 9, he recalls beating St Stithians in the
Johnny Waite Cricket semi-finals. Mike was in the Nuffield B cricket team in 1977with Paul
Ralphs and Peter Marneweck and the Nuffield A in 1978 and was awarded sportsman of the
year.
What was remarkable was that 36 matrics together with the standard 9 class put out 4 teams
and still managed to compete against bigger schools. Everyone had a chance and the team
spirit was strong. One of the highlights was beating St Stithians at rugby in matric. There were
rugby camps to Lydenberg before the rugby season with Br Timothy who bet Mike R5 to swim
across the dam in mid winter and he also dared him to get a crew cut on the last day of term.
Mike still has his rugby jersey and on one occasion at Penryn College where his children
attended school, ended up chatting to the St David’s coaches and presented the jerseys to the
St David’s 1st team. A proud moment for him.
Mike participated in the centenary celebrations at St Joseph’s, Cape Town on and has a copy of
the article in the Southern Cross 19 April 1967. There was a soccer tour to the Free State led by
Br Lindsay where the boys played 3 games in 2 days winning 2 and drawing the last one.
There was an exchange student, Andrew Driver who came from Shoreham Grammar in the UK.
He was a rugby and cricket player, scoring the winning kick against St Stithians. Charles Burn
(my best man and me his) was a great horse rider and our relationship with Shoreham
Grammar meant that our horse riding team competed at the Hickstead horse jumping
championship. Charlie was part of the team that competed at Hickstead winning once and doing
well on all the occasions we participated.
Another occasion he recalled was when he and two other equally naughty boys (no names)
moved the school combi after a tennis match at Risidale Primary. The teachers eventually
appeared from their tea and were shocked to find the combi gone. The boys had just moved it
around the corner and were caned by Mrs Kempster and then again by Br Anthony the next
day. Being caned by Br Anthony was probably the worst moment he had whilst at St David’s.
There were many pranks played including an incident when some of the boys moved a desk to
the edge of the platform in the classroom and when the brother lent against the desk it
collapsed.
Mike recalled teachers such as Mrs Geddes, Frank Maritz, Mrs Blaire, Mr Lipschitz, Mrs Napier
(Std 2) and Harold Gavron who instilled a love of ecology in him. Mrs Elliott was also a
memorable teacher and led the public speaking team although Mike was not really into the arts
his leaning being more on the sporting side.. The boys also raised funds for the blind under the
direction of Br Paul who was himself blind. Mike was photographed by the Southern Cross as
the youngest, smallest boy in the school handing money over to Br Paul.
Fellow pupils he remembers and is still in touch with are Andrew Slaven (Radiologist,New
Zealand), Roy Zent (heads up a kidney lab in the USA) and brothers Clive and Neil – all
overseas but visit Mike when they are in South Africa.
The matric dance was held in the hall which was decorated to look like a French cafe. On their
last day Br Timothy told the boys to take off their blazers before they went to the pub to
celebrate.
Andrew Slaven was head boy and Mike was vice-head boy together with Patrick Riley.
Mike left school at the age of 16 and went to Wits University and then to RAU. He studied for a
BSc Zoology and Botany then did an MSc in Wildlife Management in Pretoria followed by a PHd
at the University of KZN. After varsity he completed two years in the air force as a lieutenant. He
is currently a rangelands ecologist and looks at optimising in African rangelands but with focus
in the eastern lowveld and has run a research programme since 1989 undertaking aerial
surveys over South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique .He supervises a couple of Phd’s and
MSc’s at various universities including the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands,
Cambridge University, Texas A & M University, WITS and Pretoria..
He assists communities when their land is restored to them to develop the land. Mike and his
wife also do marriage preparation for the catholic church in Nelspruit and has been involved with
the St Vincent de Paul Society.
Mike last visited the school at the opening of the new chapel .His son attended Penryn College
but would have been a pupil at St David’s had they lived in Johannesburg. He also has a
daughter, an architect and his son is studying property management at Pretoria University.
JLE May 2013