St John’s College was draped in pink for annual derby
Pink Day was a spirited day that drew the biggest crowd seen on Burger Field outside of the Easter Festivals.
St John’s College hosted St Stithians Boys’ College for the annual Pink Derby on June 20, drawing the winter sports season to a close.
Pink was everywhere, including on socks, the rugby fields, while ribbons were worn on blazers and tied to rugby posts.
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The fixture is a keenly contested one, and the campus was busy from the first U14 game at 08:00 to the first U15 team running out onto Burger Field as part of the King Price Derby Series in the afternoon.
Both first team fixtures ended in draws. In the rugby, the Blues were dominant in the first half, scoring three tries to lead 21-0 at the break.
St Stithians came out strongly after half-time, got an early try, and grew in confidence, scoring twice more to draw level at 21-21 with minutes to go.
In the hockey, the two sides matched each other goal-for-goal before St John’s drew 4-3 clear late in the final quarter. St Stithians equalised soon after and earned one more penalty corner, but the St John’s defence held for a 4-4 draw.
The day coincided with Gaudy Day, which meant old Johannians returned to the grounds, and the crowd spanned generations.
A U13 A fixture between St John’s Preparatory and St Stithians Boys’ Preparatory was played on Burger Field as a curtain raiser to the main game, and there was a seven-a-side match between Old Johannians and Old Stithians.
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Despite the cold, it was a spirited day that drew the biggest crowd seen on Burger Field outside of the Easter Festivals.
At the main entrance stood the Wall of Hope, where, for a donation, anyone could pick up a permanent marker and leave a message for someone whose life has been touched by cancer, whether honouring a survivor, remembering a loved one, or marking their own journey.
The cause behind the day reaches well beyond the touchline.
History of Pink Day
The story starts in 2012, when St John’s College and St Mary’s Waverley hosted a Cansa Relay for Life on Burger Field and raised over half a million rand for the organisation’s work in poorer communities.
In 2013, a matric learner, Alex Kuttschreuter, moved by the relay, approached Martin Huysamer, then deputy head: student affairs, with an idea. He wanted to sell pink ribbons at St John’s and St Mary’s to raise funds for an oncology unit at a hospital in Soweto.
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For Alex and his brother Luke, the cause was personal because they lost their mother to cancer a few years earlier.
In 2016, inspired by the Bidvest Wanderers’ Pink Day, Huysamer asked then headmaster Roger Cameron whether St John’s could partner with PinkDrive, the organisation that promotes awareness and early detection of gender-related cancers across South Africa.
That was the start of Pink Derby Day, with pink roses and pink cupcakes sold to spectators and a PinkDrive stall on the day.
The tradition grew year on year. In 2017, St Stithians agreed that their first teams could wear pink socks for the home fixture.
In 2018, St John’s expanded the day to include a mobile screening clinic, with fields and posts painted pink.
In 2019, St Stithians formally dedicated the fixture to the cause, so that two of Johannesburg’s boys’ schools now stand together at their annual derby behind early detection that can save lives.
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