The 2nd team hockey game against Parktown was Mr Mike Bechet’s last home game as a coach at Jeppe and the occasion was used to pay tribute to his 10 years of service at Jeppe High School for Boys and his four decades of service to schoolboy sport and education in South Africa.

When he ended his Jeppe coaching career at DHS a week later, it was his 900th match as a hockey coach, to go with his over 1000 as a cricket coach – and his success rate is well over 50% in both.

His sons. James and Marc finished off their schooling at Jeppe and have both gone on to be valuable members of the coaching staff; while his wife, Cathy, is an important part of the school’s finance department.

The electronic scoreboard at the Boden Astro has been named the Mike Bechet Scoreboard, and three benches – named after Mike, James and Marc – have been erected in the area behind the scoreboard, ‘Bech’s Corner’ where he always held his pre-game team talks.