Interschools in the Paarl

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:15

No doubt who she supports

The Interschools in Paarl each year is the biggest in the country. No other schools' match equals it for interest and intensity. And they have been at it since 1915.

Now that Intervarsity matches have lost lustre, it is this Interschools which expresses South Africa's most intense and ornate rivalry.

There are bands and songs and fancy dress, balloons and rosettes, ceremonies and superstitions, and a crowd of some 16 000 at the ground in Faure Street - a neutral ground.

The venue may be neutral but nobody in that ground will be neutral. It is possibly the most divisive sporting event in South Africa.

Paarl Gim's people wear green, Paarl Boys' High's blue. The programmes are green or blue. Gim are to the left, Boys' High to the right. You are either a Gimmie or a Boishaaier, a Bloedwors or a Galpil - and there is nothing friendly in the nicknames.

There are huge functions before and after - separate functions, and there is no friendly feeling towards the other school in the functions afterwards either.

Then come the matches - 19 of them. And there is nothing friendly in the matches, either. The only contact between the two schools at Interschools is on the field.

There is nothing overboard in the unfriendliness. People behave, but the hostility is there, however controlled. The players will never tackle harder in their lives. They will never again be as afraid to make an error. Their coaches will never be as tense again. And afterwards the two schools go Whew! and have a week off.

Everyone of the 19 matches at Interschools will be intense and matter desperately to the players and those on the touch-line. But, of course, it is the first team match that matters most. The team which wins the first team match wins Interschools as far as the world is concerned.

There are other sports - hockey and squash, for example, and the Girls' High plays Gim at hockey and netball, and there is competition at primary school level. But it is the first team rugby match which counts. Say Boys' High won Interschools, and everybody knows you are talking about the first rugby team.

Everybody gets worked up - the pupils, the parents, the past pupils and the whole community of the beautiful Boland town. And on the day Paarl has a parking problem.

They started playing each other in 1910 in two matches a year. Two matches would now be unthinkable. Such tension twice a year would be unbearable. The results are counted from 1915. Between 1915 and 1927 the two schools competed for the Phillips Cup, in which masters often played. The schools in the Western Province scrapped all trophies and the two schools began playing each other, schoolboy vs schoolboy.

The results down the years:

1915: Boys' High won 10-0
1916: Gim won 7-5
1917: Gim won 3-0
1918: Gim won 3-0
1919: Gim won 9-0
1920: Gim won 20-0
1921: Draw 6-6
1922: Draw 3-3
1923: Boys' High won 3-0
1924: Boys' High won 13-5
1925: Boys' High won 7-3
1926: Boys' High won 6-5
1927: PG won 5-3
1928: No match
1929: Draw 3-3
1930: Boys' High won 5-3
1931: Gim won 6-0
1932: Gim won 7-3
1933: Boys' High won 3-0
1934: Boys' High won 5-4
1935: Draw 0-0
1936: Gim won 11-6
1937: Gim won 5-3
1938: Gim won 5-3
1939: Gim won 9-8
1940: Draw 3-3
1941: Gim won 6-0
1942: Draw 0-0
1943: Gim won 9-6
1944: Boys' High won 6-0
1945: Boys' High won 14-6
1946: Draw 3-3
1947: Boys' High won 8-3
1948: Draw 3-3
1949: Gim won 9-3
1950: Boys' High won 6-3
1951: Boys' High won 6-0
1952: Boys' High won 11-0
1953: Boys' High won 6-5
1956: Gim won 6-3
1957: Gim won 5-3
1958: Gim won 11-0
1959: Boys' High won 11-3
1960: Gim won 9-3
1961: Boys' High won 6-0
1962: Boys' High won 6-0
1963: Boys' High won 8-0
1964: Gim won 9-8
1965: Gim won 11-0
1966: Gim won 8-0
1967: Gim won 8-6
1968: Gim won 3-0
1969: Boys' High won 8-5
1970: Gim won 19-8
1971: Boys' High won 11-6
1972: Boys' High won 6-3
1973: Boys' High won 19-6
1974: Gim won 9-3
1975: Boys' High won 3-0
1976: Gim won 8-6
1977: Boys' High won 15-6
1978: Gim won 13-10
1979: Gim won 12-6
1980: Gim won 9-3
1981: Gim won 12-0
1982: Boys' High won 16-15
1983: Gim won 15-6
1984: Gim won 10-4
1985: Boys' High won 16-6
1986: Draw 0-0
1987: Boys' High won 15-7
1988: Draw 6-6
1989: Gim won 15-4
1990: Boys' High won 10-6
1991: Boys' High won 8-4
1992: Gim won 20-15
1993: Boys' High won 19-17
1994: Boys' High won 11-6
1995: Boys' High won 17-13
1996: Gim won 18-16
1997: Gim won 13-10
1998: Boys' High won 16-5
1999: Gim won 13-6
2000: Boys' High won 15-7
2001: Boys' High won 12-3
2002: Gim won 15-0
2003: Boys' High won 25-6
2004: Gim won 13-3
2005: Gim won 22-10
2006: Gim won 23-17
2007: Gim won 10-0