Bacher and Teeger a hit for KES and history

Both King Edward VII School (KES) head boy Dean Bacher and Grade 11 student David Teeger are batting all-rounders. Both are the only current students at KES to have full sporting and academic colours. Both hope to play for the Proteas. Both are sons of prominent Jewish cricket players, with Bacher’s father, Adam, having played for the Proteas between 1996 and 2005, and Teeger’s father, James, having kept wicket for Transvaal during the 1992/1993 season.

For the past year, Bacher and Teeger have been the respective captain and vice-captain of the KES first cricket team, leading the team to victory in winning the Johnny Waite Knockout competition, a Gauteng T20 tournament.

“It’s been a good experience,” says Bacher. “Obviously, it’s quite an honour to captain a team at KES with all the rich history that surrounds the school, especially on a cricketing front, but it’s been a privilege.”

When Teeger succeeds Bacher as captain next year, he hopes to create a team culture that enables all kinds of players and cricketers to grow and thrive.

Coming from a family in which his dad was a professional cricketer, Teeger has been playing the game since he was six. “My love for the game just grew through primary school,” he says.

Following his dad’s footsteps into cricket “is nice because there’s always someone to talk to. He experienced the same stuff as me, so whenever something happens in one of the games, you almost know he has experienced it”, Teeger says.

Bacher, meanwhile, isn’t just following in the footsteps of his dad, but also his great uncle, the legendary Ali Bacher.

“I try not to think about it too much because I want to create my own legacy,” he says, “It’s special that two members of my family played for South Africa. It’s nice to look up to that, but at the same time, I want to create my own path.”

Bacher remembers holding a bat almost since he was born, and has a good cricketing brain.

In the first term in 2022, he memorably scored hundreds against Affies and Hoërskool Waterkloof, while Teeger notched up three figures against Grey High School and St Stithians College.

Away from the cricket field, Bacher has been invested in his role as KES head boy, a position he thinks hasn’t been occupied by any other Jewish student this century.

“It’s quite a diverse role,” says Bacher. “You have to oversee all the leadership in the school, all the prefects. My main goal is to inspire the boys to become better men in society.”

He attended King David until Grade 2. “I was always going to go to KES high school because my dad was an old boy and so was my grandpa and great uncles. But I attended one open day in 2012 and just decided from that point that it was the school I belonged to. I begged my parents to take me out of King David and put me into KEPS, the primary school.”

Bacher says he’s one of only two Jewish students in matric at KES, adding that there may be a maximum of 20 Jewish kids in the whole school.

“There isn’t a lot, but I wouldn’t say it matters. We’re a very diverse school. We don’t really judge or anything based on religion. The Jewish boys do try to stick together as much as they can.”

Teeger was originally at Hirsch Lyons before going to KES at “the last minute”.

“I always wanted to go because my coach, Jimmy Cook, works at the school and he encouraged me. My parents originally weren’t too keen on the idea. They wanted me to go to Jewish schools, but I really wanted to go, and ended up there. I think I was the latest applicant in my whole grade in the school.”

He says he’s now used to being at a school without many Jewish students. “It’s an inclusive school. If I have to miss school because it’s a Jewish holiday, everyone understands, but you know your place. The Jews are quite tight. We all get along with each other because it’s something we have in common.”