The beekeeper who saved the Pink ODI

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Johannesburg – Pierre Hefer was at home in Emmarentia, a suburb 20 minutes west of the Wanderers, quietly watching the third ODI between South Africa and Sri Lanka on TV on Saturday when a swarm of bees halted play. “When they took out the fire extinguisher, I knew I had to get down here,” Hefer said in impromptu interview at the ground. “You see, you might get rid of them for a bit, but they’ll come back, I thought they might be able to use my expertise.” Hefer got into his full bee-keeping regalia - white overalls and black gumboots - grabbed all his equipment, including a honeycomb and some home-made hives, and headed to the ground. He managed to get around the normally tight security around the Wanderers, passing cops who normally demand a parking ticket and even got into the ground without a ticket or any form of accreditation.

“I think they saw me in this outfit, noticed all the equipment and reckoned I must be what I say I am, and with play stopped, they let me in.

“It’s actually the quickest I’ve ever gotten from the top of Corlett Drive (the road which runs past the ground at the southern end) to the stadium before. It was harder to get through the crowds who were outside because there was no play,” said Hefer.

Attempts by ground staff - and also one enthusiastic member of SuperSport’s production crew – to get rid of the bees using a fire extinguisher proved useless, as did the temptation of a can of Coke in a bucket.

Hefer, using his skills and the home-made hive, attracted the bees into a large plastic tub before removing most of the swarm from the field. “When I was watching on TV, and they had surrounded that helmet (that of SA wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock), I thought it might be as much as 5 000 bees. But when I got here, it looked more like 1 000 to 2 000.”

Hefer said the bees may have been disturbed at a different location earlier in the week and then relocated to the Wanderers. “It would have been quieter on Wednesday, but then today you’ve got a game going on, all these people here and obviously they’re not welcome. They can be quite stubborn too.”

Hefer stated emphatically that bees were not attracted by the colour pink, which was prevalent at the Wanderers on Saturday as part of an initiative to raise awareness about cancer.

With most of the bees removed, play was able to resume after an interval of one hour. Hefer received a huge cheer for his efforts from a crowd numbering close to 30 000 people. “Yup, definitely the biggest audience I’ve worked in front of... that was my 15 minutes (of fame),” Hefer smiled.

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