For SGB,
Well "he" did have a relationship with the school secretary and that kinda wrecked his marriage apparently (luckily for his wife in my opinion). I don't think he was related to Plymouth Argyle's current top scorer.
When we moved up to the new school we had our own swimming pool and specialist swimming instructor - Mr Batteson. Anyway we used to train after school twice a week for rugby ..... and delight of delights we witnessed Mr Not-Luke-Jephcott, wearing a rubber ring getting a swimming lesson. The PE Teacher who couldn't swim! Naturally we kept it quiet. Other delights he produced included demonstrating the use of a new "Trampette" to bounce over a vaulting horse, getting it wrong and being left sprawled over the horse groaning loudly and he also took on responsibility for delivering notices from societies etc after morning assembly and, being bastards, we quickly realised he was prone to stumble over difficult words ........... so we created a notice for him that Leonard Sachs of The Good Old Days would have loved - and the assembly was in total uproar as red-faced and furious he stumbled his way through. It was such a success that other societies took to introducing difficult words and phrases into every announcement too. The self-important gentleman soon passed the responsibility to someone with a reading age bigger than his shoe size. Shortly after I left we learned he had lost his honorary position with the Derbyshire FA ......... the reason being that he had fraudulently recommended himself for recognition in the honours list, and because he was an idiot, was caught.
He was the reason I played rugby. Our year was completely brilliant at football. I made the squad, but couldn't get in the eleven. The captain of Chesterfield Boys at primary school level didn't even make the squad! They only lost twice all the way through the age groups. But, as you know, once age-groups ended, there was 1st 2nd and 3rd XI. I was a cert for at least 2nd XI, but Gordon in his wisdom had decided to rule that no one who played football for the school could play in outside teams. And my dad ran a men's team and I wanted to sign on ..... and so I played rugby in which our lump of a PE master had no interest! Tales of GJ?! Oh yes, he was such a prick he thought it beneath a grammar school to play against local Secondary Mods and such, but with our year he entered the local Everest Cup because he knew they'd win ..... which they did 7-0 in the final. He knew for definite how superior they were, because Archie Moore (Latin master and Derby County fan) the previous year had arranged some fixtures for those who weren't in the top XI against local schools and his own old grammar school, Bemrose in Derby ......... and we won every time. So GJ basked in the glory of victory knowing they couldn't lose!
BOK was a good teacher. If I'd had him lower down school I might have learned the language as something to speak, rather than as a puzzle to decode. As it was when I reached the sixth form I had to come top in French Lit' to cover for my language inadequacies. BOK's wife wasn't the only one to call him Barney. I remember hearing Bruiser Andrews refer to him as Barney for one. Nevertheless if you'd been sent to the Head's study and opened the door to see Glister and BOK glaring at you you'd have had no alternative but to leg it. The Krays would have been a soft option!
I must also admit in BOK's favour that he turned out to watch us play rugby some Saturday mornings. The only rugby master had left the school and we were allowed to keep rugby going within the school ourselves ...... and looking back I think BOK may have been instrumental in that decision ....... because, had it been left to your favourite PE teacher, rugby would have folded. It also has to be said his unpredictability was also related to physical pain. Some days it was clear he was in more than discomfort. Did he ever talk about his war wound? We assumed there was one. I also have to admit he was a pretty magnificent-looking figure ...... but to use Anne Widdecombe's words, there was something of the dark about him too.
The St Helen's was down there. I ended my Sunday League career playing for them. They had the maddest team ever, run by mad men. By that time it had become, like many pubs in Chesterfield, quite tough. It was notorious for fights breaking out between women on Sunday nights!
You've left me half-wishing I'd have risked getting in more trouble with BOK so I'd have got to know him better. By the way, why didn't we start in form 1 BBA or 1 KSM instead of 2?
Well "he" did have a relationship with the school secretary and that kinda wrecked his marriage apparently (luckily for his wife in my opinion). I don't think he was related to Plymouth Argyle's current top scorer.
When we moved up to the new school we had our own swimming pool and specialist swimming instructor - Mr Batteson. Anyway we used to train after school twice a week for rugby ..... and delight of delights we witnessed Mr Not-Luke-Jephcott, wearing a rubber ring getting a swimming lesson. The PE Teacher who couldn't swim! Naturally we kept it quiet. Other delights he produced included demonstrating the use of a new "Trampette" to bounce over a vaulting horse, getting it wrong and being left sprawled over the horse groaning loudly and he also took on responsibility for delivering notices from societies etc after morning assembly and, being bastards, we quickly realised he was prone to stumble over difficult words ........... so we created a notice for him that Leonard Sachs of The Good Old Days would have loved - and the assembly was in total uproar as red-faced and furious he stumbled his way through. It was such a success that other societies took to introducing difficult words and phrases into every announcement too. The self-important gentleman soon passed the responsibility to someone with a reading age bigger than his shoe size. Shortly after I left we learned he had lost his honorary position with the Derbyshire FA ......... the reason being that he had fraudulently recommended himself for recognition in the honours list, and because he was an idiot, was caught.
He was the reason I played rugby. Our year was completely brilliant at football. I made the squad, but couldn't get in the eleven. The captain of Chesterfield Boys at primary school level didn't even make the squad! They only lost twice all the way through the age groups. But, as you know, once age-groups ended, there was 1st 2nd and 3rd XI. I was a cert for at least 2nd XI, but Gordon in his wisdom had decided to rule that no one who played football for the school could play in outside teams. And my dad ran a men's team and I wanted to sign on ..... and so I played rugby in which our lump of a PE master had no interest! Tales of GJ?! Oh yes, he was such a prick he thought it beneath a grammar school to play against local Secondary Mods and such, but with our year he entered the local Everest Cup because he knew they'd win ..... which they did 7-0 in the final. He knew for definite how superior they were, because Archie Moore (Latin master and Derby County fan) the previous year had arranged some fixtures for those who weren't in the top XI against local schools and his own old grammar school, Bemrose in Derby ......... and we won every time. So GJ basked in the glory of victory knowing they couldn't lose!
BOK was a good teacher. If I'd had him lower down school I might have learned the language as something to speak, rather than as a puzzle to decode. As it was when I reached the sixth form I had to come top in French Lit' to cover for my language inadequacies. BOK's wife wasn't the only one to call him Barney. I remember hearing Bruiser Andrews refer to him as Barney for one. Nevertheless if you'd been sent to the Head's study and opened the door to see Glister and BOK glaring at you you'd have had no alternative but to leg it. The Krays would have been a soft option!
I must also admit in BOK's favour that he turned out to watch us play rugby some Saturday mornings. The only rugby master had left the school and we were allowed to keep rugby going within the school ourselves ...... and looking back I think BOK may have been instrumental in that decision ....... because, had it been left to your favourite PE teacher, rugby would have folded. It also has to be said his unpredictability was also related to physical pain. Some days it was clear he was in more than discomfort. Did he ever talk about his war wound? We assumed there was one. I also have to admit he was a pretty magnificent-looking figure ...... but to use Anne Widdecombe's words, there was something of the dark about him too.
The St Helen's was down there. I ended my Sunday League career playing for them. They had the maddest team ever, run by mad men. By that time it had become, like many pubs in Chesterfield, quite tough. It was notorious for fights breaking out between women on Sunday nights!
You've left me half-wishing I'd have risked getting in more trouble with BOK so I'd have got to know him better. By the way, why didn't we start in form 1 BBA or 1 KSM instead of 2?