06-04-2021, 21:16
I did once ask about the 2BBA etc business, Dev. I think the answer was that many years ago – and I mean MANY years ago – there was a preparatory term that kids had to go through before they were allowed to join the school proper. That was deemed to be the first year, so when you actually started at the school you were a 2nd former. I may be wrong, but I think that was the answer.
I know BOK was a big rugby fan, particularly Irish rugby (obviously). I don`t ever remember him talking about a war wound, but some years after I left I bumped into an old mucker who`d seen him hobbling around town nearly bent double with what he assumed to be arthritis. He said how sad it was to see, compared with the ramrod-straight figure that we had both known. It may well have been a relic from his war days, but he never said anything about it to me.
God, I wish I`d been there to see Alf sprawled across the vaulting horse. I wish even more that I`d had a camera in my hand at the time so that I could have recorded it for posterity. It would have been framed and hanging on my wall for the past 50 years.
I remember Archie very well. I used to get on well with him until the day he put me in detention – the only one I had in 7 years at the place – for the most effing trivial thing you can imagine. (When I think of all the things I did that were 1,000 times worse and got away with! Karma, I suppose.) Even more annoying, he wasn`t actually supposed to be taking that lesson; he was only standing in for Bob Young because he was ill at the time. It still makes my blood boil when I think about it.
Bruiser (what a misnomer) was a lovely bloke. He was an ideal form master for looking after a bunch of innocent new entrants, of which I was one. He used to live up the top of Highfield Lane, near Newbold village, which was my home patch at the time, so I often used to walk past his house and see him in his garden. He always had time for a word, even when he was at home.
Strangely enough, the other one I always got on really well with was Charlie Bryars. BOK and Charlie; talk about polar opposites! I was in the school choir and Charlie roped me in for the Parish Church choir as well, as he did many. I remember he used to live with his mother on Newbold Road near Sheepbridge Sports Ground, which probably isn`t there any more. When she died (this was after I left) he apparently emigrated to South Africa and became choirmaster at Cape Town Cathedral; I read his obituary in the DT some years later. As it happens, I was in Cape Town 2 or 3 years ago and tried to find out where he was buried, so I could pay my respects. It turns out that there are 2 cathedrals in Cape Town, one Roman Catholic and one Anglican (Dumbo here hadn`t thought of that) and I had no idea which was the right one. I asked a few people in both but I couldn`t find anyone who remembered him. However, I`ve since found that there is a Charles Bryars Rhodes Scholarship in South Africa for those wanting to study organ playing, so he obviously made a mark there and is still remembered. That`s good to know.
Ah well; there you go. Thanks for the update on the St Helen`s, Dancing. I`m amazed I got the name right after all these years and even more amazed that the place still exists; the photos on the link you provided did look vaguely familiar.
I honestly don`t know whether Matt is being pessimistic or realistic about the teams we should be concerned with. If we can beat the teams below us and pick up points against those immediately around and above, we`ll make the play-offs comfortably. Bearing in mind where we`ve come from that will do for me, although I suspect JR`s ambitions go somewhat beyond that.
I know BOK was a big rugby fan, particularly Irish rugby (obviously). I don`t ever remember him talking about a war wound, but some years after I left I bumped into an old mucker who`d seen him hobbling around town nearly bent double with what he assumed to be arthritis. He said how sad it was to see, compared with the ramrod-straight figure that we had both known. It may well have been a relic from his war days, but he never said anything about it to me.
God, I wish I`d been there to see Alf sprawled across the vaulting horse. I wish even more that I`d had a camera in my hand at the time so that I could have recorded it for posterity. It would have been framed and hanging on my wall for the past 50 years.
I remember Archie very well. I used to get on well with him until the day he put me in detention – the only one I had in 7 years at the place – for the most effing trivial thing you can imagine. (When I think of all the things I did that were 1,000 times worse and got away with! Karma, I suppose.) Even more annoying, he wasn`t actually supposed to be taking that lesson; he was only standing in for Bob Young because he was ill at the time. It still makes my blood boil when I think about it.
Bruiser (what a misnomer) was a lovely bloke. He was an ideal form master for looking after a bunch of innocent new entrants, of which I was one. He used to live up the top of Highfield Lane, near Newbold village, which was my home patch at the time, so I often used to walk past his house and see him in his garden. He always had time for a word, even when he was at home.
Strangely enough, the other one I always got on really well with was Charlie Bryars. BOK and Charlie; talk about polar opposites! I was in the school choir and Charlie roped me in for the Parish Church choir as well, as he did many. I remember he used to live with his mother on Newbold Road near Sheepbridge Sports Ground, which probably isn`t there any more. When she died (this was after I left) he apparently emigrated to South Africa and became choirmaster at Cape Town Cathedral; I read his obituary in the DT some years later. As it happens, I was in Cape Town 2 or 3 years ago and tried to find out where he was buried, so I could pay my respects. It turns out that there are 2 cathedrals in Cape Town, one Roman Catholic and one Anglican (Dumbo here hadn`t thought of that) and I had no idea which was the right one. I asked a few people in both but I couldn`t find anyone who remembered him. However, I`ve since found that there is a Charles Bryars Rhodes Scholarship in South Africa for those wanting to study organ playing, so he obviously made a mark there and is still remembered. That`s good to know.
Ah well; there you go. Thanks for the update on the St Helen`s, Dancing. I`m amazed I got the name right after all these years and even more amazed that the place still exists; the photos on the link you provided did look vaguely familiar.
I honestly don`t know whether Matt is being pessimistic or realistic about the teams we should be concerned with. If we can beat the teams below us and pick up points against those immediately around and above, we`ll make the play-offs comfortably. Bearing in mind where we`ve come from that will do for me, although I suspect JR`s ambitions go somewhat beyond that.