School Memories

That’s quite a challenge; many if not most of my Glyn stories might be libellous (although the subjects may well be long deceased). Other stories are likely to be self-deprecatory, as I think we were generally encouraged to achieve, and deviations became more interesting than success.  For example, I remember the then head (CRB) really didn’t like me – the feeling was mutual.  Nobody in the school liked him, including masters and pupils and, famously, the groundsman at Priest Hill (Vic Beckwith) and the caretaker at school.  One of the funniest stories concerns the caretaker.  One morning we saw that somebody had written something extremely rude about CRB on the perimeter fence of the school field.  CRB told the caretaker to paint it out.  Whatever had been used to create the offensive remark, creosote or white paint, the caretaker proceeded to paint over it in the other!  The result was just to accentuate the insult. 

Nevertheless, I did well in football (school and county captain and one game for an England XI) and basketball. Several London clubs offered me trials (but Dario didn’t, so I realised my limitations).  CRB called me into his office one day approaching A levels.  He encouraged me to apply to Brasenose, Oxford. The gist of his approach was that I was adequate (that might have been his exact description) academically, but they would love me as I would get a Double Blue and this would reflect well on the college.  I was doubtful but went along with the idea. This meant taking home stacks of books on three subjects, none of which I’d studied at school, to prepare for exams in the autumn term.  Somewhat daunted, I intended to attempt it.  Then the 1972 Olympics in Munich intervened, and with it the Israeli massacre and hostage crisis.  I was spellbound and lost so much time that I realised applying to Brasenose was out of the question.  I also reconsidered CRB’s assessment and translated it as meaning that I would struggle academically (I was going to read Law, so not a soft option, if there ever is one at Oxford) and be tolerated.  So, I quit and delighted in turning up to see CRB at the start of term, with “long” hair, non-compliant uniform and an 18-year old’s swagger.

CRB tried hard to emulate the independent school sector to which he would have been better suited.  For example, he increased the number of prefects substantially, and introduced tiers, so that Head of School and the four Heads of House wore full-bottomed blue gowns, Senior Prefects wore full-bottomed black gowns and only Junior Prefects wore the traditional “gilet” style.  There were practically no sixth-formers who weren’t prefects.  I became a Senior Prefect because, as CRB put it to me, he had virtually no choice as, he said, the school looked up to me as football captain!  Even as I stood in his study being invited to become SP along with a dozen or so others, my entire body from head to foot was non-compliant with the uniform required, except that I did wear the blazer.

One of my favourite stories concerns the playing fields at Priest Hill. During my time at Glyn, its football pitches were among the best we experienced. The terracing had been created just before I joined the school in 1965, and there were significant deposits of flint stones just below the surface such that we were never allowed to start playing until we had cleared the pitch. As a long-term project, the groundsman Vic Beckwith was preparing a pitch on the same level as the changing rooms to serve as the 1st XI pitch, so that spectators could watch the game from the balcony. This pitch was distinct from all the others in that it was perpendicular to the road, the others being parallel.  When CRB arrived at the school he introduced rugby as an alternative winter sport. Seeing that Vic was preparing a new pitch in the most prominent position, he decided that this should become the 1st XV rugby pitch. By this time, however, the drains had been laid at a level suitable for football. CRB was still insistent that the pitch should be set up for rugby, and didn't accept that the drains needed to be dug deeper if the pitch were to be used for rugby. So, rugby posts were installed, and the pitch was marked out for rugby. It took only a few games in the wet for the inadequacy of the drains under the combined weight of two sets of forwards at a scrum to be revealed with the result that the pitch was reduced to a patchwork of mud and grass. I can't remember exactly how this situation was resolved, but I do recall playing football on that pitch during pre-season training, when we used to entertain a team of youth players from Chelsea FC.

Pre-season training?!  How serious was that?  The more I think back to my school days the greater my appreciation of the extra-curricular contributions of so many school masters, many of whom gave up their evenings and Saturday mornings to supervise, coach and encourage the likes of me.  It’s always invidious to mention some names but not all, but I hope others may add to this list: kudos to Messrs. Gradi, Norris, Mitchell, Sigsworth, McLeod, Rees, Dawson (athletics) Hayes (tennis) et al.

These preseason matches against teams from Chelsea were quite an experience. Typically, our squad would train for a week starting on the Monday, and the highlight would be a visit by the Chelsea players on the Thursday afternoon. Dario Gradi was at that time one of the coaches of the Chelsea youth players and he would bring along a squad of Chelsea apprentices in their mid-teens. Our 1st XI teams were very good by school standards but no match for such potential international players as Ray Wilkins. However, Dario was a gentleman with some degree of concern for the egos of his successors as Glyn players. He never did confirm this to me at least but I had the distinct impression that he told his Chelsea players to hold back during the first half and let rip after half time. Chelsea always beat us, but I seem to remember that they only ever scored against us in the second-half. I well remember playing in those games myself and noting the appearance of some of the players in the Chelsea first team in the years that followed. Ray Wilkins was undoubtedly the most successful with a career that took in Milan, Manchester United and 84 caps for England. I once had the pleasure of meeting him at the bar in the director's box at Wimbledon FC when I told him that I had played against him a number of times in his youth but could never get as close to him on the pitch as I was in the bar.

Dario was the games master at Glyn from 1965-7.  Although he went on to be a coach with the Football Association and a number of clubs, he maintained contact with the school.  Dario was our unofficial supplier of all items sports related through his shop on Ewell High Street. Dario coached a Sunday team called Ewell Thistle, whose players were drawn from Glyn and Sutton Grammar School. Sutton Grammar also benefited from a top class coach in the person of Ted Powell. Ted was not only a master (Religious Education) at Sutton, but also captain of the successful Sutton United team in which Dario played.  During my time, Ted was also coach of the Surrey county team.