A
ABBEY
Guest
Not my sport at all but here you go.
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NEXT GAME: Sheffield Wednesday FC
Sunday April 21st 2024
Kick off 12.30 pm
Ewood Park
Championship
One thing in Unions favour is that it's a game that any school class can make a team from. From the athletic types right through to the slow ponderous knock-kneed tubs of lard there is a position for them. Compare that with football where the latter in my description can't even manage to run the line. I rem when on the ball in class football games frequently turning into trouble rather than taking the easy option of a pass to any one of my class mates who couldn't trap a wet sandbag and was just stood motionless and shivering with their sleeves tugged down over their hands.
Those were the days weren't they? If I had a cold etc and Mum wrote a note for me to miss football I smuggled my kit out of the house in my satchel and the note went out of the bus window!
Those were the days weren't they? If I had a cold etc and Mum wrote a note for me to miss football I smuggled my kit out of the house in my satchel and the note went out of the bus window!
Clayton's Left Boot
Member
Very true Drog. At SMC we had rugby union in the sixth form only and the players tended to be the, let's say, bigger lads who couldn't get in the footy teams.
As Dave says, when union is played in a more open fashion, it can be entertaining and from what I've seen, this is more so in the Southern Hemisphere. I find most of the games here in the UK boring (too much stop/start) but part of the problem is that I don't understand all the rules and, more importantly to some degree, the tactics.
I'm glad to see that another SMC old boy is on the forum. Dave Birch is ex SMC too. I'm 75. Were you there when I was?
Me neither CLB and judging by that carry on against Italy I'd say most of the England team and management don't either!
Clayton's Left Boot
Member
No, Al. I'm 59 and left in 1976. Father Cassidy was headmaster, Fr O'Neill deputy head. I bet you remember Ma Burns who did the school meals (damned good as well) and Fr Stuart who taught French and was as evil as the devil himself. He never taught me thank God but had certainly mellowed by the mid 70s.
davebirch
Senior Member
I was there when the head was Fr Graystanes (Black Harry) and then Fr Green (Le Pere Verte)
. Joe Stuart, Fr Battle (?).It was said of Fr Graystanes that he knew the names of all the pupils at the school.
Still got the cinders in my knee from the "all weather" football pitch!
Clayton's Left Boot
Member
The all weather pitch had been upgraded to tarmac when I got there in 1969 Dave! Amazing how about ten games of football could all be played at the same time.I was there when the head was Fr Graystanes (Black Harry) and then Fr Green (Le Pere Verte)
It was said of Fr Graystanes that he knew the names of all the pupils at the school.
Still got the cinders in my knee from the "all weather" football pitch!
davebirch
Senior Member
There used to be an Irish groundsman, looked after all the pitches, three football and one cricket. When he was on the gang mower, if you hadn't picket up your jacket (used for goal post, he just go straight over it. Saw quite a few go up in shreds. He never seemed to get into bother about it.
I remember all the ones that Dave mentioned. We were completely different eras.
Any dodgy buggers there that we keep hearing about?
We had one teacher who appeared to have a preference for boys (bit like 'Paedo' Kennedy the Geography teacher on the in betweeners) no surprise that the pervy bugger taught RI too! Seems to be a pre-requisite for religious teachers doesn't it?
We had one teacher who appeared to have a preference for boys (bit like 'Paedo' Kennedy the Geography teacher on the in betweeners) no surprise that the pervy bugger taught RI too! Seems to be a pre-requisite for religious teachers doesn't it?
Always thought Father Harrison was a bit dodgy. Taught French and had a bit of a feminine way of walking. Never bothered me though. Did you know him Dave?Can't remember any at all, Drog. "Le Pere Verte" was just a french translation.
Plenty of board dusters thrown, plenty of straps given, but I never came across anything more serious.
Maybe I just wasn't fancied
Clayton's Left Boot
Member
I think Father Stuart would have been there when you were Al. My uncle, who was at SMC, is 80 ish and I'm sure we've talked about him. A real bar steward by all accounts. (Fr Stuart, not my uncle)
Yep he was there. Evil sod.
Every school needs an 'evil sod' imo. There should be a Discipline master with the sole power to mete out corporal punishment installed at every school even now. At Darwen Grammar that role was played by the Deputy Head Harry Scott. He'd been there so long that he'd caned parents of boys that he was caning when I was there. He held the entire school (at least the boys half) in a grip of fear. All a teacher needed to do was threaten to report bad behaviour to Mr Scott and the entire class fell silent. He retired at the end of my 3rd year and his replacement was a lovely chap (think Lawrence from Dad's Army) but within just 3 months the inmates had him sussed and were beginning to run the asylum. I'd hated and feared Harry Scott as we all had, but by the time I left that school I realised what a bloody good job he'd done and how much poorer the school, it's standards and it's results were without him.