A North American Perspective
David Huggins has written an article for the 2008 edition of the Bradfordian. Click here for a preview.
Old School Memories
'Reminiscences' is dedicated to your memories of School: friends, lessons, sport, teachers, headmasters, indeed anything relevant to your time at BGS. Please feel free to contribute by sending an e-mail to Nicky Midgley on nicky@bradfordgrammar.com. Pictures will be particularly welcome to accompany your text.
Old Pavilion update....
Nostalgia aint what it used to be if the kids of 2007 need a new building as a "Multi-sex environment".
Confession time:- OK, first conviction was as part of a group banned for life from BGGS by the redoubtable Miss Black in mid-1966 for over-exuberantly seeing sportsmen Dick Steadman and Ian Gollop on their way from "The Turf" via BGGS tennis courts.
Maybe, as a retired Senior Police Officer, I should learn and practice discretion in recalling memories but enough of rose tinted spectacles. Nothing has removed the nostril-busting stench of wintergreen and linseed oil that seemed omnipresent in those splinter-ridden floorboards or the freezing cold of the shower rooms experienced in July and January alike.
In truth, some of the key moments of my life happened there. Maybe I could include the athletic sixth-former from Squire Lane vaulting into the open air toilets from Frizinghall Road for pre-match warm-ups.
The secret, dear Keith Wilkinson, is out: Sykes playing with a smile wasn't just about Yorkshire Schools whooping the future Welsh Unbeatables of the 70s. "Transitus" of 25/01/67 records "Sykes broke away from a loose scrum and ran down down the left wing." (I wouldn't have believed it either unless I'd kept the cutting)
"A good pass put Messer over the line for School's fourth try". Credible supporting evidence of the incident is provided by the final nail: "Shackleton missed the conversion" but, for balance, Roger sold the worst dummy JPR ever took to win that Welsh game. However, the way Bunty Wells smiled, winked and forced sandwiches down my throat after the game "to keep your strength up" suggested an alternative pre-match venue would be more discrete. In the absence of a properly secluded bike shed, the environs of Frizinghall Road seemed perfectly fit for any purpose 40 years ago without having to knock the place around.
We even had "The Field" magazine lurking around the place in late 1965. Ourselves and QEGS were profiled as "showing a fresh and positive approach to the game" in comparison to southern public/boarding schools. Such words hid the very simple message that BGS kicked butt wherever we went, including Wakefield.
That wonderful man, KDR, presented my first senior Yorkshire badge (Under 19s rugby) together with Rogers and Pete Bennett (see epic) prior to a match in 1967 where the opposition would have welcomed a cancellation. The same patriarch handed me a Gunnand Moore stick of finest willow (Page 37, Andrew Smith's history) for putting the offs of York to the sword but ordered the barrel of Tetley's into the MCC's room upstairs: life's still unfair.
Not all beer and skittles, however. Getting out on 99 against Bolt on School saw David Ottley studying passing cumulus cloud whilst Sykes studied his navel. The willow proved its versatility by bouncing off the floor and against the central window (right changing room when viewed from the grass).
Anti-shotgun solidity saw Sykes PS being saved from avisit to "Douzie" and the Lab our Exchange as the bat rebounded. A few moments later, the redoubtable REF Green wandered into the room from his usual spot in the balcony. "Sykes. You were wrong." "Yes, sir. far too casual", I mumbled. Says REF with a grin, " The Head suggests it was a goose flying over square leg, not a duck".
Weren't the 60s just full of wonderful grown ups....?
Pete Sykes
1960-68