Once upon a time, until about 1965, there used to be something called the
'eleven plus': a compulsory exam that all children would sit prior to
finishing primary school (aged 11). Those that passed this exam would go to
'good' schools, whereas those that didn't would go to 'other' schools.
Around 1965, this exam was abolished, or at least the compulsory part of it
was. It became retitled to something like 'the grammar school entrance
exam'; those who
chose to sit the exam and passed went to what were then the direct
grant grammar schools, good schools. Those who failed the exam or chose not
to bother automatically went to comprehensive schools. No doubt these terms
are explained at Wikipedia but I'm not going to bother and look them up.
As I have probably written elsewhere, I sat this exam and did so well that I
won a free scholarship to Bristol Grammar School (BGS) - this meant that I
(or my parents) didn't have to pay any fees to the school. Other
possibilities were a partial scholarship, presumably paying reduced fees,
and a place - full fee paying. I've been trying to remember what the exams
were about: there was definitely one on arithmetic. There might have been
one on general knowledge and one on "English", presumably comprehension,
although we might have had to write a story. I do remember the room in which
the exam was held - I don't think that I set foot in this room once in all
the six years that I was at BGS. There were two other direct grant schools
for boys in Bristol (there were four for girls), but these seemed to have
Christian connections whereas BGS was agnostic, so I wasn't interested in
going to them.
During the summer holidays of 1967, I was informed as to which house I was
to join. This is a tradition that comes from boarding schools, where the
boarders physically lived in their house, along with their house-master. All
the direct grant schools were day schools, but the tradition lived on. It
was mainly for competitive purposes, i.e. games. We had to wear a tie every
day: it could be either the school tie or the house tie - my house was
called Trott's (after Mr Trott) and our colour was green. So I had a green
tie and green topped socks.
I can remember the names of most of my teachers from the first year
(confusingly called the 'thirds'): Mr Firth taught science, Mr Leaver Latin,
Mr Williams maths (and choir), Mr Dehn French and Mr Patton English and
physical education. Presumably we also were taught history and geography,
but these were subjects that did not appeal to me. I have a strong memory of
an early science lesson: Mr Firth asked what
a curve in the surface of a molecular substance is called when it touches
another material (e.g. water in a test-tube). Three boys (including me) put their hands up;
the first boy was called and gave the wrong answer. The second boy also gave
the wrong answer. Then it was my turn: "meniscus" I answered; Mr Firth
walked towards me and I seriously thought that he was going to hit me (not
that this was permissable) for giving an obviously wrong answer. Instead he
made a tick mark on my jacket sleeve with chalk: I had given the correct
answer (I was good at general knowledge). At the end of the year, I achieved
three As in the annual exams: in science, Latin and slightly surprisingly in
maths. These was my best marks in all my years at BGS.
I also have a memory of going to my father's office, which was about half a
mile from the school, near the Cabot tower. We had homework to write out
declensions of Latin verbs, so I sat there, writing
amo amas amat amamus amatis amant, like schoolboys throughout the ages. That late afternoon was sufficient to fix the declension in my mind for a few years (and I still remember it, although everything else is hazy). I may remember very little Latin, but what I learnt in those lessons greatly helped me when I started learning Hebrew.
I have no idea on what basis we were divided between the six houses, but
the boys in my year and house (with whom I was to spend a great deal of
non-academic time) were pretty good at sports. For the first two terms we
played rugby and I think that we won the 'championship', played between all
six houses. We definitely won the cricket 'championship'; in fact we won it
four times out of the six years that I was at the school.
I gave up rugby as soon as I could, 'playing' it only in the winter term
from my second year onwards. Being small and rotund afforded me no
advantages and the frequent rain didn't help. From the second year I played
hockey in the spring term and became quite good at it. I was in the school
hockey team for a few years, playing right wing, but unfortunately we didn't
win a single game in all those we played against other schools. I missed
what would have been our final game (presumably in April 1972) as I had just
had inoculations (tetanus?) prior to travelling to Israel in the summer of 1972 (April
seems very early, now that I think of it), and my replacement scored the
goal that won the game! In my final year at school, I played inside right
for the school's second XI, which was much more fun. I actually scored a
goal or two and we won most of our matches. We also beat the Old Bristolians' hockey club (featuring Fred Wedlock), a feat that apparently had never occurred before or since.
My house came very close to winning the school hockey championship that
year (1973). A friend (in the first XI) and I built the team from those in
our house who we knew played hockey, along with a few rugby players who were
sufficiently athletic to make a contribution. We won our first game or two;
the final was an exceedingly close match (which nearly came to blows at one
stage when one of the rugby players on the other side made a somewhat
physical tackle, or similar) and in fact ended in a draw, 1-1 (IIRC). The
game, though, was decided in favour of our opponents as they had had more
'corners'. I found this very hard to believe as I was the corner-taker for
our team and there was a period when I took three or four corners in a row.
I think that I was almost in tears at the end.
We had one very good swimmer in our year (he was something of a late
developer and stayed an extra year to become head boy) and presumably one or
two other reasonably good swimmers. I was asked to swim a length of
backstroke for the medley, and I agreed, on the minor condition that I be
awarded 'swimming colours' at the end of the year, regardless of how well I
swam. I also picked up cricket and hockey 'colours' at the end of the year
so I could be seen to be quite good at sports.
We won the cricket championship that year, although my contribution in the
final was minimal. For some reason the captain sidelined me all the time
(although I suppose that I wasn't so good). I seem to remember holding a
catch when fielding slip, but what happened was that the ball came towards
me and ran up my sleeve, getting caught in my armpit. I certainly didn't
catch it with my hands.
I also represented the school, on and off, playing cricket at various
ages. Sometimes I would be in, sometimes out. I have a memory of being about
14 and going in last: I managed to defend my wicket long enough for my
partner to make some runs. The master in charge was so impressed that he had
me batting number three (i.e. a specialist batsman) in the next game; I was
out first ball and probably out of the team for a couple of games. I became
a scorer, sometimes for my age group and sometimes for the higher level
teams.
At some stage I also played for the school's second XI when I was young;
they were short one person and I must have been available (scorer?). This is
where I met three young gentlemen who were two years older than me but very
kind to me in the following years, when I was probably an obnoxious twerp.
In my last year I very much wanted to play in the second XI but was deemed
not good enough; I was offered the opportunity of captaining what was then a
non-existent third XI, but I was sufficiently hurt to turn this offer
down.
In June 1972, I was telephoned one day at home and asked if I wanted
to play a game of cricket for the Old Bristolians second XI (the OBs were
sports teams made of graduates from the school). I would love to. Here I got
the chance to bowl a bit (one wicket) and made a catch. I don't remember
what number I was batting - might it be three again? - but this time I
deserved the position. I got off to a rather sticky start: at one end of the
ground, the sun was right behind the bowler's arm so I couldn't see the ball
when it left his hand and came towards me. There was an appeal for LBW that
was turned down (although I think that the umpire later told me that I
should have been out and that he left me in for sporting reasons). After
this, the going got a bit easier ... and easier ... and eventually I scored
60 runs, a huge score. By the end I was running out of partners and was
having to 'steal the strike' quite often. I was also quite tired and half
deliberately got out by hitting a ball in the air to a fielder who caught
it. Game over.
Then I had the most momentous summer of my life until then (Israel 1972)
and completely forgot about this game, until a few months later when someone
said that they had also played for the OB 2nd XI (or similar) and had leafed
through the score book, where they were very surprised to see the details of
my innings.
