Appearances in my school's Chronicles

I am currently reading a book ("How to change your mind") that mentions a Professor David Nutt. This name seems familiar to me, although I can't pinpoint why*. The David Nutt referred to in the book went to Bristol Grammar School, as did I, but he left in 1969, whereas I only started in 1967, so I very much doubt that I knew him. Looking through back numbers of the BGS Chronicles didn't find much either. Of course, once I started looking, I had to find references to myself.

The first comes in Chronicle vol 30 no 6 from July 1970 (that means that I'm in the fifth form, our third year). In my house's report, the following appears Metcalfe's had the effrontery to challenge our right to the title of House Quiz Champions and in the resulting contest our team of R.F. Pannel, R. Dean, N.B. Newman, A. Dean, R. J. Hill-Cottingham and D. G. Griffiths duly put the upstarts in their place. Any more challenges? Not only do I not remember such a competition, I also don't recognise a single name, even though they were in my house. Perhaps they were all older than me?

A year later I appear in vol 30 no 8 from July 1971 as one of those who had established [his] position in the [Junior Colts] hockey team. This I certainly remember, along with the opening statement Despite the fact that the XI won none of its matches, the season was not without encouragement:the team did rather better against its opponents than in the previous year.

The next appearance is in the following chronicle, vol 31 no 1 from February 1972 where I appear as a member of the Junior Colts cricket XI. In the following chronicle (vol 31, no 2) from July 1972, I make three appearances: one as a member of the Colts hockey XI, one as a 'house official' and again in the house quiz team: The Spring term opened with yet another challenge to our supremacy in House Quizzes from Warrens; M. Davies, R. Pannell, N. Newman and N. Hunter scored a memorable victory by 64-30 points. I remember being a 'house official' - I even won a trophy for my contributions to the house, but remember nothing about the quiz team. Again, the names don't ring any bells, although I see that R. Panell was still in the team.

In volume 31 no 3 from February 1973, I appear in the house report as one who coached the youngsters in rugby and as a 'house official' - I used to organise the 'house assemblies' once a week. I appear again in what appears to be the report from the library: N.B. Newman (6Sc.B2) [supplied] even greater quantities of popular paperback fiction. If you say so. These were probably cheap detective novels, but who remembers? Finally, I appear at the end of the list of those who "represented the 2nd XI [cricket]". Most of the names that appear are familiar to me. If one looks closely, one can even see a picture of me taken from the school play: standing far right in the front row with a headband (page 126).

Vol 31 no 4 from July 1973: we read that In the Senior competition we were within points of 1st place, and this was a truly one-man effort. A.J. Sykes swam in seven events, scoring 29 out of our total of 47 points. Unfortunately neither A. Plumb nor N. Newman had done any swimming since the previous Swimming sports, and the resulting 5th position in the final relay left us in 2nd place behind Cockitt's. The same report goes on to say that In the Senior Hockey K.O. Trott's reached the final, where they were extremely unlucky to be defeated by Warren's — at full time the teams were even on goals, but Warren's had had one more short corner which was sufficient to give them victory. The whole team, captained by J.R. Dolton, is to be congratulated on a fine performance. I have a sneaking suspicion that I wrote this house report, even though it appears under Stephen Plumb's name; I remember that I wrote one report, and the next one would appear only after I left the school. Part of the house report also carps about the concentration on games and requests more articles for the house magazine - this sounds like me writing.

Incidentally, it's interesting to read what the victors wrote, a few pages later:  The Spring Term was notable for its one major sporting success, that of the House winning the Open Hockey K.O. for the first time in many years. After a relatively easy passage, we came to what had been forecast as a very even final against Trott's [my house - NN]. The pundits were certainly right, for after a "competitive" match, we eventually emerged victors, 7-6 on short corners, after  the game had ended at two goals each at full time. It is easy to highlight the obviously telling contributions of the recognised Hockey players, but the final result stemmed much from the contributions of the "thugs" of the Rugby fraternity, notably Bob Stirratt and Nick Noble, and of a Junior Colt, Richard Mason. Not only have the reports become loquacious, we now have first names! 

Apparently I gave more books to the library, and I made a fourth appearance in this chronicle as a member of the 2nd XI (hockey), where it is written ... teamwork could be added to individual skills to bring many triumphs, culminating in the defeat of the O.B.'s, apparently the first time this has happened since the war. 

In volume 31 no 5, Winter 1973, I appear twice, once again as a donator to the library, and once in the house report  I would like to wish all the best to those members of the House leaving at the end of this term and include those who left at the end of last term, especially S. Plumb, N. Clewett, R. Cleave, S. Jay, D. Pollock and N. Newman, who have in their time contributed greatly to the House's running. We're back to initials.

I thought that this would be my final appearance, but in 1977 I crop up again, in Old Bristolians' News: Newman, Norman (67— 73), 360 Finchley Rd., London NW3 7AJ spent his first post school year with war and terrorism in a Kibbutz in Israel. In Sept. 74 he began a sandwich course for BSc (Hons) in Food Science at the Polytechnic of the South Bank, London,working his sandwich period (75—76) as an analyst with Schweppe's. Currently he is a microbiologist with the Public Analyst for Surrey. He expects to graduate in 1978\ and then emigrate to Kibbutz Mishmar David but in the meantime would welcome a meeting with any who remember him. Obviously I wrote this, but someone mangled it as I was not a microbiologist for the Public Analyst for Surrey (although this sounds impressive).

[* Edit from a few days later: I think my mind confused David Nutt with David Nott, who taught physics at BGS when I was there and might have become a house-master]