November 2016 online

The ALMONDBURIAN T H E MAG AZINE O F TH E O L D AL MO ND BU RI ANS ’ S O C I ETY

November 2016

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IN THIS ISSUE

A word from your Chairman Old Almondburians’ Society Calendar Membership From the study Official: King James’s is top Annual Dinner Back to the drawing board Almondbury: a village of change The Almondburian Hall of Fame Keith Vickerman: zoologist Alex Danchev: historian My happy times at King James’s New poetry Farnley Lines Every picture tells a story Old Boys on tour: Viareggio Sudoku Terry’s Teaser Badminton Tennis Cricket Golf: Gothard Cup Rave-up Postbag Obituaries

(Opposite): An early drawing of Woodsome Hall, the traditional home of the Gothard Cup competition which returned this year (report: page 52).

Annals of the Church and Parish of Almondbury/Canon Charles Augustus Hullbert (1882)

The ALMONDBURIAN Editor: Roger Dowling

November 2016

The magazine of The Old Almondburians’ Society

A word from your Chairman

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WA LT E R R AL E IG H

ELCOME to the November issue of The Almondburian. I hope you enjoy it.

May I, first of all, thank all the former students and staff who have contacted me about the forthcoming celebrations. They have encouraged me in my drive to mark the first 40 years of comprehensive education at our school. It is now down to all these people to support the numerous events planned.

This first event was an Open Day at King James’s on Saturday, 24th September.

The previous week the school was open for

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prospective new students and their parents to see what is special about King James’s and why they should choose it for their children.We felt that former students and staff might, similarly, enjoy a leisurely stroll round the School to see for themselves how things have changed. We therefore arranged with the School to have group of senior students available to show people around between 10.00 am and 2.00 pm on the Saturday.

Although we only had a small number of visitors, we are sure that those who came along greatly enjoyed their visit.

The second event was one week later, on 1st October, when we organised a ‘Raveup Reunion’ at the School. A report appears on pages 54-55 of this issue, and we do hope that those who came along appeciated the opportunity to enjoy the music and meet up with old friends.

Last month saw the death of a much loved former member of staff, Avril Dawson, who worked in the Geography Department with John Eaton and later in the development of the first stages of a Special Needs team. She will be missed by many and an obituary appears on page 58.

Further to my aim to make the Society less reliant on the Grammar School ‘old boys’, an ‘old girl’ (sorry, ‘former student’) from the early days of the comprehensive era has contacted me suggesting that we might introduce a scarf for female members. I must add at this point that in these days of political correctness and gender equality, male former students will also be able to purchase these scarves!

It was Sue Cope, or Bolton as was, who contacted me about the idea. Sue, a former student and member of staff, worked with me in the Pastoral Base at school and for the last few years of my career was my Diary Secretary and Carer. She has already come up with a number of ideas for the scarf.

At Avril’s funeral I met many former staff and mentioned the idea of a scarf with them. The idea met with enthusiasm and a former Head of Textiles, Christine Hazle, immediately came up with some ideas, though she said it ought to have been done 20 years ago! I agree and as such I’d like to announce a competition to design a silk scarf for members of the OAS.The winner will have the first run of the batch that is made. Email me with your ideas and the sooner the better! I suppose, as in all competitions, I ought to add the Chairman’s decision is final. Power at last!

I look forward to seeing you at this year’s n OAS Dinner.

DATES OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETINGS, 2016 The Executive Committee of the Society meets upstairs at the ‘Woolpack’ in Almondbury, at 7.30 pm. Any member of the Society who would like to attend one of these meetings will be made most welcome on the 7th November and 5th December.

consecutive year at £27.50. A booking form is enclosed with this magazine and members are encouraged to book their tickets as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. Special 40th and 50th anniversary reunions are being planned Full details: page 11.

OLD ALMONDBURIANS’ SOCIETY CALENDAR

FOUNDERS’ DAY The Traditional Founders’ Day Service will be held the day after the Annual Dinner, Sunday, 27th November, as usual.

Full details: page 12

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Members are urged to attend the OAS Annual General Meeting at the ‘Woolpack’ on Monday, 9th January 2017.

See special announcement on page 57.

BADMINTON Details: page 47.

ANNUAL DINNER This year’s Annual Dinner will be held on Saturday, 26th November. The ticket price for the Annual Dinner has been held for the fifth

TENNIS

Details: page 49.

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Membership

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AND R E W HAIG H

INCE the last magazine was published we have been delighted to welcome three new members to the Society: l John M. Lancaster (1941-46), from Cheltenham l Ruth J. Honeywell (1979-81), from Guildford l Dawn Smart, from Penrith.

We have also welcomed back a former member, Peter Large (1966-73), from Hounslow.

We have been saddened to learn of the death of two long-standing members: l Brian Douglas Wadsworth (1950-55), from Lepton l John Stuart Cooper (1952-57), from Oakes.

Please remember that subscriptions for 2016-2017 fell due on 1st September. The vast majority of our members now pay their

Be honest…

subscription by standing order, which makes life easy. If you are one of the few who do not pay by standing order and you have already sent your £10.00 subscription for this year, thank you very much for being so efficient!

If you do not pay by standing order and you haven’t recently made a payment for this year, then you will receive a letter with this magazine pointing out that your subscription is not up-to-date. In this event, please send your payment without delay.As I mentioned above, it does make life much easier if you pay by standing order so, if you can complete the updated standing order mandate that accompanies the letter and return it in the envelope provided, that would be even better!

Alternatively, you may renew online, using PayPal or a debit or credit card, by visiting www.oas.org.uk and clicking on the n ‘Join/Renew Online’ button.

Take a long, hard look at that old OAS tie in your wardrobe. Is it: n crumpled? n the wrong length? n the wrong width? n soup-stained?

If the answer to any (or all) of these questions is ‘yes’, join the club. But here’s a cheap, costeffective answer: the latest newly-fashioned OAS tie, available from us TODAY.

Price: £15 + pp

(UK: 75p; Europe: £2.50; Rest of world: £3.00) Available from www.oas.org.uk/buymemorabilia.php or by post from: Andrew Haigh,c/o R D Haigh & Co, Floresco House, Oak Hill Road, Brighouse, West Yorkshire HD6 1SN

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Length: 150 cm (59 in) Width: 9 cm (3½ in)

GCSE 2016

From the study

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Another excellent set of GCSE results, across a number of old and new performance measures

N ever-present in the world of education is volatility. Secretaries of State for Education come and go, bringing with them (but, interestingly, never taking away) a succession of initiatives. The time-line below shows educational performance measures introduced just during my time at King James’s School.

The present year has been no exception, heralding an assortment of new school performance measures; my Mathematics degree often leading me to question the statistical validity of many of them. One thing that has remained constant however, despite a changing of the guard, is the success of the School and I am delighted to report that we have achieved yet another excellent set 5+ GCSEs graded A*-C, KS2-4 Value Added (measuring progress over the lifetime of a student at school)

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of GCSE results across a number of old and new performance measures.

Unsurprisingly we could not quite match last year’s extraordinary recordbreaking feat, but the achievements of the 2015-16 cohort stand up very well when compared overall with the last five years’ results.

The old headline performance measure 5+ A*-C (including English and Mathematics) figure was 72.2%; the joint second highest since 2011 and, we believe, the second highest for a non-selective school in the authority. This measure was introduced in 2006 (so is clearly well-overdue for a ‘refit’) and simply calculates the proportion of students who have gained the typical benchmark to be able to go on to study an ‘A’

5+ GCSEs including English and Mathematics graded A*-C, KS2-4 Contextual Value Added (measuring progress, but taking into account the child’s background)

2005

IAN RIMMER

‘Expected’ levels of Progress in English and Mathematics

2006

2007 6

2008

Floor standards (below which a school must not fall or an Ofsted inspection is triggered)

Performance by ability band (high, middle, low) at KS2, Closing the gap (between disadvantaged and nondisadvantaged), English Baccalaureate

2010

2011

GCSE Results 2016

The achievements of 2015-16 students stand up very well compared with previous years

74%

86%

75%

82%

89%

86%

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81% 82% 79%

33%

ENGLISH LANGUAGE A*-C

MATHEMATICS A*-C

2014

SCIENCE TWO A*-C

2015

2016

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ENGLISH LANG A*-A (no of students)

44% 28%

LANGUAGES A*-C

31%

ENGLISH BACCALAUREATE A*-C

27

34

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MATHEMATICS A*-A

(no of students)

79% of students gained two A*-Cs in Science, slightly down on last year’s results, but as this is the first year group who have all taken the full GCSE (rather than an applied course or BTEC), it is nonetheless very pleasing. Results in Languages also remained high with 43% gaining A*- C in a MFL; again the sec-

level programme (at Greenhead or New College).

The A*-C in English Language figure, somewhat surprisingly and disappointingly, dipped a little this year to 75%, but the A*-C in Mathematics has remained superbly high at 86%; second highest in the school’s history.

English and Mathematics Conversion tables (the proportion of students in each sub-level making progress)

2014

44% 43%

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2015 7

‘Progress 8’ calculates the progress made by each student, across 8 subjects

9 to 1 numbers replaces A*-G grades (in English and mathematics only)

9 to 1 numbers replaces A*-G grades (in the vast majority of subjects)

2016

2017

2018

ond highest in recent memory, exceeded only by, you guessed it, 2014-15! These helped contribute to 31% passing the English Baccalaureate; this is down on last year, principally because the number entered for an Ebacc combination was much reduced. This measure, which was introduced in 2011, calculates the proportion of students who have gained a C or above in English, Mathematics, two Sciences, a Modern Foreign Language (which can include Latin!) and a Hu- Simplicity: many results can be derived from the new ‘Progress 8’ manity (History or Ge- measure. Here, the Department for Education’s guide to schools shows how ‘Confidence Intervals’ can be calculated. A degree in ography).

Of the key new per- Mathematics can be a useful for any school principal. formance measures, the picture is yet to ly performed. In a sense we are working become clear as we await the publication towards a finishing line, but we are yet of figures which will help us calculate our to be told where that line is! official ‘Progress 8’ score. This measure The picture will be even more mudcalculates the Progress made by each stu- died next year as we re-introduce numdent, across 8 subjects (which must in- bers at GCSE, which I believe takes us clude English, Mathematics, three Eng- back to O level pre-1975 days. Initially lish Baccalaureate subjects and any three for 2016-17, only English and Matheother quality assured GCSEs) towards ‘es- matics will award ‘numbers’ from 9 timated grades’ based on KS2 perform- down to 1, which will make calculation ance. Unfortunately, whilst this new of the Progress 8 score even more comsystem is still in its infancy and the sta- plex, and then in 2017-18 other subtistical model is yet to be verified, these jects will take on this new, old system! estimated grades are being calculated retThat is unless a new Education Secrospectively once the Department for Ed- retary has appeared on the scene by then, ucation know how everyone has actual- of course. n 8

NEWS

Official: King James’s is top

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Based on 2015 GCSEs, the latest ‘Real Schools Guide’ identifies King James’s School as the leading non-selective comprehensive school in Kirklees

digital publisher, the Real Schools Guide is believed to be the most comprehensive guide ever to state-funded secondary schools.

It uses a unique rating system using 25 different measures put together from publicly available data, broken into four categories of attainment, teaching, attendance and outcomes. The system aims to give parents a better guide than the relatively crude measure provided by national league tables.

HE recently published 2016 Real Schools Guide, based on a detailed retrospecive national analysis of schools around the UK, gives King James’s School the top rating of all 26 non-selective comprehensives in Kirklees. The school has surged up the ratings since last year’s edition of the guide, nudging Batley Grammar School into second place.

Compiled by Trinity Mirror, Britain’s largest British newspaper, magazine and TOP TEN SCHOOLS

Attainment Teaching Attendance Outcomes (outTotal of 5) Score

King James’s School

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Honley High School

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Batley Grammar School Royds Hall Community School All Saints Catholic College Mirfield Free Grammar

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Salendine Nook Academy Trust  Batley Girls High School

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Moor End Academy

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Holmfirth High School

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67

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60

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65 58 57 57 57 55 55 51

Photo by Jenny Sanderson

Attainment is worth 30% of the total score and is based on pupils’ GCSE performance in 2015 and how it compares with 2014 and 2013.

Teaching is worth 40% of the score and takes into account how well pupils perform in relation to expectations.Pupil/teacher ratio is also factored in, together with steps taken to close the gender gap.

Attendance is worth 15% of the total score and is based on overall levels of sessions missed and unauthorised and persistent pupil absences.

Finally, Outcomes, worth 15%, is based on the proportion of pupils who continue with education afterYear 11 compared with children who are not in employment or receiving further training.

The measures are weighted in relation

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to how important they are perceived to be by parents, so that – for example – the percentage of pupils achieving 5 A*-C GCSEs is worth a maximum of nine points.

Stars are allocated by rating all the scores in order for each category, and all the scores are added together to reach a total.

The guide covers some 3,100 schools all over the UK. In the full list, King James’s School is in the top 15% of all the selective or non-selective schools in Britain.

Commenting on the guide, Ian Rimmer said “We are absolutely delighted that King James’s School has been given the recognition it deserves. This outstanding achievement is the result of hard work, dedication and professionalism from all our staff, who have supported students – in collaboration their parents – to achieve their potential.” n

The Real Schools Guide

rinity Mirror’s Real Schools Guide, now in its fourth year, has been widely praised for the rounded picture it gives of schools’ performances. The guide has been praised by ministers and educationalists alike.

The guide has been described as ‘public service journalism’ by former education minister David Laws, “Making information about school performance freely available allows parents to see how their child’s school is performing compared to others and if necessary challenge it to improve,” he said. “It is vital we continue to raise standards so all children leave primary school with a thorough grounding in reading, writing and maths and can thrive at secondary school. Publishing information on school performance is a key part of that.”

Dr Elwaine McCreery from Manchester Metropolitan University, an education expert and former secondary school teacher, said, “The breadth of information is very useful to parents, enabling them to identify the schools best suited to their children’s needs.”

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Annual Dinner

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AND R E W HAIG H

OLLOWING the success of last year’s Annual Dinner, the event has become firmly re-established in the School and there’s still time to order your ticket for this year’s Dinner on Saturday, 26th November.

The caterer that has served such excellent meals since we moved back to the School is once again providing the victuals and we shall be endeavouring to provide a better ambiance.

It is always good to see members making a special effort to stage a reunion of their year at the dinner and this year there are two reunions planned already. The first of those is a reunion of the Class of 1976 to mark the fortieth anniversary of the first comprehensive intake to King James’s School. The guest speaker this year, Keith Best, a former teacher at Lepton Middle School, will be fondly remembered by many of those from this reunion year. Also present will be Alan Conley, Headmaster at the time of the first comprehensive intake, and a good number of former members of staff.

For details of the reunion of the Class of 1976, please contact Andrew Schofield (andrew.schofield@camirafabrics.com.

The second reunion already planned is a fiftieth anniversary reunion of the Class of 1966. This is being organised

by Robin Merchant (robin.merchant@talktalk.net) and David Parry

(david@david-parry.co.uk). Please contact them for details.

Of course, anyone else with a special anniversary this year, members of the classes of 1946, 1956, 1986, 1991, 1996 or 2006 for example or, indeed, anyone else who takes a notion to do so, could also organise a reunion. In the meantime, those who entered the school in a year ending in a ‘7’ should consider starting to organise their class reunion at next year’s Annual Dinner; it will soon be here! You could even have a practice this year.

The ticket price for this year’s dinner is being held at £27.50 for the fifth consecutive year. Tickets are already selling more quickly than usual and capacity at the school is limited, so please get your applications for tickets in early, either by using the form enclosed with this

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Guest speaker at the Dinner: Keith Best

magazine, or online at: www.oas.org.uk.

Those who have already booked their tickets are shown below; why not come along and join us?

preached by one of the School’s most distinguished alumni and long-time member of the Old Almondburians’ Society, Prof Edward Royle (1955-1962). A former Professor atYork University,Ted continues to write and lecture. He has been a Methodist lay preacher for 50 years.

We have received confirmation from the School that some of their student musicians will be taking part in the service, which is excellent news.

If you wish to work off some energy beforehand, please meet at the School by 10.30 am and join the procession as it winds its way up St Helen’s Gate. Alternatively, just come to the Church for 11.00 am.

We’ll be delighted to see you there. n

Founders’ Day A reminder that the annual Founders’ Day Service in Almondbury Parish Church will once again be held on the morning after the OAS Dinner: Sunday, 27th November 2016. As always, we shall be giving a very warm welcome to all friends of the School and the Society who are able to come along.

The Service will be jointly conducted by our chaplain Rev Stuart Roebuck and Rev Mark Zammit, the Rector of Almondbury, and the sermon will be

Correct at 8th October

Tickets are selling quickly this year: order YOUR ticket before it’s too late!

Surname Arrowsmith Ballard Beattie Best Best Boothroyd Boothroyd Clayton Cliffe Conley Conley Dye Earles Gibson Gothard Green, CBE Haigh Hales Hargreaves Hargreaves Hart Heptonstall Herbert Honeywell Hudson Large Lawton Mallinson

Forename Geoff Margaret Karen Mrs Keith David David James M Andrew Alan Mrs. Jim David BM Prof MS George John Terence Andrew M Ian R Susan Dr John A Jacqueline David A Rev David A Ruth J Peter Peter Mark William Mrs J

From Guest 1976 1976 Guest Guest Guest 1967 1947 1966 Head 1973 Guest 1947 1947 1956 1945 1947 1977 1966 Guest Staff 1971 1976 1949 1969 1979 1976 1966 1976 Guest

To

1981 1979 1973 1951 1973 1985 1954 1952 1963 1950 1955 1983 1793 1990 1981 1957 1974 1981 1981 1973 1981

Travelling from Almondbury Southampton Holmfirth Scotland Scotland Over, Cambridgeshire Over, Cambridgeshire Norwich Sandal Sherbourne, Dorset Sherbourne, Dorset York New Mill Brighton & Hove Grouville, Jersey Chester Almondbury Netherton Halifax Halifax Streatham, London Matlock Newcastle-upon-Tyne Guildford, Surrey Cardiff Hounslow, Middlesex Jersey Stourbridge

Surname Mallinson Merchant Milnes Mott Nash Oughton Parry Paton Rattigan Rattigan Reid Roebuck Royle Schofield Searby Sellens Sharman Shearing Smart Smart Taylor Thompson Thompson Turner Walshaw Walshaw Wolton Wrathall

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Forename From Dr RF Niven 1955 Robin 1966 Graeme 1957 Nichola 1991 Brian Howard 1964 Richard D 1966 David 1966 Helen Louise 1976 Lesley Staff Mike Staff M. Pat Staff 1975 Rev Stuart W 1950 Prof. Edward 1955 Andrew M. 1976 Richard 1976 Graham 1966 Dr Robin A 1976 Gemma Andrew Guest Dawn 1976 J Andrew 1963 J Stuart 1949 Mrs. Guest Ann Staff 1993 Mr Guest Frances L Staff 1979 David 1976 Tim 1976

To 1962 1973 1965 1996 1972 1967 1973 1981 2016 1997 1955 1962 1981 1979 1973 1981 1981 1970 1956 2015 1993 1981 1981

Travelling from Stourbridge Kirkheaton Cardiff Wilmslow Cheadle Hulme Eastham, Wirral Longwood Enfield, Middlesex

Ben Rhydding Newsome York Almondbury Lepton Ramsbottom, Lancashire Highburton Upper Cumberworth Penrith Penrith Bidford-on-Avon Stockport Stockport Lindley Honley Honley Ireland York

Back to the drawing board

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Roger Sykes (1946-1953) revisits some of his favourite drawings

HERE’S nothing like a boating lake! It has always been a real attraction in any park.

And that is why I cycled up Salterhebble Hill, through Halifax and up the next big hill on the Bradford road to reach Shibden Park. There was a lake at the bottom of the park with a gaggle of would-be rowers of somewhat variable skills. Many would demonstrate their lack of any sense of control or direction whilst waving apparently independent oars.

It was always fun! I suppose that these days it Shibden Hall, near Halifax would count as exercise.

On returning through the park and following a sign to a Folk Museum, there appeared a fascinating old Elizabethan building. Never to let such an opportunity pass, I thought there was a chance a sketch would make a decent postcard for the museum to use.

It is only when actually making a drawing that the details of a building are really noticed.

Apart from the proportions and perspective it is the detail that matters. I can still hear Teak saying it!

The technique I used was to create a sketch on my pad using an HB pencil and then, at home, to chalk the back and press the key lines through onto white scraperboard that had patches of Indian ink painted on it. It was therefore mostly a pen and ink drawing with a scraper tool used for the deep shadows. I usually returned to check the final drawing a week or two later.The advantage of scraperboard is that corrections are so easy!

When I went to work years later on the Vulcan bomber in the Avro Research Department at Chadderton, there was a little park nearby which was perfect for a quiet evening splashing round a small central island.

I was involved in the pressure testing of the Vulcan cockpit module in an outside deep water tank – which I managed to fall into. Actually the tank was covered with a tarpaulin stretched over a scaffolding frame.The heavy Manchester rain had caused the cover to sag dangerously and it fell to the most junior member of staff to clamber out with a broom to push up the tarpaulin before it split. The timescale was not optimum, but rather too late – it burst and I was washed into the tank to the amusement of everyone but me. Drying clothes in front of a 2-bar electric fire was embarrassing; especially as amused office staff supplied cups of tea!

Returning to boats, we seem to have lost some of the rowing boat facilities in parks, which I so enjoyed. Here in North Somerset there are no longer rowing boats in the Portishead Park and the swans now reign undisturbed. Radio controlled model yachts now set the scene.

And swans can deal with them! n 13

NOSTALGIA

Almondbury: a village of change ROGER DOWLING (1952 - 1959)

Spot the difference: your Editor sets forth with his camera to record how the locality has changed over the years – and not always for the best

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HE old photograph below was taken on a sunny day in 1910 and it’s good to be able to start with a view that has hardly changed at all in the past century. One addition, on the extreme left, is the gable end of the new physics/chemistry labs with classrooms above, built in 1938. But a less welcome addition in more recent years is the crude steel fire escape in the Fenay Quad. Surely something more in keeping with the old buildings would not have broken the bank?

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HE photograph shown above, taken around 1970 from the tower of Almondbury Parish Church opposite, shows the two properties which originally stood next door to Wormall Hall (better known these days as the Conservative Club) in Westgate. The School can be seen in the distance, down St Helen’s Gate.

The subsequent demolition of these properties left an unsightly gap in a prime site at the centre of Almondbury. As we reported in our July 2015 issue, the King James’s School Foundation has announced plans to build a number of new homes on the site, which it owns. The Foundation recently sold the Conservative Club.

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Y childhood home in Almondbury Bank was located midway between Almondbury and Moldgreen, so my father had two ‘locals’. His favourite was the Jolly Sailor in Moldgreen, now sadly closed, but he also enjoyed a pint in the Woolpack in Almondbury.

I don’t think he ever frequented the Radcliffe Arms, a hundred yards further up Westgate, shown on the extreme left of these two photographs.The 1910 picture reminds us that the horse and cart was a regular sight on the local streets: the mews across the road from the Radcliffe Arms have now been tastefully converted into a desirable residence.The archway carries the date 1876 (inset).

As one would expect, the road is setted in the 1910 picture (replaced by tarmac today) but the stone pavement slabs on the left appear to have survived to the present day. It’s pleasing that whilst the old gas lamps have been replaced, they have at least been done in a style that keeps faith with the original. But what are those tasteless monstrosities over the road?

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I

remember this shop in Almondbury Bank (shown here in the 1960s) as Jimmy Murray’s sweet shop and off licence, which he ran with his ‘wife’ Rosie. (I was quite shocked to be told one day that they were not actually married).

This was the shop in which most of my 7½d [3p] weekly pocket money (the result of tough pay negotiations with my father) used to end up. It was also where we bought the bottle of dandelion burdock or orange crush that invariably accompanied our Sunday dinner.

When sweet rationing ended on 5th February 1953, I was quite surprised to see an enormous queue outside the shop; lack of money rather than lack of coupons had always been my problem in life.

Today the shop is still a sweet shop and off licence, run by Mr Nandhara (inset) who came over from India 50 years ago. He initially worked in textiles but took over the shop 20 years ago.

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HE complete re-alignment of Wakefield Road at the junction with the foot of Almondbury Bank has changed the 1910 scene below beyond all recognition. Many will remember Henry Sykes’s chemist’s shop on the corner.

It is however good to see that Tolsons Yard has survived, though its associated apostrophe has not.

Tolson’sYard was named after Legh Tolson, who gave Ravensknowle Hall to Huddersfield Corporation in memory of his nephews Robert and James who were killed in World War 1.

Renamed the Tolson Memorial Museum, it opened its doors in 1922 and is one of Yorkshire’s finest small museums. Under Kirklees Council cuts, it is currently faced with closure.

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T is no longer possible accurately to replicate this view of Almondury Bank from Somerset Road as the valley between has become forested over the century.The 1910 photograph shows the police station in ‘Almonbury Bank’ (sic), a building of substantial size which one hopes does not suggest a high level of lawlessness in the locality. Long since demolished, it is now the site of Almondbury Garage.

The large private house in the centre of the picture, on the far side of the road, eventually became Moldgreen Conservative Club, a role which it continues to undertake today.

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T is interesting to note that Somerset Road, shown here in 1910 at the junction with Dog Kennel Bank, is described as ‘Almondbury New Road’ though it was actually constructed 40 years earlier in 1870. As ever, a horse and cart holds centre stage, although one of the newfangled electric trams, introduced in 1902, can just be seen in the far distance. It was near this point that a tram went out of control while travelling downhill, smashing into shops in Wakefield Road (The Almondburian, March 2016).

The saddest sight in the present-day photograph is the replacement of the handsome old wooden tram shelter by the truly pathetic red steel and glass object seen here. In our March 2015 issue, we described how an identical old tram shelter at Edgerton (inset) had recently been lovingly restored to its former glory. So what went wrong here?

(To be continued)

l Early photographs are reproduced by courtesy of Kirklees Image Archive: www.kirkleesimages.org.uk 20

The Almondburian

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Sir Felix Sir George Denis Arthur Sir David Stephen Michael Sir Harold Bryan Derek Michael Gordon Rev Robert David John Ryan Jeffrey Nielson John Benjamin

THE EDITOR

below), including diplomats, actors, figures from the world of law, geographers, sportsmen and musicians, evidence if it be needed of the broad education provided by King James’s over the years.

Since 2008, we have regularly added to the list as further names have been drawn to our attention. Unusually, in this issue we simultaneously add two new names, sadly both posthumous. By coincidence, they were both professors who died within a few weeks of each other in the summer of 2016, they both lived in Scotland and they were both closely linked with Scottish universities.

In the following pages, we record the impressive careers of Prof Keith Vickerman (1944-1952) and Prof Alex Danchev (1968-1973).

ANY people have noted the surprisingly large number of illustrious figures who have emerged over the years from our relatively small school. True, we have yet to produce our first Prime Minister (make what you will of the fact that Harold Wilson attended Royds Hall), but King James’s has nonetheless produced an impressive number of pupils who in later years have gone on to make major contributions to public life.

In our Illustrated History of King James’s School, published in 2008 to mark the 400th anniverary of the charter, we made a first tentative attempt to identify in purely subjective terms just a few of those who we felt should be given honorary admission to our ‘Hall of Fame’. It was a diverse list (see Aylmer Beharrel Bowen Brown Coward Hardcastle MBE Himsworth Hopkinson Ibbotson MBE Jackson Kaye Lancaster MBE Morphet Rothera Sidebottom Taylor Watson Wortley

HALL OF FAME

Actor Industrialist Painter Industrialist Barrister Children’s author Physician Diplomat Athlete and first sub-four minute miler World authority on beer and whisky Comedy actor Founder of Kimbolton Fireworks Diplomat and poet Geographer England and Yorkshire cricketer Footballer and international baritone Musical entertainer Professor of Jurisprudence and International Law 21

1887-1889 1884-1887 1934-1938 1913-1917 1948-1957 1944-1951 1916-1921 1967-1974 1942-1948 1953-1958 1952-1959 1942-1950 1951-1958 1945-1953 1989-1994 1940-1947 1948-1953 1918-1923

HALL OF FAME

Keith Vickerman: zoologist

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An internationally renowned expert on the parasitic protozoa which causes the wasting disease known as sleeping sickness

EITH VICKERMAN, son of a coal merchant who had previously trained as an organ builder, joined King James’s Grammar School in September 1944, travelling each day from his home in Newsome about two miles away. In his early days at the School, he was bright but not a particularly high-flyer: his colleagues remember him as a quiet, conscientious and well-liked fellow pupil but one who was ‘fairly useless’ at sport. However, as a nature lover from an early age, he did enjoy cross-country running, which gave him the opportunity to get out into the open air and see nature while on the move. This also relieved him, he observed wryly, of the onus of “having to keep an eye on some beastly ball, which other sporting activities entailed”.

In his second year at the School, an event took place that was to change the course of his life.The departure of the biology teacher resulted in mathematics master Johnny Hopton (also qualified to teach science) having temporarily to fill the gap. Hopton enthused about a book The Microbe Hunters by the Dutch/American microbiologist and writer Paul de Kruif.Vividly written,

with such chapter headings as ‘Microbes Must Have Parents!’ and ‘Microbes are a Menace!’, the book fascinated the young Vickerman who decided at this point that this was the topic to which he wished to devote his life.

In due course, he became a leading light in the Natural History Society with birds as his principal passion, and had one or two notes published in the RSPB magazine British Birds on the breeding of the redstart and the behaviour of the skylark.

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‘

In his own words

My most memorable recollection of early schooldays was a second year science course devoted to the history of microbiology. The departure of the biology teacher had obliged a mathematician to take over the class and I realised later that he was virtually reading to us from Paul de Kruif's The Microbe Hunters.

But I was spellbound.The historical treatment of the development of the subject taught me so much that was relevant to my future career: the way in which observation and intuition combine in the scientific method, the triumph of success, the despair of failure in scientific research.

Many of my Saturday afternoons were spent indoors - in the Tolson Memorial Museum in Ravensknowle Park, Huddersfield. This had a magnificent collection of stuffed birds, including all the rarer items on the British list. It had splendid glass models of representative plants from all the Natural Orders, magnificent sections of coal balls showing their internal structure, and in a mammal room, half skin, half skeleton preparations of the major domestic animals. It even had a human anatomy room which displayed transparent foetuses with their developing skeletons stained red with alizarin. I grew to love the museum’s musty smell and the space and silence that it afforded after a week in school.

My sixth form years I look back on with pleasure. I greatly welcomed the opportunity to study biology in a small class of four with a dedicated teacher, James Newton, a Welshman who was an avid reader of Nature; I like to think that having such a keen pupil kept him on his toes. I am heavily indebted to him for his encouragement in serious science. My sixth form education suffered a serious setback, however, when both physics and chemistry masters left in the middle of my second year.The physics man, Peter Webber, I particularly missed. I had no natural talent for the subject, but I worshipped the man who taught it. A Cambridge graduate, he was sincere and patient with me, and my physics lab book soon became a model for the rest of the class. He also taught me oil painting and introduced me to pen and wash. My devastation on his departure for Giggleswick School was reflected in my plummeted physics mark in the new ‘A’ level examination.

In order to qualify for that essential State Scholarship to see me through University, I reluctantly found myself forced to spend a third year in the sixth form.

Yet this was the year I enjoyed most of all. We had a new headmaster, Mr Harry Taylor, a barrister by training, who treated me as an adult and gave me responsibilities to match. Prefects were normally chosen by housemasters who invariably selected captains of football and other games, thinking the boys would respect them more, but the headmaster appointed me and I don’t think I had any less respect. For the first time in my life I became one of a ‘gang’ or rather a group of sixth formers, who used to spend Saturday nights together. On Friday afternoons after school, we would all troop off to the Misses Richardsons’ dancing class in Westgate, Huddersfield to learn both ballroom and ‘Old Tyme’ dances. In spite of my innate shyness, I grew to like ballroom dancing. With the encouragement of my first girlfriend who ‘picked me up’ at the Scientific Film Society, I became quite good at it.

Extracted from Keith Vickerman’s memoirs in the archives of the Royal Society

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He was not a regular contributor to the school magazine, but his continuing interest in the natural world was evident in a thoughtful article in the Easter 1949 issue about the potential of the bathysphere in finding out more about the ‘nightmarish creatures of the underwater world’.

It was little surprise that in 1952 Keith applied to University College, London (UCL) to study for a degree in zoology. It was in his final year there, when he specialised in parasitology, that he was excited to see under the microscope, for the first time, the trypanosomes that cause sleeping sickness in Africa. He wrote: “No parasite is more beautiful than the trypanosome, yet it causes fatal disease not only in humans but also in domestic animals.” Although the parasites were known to be transmitted by the tsetse fly, a blood-sucking insect that feeds on both humans and animals, there seemed to be so little that was known about trypanosomes that he decided he would like to do research on them if the opportunity arose. He was spurred on in his stud-

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ies to gain a first-class honours degree, knowing that by doing so he could avoid National Service and continue with postgraduate research.

Keith Vickerman’s first postgraduate appointment was at Exeter University where he began work on the parasites of soil insects, funded by the Agricultural Research Council. While in Exeter he met Moira Dutton, a second year law undergraduate who was eventually to become his wife. However, their friendship was interrupted when Moira left to live in Germany and Keith moved temporarily to Edinburgh university where he was introduced to the electron microscope, which enabled the tiniest organisms to be scrutinised in unprecedented detail. The couple were reintroduced a few years later when a mutual friend bought them both tickets in adjoining seats for a Sadler’s Wells ballet in London without telling either of them. Their rekindled friendship led to an engagement and, in 1961, marriage.

By this time Keith

What is sleeping sickness?

LEEPING SICKNESS (human African trypanosomiasis) is a vector-borne parasitic disease. It is caused by infection with protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Trypanosoma.They are transmitted to humans by tsetse fly bites which have acquired their infection from human beings or from animals harbouring human pathagenic parasites.

Tsetse flies are found only in sub-Saharan Africa though only certain species transmit the disease.The disease develops in areas ranging from a single village to an entire region.

The symptoms of the disease are that initial bouts of fever, headaches, joint pains and itching are followed by more obvious signs and symptoms such as changes of behaviour, confusion, sensory disturbances and poor coordination. Disturbance of the sleep cycle, which gives the disease its name, is an important feature.

Fortunately, thanks to modern drugs such as Pentamidine, Suramin, Melarsoprol, Eflornithine and Nifurtimox the disease is on the decline: fewer than 3,000 cases were reported last year, the lowest level since the start of systematic global data-collection 75 years ago.

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in the blood of infected animals. He traced the activation and repression of the parasite’s single mitochondrion – the ‘power pack’ of the cell – as it passed through both the insect and vertebrate hosts. His studies of the parasite’s ultrastructure were then extended to analyse the surface coat of the parasites, effectively discovering a novel kind of biological variation that became the benchmark for the study of further host-parasite relationships in other micro-organisms, such as free-living flagellates, soil amoebae, malaria parasites and leishmania parasites.

More importantly, Keith had found out why vaccination against sleeping sickness was impossible, a discovery that was to prove his greatest contribution to science.

“The parasite has a coat of protein which it can repeatedly shed to replace it with a coat of a different kind, so that the patient has to produce antibodies against the new coat.

This process can go on until the patient

had been appointed as a lecturer at UCL, where he was to do his pioneering research on trypanosomes. He began by working at the East African Trypanosomiasis Research Institute in Uganda where he soon learnt that the drugs used to treat sleeping sickness contained arsenic. They were so toxic they could kill the patient before the parasite did. It also became apparent that the parasites were able to develop resistance to the drugs, which meant ever bigger doses were required until they became effectively useless.

Another problem that particularly intrigued Keith was that it appeared to be impossible to vaccinate against trypanosomes. He collected frozen samples of trypanosome-infected blood from patients, cattle and game animals and brought them back to London to study. He conducted microscopic studies on how the parasite survives in its host vector, the tsetse fly, and

Keith Vickerman (ringed) attended a reunion at Outlane Golf Club in 1997, recalling “those splendid Gilbert & Sullivan productions.”

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Keith’s daughter Louise is principal harp with the Utah Symphony Orchestra. She feels she owes much to his enthusiasm for classical music.

dies,” he wrote.

In 1968, Keith moved from London to Glasgow University where he was titular professor of zoology from 1974 until his appointment to the John Graham Kerr chair in Zoology in 1979.

In 1973, the Vickermans adopted their only child, a two-and-a-half week old baby girl called Louise, who developed a talent for music and is now principal harp with the Utah Symphony Orchestra in America.

“Some of my earliest memories are of him singing to me,” Louise recalled. “He was a great lover of classical music, which probably had an influence on me in my eventual career. He would make up funny words about my stuffed animals to go along with well-known arias from operas.”

Keith was also a keen gardener and allotment-holder. He addressed the Scottish parliament in 2001 on the importance of biodiversity and keeping ‘green corridors’ running through cities, as part of a successful campaign shared with Moira to save a local allotment in Glasgow from building development.

He became a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1970, a fellow of the Royal Society in 1984 and a founder and fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998.

At his retirement celebration in 1998,

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Glasgow University commissioned a piece of music by the Scottish composer Sally Beamish that reflected his life’s work on the trypanosome behind sleeping sickness. As the curtains were drawn back, he was surprised and delighted to find that the university had shipped over his daughter from the United States to play the piece on the harp.

Keith continued to maintain an interest in his old school and attended a reunion at Outlane Golf Club organised by his old colleagues in 1997. Afterwards, he wrote to say that he had “enjoyed it immensely” though he lamented the destruction of the grammar schools which he felt was “the educational mistake of the century”.

Keith’s retirement was marred by a bad fall in 2002 which put him in hospital with spinal injuries for four months. Despite this he was determined to walk Louise up the aisle for her wedding in 2003. As ever, his determination won the day.

He died of pancreatic cancer on 28th June 28, 2016 at the age of 83. l Our thanks to Trevor Carter (1945-1950), Louise Vickerman and others.

HALL OF FAME

Alex Danchev: historian

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Bryan Hopkinson (1967-1974) remembers a brilliant historian, teacher and author who believed it was down to artists to create a new world order

ON of a mining engineer, Alex Danchev was at KJGS from 1968 to 1973 and went from there to University College, Oxford. After graduation he served in the Royal Army Education Corps and developed lifelong interests in military history and international relations.

From the army he went into academia and held posts at Keele and Nottingham, and was until his death professor of International Relations at St Andrews.

He published widely within his field, including biographies of military figures especially some who played prominent roles in the Second World War; but he was also renowned for pursuing a much wider range of interests, for example publishing biographies of the artists Georges Braque and Paul Cézanne, reflecting his interest in the idea that artists provide commentary and even moral leadership in troubled times. He also edited Cézanne’s letters. His ‘100 Artists’ Manifestos’ (2011) has become a best-seller in its field. He was still working on another biography, of the surrealist René Magritte.

I was a year below Alex at KJGS. He was very impressive to me, carrying an air of easy sophistication unusual in that place at that time. I first knew him as secretary of the Jacobean Society in 1972-73, and the dry, witty minutes he would produce week after week showed me that humour did not

have to depend on puns and insults, which were all most of us aspired to.

But he was not a compulsive humourist: after I was invited to join him on the editorial staff of The Almondburian I remember him as a reserved and lofty colleague, focused on producing a quality product without attempting to leave much of a personal stamp on it. His editorials were entirely serious, making no effort to reproduce the style of his minutes – for him humour had its place, and was inappropriate elsewhere.

Danchev’s seminal biography Cézanne: A Life (2012) was widely acclaimed by critics

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Photo by courtesy of Sarah Grochala

Guinea Pig in 1972 and, perThere was a certain haps more memorably, The ruthlessness in him too – I Long and the Short andthe Tall remember one week his in 1973. The impression minutes tore apart his Alex gave in those schoolfriend Matthew Grant days is summed up in K C after a lacklustre performWilson’s review in The Alance in a Jacobean debate. mondburian: “A. Danchev But when fun was approgave the fine performance priate he could be as silly expected of him… Although as anybody: one Jacobean his accent smacked more of prize evening, while the the Officer’s Mess than the rest of us were trying to NAAFI, Danchev’s natural show off with music we Alex Danchev’s 100 Artists’ ability and stage presence had written or machines Manifestos has become compelled attention at sevwe had built, when it was indispensable for students of eral important moments in Alex’s turn he flounced in art, architecture and film dressed as an Edwardian suffragette car- the play.”

On a few occasions when we shared the rying a Votes for Women sign, in full female make-up. He sat on Fred Hudson’s walk up St Helen’s Gate I remember he prolap briefly, and then left immediately, and vided wide-ranging and well-informed that was his entry for the prize. It had conversation which was unlike anything I lasted perhaps ten seconds, and must have could get anywhere else, and opened my taken an hour to prepare for. He came last eyes to the benefits of knowing more than with zero votes, but left the most endur- the School was able to teach – how he became such a polymath I was unable to coning impression of the evening.

Alex was in two school plays, The ceive.

A

lex Danchev, who died earlier this year, was widely regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile historians of our day, with the ability to ask probing questions that others refrained from asking. He was a noted and acknowledged art historian with widely praised biographies of Georges Braque and Paul Cezanne. His eminence in the art world was recognised when he was appointed a senior adviser to the Tate Gallery in London.

A man of tremendous energy, his commitment to teaching, for which he won several awards, remained intense despite his stream of publications, arduous administrative duties and membership of august editorial boards. Somehow, he also found time to review regularly for the Times Higher Education and Literary Supplements, the London Review of Books and the Guardian.

Danchev’s interests were wide and varied.

His passion for art was reflected in his love of music – from opera to jazz.

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A

The Almondburian Poets

S a future writer himself, and for several years one of the editors of The Almondburian, it is not surprising that the magazine contains numerous examples of his work. His poetry was highly creative, with such titles as ‘Beaucoup ado de rien’ and ‘The Ultimate’, and were often written in blank verse. But perhaps facing criticism from his lesser colleagues (such as scientists), he composed this elegant poem in rhyming couplets.

To those whose minds are just straight lines I write this ode in strict confinesTo those – all those – who lack the wit My poetic meanings to acquit; To them I owe the inspiration – The food for thought – for th’ensuing fable. “’Tis sham! ’Tis fake! ’Tis PROSE!” they clamour They even say I seek only glamour.

When I my humble lines do print Their eyes with light of battle glint, Their teeth they sharpen for the fray: THEY will not let him get away!

As they come battering at my door My plaintive pleas they do ignore.

They listen not to reasoned truth – They cannot UNDERSTAND my proof.

May the Ford (Sic-Ed.) have mercy on their folly, A scientist’s life is not so jolly.

After he left, and was waiting a year before going to Oxford, he worked (so I was told) as sommelier – or at any rate wine waiter - at the hotel at Ainley Top, yet another level of refinement I could hardly imagine. I later visited him at Oxford when he was an undergraduate well on the way to his First, and found a focused, disciplined student already committed to a future in the army, maintaining a rigorous fitness and study regime with his customary seriousness of purpose, a rather more austere character than I remembered from school.

As a young officer he was invited to address the Old Almondburians’ annual dinner in 1980; few who were there will have forgotten his impassioned advocacy of the UK’s nuclear defences.

And so, dear friends, you did decide me To compose – mark… not so lightly!

Another work – though still poetic – ' Whose lines throughout were all rhythmetic, To show myself, perhaps – and you What I can do in lines of two.

Above, therefore, the lines are written With which my inner mind was smitten.

I hope and pray that those who lied “’Twas only prose” before, have sighed, Though perhaps unwillingly repenting Their late and long untrue lamenting.

In pathetic earnest do I also wish That they (above) their clouds banish.

The light of understanding gladdening their eyes, They hasten to award a complimentary prize To the poet, their one and only joy: The scientist’s pleasure – may it never cloy.

‘Ode to Aspiring Scientists’ by A Danchev,Transitus Arts The Almondburian, Autumn 1971

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Alex’s interest in the relationship between art and public life became his educational speciality: he ran an undergraduate course on ‘Art and War’ and a postgraduate course on ‘Art and Violence’. All his life he avoided being limited by the conventional boundaries of his subject, so that even on the St Andrews website he was described as ‘unorthodox’.

He won several literary prizes and was a regular contributor to the academic and national press.

Sadly, Alex Danchev died suddenly and unexpectedly on 7th August 2016, a couple of weeks short of his 61st birthday. Alex leaves a widow, Dee and two step-children. n l Our thanks to Sarah Grochala.

A LIFE IN THE DAY

My happy times at King James’s

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ANGELA MELLING (Staff 1985 - 2013)

used to be an early riser when I was still working at King James’s School: I liked to be in school by 7.30 am as my first task of the day was to arrange relief staffing if any of the teachers rang in to report absence. So now I have retired I like a more leisurely start and it’s usually nearer 10.00 am before I’m ready to get out of bed.

It’s now three years since my stroke but I’m pleased to be able to report that I am continuing to make good progress – though, as the doctors warned me, it’s not as quick as I would like! Of course, it has changed my life enormously and even getting up in the morning tends to

be a very slow process as I am so dependent on my partner Bob* because of my limited mobility. Without wishing to embarrass him (and fortunately he’s not easy to embarrass), I couldn’t ask for a better carer.

In December we’ll have been together for 21 years and it’s all the fault of the Old Almondburians’ Society as we met at the Annual Dinner that year!

For the past 14 years our home has been in Bradley, not far from where I was born. In fact, I’ve never moved far at *BobWilliams attended King James’s Grammar School from 1964-1970 and is a former Chairman of the Old Almondburians’ Society.

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all: I’ve lived in four houses in the locality and I was educated locally too. I went to Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Primary School followed by what is now All Saints’ Catholic College here at Bradley Bar. Then I took a degree in Home Economics at the Elizabeth Gaskell College of Further Education, which was affiliated to Manchester University. It was an allgirls’ college with its own hall of residence. My biggest memory of my time there is that it did nothing but rain – the weather was horrible! It didn’t help that I had to travel everywhere by public transport so I was always dodging the showers. However, I did like Manchester as a city.

One of my friends at the time was doing a B.Ed and it was this that gave me the idea of going into teaching. I spent a year of teacher training at Didsbury, near Manchester, followed by teaching practice at schools in Wilmslow and Knutsford. Fortunately I had the use of my mum’s car by that time. I was teaching Food Technology.

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Then it was time to return to Huddersfield and start looking for a job. In the event, it was a case of ‘first time lucky’ because I spotted a vacancy at King James’s School and was successful in being offered a post.

We usually have a fairly light lunch and one of my regular afternoon treats is to meet a few of my old school colleagues to catch up with what’s happening in life. I’m usually picked up by Ann Turner, who used to teach Home Economics before she retired last year and drives over from Lindley. Our destination is either The Foxglove, a pleasant country pub at Highburton or Henry’s coffee and wine bar at Skelmanthorpe. There, we’ll often be joined, if they are free, by Rebecca Walton, Joanne Hodgson and Tracey Brook.

If I haven’t eaten out, it will be time to think about an evening meal by the time I get back home in the late afternoon. This is where Bob can show his culinary skills, though I still like to make use of my home economics training to supervise operations in the kitchen and help as much as I can.

I didn’t know very much about King James’s School when I first took up my appointment back in 1985, though two of the girls at All Saints’ had brothers who went there. Also, Dave Bush’s daughter Catherine was in the year below me at All Saints’.

The headmaster at King James’s when I joined was Alan Conley and also on the interviewing panel was Christine Hazle, who was Head of Home Economics at that time. There was also a food and textiles inspector from Kirklees. I remember that it was a very informal interview, in the textiles room; they explained that as Christine’s specialism was textiles they needed someone to teach food technology up to ‘A’ level. This was 1985, when the school was an 13-18 co-educational comprehensive. Shortly afterwards, of course, it lost its sixth form and just covered the age group 11-16.

I did a trial run to the school the week before the interview and as I drove down St Helen’s Gate I remember thinking that I must have taken the wrong turning as there was no way there could possibly be a secondary school down that little lane. When I saw the school I thought it looked absolutely wonderful; I had always loved history and was entranced at the thought of working at such an historic building. I still feel the

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same affection for the school today.

When we lost the Sixth Form I was sorry to lose my two ‘A’ level students – I used to see them four times a week and we had a little understanding that whoever got to the room first had to put the kettle on. It was quite a shock when a nice civilized chat with a couple of ‘A’ level pupils was replaced by trying to teach 25 Year 7 youngsters!

Looking back, I think I had more in common with these ‘A’ level students than with many of the staff, as I was only about four years older than they were. I remember my embarrassment on my first day when I was in the staff room and innocently asked Dave Bush where the staff room for the younger teachers was located. “You are the younger teacher,” he gravely advised me.

In particular, I remember PE teacher Ken Ireland, who was something of a misogynist. He spotted me immediately when he walked into the staff room.

“Not another bloody female teacher!” he roared, stomping out in mock disgust.

But I have many happy memories of my colleagues in those early days who included Pat Reid, Chris Temperton, Bob Field, Jack Taylor, Judith Rushby and of course Dave Bush himself.

I don’t think we really realised at the time what a big change it would be to lose the ‘A’ level students.

For a start, more than half the staff left, so it was quite a traumatic time for those of us who remained.

As I was young and single, I was one of those teachers who got dragged into everything – ice-skating trips, French exchanges and all the rest; whatever it was, I got involved.

We had more school assemblies in the early days, before the school got to its present size. All the pupils would sit there awaiting the grand entrance of the teachers, and I remember when I was still very new overhearing one pupil whisper to another, “I told you she wasn’t in the sixth form – she’s a teacher!”

In due course, I became head of food and textiles, and then head of design and technology. Then, in 2004, I became an Assistant Headteacher.

For evening relaxation these days, we usually turn to the television. Of course, I’m a massive fan of The Great British Bake Off and I also like to keep an eye on what’s happening in Coronation Street. If there’s nothing on the box, I’ll turn to my Kindle – I originally vowed I’d never go electronic but now I’m

hooked. I particularly like Clive Cussler and Colin Forbes.

My taste in music has gone a bit downhill since the days many years ago when I used to play the violin in the school orchestra at All Saints’.

These days I’m more likely to turn to Abba, Westlife or Boyzone.

I’ve always been closely involved with the Old Almondburians’ Society – thanks to Dave Bush. Just before he retired he decided that he wanted to ensure that the OAS retained close links with the School by nominating three of us to become official points of contact: myself, Walter Raleigh and Mike Rattigan (who was himself a former pupil). In my case, the links remained unbroken for the following 25 years.

Our latest pride and joy is our brand new conservatory. Bob put a lot of thought into its design: it has double bifold doors so on a fine summer’s evening we can throw the doors open and it’s just like sitting in the garden – but with all the comforts of one’s armschair and footstool. We call it our orangery.

We are not ones for burning the midnight oil. As far as I am concerned, 10.00 pm is the time to think about turning in for the night. Sometimes, I might spend a final half-hour in the orangery with a nice glass of wine.

Can there possibly be a better way of n finishing the day?

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T

NEW POETRY

David Morphet (1951-1958) writes:

HE Editor has encouraged me to write a few words about my latest collection of verse. Entitled Brief Encounters, it consists of short poetic sketches of a number of episodes over a period of years which are strongly etched in my memory.

They include a breakfast meeting in Rome between George Brown and Willy Brandt which got off to a bad start. (This is known to those who have read it as ‘your George Brown’s trousers’ poem’). Elsewhere I describe what happened when Bobby Kennedy and Field-Marshal Montgomery arrived at the Foreign Office (not of course at the same time!)

In other poems, I tell of a trip down a horrendous coal mine in Ceausescu’s Romania; and (very different) of the memorable calibre of the Russian scientist sent from Moscow to ‘deal with’ Chernobyl. The episodes do vary quite a bit.

The idea for these sketches in verse came to me unexpectedly and they were all written in the space of a month or so. Because they contain glimpses of Current Affairs of many years ago, I provide each with a short note which complements and lends focus to the verse. These notes have gone down well, evoking reactions along the lines of ‘Oh yes, I had altogether forgotten about that!’

I have also recently reissued a poem There was a state that lost its head which I wrote three or four years ago at a time when the question of Scottish independence was becoming more and more acute.

It now seems relevant to Brexit as well as Scotland. n Brief Encounters

ISBN 978-0-9575458-3-0 Published 2016 40 pages soft back 180 x120 Price £4.50 inc p & p

Available from sales@notionbooks.co.uk or from Notion Books, 11 Daisy Lane, London SW6 3DD

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Farnley Lines

C

ARPE DIEM runs an inscription round the face of a small clock bought in Rome and which now sits on our sideboard. Perhaps one of the best known Latin sayings, it is usually translated as ‘Seize the day’. I do remember it was once wittily rendered in a BBC programme as ‘fish of the day’.

However, alternatives are suggested in Harry Eyres’ delightful book, ‘Horace and Me – Life Lessons from an Ancient Poet’. This was recently sent to me as a gift by former Latin ‘A’ level student, journalist, author and OAS member, Andrew Taylor. He included some very complimentary words for which I was deeply grateful.

This all led me to realise that Horace remains my favourite Latin poet; so many memorable lines especially in his odes and which coincidentally provided a link to my retirement, now twenty years ago. Patrick O’Brien presented me with a tee shirt inscribed with Horace’s famous auto obituary words ’non omnis moriar’. (For the non -Latinists: ‘I shall not die entirely’).

As if this were not enough, I remember Ken Leech from our OAS Australia branch mentioning the ensuing four words ‘monumentum exegi, aere perennius’ (‘I have raised a monument more lasting than brass’). Hubris is a dangerous thing and I think I had better stop this drift before Jupiter strikes me behind the left ear with one of his thunderbolts.

DAV E BU S H

Harry Ayres is an imp I did email Andrew to explain that I stopped reading ‘Horace and Me’ for a couple of days in protest of what appeared on page 52. Eyres writes of one of his prep school teachers: ‘Mr Needham, in his unvarying uniform of corduroy trousers and tweed jacket… was a crusty bachelor from the north of England, a supporter of the eternally unfashionable Lincoln City Football Club.’

How dare he! (exclamation mark in-

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(templa) and had specialist priests to do so.These were called auspices (aves spicere /spectare) to watch birds – hence the English expression ‘ an auspicious occasion’. Sorry. Digresssion over. Once a teacher…

So, as it takes you only a nanosecond to move from this paragraph to the next, for me there will be a few weeks and many thousands of miles. ‘See you’, as it says on the dashboard of my Auris as I turn off the engine.

disputably justified, Andrew). As I write this, The Imps (LCFC) are riding high, as are Huddersfield Town – but will they be when I conclude this article? For I face, Dear Reader, a dilemma. Your esteemed editor has set a deadline for contributions towards the end of September. As I shall be away most of that month, I am tapping out these lines pre BBT and will add to them post BBT. Ten points to those who guessed that BBT equals ‘Big Birding Trip’.

May I digress to remind Old Almondburians that the Romans were great bird watchers? Not in the way that we Glamorgan Bird Club members note and record our avian friends; no Roman slaves scratching away with their stili on tablets as their masters called out ‘corvus, passer domesticus, troglodytes troglodytes’.

Rather they divined matters according to the flight of birds in sections of the sky

Over 3,000 miles and three weeks later…

‘Welcome’ says the Auris. Home again with Town still riding high but The Imps slipping down the table, after more than three weeks in California, Nevada and Arizona. We travelled more than 3,300 miles in those states mostly without any problems. However, long distance travellers will appreciate our feelings when, on the

At the south rim of the Grand Canyon.The north rim in the background is ten miles away.

38

nearly eleven hour flight from Amsterdam to San Francisco and 90 minutes into our journey, the captain announced that there was an electrical problem in one engine and we would have to return to Amsterdam.

If that was a ‘down’ moment, contrast it with this ‘up’. We saw a large bird perched atop a tree and presumed it was yet another ubiquitous Turkey Vulture. My colleague raised his binoculars and exclaimed ‘It’s got an orange head’. On cue the said bird stretched its wings to their full 114 inch span, took off, did three lazy circuits over our heads and drifted away over the canopy. A California Condor, one of the world’s rarest and most endangered species.

We visited San Francisco, Las Vegas – I am still recovering from a walk down The Strip; had a pelagic (trip out to sea) from Monterrey; marvelled at the Grand Canyon; got close to the Mexican border; called in at Palm Springs and Los Angeles; and stayed in places with such exotic names as Mariposa (Spanish for butterfly), Flagstaff, 29 Palms and Lone Pine. It was here where we saw the sun rise over USA’s highest mountain ( Alaska excluded): Mt Witney (14,494 feet). Five hours later we were at Badwater Basin in Death Valley at its lowest point (elevation ‘-282 feet’). It seems incompatible to have a minus elevation but that’s what the board said.

I usually list my top bird according to its most unusual name but this time I chose

the most memorable name from the hundreds of place names we encountered.The one that takes the biscuit (or should it be the washing powder) is Dirty Socks Hot Springs, an area noted for migrating birds just off Death Valley Road in California. I failed in my attempt to find an Almondburian connection on my travels but did see a link to the earlier section of this article. In Yosemite National Park I espied a Japanese tourist sporting a baseball cap with ‘carpe diem’ round the brim. I only just managed to restrain myself from asking if he knew its meaning and provenance.

39

OAS matters I did manage to keep in touch via email with some OAS matters, in particular those involving the worries surrounding the future of the Badminton section. It is one so close to my heart, as for many years I derived enormous enjoyment from my Thursday evenings in the Sports Hall. It seemed initially that the outlook was grim but thanks yet again to the sterling work of Andrew Haigh there are grounds for optimism. It appears he has managed to rouse interest from the school PE Dept (see page 47).

Now how about a renaissance of the Football section? It will have my full support but only if the team comprises mostly former pupils; otherwise there seems little point in calling it ‘Almondburians’.

Alas, I shall not be at this year’s Dinner.

I shall be sad not to be there in person but rest assured I shall be with you in spirit.To all those attending, have a great evening. n

Every picture tells a story

I

The joys of cross-country running around the lanes of Almondbury

T is hard to believe that in those halcyon days before ‘elf ’n’ safety’ the School would think nothing of regularly despatching 30 or more youngsters at a time to undertake largely unsupervised cross-country runs around the streets of Almondbury, without any apparent concern that any of them would be run over in the process. Perhaps we were just expected to be careful and behave sensibly, rather than requiring the School to do it for us. Fortunately there were also fewer cars on the roads in those days.

The junior route sent us up Arkenley Lane past the cricket field, and then down Sharp Lane past Reg Addy’s house into Bank Foot Road. There was then a slow, long climb until Farnley Line came into sight – a welcome prospect as it was now downhill for the next mile or so.

But the joy was shortlived, as this was the point at which one would invariably be afflicted by an agonizing ‘stitch’ which would remain at least until one passed the ‘triangle’ junction with St Helen’s Gate.

After a further quarter of a mile, the route then took an acute left turn down a bridle path back into Arkenley Lane, Birks Lane and finally Dark Lane back to the School.

For the real enthusiasts, there was also a senior route which also took in the foothills of Castle Hill.

It was all taken very seriously, even to the extent of setting up teams and entering local championships. In The Almondburian for Spring Term 1966, for example, we read that the School fielded an average of four teams nearly every week during the season, thanks to the efforts of teacher Bill Chapman (“whose patience has survived another season”) and Ken Ireland.

The greatest success that year was achieved by the Under 12 group shown here, where this talented group of firstformers led by C G Huby, B J Laverick and P Grimes kept an unbeaten record throughout the year.

There were also Under 13, Under 15 and Under 16 teams, and the season closed with the Northern Schools’ Championships in which, we learn, D M Cunningham finished 66th in a field of around 650 runners.

40

Back row: R E Merchant, A R Wortley, G S Sellens Front row: D Oates, P Grimes, G W Chapman, K L W Ireland, C G Huby, B J Laverick

TRAVEL

Old Boys on tour: Viareggio

JOHN ASPINALL (1956 - 1961)

F

Our intrepid explorers have again been on the loose in Europe, in search of culture, liquid refreshment and the best Italian style ice cream

OLLOWING the strong recommendation of one of our party whose parents had been to Viareggio in the 1960s), we agreed to have a week there. Last year’s trip to Malaga was the first time we had been away for seven days, an extension of the usual five. Our dear partners had agreed that our seventieth year was worthy of a longer vacation. Somehow it was accepted that we could continue the trend this year. Someone suggested that our other halves were happy to get us out of the way…

It was to be the usual team: Colin

Ainley, Peter Fisher, Mike Gibson, Mike Hellawell, John Linton and me. After the usual few meetings in the King’s Head and several emails to negotiate the most suitably convenient week we agreed on dates and booked in at the Abitalia Hotel. So we flew on 20th June with Ryanair from Leeds Bradford to Pisa with no problems at all until we met up with the mini-bus transfer taxi at the airport.We suspected that the driver was very foreign as he couldn’t speak English at all. The poor fellow (not what we called him at the time) was unable to take us past the security barrier to leave the car park;

La Spezia VIAREGGIO

Lucca Florence

Pisa

41

From the top: Viareggio; Hotel Abitalia; the old walled town of Lucca 42

his ticket wouldn’t work. After a delay of fifteen minutes or so, we left the airport and set off for Viareggio. It took a while to find the hotel as the driver only had the name of the hotel, no address, no satnav, but he did have six thirsty passengers with smart phones so we managed to direct him.

The hotel proved to be modern and smart, but 200 yards from the sea front and civilisation as we know it. As it happens, England were playing in the Europeans that evening so after unpacking we decided to stay in the hotel for dinner and talked the barman into setting up our table to dine and watch the match. The food was excellent. I had a pork chop Italian style with ice cream to finish. The football wasn’t as good.

The town of Viareggio is a free bus ride away. We actually paid on the first day but subsequent trips were free.We don’t actually know why but the young lady at the hotel reception suggested that our age had something to do with it.

Viareggio is quite a large, mainly old, seaside town with a port and is also a holiday resort. We had a good stroll around the town before having lunch at Garibaldi’s: cheese and rice salad Italian style followed by ice cream, and then

ice cream was good. Camaiore also has quite a few pubs, including Sergeant Pepper’s. We knew most of the words to most of the music, even before the G & Ts kicked in, much to the amusement of the young, local customers.

On Wednesday we decided it was time for a different taste – yes, culture.

So we free bussed it to Viareggio and went by train on a trip to Lucca, a walled medieval town which was well worth the visit. Inside the wall is a whole network of narrow streets with shops and excellent ice cream. We had lunch outside at one of the numerous restaurants and an enjoyable experience was had by all.

walked back in the afternoon sun with other mad dogs and Englishmen. The promenade seems endless, with restaurants shoulder to shoulder each with its own frontage of parasols, sun loungers and deck chairs set out almost geometrically in rows to form a series of private beaches.

The hotel was near to a beach community called Lido di Camaiore and we tended to go there as it is within walking distance of our hotel and has good restaurants.We went there on the second night and gave an Italian Pizzeria the benefit of our custom. I had cannelloni and enjoyed it, but a bit too bland for me.The

On yer bike (l to r): John Linton, Mike Gibson, Peter Fisher (seated), Colin Ainley, Mike Hellawell 43

We dined at La Luca in Camaiore in the evening and some of us enjoyed steaks, some had fish, all very good. Unfortunately the boss man wasn’t keen on selling wine by the glass, sort of a tester, sorry, taster. Never mind, our two wine drinking specialists finished up buying a bottle.

The Brexit vote was to be on the Thursday of the week’s stay.We were split 4:2 in favour of leaving. We had a few brushes with Italians who, like us, seemed to be on both sides of the fence.

When I asked an old lady at a newsagent’s stall on the prom if she had English newspapers she said ‘no’ and turned her back on me – end of conversation. The worst was the incident at breakfast on Sunday

morning after the vote when a man decided to put his cheese and ham sandwich in the toaster, which made a mess. When confronted by one of our team, he became abusive and told us that this is what they do in Italy and if you don’t like it…

Alternatively we were told by two other Italian guys that we were correct to leave the EU and the Italians are stupid to stay.

So it finished 2:2, if you get my meaning.

After much discussion and deliberation, Messrs Gibson, Hellawell, and Linton decided to hire bicycles of the pedalling variety. I believe they pedalled up and down and in and out of the promenade and town to their hearts’ content.

Peter, Colin and I strolled down to our end of the prom and had lunch at a beach

'Time for G&Ts (l to r): John Aspinall, Colin Ainley, Mike Hellawell, Mike Gibson, John Linton, Peter Fisher

44

café affiliated to our hotel where we had hamburgers, American style. In the evening we had a taxi to Viareggio for a meal at Lucifer’s. Very good again; I had mixed fish served by a ‘Sophia Loren’s grand-daughter’ look-alike, carefully overseen by her father. We had various ‘freebies’ including shots.The father must have been so intent on watching us that it affected his adding up and he undercharged us. He forgot about the ice cream. I didn’t.

On Friday we decided to go on the free bus and have a look at the harbour in Viareggio and enjoyed a steady stroll in the sunshine. We lunched at Garibaldi’s again, mainly because the first visit had been so enjoyable and the ice cream selection made the return worthwhile.

On the Saturday we split up: three went to Florence on the train for the day and three of us went to La Spezia, which is almost the start of the Cinque Terre area. Again it was an interesting experience which made us realise that there is a wealth of variety and charm to be had in

the towns of Italy. Two of the three who went to Florence were asked to leave a pub there for complaining about the beer. I wasn’t there so I cannot possibly comment about two Old Almondburians in their seventies being ejected from a pub, even if the beer was flat.They all enjoyed the trip, so all’s well and all that.

The last day didn’t start too well with the disagreement involving the toaster.

However, we decided to laugh about it when we saw the guy a bit later, but the Italian thought we were laughing at him and he glared at us quite angrily. Never mind, a stroll on to Lido di Camaiore in the glorious sunshine relieved what little tension there was and after lunch we returned to the hotel for a swim and a snooze; all very sensible.

Our transfer taxi to the airport on Monday was driven by a different guy fortunately. He got off to a good start with four out of six as he thought Britain had made the right choice and Italy was stupid for staying in the EU. Did I mention ice cream? n

SUDOKU

2 6 9

Each row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain the digits 1 to 9

1 8

Difficulty: medium

1

4 3 8 7

9 45

6 9 5

8 7

7 8 2

9

3

5 6 2

TERRY’S TEASER NO 17 Compiled by Terry Buckley (1948 - 1953)

1

Entries to the Editor (address/email: back cover) by 1st February 2017 2

3

4

6

5

7

Prize: 12 months free OAS membership

8 8

9 13

10

11 14

12 15

DOWN 1. Sulphur induction misses the point and 18 goes badly wrong – but the results are 20 21 19 quite eye-catching! (15) 2. Frown, topless, on the chimneypot (4) 3. Nothing in commercials turned up soft 22 23 25 26 24 drink (4) 4. How young doctors perform many operations? (10) 27 29 28 5. Overseas chum back in Limassol (3) 34 30 31 32 33 6. Is Anna fit to be princess? (7) 7. After-dinner gadgets set to music ? (10,5) 35 36 37 9. Last month, left late, soothed (5) 10 & 12. A pale hat is character building 38 in Greece (5 and 3) 18. It’s irrelevant when I time alarm to go off (10) ACROSS 20. Nothing is fused for chemical equality (3) 1. I can trainspot, or switch to deferment (15) 22. Spoil turnout in good numbers (4) 8. Stirs up a fall-out from Delaware, but 24. How old was George Stephenson when 21. In spring she might! (3) 23. Has an entrancing vocation! (7) he started trainspotting? (7,3) there’s little wind here! (7) 25. Player took a reverse in ‘The Parrot 27. She’s back to her wicked round! (5) 11. If the arrangement has a taker (5) Cage’ (5) 29. Sit back in poetic existence (3) 13. A double fifty in total (3) 30. At mouth of Thames, but neither south 26. In looking back, I cannot name him (5) 14. Serve a master (3) 28. Heard what to do with wreath, or nor west (4) 15. In total, counted in the bathroom… (4) garland (3) 31. Hear regret for short marsupial (3) 16. …who’s is one of the towels? (3) 32. Go back in to man a boat in northerly 33. It’s foreign gold or nothing! (3) 17. Cry of pain ran round the ash (5) resort (4) 35. French girl comes about a US resort (5) 19. A landmine I exploded in foreign 34. Undersized, turn round (4) 37. Bud ruin is widespread in Africa (7) food (6,4) 38. Part of the week some spend locally (6,9) 36. Welsh father is a woman! (3) 21. Force back this French chap (4) 16

17

Name Email Tel

l The winner of Crossword by Hérisson (July 2016) was Peter Tracey

Across 1.Yellow submarine 9. Sit down 10. Agelong 11. Entail 12. Flake out 13. Die 14. Nails 16. Beech 18.Yahoo 20. Again 22. Eel 23. Airtight 25. Tuxedo 27. Ashanti 28. Asinine 29. Here comes the sun Down 1.Yesterday 2. Let it be 3. Oxonian 4. Song 5. Beatles 6. A week 7. Isotope 8. Eight 15. Log 17. Halloween 19. Harsher 20. Atheism 21. Nourish 23. Enemies 24. Ionic 26. Days

46

Badminton

S

AND R E W H AI G H

O, Huddersfield has an Olympic medal in badminton! Although not an Almondburian, Huddersfield’s Marcus Ellis and his partner, Chris.

Langridge, won the bronze medal in the men’s doubles at this summer’s Rio Olympics. How fantastic!

How sad then that just two weeks ago I expected to be writing this article about the demise of the Badminton section. I received a telephone call just a couple of days before the start of the new season informing me that four of our most regular players would not be joining us, since they were going to play elsewhere. Since we have been struggling for participants for a number of seasons anyway and now the backbone of our membership was being taken away, I saw little alternative but to cancel Badminton for the first week of the new season and to attempt to withdraw our booking for the school sports hall for the coming year. I circulated an

47

a n d rew. h a igh @o a s . o rg. u k

e-mail to all those who have played with the Badminton section in the past to this effect and it was a very sad day indeed.

However, this email caused a far bigger reaction than I ever expected and I received a lot of replies from people who felt that Old Almondburians’ Badminton should continue at school and, more significantly, a number of replies from people telling me that they had been planning to return to badminton, or to play more regularly again, this season.

I could be forgiven for thinking that such good intentions may be short-lived so, still not confident about the viability of the booking, I circulated a schedule of Thursdays when the sports hall is available to us and invited people to commit to playing as far as they could. I am pleased to report that quite a lot of commitment was, indeed, forthcoming, and the fact that at least five people were definitely prepared to play the following Thursday, which is as many players as we

had on some Thursdays last season, gave me the confidence to withdraw my request to cancel our booking - with profuse apologies to the school for messing them around!

Subsequently, I have had further discussions with the school regarding the possibility of starting a junior section for the hour or so before we normally play, with a view to getting some of the current pupils involved - and possibly some parents too, if the interest is there. The school needs to broaden its P.E. curriculum and badminton is one of the sports that they want to promote. That may still be a little way down the line, but the idea is there and it would be great if there was sufficient interest to get it going.

In the event, eight people turned up to play on the second Thursday of the season, the most for quite some time.We were therefore able to utilise both our courts, which is really what we need to do to ensure that the Badminton section is viable. There are one or two other people who were keen to play, but who were unable to play that particular week, so there is definitely still hope. We don’t play at quite the level of Marcus Ellis, we play social badminton, but why not come along and join us?

This season opened on Thursday, 8th September 2016 and runs until Thursday, 25th May 2017. We play in the school sports hall each Thursday evening during term-time from 7.30 p.m. until 9.30 p.m. However, there are a number of weeks when the sports hall is unavailable, due to events at the school, and availability for the rest of the season is shown in the table on the right. n

48

DATE

3rd November, 2016

AVAILABILITY Available

10th November, 2016 Available 17th November, 2016 Available 24th November, 2016 Available 1st December, 2016

8th December, 2016

Exam week – unavailable Available

15th December, 2016 Available followed by Christmas Party 22nd December, 2016 Christmas Holiday – school closed 29th December, 2016 Christmas Holiday – school closed 5th January, 2017

Available

19th January, 2017

Available

12th January, 2017 26th January, 2017

2nd February, 2017 9th February, 2017

16th February, 2017

23rd February, 2017 2nd March, 2017 9th March, 2017

16th March, 2017

23rd March, 2017 30th March, 2017 6th April, 2017

13th April, 2017 20th April, 2017 27th April, 2017 4th May, 2017

11th May, 2017 18th May, 2017 25th May, 2017

Exam week – unavailable Available Available Available Available

Half-term – school closed Available Available Available Available Available Available

Easter Holiday – school closed Easter Holiday – school closed Available Available Available Available Available

Tennis

T

AND R EW H AIG H

HE opening day of the 2016 Almondburian tennis season saw four people turn up at school keen to play. However, despite my best efforts, I could not persuade my key to open the outdoor sports store where the nets and posts are stored.

I could not understand this, since we have never had a problem before, but we just could not turn the lock. I contacted the Premises Manager, but he assured me that nothing had changed, so I felt a bit of a fool – and we still had no nets. Being a member at Longley Tennis Club, I suggested that we could salvage the evening by decamping there to play that week, and this we did.

Those who played were very impressed with the facilities at Longley and suggested that we should play there regularly.

I expressed reservations about this, since one of the important things about Almondburian sporting sections is their links with the school. However, I was forced to concede that the courts at Longley are, indeed, far superior to those at the school. This is mainly due

a n d rew. h a igh @o a s . o rg. u k

to their courts not being used as an overflow car park on parents’ evenings, although tree roots are also starting to cause problems with the courts at school and they are badly in need of renovation.

Reluctantly, therefore, I discussed the idea with Longley and they made us a very good offer that we could play there for two hours on Thursday evenings if the non-members among us paid £3.00 per week to them, on top of the £3.00 that we contribute to the Badminton Section each week anyway, and so this we did all summer.

In the end, I need not have worried about abandoning the school. It turned out that it was not our key, nor me, that was at fault, but rather the lock on the outdoor sports store at school.

Someone had broken a key in the lock and the premises team spent most of the summer trying to get in too.

Apparently, it was towards the end of the summer holidays before they got it sorted out, so we couldn’t have played at school this year anyway! n 49

Cricket

A

S AM AT KIN

s a m _a tk in @ya h o o . co . u k

ND just like that, another sum- coaching to players who will be the future mer and another cricket season of the club. has come and gone.

We won’t call them lows... but it’s On the whole, the summer has been not been the best of seasons for us on the kind to us, and we have managed to get whole with both clubs finishing near the much cricket in over the summer bottom of their respective tables. Again months. player availability has been a huge issue Another summer at Almondburians this season and everyone will agree that of highs, lows and laughs! both teams have underperformed. But We’ll start with the highs.You may re- onwards and upwards to next season! member in the last issue of The AlmondPresentation evening will again be burian, that we reached the final of the coming up and I will hopefully give details 20/20 competition. This is a competi- out in the next edition. tion in which we have been very strong Anyone who wants to support the over the last few seasons – it’s a fast pace club is more than welcome. format that suits our very youthful squad!

I think the main point in this edition is I must give thanks to George Brady to let everyone know what is happening who captained the side (taking over from with the future of the club.

Joey George from the previous season) As some of you may be aware, unforand guided us all the way to the final. tunately the Huddersfield Central League Unfortunately success was not meant to has now folded and will be no more. be. We were bowled out for just 99 For whatever reason, over the last few against a strong Mount CC side SECTION A who achieved the score all too eas- END OF SEASON TABLES 344 PTS Birchencliffe B PREMIER SECTION ily in half the overs. Not our day un313 PTS Mount B 332 PTS fortunately but our congratulations Mount A go out to Mount CC who also won Green Moor A 290 PTS Horbury Bridge A 280 PTS the league title.

219 PTS Flockton A 236 PTS Edgerton & Dalton A Our cricket workshop on Friday Leymoor A 208 PTS Edgerton & Dalton B 230 PTS evenings for girls and boys aged 5- Holmbridge A 169 PTS Green Moor B 205 PTS 10 years old has been a success 165 PTS Augustinians A 198 PTS Birchencliffe A again this year. I must thank Oliver 140 PTS Cartworth Moor A 151 PTS Nortonthorpe A Hirst for his efforts at providing 128 PTS Higham A 146 PTS this and the guys who helped him. Almondburians A 119 PTS Almondburians B 138 PTS Bradley & Colne A As I mentioned in the last edition, 104 PTS Calder Grove A 94 PTS Denby Grange A it is vital that we look at providing 50

Photo: The Huddersfield Examiner

years the number I have been capof clubs has deteritain of Almondorated dramaticalburians now for ly and as a result, five seasons and I the league can no only wish the best longer function. for the club so my Plans were apologies if that therefore made for comes across as a a merger with the little nerdy. I just Halifax League but know that if we add as a club we took a a few more players vote and decided to we will no doubt approach the Hudbe successful in the dersfield Drakes very near future.

League. I am Again, I only want pleased to announce the best for the that this has been club! accepted and as of George Brady bowling against Birchencliffe As far as I am next season the club will be playing aware the pavilion appeal is still in full cricket in the Huddersfield Drakes League. force and with the application to the Details are still being finalised but I can Drakes, it is looking like a bright future only stress that this is a very positive step for the Almondburians! for the club as a whole!

All information can be found on our The club has had many meetings twitter page: @OACCcricket. about this and we believe a huge Please give us a follow and this recruitment process needs to keeps you up to date with rehappen. The Drakes sults and what the club is League is a much higher up to on a weekly basis. standard and so players Finally I would like are crucial to the sucto thank players, cess of this transforfriends, family and mation for the club! I other members for urge you for the sake their continuing supof Almondburians that port season after seaif you know of anyone son. It really is very who wants to play cricket much appreciated and I for us they are more than welwould not be able to comcome. Nets information will be plete the task at hand without you posted on Twitter and we hope to see as all. n many new faces there as possible.

Thanks again.

51

Golf: Gothard Cup

H

RO BI N ME R C H ANT

AVING taken over organizing the Gothard Cup from Simon Russell, I would first of all like to thank him for reviving the tournament back in the early 2000s and for all the hard work he has put in over the last 15 years, as I have just found out in organizing my first!

I thought that by moving the day of competition from a Friday to a Sunday afternoon would attract more competitors but unfortunately that proved not to be the case as we only had 8 players, but I like to think that they were the ‘crème de la crème’! The players were; Robin Sharman, Jonathan Lodge, Peter Sykes, Mark Waring, Paul Grant, Richard Brown, David Parry and myself.

On Sunday 14th August we were blessed with lovely sunny weather and we were delighted to find Woodsome Hall Golf Course to be in wonderful condition.

Woodsome Hall certainly looked after us as we also enjoyed a great meal after the golf which was finished off with an excellent port brought by Richard Brown.

Richard has been promising to allow us to sample “something from his cellar” for many years and I can assure you that the port did not disappoint!

To return to the golf, the results were:

ro b in . m erc h a n t@ta lk ta lk . n et

Winner

Robin Merchant

36

Best front 9

David Parry

15

2nd place

Best back 9

Richard Brown* Mark Waring

*after a card countback with Mark

29 15

A special prize was presented to the player who had travelled the furthest and after much debate as to whether it was Mark Waring (who had travelled from Cardiff) or Paul Grant (who had travelled from Wimbledon), it was presented to Paul Grant.

I should also like to thank Andrew Haigh who took the pictures.

Probably due to the port, further discussion was had on how we could improve attendance next year and it was agreed that a Sunday in late June would be best.

So if you think you might enjoy some good banter mixed in with some golf do try to join us next year. n

52

1. Robin Merchant 2. Holing out: Peter Sykes, is watched by Jonathan Lodge and Richard Brown 3. Enjoying the Dinner (clockwise round the table, from Robin): David Parry, Paul Sykes, Jonathan Lodge, Richard Brown, Paul Grant, Robin Sharman and Mark Waring 4.The winner: Robin receives the Gothard Cup from David Parry

2

1

Photos by Andrew Haigh

3

4

S

OME 70 former pupils and staff attended the Reunion Rave-up at the School on Saturday, 1st October, organised by a team led by Gary Woodhouse . The event was part of the 40th Anniversary celebrations of King James’s becoming a mixed comprehensive in 1976.

It proved an enjoyable evening when old students and staff could chat about days gone by when the sun always shone and all was right with the world. Music was provided by DJ Matt Ford.

1. (left to right): Peter Wilson (staff, Maths), Katy Martin (now Fossy), Grace Ruddlesdwn (now Pegg), Gillian Sykes (staff, Art and CDT)

 

Photographs by Walter Raleigh

2.

Bar staff (left to right): Steve Slack, John Headey, Adam Lightowler, Oliver Hirst, Jack Ingram, Chamika Himendra

 54

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



3. [Guest], Heather Paxton, Kirsty Roebuck 4. Grace Ruddlesden, Katy Martin 5. [Guest], Catherine Roberts 6. Jane Bray (nee Powell), Julian Stancliffe 7. Clive Shearing , Mark Gray 8. Chantelle Lashington, Sinead Peart

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 55

Postbag

G

YO U WRITE …

Should we drop the word ‘Old’? No!

From: Paul Grant (1959-1965)

tended a few meetings of the OAS London ‘chapter’. Although I had become an ‘Old’ boy it still seemed to be a privilege to socialise with a cross section of more senior alumni.

Perhaps if it is necessary to drum up membership among the younger Old Almondburians the term ‘Alumnus’ might be used as a less ageist term. But, please keep the society called the Old Almondburians.

Wimbledon, London

RAHAM CLIFFE issued an invitation to debate OAS name status. Personally I have no issue with ‘Old’ – despite being so officially according to my six year old grandson!

Whilst at school contemporaneously with Graham, I used to play football for the 1st team on Saturday morning and then was privileged to play for the Old Boys in the afternoon.

Old was marginal as most of the Old Boys had only just left school themselves.

When I came down to London I at-

I

Should we drop the word ‘Old’? Yes!

From: Robin Beaumont (1968-1976) fully support the dropping of ‘Old’ because it does suggest something of the past, even that we were once Almondburians, but now we are ‘former Almondburians’.

The moment we stepped through the gate on our first day we became Almondburians, and collectively all those who share attendance at St Helen’s Gate will always be Almondburians until we go to that endless prefect’s detention in the sky.

As Graham points out, Almondbury is officially in the name, so there is no need to clumsily shoe-horn the words ‘King James’ into our collective description.

There must be King James schools elsewhere in the country, so it is its location in Almondbury that sets our school, and us, apart from others.

Shefford, Bedfordshire

l In view of mixed responses expressed since Graham Cliffe’s article, the Executive Committee has decided to place this issue before the AGM in January (see announcement opposite). Please let us have your views.

56

O

A handy storage hint

From: James Clayton(1947-1951)

NCE again I write to say thank you for a first-class issue of the magazine.

I have taken drastic action to cope with the ever increasing demand on my bookcase shelves and offer this suggestion to others who may be having the same problem, although I am aware that it will seem to some as an act of vandalism.

I have bought some modestly priced A5 folders from Ryman’s stationers, each with 20 transparent pockets, enabling 40 pages of magazine material to be accommodated. After I have read the magazine, I extract articles of personal interest for inclusion in my folders, leaving out sports reports, etc, Sadly,

this nowadays includes obituaries of our old classmates on a far-too-regular basis.

As a former printer, I have a conscience about such scavenging but I find that I can locate articles which pertain to my year group much more easily than before. I can understand those who wish to keep all copies intact but it works for me.

Old Catton, Norwich

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of the Society will be held at ‘The Woolpack’, Almondbury on Monday, 9th January, 2017 at 7.30 p.m.

Nominations for office on the Executive Committee are required by the Secretary in advance of this date, so that the election of officers can take place at the Annual General Meeting in accordance with Rule 7.

In the last issue of the magazine, Graham Cliffe wrote an article raising the idea of changing the name of the Society from The Old Almondburians’ Society to The Almondburians’ Society, and the views of the membership were invited. The responses that were received were evenly divided and so the Executive Committee has decided to put the matter before the Annual General Meeting as a Special Resolution. In accordance with Rules 11(e) and (g) and Rule 13, the following Special Resolution will be considered at the Annual General Meeting: To change Rule 1 (Name) from The name of the organisation shall be ‘The Old Almondburians’ Society’ and in these Rules it is referred to as ‘the Society’ to read The name of the organisation shall be ‘The Almondburians’ Society’ and in these Rules it is referred to as ‘the Society’.

All members are urged to make every effort to attend the Annual General Meeting. However, in accordance with Rule 15, members who are not able to attend the Annual General Meeting may vote on a Special Resolution by proxy and a form is enclosed with this magazine. Proxy forms must be received by the Honorary Secretary no later than forty-eight hours before the time set for the meeting.

Andrew Haigh, Secretary

57

Obituaries

G O NE BU T NOT F O RG OTTE N

Avril Dawson (Staff 1978-1998) Well-liked geographer with a no-nonsense approach to teaching We are sorry to report the death in hospital on 2nd August 2016 of former teacher Avril Dawson. She was 78.

Avril Dawson joined the staff of King James’s School to teach Geography in 1978 and retired in 1998. Before joining King James’s Avril had taught at Salendine Nook and Holmfirth where she was Head of Geography. In earlier years she had taught for seven years in a Baptist mission school in Zaire (former Belgium Congo).

While at King James’s Avril took an active part in out- of-school activities, taking pupils walking in the Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales, and the Lake District.

She had a caring but no-nonsense approach to teaching: behind the quiet facade there was a very determined lady. While in Africa she and a colleague had once elected to spend a night in the police cells rather than pay a bribe to be let off a trumped up motoring offence.

After her retirement Avril was able to pursue her lifelong interest in dogs, joining a local dog agility team where she ran several of her dogs in competitions and displays. She also found time to travel, visiting Alaska and New Zealand.

One of her numerous hidden talents was her artistic ability as an accomplished water colour painter and pastel artist.

Avril was liked and respected by all those with whom she came into contact.

Roger L’Amie See ‘Hall of Fame’ on page 22.

See ‘Hall of Fame’ on page 28.

Professor Keith Vickerman (1944- 1952) Professor Alex Danchev (1968- 1973) 58

King James’s in Words and Pictures

THE HISTORY OF KING JAMES’S GRAMMAR SCHOOL IN ALMONDBURY

Gerald Hinchliffe’s detailed formal history of King James’s Grammar School from 1547 to 1963 384pp, hardback

£10

P&P UK £2.50 EUROPE £4.50 REST OF WORLD £7.75

AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF KING JAMES’S SCHOOL IN ALMONDBURY

Full-colour illustrated history of the School from 1547 to 2008, the 400th anniversary of the charter granted by James I 112pp, hardback

£10

P&P UK £2.50 EUROPE £5.25 REST OF WORLD £9.25

MORNING ASSEMBLY Daily Prayers for a Yorkshire School

An account of the life of former headmaster Harry Taylor, with his unique compilation of prayers for use in school assembly 104pp, hardback

£10

P&P UK £1.30 EUROPE £2.70 REST OF WORLD £4.30

FLOREAT SCHOLA!

Colour DVD in which former teacher JACK TAYLOR tells the story of King James’s School through video clips, photographs and recorded interviews.

Running time: 87 minutes; PAL, 16 x 9 format

£15

P&P UK £FREE EUROPE £1.00 REST OF WORLD £1.50

400TH ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND

Full-length colour DVD of the anniversary celebrations, produced specially for us by Yorkshire Video Arts.

Running time: 97 minutes; PAL, 16 x 9 format

£15

P&P UK £FREE EUROPE £1.00 REST OF WORLD £1.50

Order online at www.oas.org.uk or by post from Andrew Haigh, R D Haigh & Co, Oakhill Road, Brighouse, West Yorkshire HD6 1SN. (Cheque payable to the Old Almondburians’ Society).

Chairman WALTER RALEIGH 15 Thorpe Lane, Almondbury HD5 8TA Tel: 01484 308452 Email: walter.raleigh@oas.org.uk

Secretary ANDREW HAIGH 2 Arkenley Lane, Almondbury HD4 6SQ Tel: 01484 432105 Email: andrew.haigh@oas.org.uk

Treasurer KEITH CRAWSHAW 5 Benomley Drive, Almondbury HD5 8LX Tel: 01484 533658 Email: keith.crawshaw@oas.org.uk

Media Editor ROGER DOWLING Editorial address: Orchard House, Oughtrington Lane, Lymm, Cheshire WA13 0RD Tel: 01925 756390 Email: almondburian@oas.org.uk

Website: www.oas.org.uk

Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/3ykffo3

The Almondburian is distributed to OAS members free of charge.

Price to non-members: £3.00