Recollections of an Old (but young at heart) Oswestrian, circa 1952 - EPISODE 36, RANDOM SPORTING TRIVIA

I must admit to enjoying almost every aspect of life at Oswestry, and being a bit of a sporting nut I embraced all physical activity enthusiastically, including the less popular games such as fives, tennis, badminton and table tennis, the last two of which were only introduced in 1955 following the construction of the Memorial Hall.

Apart from Wednesdays and Saturdays when lessons for the day ended at noon, I could not wait for the 4 o'clock bell to signal the start of afternoon sport, whether it be football, cricket or athletics, and the photograph below of celebrations in the library always brings a smile to my face when I remember the effort we all put in to winning these yearly trophies.

(Left to right) E Lloyd, J B Greves, J Sharples, D Pickup, R Morgan, B Pickup, J Parslew

This was a very good effort by School House, (Oswald) and Jack 'Grevo' Greves, Bernard, 'Poshy' Parslew and myself are also pictured in this starting line-up of a heat for the 1 mile in 1960.

(Left to right) T P Moore-Bridger, D Jones, J Woolrich, J B Greves, R Brickles, B Pickup, J Parslew, D Pickup

Being vertically challenged, the high jump does not figure on my CV, although I was up for the high jump on a number of occasions whilst at school, but both my brother and Jeremy Parslew were pretty good, and here is a great shot of Bernard in action.

Bernard Pickup, going for gold

It is interesting to see Jeremy in the background on the left, wearing the long black coat, looking like Count Dracula without the teeth, awaiting his turn to jump, and the young boy mirroring Bernard's action, almost willing him on, or maybe not! 

This interesting clip from The Advertizer, the local newspaper, shows Tony Hughes being presented with his third Victor Ludorum in 1960, having just broken three school records. 

R A Hughes, Captain of athletics

After lunch on Saturdays, 'Stoker' Lewis, Bernard and myself would get together in the library to inflate five heavy leather footballs in preparation for the afternoon matches. In those days footballs had a bladder which was fed inside the ball and inflated using a bicycle pump. 

That was the easy part of the process; the tricky bit was lacing up the football without puncturing the bladder, and the air in the library would sometimes become quite blue as swearing swiftly followed a loud swoosh and hissing noise which indicated a burst bladder, and the whole process would have to begin again. This was the only time I ever heard Dai Lewis swear, and I often teased him about it when returning to school years later.  

In the middle of winter, a combination of poor pitches and waterlogged leather footballs made playing decent football difficult at times, and heading could be painful if the point of contact happened to be the lacing on the ball. 

A typical cobbler's 'last'

However, I am assured by Stuart Holt, who was Captain of rugby during the sixties, that our pitches were a treat compared with their early rugby fields, from which ruminating cattle had to be removed before games could be played on a minefield of smelly cowpats, kindly left behind by the livestock. 

Generally speaking the pitches left a lot to be desired, and 2nd game football matches could often be unsatisfactory owing to the sloping nature of the field. 

The goalposts had no nets attached to them in those days, even during inter-school games, and sometimes I came under a bit of good natured ribbing from opposing captains because of this. 

Dubbin, 1950's style

From time to time on match days, the noise of hammering could be heard coming from the boot room  as boys used a cobbler's 'last' to knock wooden-nailed studs into the soles of their boots, and applied dubbin or whitening, depending on the time of the year; rather primitive compared with today.

As captain, it was my responsibility to sort out teams for the five matches that took place each Wednesday and Saturday, and announce them on the school notice board.

Whitening for cricket pads
and boots

Every few weeks I would wander round the various games in an attempt to ensure there were no square pegs in round holes, looking to promote blossoming talent. The cream rises to the top, and it was always satisfying to be in a position to encourage boys by moving them up into better quality games. 

I am not too sure how or why, but Dai Lewis was heavily involved in all sporting aspects of school life, even down to the purchase of footballs and cricket gear, which was always in short supply, and he was regularly to be seen refereeing and umpiring games on the Maes-y-Llan, not to mention inter-school matches. He also organised more mundane activities such as marking and rolling out pitches, and general care of the cricket square.

David Pickup and Ken Mottershead 

A few of us from the Sixth Form, which was based in the library, were always keen to help, and it was generally all hands to the pump, but it was good old 'Stoker' Lewis who made everything tick!

(Back left to right) J Parslew, J B Greves, E Lloyd, B Pickup
(Front left to right) J Sharples, D Pickup, R Morgan