My school was Boys Grammar - it was a choice of rugby, cricket, or athletics - no football...

At 11 I had the physical build and reckless aggression cut out for rugger,
but the teachers wouldn't let me play with my glasses on....
Didn't bother me.. they were already held together with sellotape from playground scraps..

So I was made to take them off and freeze my bollocks off on the side line...

I hated cricket - boring and being made to wear long white trousers and wooly jumpers in summer term..???
That last ball that was hurled high at my forehead instead of any where near my bat or the wicket..
that was the last effin straw..
... and I was crap at running, long jump and high jump..

I wanted to play rugby or nothing..

So sod 'em i joined the school beatniks and weirdos and did drama & poetry and learned to play guitar...

.. at one point my very existence enraged the PE teacher so much he lobbed a textbook at my head
and yelled at me I was "a long haired poof !!!"

[that was the same teacher who 10 years later would be arrested for fiddling with boys...]


At the start of the 4th year we were forced to go comprehensive
and combine with the girls grammar and nearest secondary school..

I suddenly took a very keen interest in following the girls swimming team.... 😜