King Henry VIII Grammar School

Beesman, I've think I've read quite a few posts about pupils dreading the Canley Ford run. I didn't mind it so much, because it didn't take as long as a full games afternoon, so you got home earlier than usual. They had a couple of teachers taking register at the half-way point, in order to stop short cutting, the sneaky gits. Fortunately, runners weren't searched for cigarettes. I seem to remember one lad carrying a pack around with him and lighting up as soon as possible. It is hard to comprehend what was going on in the teachers' heads when they felt that this was an acceptable alternative. They cancel rugger, because the pitches are, apparently, not fit, but then send us off to pound the streets in rugby boots. If we had wanted to run, we would have signed up to do cross-country, with the correct shoe wear. I don't know why they didn't make more use of the Memorial Park. Better still - Spencer Park. We could have churned up some grass on there. I know we played cricket at the Memorial Park, so why we couldn't kick a football around or something, rather than going for a run, bemuses me. They must have had a real dislike of soccer. I don't know what the cause of that was. They treated us like we were already past saving, so why the heck they had some beef about football, presumably, corrupting us is a bit baffling. If they felt it important that we had some exercise, why should they care what form this took? And, in the long term, it was probably counter-productive. I suspect that rugger and running at school put off some lads from these types of activities for as long as they drew breath. There is not a chance that I would have forged a letter from my parents. Never entered my head as a remote possibility. Which was probably a good job, as I might have attempted to put myself on permanent sick leave. And that 'cunning ploy' wouldn't have had a happy ending for me. Good job you intercepted the school's letter!

Incidentally - pun intended - I do still remember who it was that knocked out my tooth. And I will have my revenge. In this life - or the next.

Hi Inkers, I have grim memories of those runs to Canley Ford too. They put a teacher at the extreme point of the course to tick off names because some lads did go and hide, rejoining the run's stragglers as they got back to school. Said teacher would have driven to the A45 in his car with the list. The key was to avoid being on that list! If you could disappear between registration, which took place outside the music room, and compilation of the lists, you were home and dry - literally! I'm amazed that nobody ever rumbled this ruse. So why did they call off rugby for those not in school teams so often? That's easy - the cost. If there were too many games for school pitches, they would have to hire them, and the coaches to get you there. Far cheaper to just send you off on some pointless run through the woods. I recall occasionally being taken to rugby pitches at Allesley Park but it all seemed highly unofficial, especially since they didn't use the changing rooms. I also believe that the precious school pitches had to be protected during wet weather to save the groundsman having to do any work. You are right that I, like many others, were put off playing rugby for life by the way the school treated the game. The school's attitude to football was a disgrace. They played it in the junior school but never in the senior school, which was quite incredible. I know there were many good players in the school who played in local leagues at the weekend as I encountered lots when I was refereeing their games. It was sheer snobbery by Herbie & Co to dismiss football, but that would be typical of the man's narrow mindedness. I suspect that they would have had a very good football team at KHVIII, but at the expense of their rugby teams.

Mr.D.Di, Hi, not sure if I am talking through a hole in my head, but your wondering why soccer wasn`t encouraged, was I think social. Perhaps Grammar Schools "didn`t do" soccer which was considered by some to be a working class sport prior to its becoming the "beautiful" game. I certainly grew up in a family which referred to "silly soccer", perhaps ironically, but my father was fiercely rugby orientated and taught rugby at a secondary modern school in the city. Incidentally it was tradition amongst some of the rugby playing fraternity to go to watch the "City" play on Christmas morning. All very strange really, because I seem to remember the Coventry rugby team always rejoiced in being fully inclusive.

Yes, and we played it on the rugger pitches, with the rugger posts, at Stonebridge Highway

Greetings MisterD-Di, I trust your work involved discovering weaknesses in systems of one kind or another. I think you were born to the task! And you never once got rumbled at school? Impressive. MInd you, if everyone disappeared before registration, in the manner you describe, I think the teachers might have become a tad suspicious!! The cost angle makes sense as an explanation. Perhaps some administration issues as well. It just used to puzzle me when rugby got cancelled for poor pitch conditions, whilst the grass areas where my friends and I kicked a soccer ball around seemed perfectly fine to me. As you know, the advantage of soccer is that it can be played 'off-pitch', as it were. Put down some goal post markers, create some simple rules about the terms of play and providing everyone is reasonably sensible about it, a good game can be had. It just seemed daft that this opportunity was precluded to us, for the sake of a school rugby playing tradition. Particularly when it seemed that - school teams aside- they weren't making a great deal of effort to ensure that we played. Heck, the poor state of a rugby field should have devotees rubbing their hands with glee. "Oooh look! Lots of mud for them to roll around in!" I think we might all have benefited from explanations from teachers for decisions, as well. The occasional apology wouldn't have gone amiss, either. How about "Sorry, everyone. Rugby is off, this week, I'm afraid. So, instead, we are sending you on this lousy run to Canley Ford, which most of you despise, but it will raise you heart rate for a while and help you to digest the disgusting food that gets served up to you on a daily basis. Sorry about that as well. On the positive side, it means that you won't have to sit through another tedious class lesson. But for those of you who want to skip the run totally, we will look the other way for five minutes, whilst you hide. And for those who play soccer in your free time - excellent. A good form of exercise. Very beneficial to you. Well done. Just ensure that your homework doesn't interfere with your opportunities to play the beautiful game." What's wrong with that?!

I and my small group of associates ran exactly the same type of club, probably in different classes and/or years.

Snobbery. It was a posh school, so rugby was de rigeur. Association football (which we played in the juniors) was associated with working class yobbos and troublemakers. As opposed to upper class thugs.

We weren't far apart, Slim. I took O-levels in 69 and A-levels in 71. I do remember you from back then, but I didn't have you down as one of the subversives, and probably vice versa. As you say, that's the point really. There was a lot of rebellion and mischief in those days, which I believe was a reaction against the way some teachers treated the pupils. There was a lot of violence and bullying from teachers and subterfuge was the only way of retaliation. You probably recall the way Piggy and his aides would interrogate the 'usual suspects' without getting anywhere near the real culprits, which I think must have driven them up the wall.

A friend of mine was in the year below. The year after I left, there was a big crime, an alleged raid of the school stationery stores in the tower after hours, one of the lads having cut a copy key somehow (or picked the lock). My friend was asked by Ernie Shaw to keep his ears open and report anything he heard back, with the words "I know you're one of the trustworthy boys". He was speaking to one of the perpetrators. I don't know how true the story is.

One wet timetable day we were bussed to Baginton for droobing. As I came around a bend, near some cottages, 2 or 3 lads from another class had stopped and were pratting about. We had all seen Droob go on ahead, out of sight, having overtaken us slower ones. So the coast was clear. The lads were daring each other to clear a barn roof with a stone. None managed it, so I picked up a rusty old tin lid and boasted I could clear the roof with the lid. Just as the lid left my right hand - a jolly good skim, I thought - Droob came running around the bend from behind us! The crafty so-and-so had suspected foul play, and had run across fields and doubled back behind the row of cottages. Surprisingly, he did not slow down, but yelled "DETENSHUN!" at each of us as he sprinted past. Later, in the gym, with a wry smile, he said "Look Fosdyke, you don't really want to be dragged down by boys with lower expectations like those, do you? Don't do it again." I was amazed at only having received a verbal warning from Droob, not an actual detention.

When I hear of the various 'offences' which resulted in Saturday morning detentions it is clear that they were handed out 'willy nilly'. I got one for throwing a snowball in the main playground! Mind you it did just miss Piggy as he came out of a doorway at the wrong time. As regards footy at KH, we always played at dinner time in the playground, with the plastic perforated ball. There were some very good players, Satchwell, Hunka (or Hunker?), Pete Harris, etc. I played rugby for the school, but was better at footy, probably because everybody else was bigger than me!

MisterD-Di, Working on the theory that adverse circumstances can sometimes bring our hidden talents to the fore, I'm trying to think of how my time at the school manifested something in me that might otherwise have remained undiscovered. The best I can come up with at the moment is - the capacity to endure abject failure. That has cheered me up!

Al M, As the rules for getting a Saturday morning DT seem somewhat arbitrarily applied, I'm suspecting that the staff had a weekly punishment quota that had to be filled. If we are ever allowed access to the archives, I believe that we will uncover an incriminating memo from Walker on this very subject. Consider. In a random Universe, what are the odds of you chucking a snow ball at the exact same time as Piggy emerged from a doorway? Coincidence? I don't think so. He was probably thinking "What is the probability of kids throwing snowballs today following that overnight flurry? Answer: 100% certain. What are the odds of one being thrown when I walk into the exercise yard? Answer: 100% certain. Therefore, I shall walk into that area on the pretext that I am on a mission of great urgency. And I will get struck by one. 100% certain. All Hail to The Quota! " In truth, he was probably shocked that you missed. That's Chaos Theory for you.

A1 M that's Stef Hunka you're referring to, did very well as a lawyer later in life, had most of the Ukrainian population of Coventry on his books if memory serves. You're right about the football team, Bob Nashed was a good player too, and like you say Pete Harris. I don't think Charlie would have made the school team at anything, he wasn't a 'school team' type.