As Lent Term got underway my Diary tells me that athletics training was occupying my attention as Athletics Captain for Oswald, and on Monday 18 January when the day's schooling was over, senior members of Oswald organised a training run around The Triangle for School House (Oswald). 

Diary entry for 18 January, 1960.

My brother Bernard, Jeremy Parslew, and myself went around the circuit first, leaving Roger Morgan with the responsibility of recording the time on his stopwatch, as the rest of the house set off in hot pursuit after a short delay.  

Senior members of Oswald hold a team meeting, perched on the rickety railings separating the lower paddock from the playground.
(L-R) R Morgan, D Pickup, Bache (Holbache interloper/spy), B Pickup, Parslew.

By the time boys began arriving back on the quadrangle, the four of us were ready to record individual times and give them to each boy as a goal to aim at, and better, on all future runs, and I noted in my Diary that I should perhaps need to speak with some of the stragglers who appeared to be struggling. We all agreed that it was important to stress to everybody that each boy's final position, however high or low, counted for points towards the House Cup when totting up at the end of Sports Day.

Each boy, irrespective of age, ability, or talent, should be made to feel that he could contribute towards ultimate victory for Oswald on Sports Day, and that his efforts were worthwhile. I was confident that everybody could improve their fitness level, given time, with a bit of determination, application, and self belief, and this was the message we tried to get across.

As boys passed our checkpoint I made a mental note, with not a little satisfaction and slight fear of future competition, that a very young John Woolrich, to whom we had already given a trial in the School first XI football team, could be a possible star in the making for Oswald House, and that his obvious talent should be nurtured for the benefit of the House, and School as a whole. My instincts proved to be correct, as would be demonstrated by John's blossoming sporting achievements in ensuing weeks.  

Diary entry, 20 January, the bursar puts his foot in it, and I end up in trouble.

I am exonerated from all blame for the disappearance of the keys.

As duty prefect it was my responsibility to lock up at night, and on 20 Janaury, because I was unable to find the keys it could not be done, and the Headmaster, already in a bad frame of mind with me, put the blame for the loss of the keys firmly on my shoulders with a thoroughly good ticking off.

Major Frankland, whom the School Governors had appointed in 1958 as our new Headmaster following the retirement of R Williamson, had, since his arrival at the School, made great strides in improving its amenities, whilst suffering personally from increasing unpopularity, particularly at School House. It was the Major who had introduced the CCF (Combined Cadet Force) to the School which, although not very popular at the time, turned out to be a great asset as can be seen today. One of his first appointees was Captain Womack who, in addition to other responsibilities, held the position of School Bursar.

At the beginning of term a new gym club had been formed which I immediately joined, witnessing some hilarious moments largely at the expense of Mr Womack who had been put in charge.

A snippet from The Oswestrian Magazine: a new club is formed.

Womack rather prided himself on his boxing defensive ability and one day he invited my classmate Tony (RA) Hughes to try and breach his guard. Tony took up the challenge with a vengeance and with one devastating punch to the ribs, which could be heard all around the gymnasium, he floored the poor man who went down like a bag of wet cement. It was several minutes before he regained his composure much to the amusement of us all, and we ragged him mercilessly about it thereafter.

In another incident involving the hapless Bursar, Jimmy Sharples, one of his CCF favourite recruits, was despatched up over the beams in the Memorial Hall to retrieve an errant ball. It was a tricky maneuver and Jimmy managed to fall through the roof with an ear-splitting crash into the lavatory below. He remained silent and would not respond to Mr Womack's entreaties to come out from the toilet, pretending to be unconscious. Eventually, Jimmy, the School House buffoon, emerged completely unscathed, and unfazed by his experience, with a huge grin on his face. The Captain was mightily relieved, but not amused, and Headmaster Frankland was not entirely happy about it either.

Jimmy Sharples in 'goon' mode, all kitted out in his CCF uniform.

On Thursday 21 January, the riddle of the missing keys was resolved when the good bursar admitted that he had found them in his pocket, but I never received so much as the hint of an apology. The same afternoon a scheduled CCF parade was cancelled because of the previous night's snowfall and we all retreated to the Hall for the presentation of cap badges followed by CCF related lectures from The Headmaster and Womack. The sight of Capt Womack demonstrating the leopard crawl in full army fatigues had us all in stitches, which earned us a severe reprimand from The Headmaster. 

Excerpt taken from the Lent Oswestrian.

The above brief report on the term's CCF activities was compiled and written by two of its keenest members, RA Hughes and RJ Fuller, who became more involved with the organisation post school, and I was told later by Tony that when they attended Kimnell Park during the summer of 1960 they were much fitter than the regular soldiers in charge of their training. I had already decided not to attend the Summer CCF Camp.

In this fuller report, literally by Richard Fuller, of CCF related events, he summarises their term's activities. Oh, how well I remember those very early visits from extremely serious Park Hall Camp regular NCOs and their attempts to instil army discipline into a group of young, carefree, teenage boys, who couldn't care less. We had been formed into two platoons, A and B, and Headmaster Frankland had appointed Jack 'Grevo' Greves as acting Company Sergeant Major, and myself and brother Bernard as leaders of platoons A and B respectively. 

What fun we had play acting and getting under the skin of those coarse-mouthed army instructors who, to be fair, were only trying to do their job. It was plainly obvious as they barked orders at us during drills on the playground, that they were itching to grab us by the scruff of the neck and knock some sense into us, but were constrained from doing so by quite remarkable self-control. Under different circumstances many of our more voluble platoon members would have ended up in the guardhouse on jankers or fatigues, as they were known, for disobeying orders and ill discipline. 

Richard Fuller's report in CCF Notes.

In the next episode, athletics training is stepped up, there is another dust-up with Stoker Lewis, football gets under way, my relationship with the Headmaster is not going well, and a date with Iris, one of the kitchen maids, is on the cards.