Cricket cap 1940 (Courtesy of Harold Burton)
I was wondering why there were no references to the football and cricket teams in my era (1942 - 48)? I played for the football 1st XI a few times and had plenty of cricket net practice on the mat and concrete strip just inside the playing field gate - most enjoyable if you weren't facing a lively bowler called Middleton. I seem to remember that in 1942 or 43 we had a very successful football Second Eleven who carried all before them. I particularly remember a good centre forward (to use an archaic term!) called Hague, and I believe the 1st XI Captain was called 'Tiger' Davies. The various football pitches each had their own distinctive slope and, in winter, particularly adhesive mud. I remember that some of us honed our footballing skills with 'practice' sessions on the pitch in Longley Park, on the other side of the boundary fence at the far end of the playing field - anyone still about who remembers those days of practice, accompanied by the assistant groundsman - I must have put over about a 1000 crosses from the left wing every month ! I can't remember all the names of the teams at that period, even though some of them left their marks on me in the shape of a colourful variety of bruises. Team spirit and support were always strong and we usually listened more carefully than usual when Mr Padfield announced the results of the School matches during assembly. It would be of great interest to see how we looked in those days - has anyone got any wartime team photographs ? I went on to play Yorkshire Council and Lincolnshire League cricket until I was 36, and played my last 'serious' game at the age of 47 - surprisingly, I stopped playing football only four years after leaving school, at the end of my RAF National Service. As to other sporting activities, I participated in the School Sports with, how shall I put it, a recognition that 90 percent of the school were better than I at the long jump, discus, javelin etc. I watched a boy called Roy Penn sprinting and gave up on that, and I was the first to run a 15 minute mile - well, you can't be good at everything. But I enjoyed it all immensely. Hope this is of some interest to my contemporaries.
^ View across Barnsley Road looking towards the playing fields (taken July 1981 - kindly donated by Peter Dewsnap)
^ View of the wooden sports huts prior to demolition