Thursday 15 January 2009

Sporting prowess

A rare image of moi in sportif mode, clearly setting the pace in the finals of the mixed-age standing-around-chatting event. Almost half a century later, this remains my best discipline.

The year must be 1960 and the place is Prior Park Prep School, Cricklade, Wiltshire.

The ladies nearest me are my cousin Ann and my great aunt Marie Louise. Hats were obviously the thing for Sports Day.

I have absolutely no recollection of the sporting events that preceded the tea interlude.

But the prizegiving that followed, I remember vividly.

A massive table was piled with a fabulous selection of merchandise: board games, books, jigsaw puzzles and, unutterably desirable, a paint-by-numbers kit.

It was Santa's sleigh without the inconvenience of wrapping paper. How generous of the Brothers to stump up for so much splendid loot.

Prizes for more or less everyone. And a rather lusciously shiny Victor Ludorum trophy for the day's sporting supremo.

Boys only marginally more robust than me went up for awards. For a few delirious moments I thought there might be a wee something for me.

Needless to say, I came away empty-handed.

Still, the sitting around helped me work out the obvious fact that it was our parents and not the brothers who had funded the goodies.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

From your blog I would guess that your sporting prowess is probably on a par with my own, so I can sympathise. The zenith of my sporting achievement at school was to be reserve for the inter-house high jump team on sports day. As I recall, I only reached this lofty status because nobody else volunteered.