Not A Matter Of Life & Death – Far More Important Than That! We had some fine footballers in my year at Alleyn’s – I was not among them.
Sunday, 30 November 1975 – performed play. Very good. Mug taken good. TV Upstairs Downstairs.
I have no idea what the play was, nor why my mug shot was taken. Presumably something at cheder. Any mug shot from that performance is (probably mercifully) lost in the mists of time.
Monday 1 December 1975 all OK. Goodies & Waltons.
Tuesday 2 December 1975 – swimming good. TV Invisible Man, Musical Time Machine.
Wednesday, 3 November 1975 CCF Picture Lecture. TV Superstar, Our Man Flint.
I have no idea whether the picture lecture was something to do with CCF (Combined Cadet Force) or unconnected.
Thursday, 4 December 1975 – drama cancelled, came home early. TV $6 million man, Mastermind.
Friday 5 December 1975 – all OK, TV Tom & Jerry, Pot Black, The Good Life.
Saturday, 6 December 1975 – school morn. Finished play fitting. TV sinking film The Last Voyage.
Sunday, 7 December 1975.– Classes good, lost 7P [at kalooki] boo-hoo, all OK.
Monday, 8 December 1975 – Auntie Alice died last night. Grandma Jenny came to stay.
Auntie Alice was Grandma Jenny’s sister. Alice had lived with Grandma Jenny for as long as I could remember – indeed quite possibly since before I was born. Alice suffered from hyperkyphosis, which in those days we referred to as hunchback, to such an extent that it caused her respiratory issues. In truth I only really remember her ever sitting in her armchair doing very little. But she was a sweet lady.
Tuesday, 9 December 1975 – goalkeeping – great achievement, TV Superstars, Time Machine.
Yes, I have found it. The sole reference in my diaries to my football playing “career”. My epic goalkeeping performance in an end of term house match. If memory serves, it was my house, Cribbs, v Duttons. My house was playing merely for pride (which might explain how I ended up in the team at all), whereas our opponents needed the win for top of the table glory.
Presumably Cribbs had injury/absence issues which resulted in my being selected at all. Presumably Paddy Gray (our Cribbs skipper) knew enough about my two left feet to conclude that I could do the least harm, or even vaguely be of use, by having a go in goal.
As football stalwart Nigel Boatswain would tell you:
some idiot was playing in goal for Cribbs. He didn’t have the faintest idea what he was doing in goal, yet somehow he managed to keep saving the ball and we couldn’t get the ball past that idiot.
I know that Nigel would put it in language of that kind, because that’s pretty much what he said to Johnny Eltham, on one occasion in the 2010s, when we were all gathered for dinner. Johnny replied,
yes I remember and yes I remember who the goalkeeper was…he’s sitting next to you.
Nigel recalls that his team won, so is convinced that they got past me eventually. My recollection is that Paddy Gray decided, towards the very end of the match, that our best chance of keeping a clean sheet was for him to swap in a more competent goalie for the last few minutes…it might even have been himself. It was during those last few minutes, while I was grazing in the long grass trying to stay out of trouble, that the winning goal was scored.
This is a bit like the story at the end of Tom Brown’s Schooldays, when Tom Brown captains his team to a glorious narrow defeat at the hands of the MCC, yet is carried aloft by his teammates because of the narrowness and glory of the defeat.
I’m glad to have found this small yet oft-remembered moment in my diary and I’m glad to see that it occurred in 1975, which was my annus mirabilis sports-wise, what with my quarter-final victory at fives…
…it’s a minor miracle that Johnny Eltham still talks to me, now I come to think of it…
…and my hat trick bowling for 2AK, as part of our tournament-winning performance at cricket that summer:
But enough about my single year of sporting glory.
Wednesday 10 December 1975 – no CCF. Grandma Jenny stayed again. TV War Film [Ice Cold In Alex].
Thursday, 11 December 1975 – drama good. TV $6 Million Man, Water Rats, Mastermind, Q6
Friday, 12 December 1975 – all OK, TV Pot Black, The Good Life.
Saturday, 13 December 1975 – Party went well, good fun.
I have no recollection of this party. Possibly an end of term party at the school. I’d have thought I’d have named the friend whose house party it was, had it been a friend’s house party. Anyway, whatever it was, wherever it was, it went well and was good fun according to my diary, which I suspect is all that has survived as a written record about that particular party.