We had the assembly in the Common Room and unlike normally I found it quite interesting. Mrs Newsholme talked to us about VSO – she went to Ghana for two years about six years ago – and I quite fancied the idea. If I ever get selected though, I’d probably end up teaching.
I had no lessons until English at 12.30 pm. For the whole of the three free periods everyone concerned with English packed the 6th form library, slaving away desperately trying to get Slicer’s essay finished. Lee Hoy accused me of preventing him from finishing his essay by keeping his book – I accidently forgot to give him it back after borrowing it yesterday – and since Duncan wouldn’t lend him his, he couldn’t finish it.
After dutifully handing in the required I had to suffer two hours of absolute drudgery – boring and sleep-inspiring. My God, why did I choose English?
The only real decent event in the day was the after-school rehearsal of the play our form is doing on November 5th for assembly. It is ‘starring’ L. Hoy as Norman Entwhistle, D. Verity as the mother, J. Crabtree as sluttish Sheila, J. Beaumont as Rodney and M. Cliff as grandma, and has been written almost entirely by Jeremy. The theme is Britain’s unpreparedness in the event of a nuclear war and it is full of deliberately feeble jokes, unsubtle innuendos and snide references to members of the sixth form and the staff. It is hilarious. Members of the English department kept dropping in as I watched and making various comments. They tried to incorporate reluctant me into proceedings by suggesting I rushed on during the line . . . “here we have a news flash . . . ,” in my great coat, wearing only a strategically placed balloon, give the audience a quick flash and rush off again. I doubt whether I’d actually be able to do it (staff-censorship etc . . .).
When I got home I played a couple of games of ‘Scrabble’ with Robert before having tea and setting off in the rain for Athletic v Purswell, who are second in the table. We both agreed that if Athletic could win this match they’d really be on their way. Shirley rang – she’s got “Welcome.”
The game started lively enough, with Athletic stringing several classy three-four men moves together on the edge of the box and McArdle shooting wide several times before Purswell closed down on Athletic’s attacks entirely. The ‘Farriers’ looked much sharper and tighter than the corny Easterby blunderers and after looking dangerous several times a cross was missed by Newlands and was blasted in to Robert Hudson’s right from 15 yards. In the second half, Athletic, playing towards the Easterby End, looked crap and after surviving loads of near misses and blunders went 2-0 down after 87 minutes. It was basically Easterby’s totally inept defence and midfield (and particularly David Littlewood) who were to blame – also they are all old men now, all over 30. This game really brought it home to me that Athletic won’t go up this season. Oh well, next year could be better.
I played Robert at ‘Scrabble’ again on getting back before coming to bed.
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