School Sports - Overview

I have never considered myself to be a "sporty type", possibly because I am not competitive enough - I have never had any overwhelming desire to be the best ... at anything! This could be related to my innate shyness, and not wishing to be in the spotlight, or just that I never thought I was good enough to try that bit harder to be the best. That doesn't mean I didn't try, or train hard when it was needed, but I never went that extra mile that top sportspeople need to go to be the best, or try to be the best. I suppose I was as good as I wanted to be.
The first competitive event I can remember was an Obstacle course at primary school, which to my surprise I won in my age group! (I may still have the certificate somewhere!) This, of course, was back in the days when children were allowed to "win" or "lose", which I think is great for character development. Sports day at Grammar school a few years later and I came second in the junior hurdles - let down by my sprinting, or lack of it, I was first over all the barriers but caught on the final run in to the tape!
So when I arrived at boarding school in Rhodesia, in 1967, I thought of myself as a "hurdler"! I had gone up in age group, and in hurdle height, but I was still the same size as before and could barely get over the hurdles - I still couldn't sprint very fast! However I did persevere and the following year managed a reasonable time and placement.
At boarding school sports were very important, not only for the exercise and health benefits, but because we had so much "spare" time as boarders. Different terms meant different sports became priorities, so we had a Rugby Term, a Cricket Term, a Hockey Term, and an Athletics Term. Football (soccer to those of you from strange countries where FOOT-ball, is played with very little foot and ball contact, and the ball is egg-shaped!) was considered to be a "minor" sport, and though I did play for the school at senior level against some of the local African schools it was not really recognised. Tennis and basketball were also "minor" sports, and we also tried out squash, volleyball and water polo. We did have an inter-house swimming gala every year, which my boarding house (one of five) used to do particularly well in, though swimming also was not a "major" sport.
When I arrived there I was not very tall (at 5'10", 1.74m - I suppose I am not THAT tall now!) and certainly not very fit, so struggled at sports, in which participation was compulsory. It was Rugby term, and we had to attend the First XV match on Saturday afternoon and cheer them on - our school always produced a pretty good senior team, who did well against the other schools - and we used to get yelled at if the "cheerleader" (a school prefect!) didn't think we were shouting loud enough! This was the only sport where support was compulsory, so I guess we were a Rugby school!
I did eventually compete for the school at Rugby (regular in the 4th XV, and occasional in the 2nd XV - more about that in another post) and Football, and for my house in Cricket, Hockey, Tennis, Squash (not my finest hour - the only reason I "played" squash was because there was a good smoking spot close by, and walking down with a racquet in your hand didn't raise suspicions. My opponent was a fellow 6th former from another house, who happened to be the school #1 and also played in a local squash league. He took pity on me and played left-handed - and I still didn't score a single point!), and athletics. Never covered myself in glory, but also (except for Pole Vault) didn't embarrass myself either!

To keep this post short I will deal with individual sports separately in other posts.