Playing Soft Ball.
We awoke this morning to the news that the BBC had discovered fresh dangers lurking in the undergrowth to damage your children for life.
Not all children, naturally. Those who play football are apparently safe, despite the preponderance of injuries reported amongst professional players, especially those just signed for millions of pounds from foreign shores. Football is acknowledged as a working class sport, and those kids are tough…
It is Rugby in the firing line. Not even all Rugby, but that brand of professional Rugby known as ‘Union’. Rugby ‘League’ has for generations been stripped of the need for ‘dangerous’ contact. Listen to Tulson Tullett, who switched from League to Union:
Fewer league forwards tend to switch because league is a simpler game to play: there are no line-outs, rucks, mauls and so on, and the technicalities at these areas are something that take time and understanding to master.
However, Rugby Union tends to be played at the ‘elite’ schools, and thus is forever associated with those woolly-woofters known as VIPs…[Ed: summit wrong here surely?] Typical of the coverage by the left wing media is this from the Guardian, describing the alma mater of Will Carling:
Sedbergh, a near-medieval public school nestled among steepling fells in Cumbria, is a 6am-run-and-bracing-shower sort of institution. Over centuries, it has hewn an abundance of military strategists, statesmen and polar explorers.
For several years, the loudest voice amongst the critics of Rugby Union was that of Allyson Pollock, a professor of public health research and policy, stern critic of any form of privatisation of the NHS. What she is not so keen that you should be aware of lately, is that she has a very personal interest in this matter.
Allyson’s son, unaccountably for such a severe critic of choice and privatisation in the NHS, was at just the sort of elite school that teaches its little darlings to play Rugby Union – so we may assume that it wasn’t the local comprehensive. On the rugby field, one of the nasty big boys tackled her little precious, and gave him a broken nose, a fractured leg and a fractured cheekbone with concussion. She has been on the war path ever since, demanding that Rugby be turned into a form of tag played with a nice soft ball.
She does have a point – if her political Lords and Masters are determined to send the Vanguard-class out armed with cotton wool buds, instead of Trident to frighten the nasty Argies, then we really don’t have need of a generation of boys trained to have the skill, courage or stamina to become ‘military strategists, statesmen and polar explorers’ rather than refugees in the nearest university ‘safe space’ or bawling because the Iraqis have confiscated their iPod.
Rugby League players demonstrating the ‘safer’ alternative.
There are, however, many who would profoundly disagree with her. Not least those on the receiving end of Rugby League – the ‘safer alternative’…
Is she right, is the ‘protection of children’ a major failing in Rugby Union? Should they be doing a roots and branches overhaul of the manner in which they protect vulnerable youngsters? A Dame Janet style review of all the information? Hire top flight experts like Allyson Pollock to advise them and point out how badly they are letting down the children in their care?
It might surprise you to find that they have already done so – spent a considerable amount of money doing so.
Excuse me; I have to compose myself. Get my breath back. If I stop laughing it would help.
I have a feeling that you are about to see not a ‘reverse ferret’, but a ‘three-point turning whilst doing wheelies and shooting backwards clean through the garage wall ferret’…..
The expert hired to take care of the protection of children whilst under the auspices of Rugby Union is none other than the Chewing GumShoe himself.
Pollock v. Pillock. ‘Tis a mirage made in heaven.
- Mrs Grimble
March 2, 2016 at 10:24 am -
Looks like MWT is doing the ol’ soft shoe shuffle and exiting stage left while he still has some credibility.
“A mirage made in heaven”? Very little manages to make me even smile before my first cuppa of the morning but that made me hoot out loud! Keep ’em coming Anna!
I do seem to remember that this same debate over the safety of tackling (in their version of rugby) is also engaging Americans – the details escape me but Hollywood has just made a film about it apparently. Wonder if that’s anything to do with it? - Ed P
March 2, 2016 at 10:25 am -
So it’s a class envy thing. Otherwise heading (in football) and boxing would be higher up the list for Bansturbators – they’re both considerably more dangerous (& both cause brain damage).
- Go figure
March 2, 2016 at 10:32 am -
In Wales it’s the reverse. Up and down the valleys it’s the working class game. Generations of men and boys play and thousands turn out to watch. Of course there’s risks, but then there’s the joy of team sport and club lifestyle and camaraderie that goes with it. We just get on with it and sing ‘Delilah’ , they tried to ban that too………..
- Retired
March 2, 2016 at 10:56 am -
If you are in the mood for a bit of research have a look at one of the signatories to the letter, Prof Eric Anderson, the professor of ‘ sport, masculinities and sexuality’ at the University of Winchester. I will leave it to others to comment on him.
I have two sons who have played Rugby Union up to County level. There was a emphasis throughout the different age groups they played in on safety and of teaching correct techniques. I believe each club is required to a have a child protection officer who has undergone training by the RFU. Of course people got injured but I would imagine more young people manage to injure themselves falling off horses than through playing rugby. A possible solution to injuries may be to go down the route whereby young players are graded by weight rather than age group. It works for New Zealand.- Robert Edwards
March 2, 2016 at 11:00 am -
I heard him on LBC this morning. Nick Ferrari grilled him on this. Ferrari played in the pack at school. He asked ‘professor’ Anderson if he had ever played the game:
“No, I haven’t”
What a sad excuse for an academic…
- Little Black Sambo
March 2, 2016 at 12:34 pm -
What about his masculinities? Did he ask about them?
- Robert Edwards
March 2, 2016 at 12:57 pm -
I think Ferrari was edgy enough about the man’s job title already…
- Robert Edwards
- Little Black Sambo
- Lisboeta
March 2, 2016 at 1:38 pm -
“young people manage to injure themselves falling off horses”
Please, do not give the Lets-Ban-It fools any more ideas!- Peter Raite
March 2, 2016 at 6:39 pm -
See below – quite hair-raising numbers of deaths!
- Peter Raite
- Robert Edwards
- Robert Edwards
March 2, 2016 at 10:57 am -
What a clever (and fortuitous) connection; perfect. The gift which keeps on giving.
Rugby League, rather like Aussie rules football, is a girl’s game. No doubt MWT will discover that the late Eddie Waring, the voice of Rugby League, (for those who don’t recall, his trademark commentary announcement was ‘up and under!’) was a secret kiddy-fiddler.
I am told that the first recognised Rugby Union Club was formed at Guy’s Hospital, mainly by Old Boys from Rugby school, so health and safety has clearly moved on.
- Eric Hardcastle
March 4, 2016 at 3:06 pm -
I’ve become quite fond of Aussie Rules.
Cricketers are being killed by cricket balls. People drown. A spear fisherman today speared himself through the stomach. Life is dangerous.
- Eric Hardcastle
- Moor Larkin
March 2, 2016 at 11:24 am -
There’s a similar dynamic about American Football. At the back of it all is liability claims.
- David
March 2, 2016 at 11:27 am -
Yes tackling rugby does need to be banned in schools. At one school alone 37 per cent of boys were injured playing rugby. Many stop playing rugby as soon as they can, giving lie to the claim that the sport is, ‘universally loved and embraced’. Concussions are among the most dangerous injuries, followed by spinal injury, and broken limbs. The NHS has to patch up these injuries, as best it can, but they should not happen in the first place.
- Little Black Sambo
March 2, 2016 at 12:38 pm -
“37 per cent of boys were injured”. But what counts as an injury?
It reminds me of the Children’s Society poster that said “80 per cent [or however many it was] of people walking past this poster were abused in childhood” - Bill Sticker
March 2, 2016 at 4:51 pm -
Tackling Rugby needs to be banned in schools? As a one time tight head prop forward for my school team I take great exception to that sentiment. If a parent objects to Rugby, then a simple note to the head teacher requesting exemption should be enough to safeguard their delicate little petal. A ban is too extreme. If a parent objects to a schools sporting curriculum, then they should place their child in another school or get them excused from games lessons. Of course, the child may not want to be excused… Peer group pressure being what it is.
As an aside, one of my contemporaries, aged fourteen at the time, tried to get exempted from playing Rugby so he could play hockey with the girls class. One game later he was clamouring to be back with the boys in the pack. As one of my cousins (A recently retired headmistress and games teacher) could have told him, Hockey is a far more vicious game than Rugby Union.
- Peter Raite
March 2, 2016 at 5:18 pm -
At my mixed middle school, one year us boys were “allowed” to play the girls at hockey. Comically, we had to make do with the ancient spare equipment, most of which looked like it would have been discarded by the girls of St Trinians as too old. Our “delicate flowers,” obviously with their own more up to date kit, proceeded to absolutely slaughter us, with more than a few scores being settled in the process.
- David
March 2, 2016 at 6:21 pm -
‘delicate little petal’, That one sentence sounds as if you are sexist? Perhaps compulsory ballet classes in school would make boys fitter, and healthier, without the risk of concussion. it would also be far more character building than rugby? children take far longer to recover from head trauma than adults, and multiple minor head trauma can lead to major brain damage. Tag rugby is far safer.
- Peter Raite
March 2, 2016 at 6:37 pm -
No, I put it in quotes to emphasise the irony. Most of the girls at my school were neither delicate nor flowers.
The problem with wrapping kids in cotton wool is that they end up with no appreciation of how dangerous the world can be, nor any klnowledge as to how to avoid mishap or injury. Breaking my collar bone at school – not during any sport, organised or otherwise – was a very valuable lesson to me, not least that it wasn’t worth having my summer holiday start two weeks early as a result.
- Bill Sticker
March 2, 2016 at 9:56 pm -
“Delicate little petal” is not a sexist term because it may be applied equally to both sexes. It simply states that the thus described is not robust, either mentally of physically. I have heard it used by females of all ages and social groups in reference to males as well as mockingly between my daughters and their friends, so ‘sexist’? Nah.
As for dance, why not a martial art like Judo instead? Dance is fine, but only for those whose bodies are lissom enough to follow the moves. Having studied at drama school alongside aspiring professional dancers, I would not recommend it because of the many injuries that dancers are prone to. Specifically bone fractures in the feet, injuries to Achilles and knee tendons, agonising plantar fasciitis, mild but chronic hip displasia, not to mention blisters. Now Judo on the other hand, teaches respect and self discipline for all sizes and weights, as well as giving any student (male, female, fat or thin) the ability to deal with an aggressor over twice their size. Because they will meet aggressors. Passive or otherwise.
Incidentally, during play times at school we used to play a game called ‘British Bulldog’, a robust form of ‘tag Rugby’ on asphalt. No supervision, no referee, no special kit, and we had more casualties playing that than on the Rugby field. During my five years of attendance at one midlands school I recall injuries like bloody noses, two skull fractures, multiple broken fingers and on one notable occasion a broken leg. By contrast, in my four years of playing school Rugby (weekly practice, inter-house and school games) we regularly sustained bumps and bruises, but only one double fractured arm and two broken front teeth. So perhaps ‘safer’ is a relative term. We lost far more schoolmates to traffic collisions.
- Peter Raite
March 3, 2016 at 1:30 pm -
There is probably a whole article in the idea of dance injuries being somehow more nice and cuddly than aggressive Rugby injuries….
- Bill Sticker
March 3, 2016 at 4:29 pm -
But none the less chronically painful, even without the Hallux valgus that seems to afflict almost every aspiring professional dancer I ever met. Ballet shoes have a lot to answer for.
- Bill Sticker
- Valeriekat
March 4, 2016 at 3:28 am -
Re dance, I heard that Darcy Bussell had to have a hip replacement at the age of 46! Not good.
British Bulldog I think is now banned in most Primary Schools so no more fun to be had there. My youngest son was an avid rugby player until 2 concussions led to the team doctors telling him it was time to stop. Despite this I believe he learned a huge amount from being involved in the sport and by having great coaches and team mates.
- Peter Raite
- Eric Hardcastle
March 4, 2016 at 3:10 pm -
Ligament damage, strains,muscle tears. Very dangerous. And a limited shelf life.
- Bill Sticker
March 4, 2016 at 5:57 pm -
Eric, I believe most dancers generally ‘retire’ before age thirty and shift careers. A shorter shelf life than any other sport, professional or amateur.
- Bill Sticker
- Peter Raite
- Peter Raite
- Mr Ecks
March 2, 2016 at 6:15 pm -
To put it bluntly, if the majority of the commentators on here expressed the opinion that it is a bad idea to chop your dick up like a banana about to be added to a bowl of cornflakes, David would soon appear with a comment defending the practice as essential.
He wins the all-time” Imp of the Perverse” award for proving that he is a special snowflake and definitely not one of the crowd.
Which seems to be what he is about.
- David
March 2, 2016 at 7:28 pm -
Mr Ecks comments are – ‘Combative training is the only sort of worthwhile physical training’, it is a bad idea to chop your dick up like a banana about to be added to a bowl of cornflakes’. more sexist comments?
Eric Anderson, a professor of sport, masculinities and sexualities at the University of Winchester is supporting this. He holds four degrees, has published 12 books, and over 50 peer-reviewed articles about sport and masculinity, and is the trustee of the Sport Collision Injury Collective,which is committed to examining and removing negative outcomes of participation in contact sports, and his work shows that rugby is the last Victorian left over of male sexual repression.- Ho Hum
March 2, 2016 at 8:03 pm -
David, have you forgotten already that you did ‘Cut and Paste’ the other day? Maybe you need to get your head Cat Scanned? It might do us some good.
Whatever, if the rest of you want to read what, in the Age of Enlightenment, might have been seen as an entry for ‘Pseud’s Corner’, it’s to be found where David trawled his trolled text, at….
- David
March 2, 2016 at 8:20 pm -
Well done, that is the link I forgot to put in, but you are just trying to confuse the issue again, are you not?
- David
- nisakiman
March 3, 2016 at 4:55 pm -
“He holds four degrees, has published 12 books, and over 50 peer-reviewed articles about sport and masculinity…”
He has never, however, played rugby union. When he adds that one to his list of (theoretical) accomplishments, perhaps he might be taken seriously.
- Valeriekat
March 4, 2016 at 3:29 am -
I assume you have not played much rugby then David?
- David
March 4, 2016 at 10:09 am -
Rugby was compulsory at both my schools, from aged eight.
- David
- Ho Hum
- David
- Little Black Sambo
- windsock
March 2, 2016 at 11:36 am -
Our grammar school disdained soccer (too working class) and rugby union was compulsory for the first year. In the 2nd year, you were allowed to choose between rugby or hockey and then you stuck with that until you were 16.
I chose hockey – at least you got a weapon in that one, but playing rugby in the first year gave me an appreciation for the sport and I still enjoy watching it. Didn’t much enjoy being jumped on and rolled around in the mud much, but I never knew of anyone who was seriously injured in the playing of it.
- Ted Treen
March 2, 2016 at 12:18 pm -
I also abandoned Rugby Union at school in favour of Hockey. This was based on the assumption that Hockey, being a girly game, was far easier and much less likely to hurt than Rugby. Boy, was that the wrong assumption of the year (1964).
Hockey was the nearest thing I’ve ever come across to legitimised warfare and GBH, so I opted for the position of goalie, thinking that that would keep me safe. The first waist-high hockey ball which hit me showed me the error of my ways.
Meanwhile, during my entire 7 years of secondary education, I was aware of one fractured collar-bone and one mild concussion on the rugby field. Hockey certainly produced more injuries.
Girly game my backside!
- windsock
March 2, 2016 at 1:23 pm -
Yes. A thwack (accidental sir!) on the ankles with a hockey stick often left me limping for the rest of the week.
- binao
March 2, 2016 at 2:17 pm -
It’s a very long time ago, but I can still hear Mr Woodward the games teacher, at a very ordinary state grammar: ‘At this school we play rugger. If you want to play soccer there’s a girls school down the road.’ It was the ’50s.
Football was nevertheless introduced.My observation of the local entitlement fuelled non-leaguers hasn’t changed my opinion.
Maybe it’s the fancy coloured bootees they wear?
- binao
- windsock
- Mudplugger
March 2, 2016 at 4:07 pm -
I attended a school where the thuggish game of Rugby Union was compulsory throughout the autumn term, without even a hockey-option (or any other option). Not being great-of-build or hard-of-thinking, I soon worked out that there are two ways to avoid ever being injured at rugby.
Plan A, avoid joining in the game at all – developing chronic Athletes Foot proved a long-term winner, as no-one wants your allegedly scabby, infectious feet in that cosy communal ‘bonding bath’ after the game.
If Plan A fails and you are compelled to take part, then on no account should you ever get within 50yds of the ball – all the other 29 barely-evolved, Neanderthal players seem unduly keen to have some contact with that dangerous ball or with anyone else who happens to be touching, or even vaguely near, the ball at the time, so staying half a field away renders you quite immune from their attentions. As with all ball-games, the trick is to keep your eye on the ball at all times, then keep your maximum possible distance from it. As a bonus, going home with still-pristine rugby kit, unburdened with ingrained mud and manure, is always rewarded with a happy smile from mother.
A real pro can also extend the mythical ‘Athletes Foot’ yarn all through the spring cross-country season, emerging just in time for the more sophisticated delights of the cricket season, with which the aberration of communal bathing was not a requirement. It worked for me.- windsock
March 2, 2016 at 4:56 pm -
Good advice…. I remember one game when I was winger, got the ball, was racing down the pitch, no-one in front of me…. but I was never an athlete, and my breath was getting laboured and I was slowing down. I looked over my shoulder and saw the whole of the opposing town bearing down on me with no one of my own to pass to. A quick calculation and I figured my opponents would reach me before I reached the try line…
So I threw the ball into touch.
Mr Rankin the games teacher went bonkers: “What did you do that for?”
“I didn’t want that lot jumping on me,” says the 12-year-old sedentary windsock. “I’m not stupid.” (The most sporting I ever really got was playing chess.)
Suffice to say I was never a winger again.
- windsock
- Ted Treen
- Little Black Sambo
March 2, 2016 at 12:32 pm -
“nestled among steepling fells”
Don’t you just love the Guardian? Who else would pay for that sort of stuff?- Robert Edwards
March 2, 2016 at 12:58 pm -
The Indepen… Ah, no, they’ve just had a ‘reorganisation’.
- Robert Edwards
- rick
March 2, 2016 at 12:46 pm -
“one of the nasty big boys tackled her little precious, and gave him a broken nose, a fractured leg and a fractured cheekbone with concussion.”
The injuries occurred over three separate occasions. It might have been just one of the big boys, in which case there’s probably a few questions to answer.
I played rugby at school and found it not only dull and pointless but terrible, being struck down into the mud by great hulking brutes and being expected to care about who actually won. It’s not for everyone – I preferred cross-country running – and although a good game, should be voluntary for self-selecting teams of great hulking brutes; those with slighter frames or a dislike of being hurled to the ground should be able to do something else, like paragliding if the school insists on risking life and limb. Now that I recall, a chap at our school had his neck broken on the rugby field and ended up paralysed in a wheelchair. - Lisboeta
March 2, 2016 at 1:34 pm -
First they came for the leap-froggers, and I did not speak out because I was not a leap-frogger.
Then they came for the handstanders, and I did not speak out because I was not a handstander.
Then they came for the daisy-chain makers, and I did not speak out because I was not a daisy-chain maker.
Then they came for the climbing frame climbers, and I did not speak out because I was not a frame climber.
Then they came for the playground runners, and I did not speak out because I was not running in playgrounds.
Then they came for the conker-players, and I did not speak out because I was not a conker player.(Apologies if I have the banning chronology wrong.)
- Peter Raite
March 2, 2016 at 5:11 pm -
The idea that RU is only for toffs is a myth perpetuated by those with some sort of axe to grind it with. My father, the product of the local grammar school, who after after a series of false starts ended up as a somewhat indifferent insurance agent who managed to just about keep a roof over our heads, played Union until he was 50. Thus much of my 70s childhood was spent nursing a bottle of lemonade and a packet of crisps in some drafty clubhouse or other, waiting for when the combat outside was over and everyone end up inside in a spectacle that was just as mystifying, but somewhat more amusing. Most of his team-mates – and the various opposition – did not seem so far social removed. Most would be pigeon-holed as middle class, with a smattering of those at the extremes either side. Union was, of course, the “amateur game” at the time, and so was naturally those who had other gainful employment played it. Even ain Hull – home to two League teams – we played Union at school. I was constantly exhorted to apply myself better by the games teachers, not least because they knew my father’s world record for one aspect of the game, one which still stands and which he will die unbeaten (sadly, probably fairly soon)
In my mid-1930s I found myself in another city, sharing a house with my cousin, who played with the local ladies team. Somewhat inevitably I ended up accompanying her to matches, an environment I found strangely easy to slip back into, so familiar it was to me. I also had an on-off relationship for some time with one of her team-mates, which was a nice bonus.
Does Rugby – and especially Union – have its hazards? Of course it does, but no more so than many sports, and certainly far less than some, skiiing being an obvious high-risk pastime. A few years back, when Professor Nutt pointed out the self-evident reality that taking MDMA is no more dangerous than horse-riding (and arguably less so), I decided to see if I could tabulate the number of equine-related fatalities in then-recent years. Although ity was an exercise I never completed, I identified 39 fatalities in the preceding decade. Of these, 28 were female and 11 male, while 19 were under the age of 30, and 11 under 18. It was notable, though, that the vast majority of deaths were only reported in the industry media, rather than the mainstream.
- Mudplugger
March 2, 2016 at 8:32 pm -
Ah, Rugby League – there’s a proper game, apparently. Despite avoiding all forms of football, as a poor young teenager I inveigled my way into a job as one of ‘Fagin’s Programme Sellers’ at the local rugby league club. What a racket – the club’s control systems were so bad that less than half the takings ever got to the club, the rest went into the sellers’ pockets, with the addition of all the short-changing we’d done to fans in a hurry outside the ground – an hour or so of that would pay for a month or two of fags & other teen-treats.
There was a ‘pecking order’ of thieving at the club – programme sellers were at the bottom end of the food-chain, the cream job was as a turnstile operator – the foot-pedal was so imprecise that a skilled operator could open the gate without the counter advancing, so the whole ticket-price went into the operator’s pocket – most operators used a formula of ‘one for me, one for the club’ – they made big money. Not surprisingly, the club went bankrupt, but it was go0d while it lasted, although I never advanced to the turnstile racket. Despite free admission and humping one of the cheerleaders, I never watched a match – life’s too short for that complete waste of time.
- Mudplugger
- Ian B
March 2, 2016 at 5:22 pm -
My own view is that nobody should be forced to play sports at school. I loathed every second of it. I formed the view there, and even stated it to one of the masters, that anyone voluntarily standing in front of a cricket ball is clinically insane and no way was I ever going to try to catch one. Which got me a detention.
Call me a girlie-man if you like, but if people want to play sports, fine. But let the sane children spend their time doing something useful instead of this pointless nonsense.
- Peter Raite
March 2, 2016 at 5:43 pm -
Luckily for me, by the time I reached senior school, one of the “games” options was not only ten-pin bowling, but the alley was closer to my home than it was to the school, so I it was a very short day. Said establishment was situiated on the lcoal industrial estate, so an added bonus was the occasional copy of <Mayfair by the roadside, discarded from a passing vehicle (sometimes obligingly in a carrier back to keep it dry)
- Ian B
March 2, 2016 at 7:08 pm -
Those were actually left by the Porn Fairy.
- Ian B
- Mr Ecks
March 2, 2016 at 6:24 pm -
Combative training is the only sort of worthwhile physical training. Rugby has some element of this but it is not too practical. Boxing is a first-rate use of training time so long as you remember that good as it is it does not train for realistic situations –multiple opponents, weapons, attempted surprise attacks etc.
- Hadleigh Fan
March 2, 2016 at 6:30 pm -
I played rugby in a Welsh grammar school in the first half of the 1960s. In five years I touched the ball once, and that was when I was carrying it up to the pitch. I didn’t know the rules, and nobody ever taught them to me, which is probably a good thing because they are different now. The sports master imposed a rigid sports uniform policy, which was rather corrupt since he ran the only sportswear shop in the town. Since I’d passed my 11+ in a different county, when I arrived at that particular school I was younger than all my classmates, and in particular the individuals who had passed their exam at the second try (no pun intended) aged 13. If I had exhibited the slightest bit of talent, which I didn’t, it would have been absolutely pointless playing with people with significant talent or the musculature that you develop with an advantage of 2 1/2 to 3 years additional growth. One of my classmates went on to play professional rugby, but as far as I was concerned the whole business was a complete and utter uncomfortable waste of time and effort. As for grammar schools providing a wonderful education, only two people from my year went on to university, in general the O-level performance was shameful, and the lucky sods who went to the secondary modern school got all the attractive looking girls – in those days only the Mingers were selected for grammar school. The secondary modern kids also avoided having their day spoilt and wasted with rugby. The downside of going to the secondary modern school was that there were zero expectations of you, zero facilities, and what appeared to be barely qualified teachers. Not that teachers in my school were anything to write home about, despite the fact they were mostly graduates and taught wearing academic gowns rather like at Hogwarts.
Perhaps the girls weren’t all Mingers, but the sister of one of my classmates received an injury on the hockey pitch the went gangrenous, required the amputation of a leg and later proved fatal. The dead girl was probably one of the most attractive looking in the school. As to whether in general the hockey pitch was more dangerous, all I can say is that the woman who supervised the girls at hockey was probably the most fearsome-looking lesbian I have ever been terrified by, so regardless of the danger of being hit by a club, the piercing gaze from this ghastly dyke probably had the same effect of gazing at Medusa without taking the precaution of seeing her through a mirror!
Despite never actually touching the ball during a game, I often received minor injuries because the bastards who knew the rules knew exactly when and how to commit fouls. No one is more surprised than me to discover that you aren’t allowed to tackle someone not holding the ball, not allowed to punch them in the face, nor are you allowed to kick them wherever the toe of your boot can reach. It also came as something of a surprise to me to discover that there are places in the world where if you put a jacket on a hook with a few pennies in the pocket they would still be there when you came back to it. My experience that Welsh grammar school is that some scrofulous little shitbag would go through all the pockets and remove anything of interest or value. We used to buy sweets in the school tuck shop, and if he reads this he will discover that most of the sweets that he stole from my pockets were contaminated with dried up bits of snot.
The only pleasurable moment I can remember in all of this was the discovery that if one got out of the windows of the gymnasium and crawled across the flat roof to the rooflights of the girl’s changing room you got a real eyefull as they came out of the showers, and Mingers or not they generally look better stripped down than they did fully clothed, although that is a recollection some 53 years old and probably embellished when looking through the rose tinted spectacles of time.
- Peter Raite
- BritInMontreal
March 2, 2016 at 5:54 pm -
At William Hulme’s we played union on the autumn term, lacrosse in the spring and cricket in the summer term. Rugby union in Manchester? everybody hated it, also the cricket – lacrosse being an excuse for adolescents to hit each other with sticks. I remember two injuries in 7 years of rugby vplaying, one dislocated shoulder and one ruptured kidney, not mine, I hasten to add. My elder brother played union for many years. his peak being the Gosforth 2nd team. The only injury he had in about 20-25 years was a dislocated shoulder. My sister at MHSG played hockey – although, I believe the rules say you shouldn’t raise the stick above waist level, she got whacked in the mouth and lost a tooth.
- Ms Mildred
March 2, 2016 at 6:08 pm -
Nothing like an anxious school fee paying professorial mum to stir it up for Rugby union . She could have sent her son to the local sink school and maybe he would only play heading a football and needing a new knee at a young age. Tennis anyone? More new joints than you can shake a stick at. Skiing lots of lovely leg fractures and being caught in avalanches. Flying and crashing on to a line of cars.Riding and falling off from a height and being kicked or stamped on. Don’t mention motor cycles…..lethal! I like RL, coming from Warrington. Dad took me to matches in my mid teens. Bevan snaking his way to the touch line. Plumptious front row forwards then . Now they are towering heaps of muscle clattering into the opposition and getting sin binned. In the posh game they spend a lot of time in untidy clumps, disentangling themselves and drinking lucozade from a fancy carrier. Rugby league may be gentile but it flows. Refs give a blow by blow run down of how a try went to ground. All so civilised. And techy too. TRY says the giant screen. Slide on your front on the grass and get up without a mark. In olden times they were smothered in mud during a match. Now they play in summer. How girls blouse can you get?
- Junican
March 2, 2016 at 8:53 pm -
From Leigh myself. I remember your Bevan-boy. I was a keen fan for a long time in the days when Jimmy Ledgard was full back for Leigh.
Leigh signed a well-known sprinter (can’t remember his name) to play on the wing. He was fast all right. He played one game and that was it.
Rugby League was never a soft game. The players were hard as nails. The difference between League and Union, apart from the rules, etc, was that League was more one-to-one than Union. Two less forwards make quite a difference. Also, the ‘loose forward’ (the player on his own at the back of the scrum) was intended to play more as ‘dual use’ player. For all intents and purposes, apart from the actual scrums, he was an extra back.
Great game to watch – fast and furious.- Bunny
March 2, 2016 at 11:01 pm -
Hello to both of you, enjoyed reading your comments, I’m originally from Culcheth.
- Bunny
- Junican
- Eccentric
March 2, 2016 at 8:48 pm -
In wiser years to come.
The cotton wool ‘Over Protection’ and associated nanny Child Saving BIG industries, will be seen as very serious forms of Child Abuse. Perpetrated by all the usual vile suspects for careers, ratings & profit all deviously masked by Mass Deception – as so called ‘Child Protection’.
And, ’twas not Learned Lefty mass media (non-extant until WWI) that first waxed sickeningly fictional about elite Anglo edjukayshun & sport as in ‘Tom Brown’s Schooldays” at Rugby Public School. (Where, in the SeXy 70s this Yorkie born correspondent once had the dubious honour of playing formerly favoured ‘Soccer’ on Rugby School playing fields hallowed turf .)
Anglo elite Public Schools for rabid Right wrong-uns, where until the very recent late 20th Century all manner of Toffs’ Child Abuse were permitted, nay, encouraged even ritualized. Not least their so called ‘Character Forming’ mental and physical bullying, plus ‘Shock Horror’ – SeXual Fagging of young boys from age 8! No doubt today’s rabid Right elite Child Abuse VICTIM-SURVIVORS needing BIG Compo/FAT Fees, Tory Toffs CamerCon & Co learned their fine lines in sneering and cycle-of-abuse bullying from fellow Lords Snooty & Pals at Harrow, Eton, Rugby, et al.
Meanwhile, tough Northern Rugby League is also not for soft Southern bastards!
- Bunny
March 2, 2016 at 10:58 pm -
I went to a Rugby League school, played for a local league side and played league at university level (ok we were an Institute of Higher Education but were allowed to play in the university’s league), my nose was broken on three occasions, dislocated my left shoulder and managed a concussion. Looking back on it I realise that I enjoyed it and would not like to see it stopped. As for the idea that League is somehow safer than Union, that is a joke as the old car sticker used to say ‘Give blood, play Rugby League’.
- john malpas
March 3, 2016 at 1:15 am -
Shouldn’t you be wary of any activity that requires the young male to imitate grown men grasping each other vigorously. And then claiming they enjoy it.
Any way affirmative action in all its glory should have an effect. - Ms Mildred
March 3, 2016 at 9:01 am -
Amazing how we have bleatings about sexism for a less loaded topic such as rugby League V Union. A sure sign of the times that you cannot discuss anything, or use certain words, these days without risking being accused of an ism of some kind. I am an unusual female to be interested in Rugby and other ball games. My female second cousin works at the Man U ground as she is a very keen supporter. Yet women in quizzes fear sport questions. The blond egg head lady gets chosen to answer sports questions, knowing she may be beaten. Is that sexist? My very long lived auntie at 103 still wanted her Sunday treat of formula one on tele. Woe to any carer who got in her way to stop her sort of watching, as her eyesight so poor and deafish too. Is there nothing not tainted by an ism accusation these days? Some women have taken to imitating men. Public drunkeness, swearing in public. Tattoos in visible places. Fighting in the street. I am pretty sure the suffragettes are turning in their graves. Then we end up with a highly educated female wanting a tough male sport sanitised out of existence. The times are out of joint.
- JimS
March 3, 2016 at 11:53 am -
Doesn’t it come down to good supervision?
I survived rugby at school without any injury. There were times that I got swallowed up ‘in the loose’ and others feared for my safety but I always came out unscathed. The secret was rolling up in a ball and leaving nothing sticking out!
On the other hand, why would anyone want to play cricket? Totally boring and then, just as you doze off a lethal hard ball comes hurtling out of the sky! The sticks they use are pretty nasty too. Hockey is much the same, except they all have sticks, the ball being just as hard.
British Bulldog! Polly On The Mop Stick! Fleeing from ‘the Beak’! Happy Days!
- Major Bonkers
March 3, 2016 at 3:32 pm -
And it came to pass that the prophet Dave came forth from his tabernacle on his holy hill. And he spoke unto his people saying:
‘I hath negotiated a bloody good deal with the uncircumcised Belgians and also the square-headed ones. It shall transform the land of Britain into a land of milk and honey; the flocks shall prosper and be turned into McNuggets and kebabs, the fruit of the vines shall prosper; and all shall flow even more freely through the gutters of our major conurbations on the eve of the Sabbath than they do at the moment. The land shall be so prosperous and our dole scroungers shall wax so fat that we shall import even more dole scroungers unto our land. The people will rejoice in my wisdom and call me most high.’
‘All that you lot hath to do is agree with me.’
‘Harken unto me, for I shall tell of what will come to pass should ye not do as I command and disobey my holy advice unto ye.’
‘Firstly, the sky shall be filled with signs and portents.’
‘Then shall the river Thames flow with blood; a plague of frogs and locusts will blight the land of Britain; darkness shall cover the Earth; man shall be married to man, and they shall lie down together. Rugby football shall be banned and instead turned into a game of ‘It’. The four horsepersons of the apocalypse – Angela, Donald, Boris, and Jeremy – shall stalk the land and the firstborn shall be slain.’
- Bill Sticker
March 3, 2016 at 4:36 pm -
Major Bonkers, you know as well as I do that you cannot have plagues of frogs and locusts at the same time because they cancel one another out. As for the Thames flowing with blood, doesn’t that still happen after a Chelsea vs Milwall fixture?
- Bill Sticker
- Eccentric
March 4, 2016 at 9:25 pm -
Real meanwhile, WAY back in Swingin ’63…
https://fr.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hsimp=yhs-002&hspart=CND&type=A79FEF560EC_s58_g_e_d_n&p=this%20sporting%20life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7zbNaQDucA - Eccentric
March 4, 2016 at 9:32 pm
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