TGS Pupils - Brian Sutton

"I enjoyed reading about Jimmy Pearce. I knew him from the year dot, he lived around the corner from me (Henningham Rd) in Marshall Rd (at the house later on recognisable as the only one getting the affordable TLC the rest of us families couldn't afford!). He was (appropriately) STREETS ahead in soccer as soon as he could walk - a real lesson in how good you have to be even to dream of becoming a professional sportsman. I had the opportunity to discuss him with Graeme Souness a couple of times. Graeme reckoned Jimmy was the most skilful footballer he had ever come across - as we all did, Tottenham boys at 15, etc...but...Graeme's three criteria for a pro footballer were, in order of priority:

1) Take a knock

2) Give a knock

3) Skill,

and unfortunately Jimmy was too injury prone in his opinion.

I was at TGS in between 1957 and 1964.

Looking back I recall all the good times (what's a bit of bullying between friends...) and it was a great place to be, it served me very well academically.

I was taught and mentored by the GREAT Laurie Cooper (rightly highlighted in your site) including building model aeroplanes after school, as was my brother Roy 13 years before, for whom Laurie was also a hero. Roy became a teacher there after I left, in fact. What a great head Laurie would have made, given more time at it earlier, as opposed to the classicist Witt who was the incumbent in my time there. I recall Topham as Deputy Head, hard but fair, I suppose, the fist in Witt's somewhat limp glove. One abiding memory of Laurie was in the staff/pupil cricket match one year where he hit sixes to all corners of Queen Street, and beyond!

That reminds me of watching Strack at 400 metre running at Queen St - I couldn't believe how fast some of those guys were. I was the classic seven stone weakling with asthma, so that tells you everything about my school sporting achievements :-(( I put that right later on, after school and when the asthma left me.

As for teachers...

I have to mention firstly, Roy (my brother) who also taught Biology as well as Woodwork - but after I left. I recall in one of his school magazines from his time as a student there that "despite the cloudy weather, the air around Sutton was always blue!" A good guy to have around, naturally!

Baxendale was mainly Physics I think, a real gentleman (as many of the teachers were) taught me as did...

...Peter Collinson (Mr Pete ever since he told people to call him Mr on the school trip to St Malo (where we had the usual schoolboy fun shouting out the name of the French fizzy drink "Pshitttt". I remember catching an octopus on the rocky beach there and the chef at the "exchange" school we were staying at cooked it for the three of us. Really good! Do people who went on those trips - my first would have been late fifties? - remember the Power project for tidal energy being built over those years on the River Rance - still the biggest in the world and a beacon for the green lobby just now. Also the German fortifications on the cliffs, and Mont St Michel. What an education we got then, really. A shame if Risk Assessment and Health and Safety do away with all that - even if a few of us were nearly blown off the deckchair stack on "La Falaise" on the windy, choppy overnight trip over there one year!!

Beddall was mainly Chemistry; yes, he was a great inspiration both in Chemistry and also in Cricket. he didn't play much (if at all) while I was there because he had damage between the thumb and forefinger of one hand owing to a chemistry test tube experiment going wrong in his hand many years before.

Des Ball was mainly French, I thought. Gave me (and the whole class) my first detention one day, resulting in quite a stand off meeting between him and my Dad. Strangely never got on really well with him after that! I remember on horrible wartime story of his about a guy kicked in the goolies by a horse, and thereafter every now and then (every month?) they would blow up to the size of a football for a while, and then go down again! I guess that story could only be told in a boys' school, but not nowadays I suppose!

Loved that "wild" Elliott - you made me remember! Hair everywhere, and now that we have the benefit of Jack Nicholson to compare him with, his eyes had that semi-manic way of looking around all the time....

John Fear was universally known as "Fred" Fear (that rolling FF alliteration always highlighted by Billington and our English text book authored by the appropriately alliteratively named Ronald Ridout!) and lived in Creighton Road I think - another great character

Remember "Punchy" Herbert's unique habit of pencilling names for any event and then overwriting them in ink - I'd never seen that before, but he ALWAYS did it..remember the end of term Coastguards and Pirates game in the Gym - all the equipment out, no touching the floor as two or three guys chased the majority "pirates", converting them to Coastguards as they were touched. Wouldn't be allowed now on "health and Safety" grounds, the universal excuse for killing fun activities. I seem to recall the star place to be was balancing precariously on the basketball boards, if you could get up there (I couldn't!)

Mr Hunter had a steel plate in his head from a wartime injury...we all thought they hadn't quite got all the grey calls back in, as his lessons were always a little laid back and meandering.! Lovely man, though.

Sklarz - I recall another tendency was to "forget about" boys who weren't up to it intellectually in his opinion. This included the captain of rugby one year - literally never spoke to him in class again. This was a tall guy who I think was too big and ugly for Sklarz to take risks with. I'll have to think about what the name of that guy was...ah yes, Noble...tall, fast but no good at Latin (allegedly). I recall he broke a leg at Rugby, on the West field. Dented my faith a bit - but then my brother Roy had to give up Rugby with what we might call nowadays and ACL injury, I think. Noble was back flattening opposition in no time. Sklarz had at least half a dozen fluent languages we all thought.

Somehow I always associated him with my school dentist, up Park Lane, who never gave anaesthetic (pocketing the profits maybe.) Possibly just as well as sometime after I stopped going to that dentist, a kid died under a general there.

Poor old Noble. He also got accidentally hit on the head by one of the teachers (more personal allegations next time) as he (the teacher) was showing off waving a cricket bat around the class! He was rather worried for a few milliseconds! Might have had something to do with Noble's poor recollection of Latin conjugation that Sklarz was so irritated by. "I shall forget about you, Noble!"

Mathias - I recall getting 100% in an Applied Maths mock exam of his, a highlight of my time there (I'm afraid I was a Maths and Science anorak). He was a bit burly and full of himself, and I seem to recall his bursting into the class at the beginning of lessons, throwing the door open. I can't remember if we ever carried out our intention of unscrewing the hinges to see the door thrown flat on the floor....does anyone else recall that?

Well - there's lots more, but since I only just came across your wonderful site I haven't yet recalled all the scurrilous stories! Tunley - well, there's an opportunity..."