Mr. Blackwell- History


Mr. Blackwell-similar to Les Gray from 70's Pop stars Mud.

 

Mr. Blackwell taught History while I was at Tulketh. He later went on to be the House master for Fylde House up to the closure of Tulketh in 2008. He like a lot of the male teachers at the time wore suits of various formal colours. He used to wear tinted glasses which made him look like Les Gray the lead singer of pop group Mud who were immensely popular at the time.

Mr. Blackwell a keen cricket fan and the coach to the first years’ cricket team. He decided on the squad of players of which I was one of, going to see the mighty West Indies side which included Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Andy Roberts to play England at Old Trafford in the Third test. .  

 We would be going on the second day of the test which was on a Friday which meant we would miss a full day of school lessons, happy days we all thought and not to mention the England side which included Brian Close, Tony Greig, (the captain) and Derek Underwood. Our packed lunches of sandwiches of various assortments and fizzy pop drinks in our sport bags off we went on the Shearing’s coach which picked us up from the school full of bravado and youthful exuberance with Mr. Blackwell, Mrs Rhodes (Needlework) and Mr. Smith (P.E) supervising us on the 30 mile journey to the home of  Lancashire Cricket Club.

On the journey to Manchester, we of course were given instructions on how to behave by Deputy Head Mr. Gibbons, who nipped on the coach before we set off from outside the school.  The teachers were strategically placed on the coach to watch over us..

Once on the ground the atmosphere was electric the carnival style a great experience. The day seem to just flash by I thought.

Sadly, England were 71, all out in their first innings as I recall. The mighty West Indies gave England a lesson in the art of fast pace bowling.  On the journey back Mr. Blackwell remarked on how quiet we all were. I had stuffed myself with potted beef sandwiches, crisps, biscuits and Lilt pop drink and felt queasily all the way home.  We returned to the school at 7pm to be met by our parents or chaperones to take us home.   

Our first’ year team unfortunately didn’t replicate the mighty West Indies in our fixtures in that balmy summer of 1976. And I never played cricket again for the school.

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