Mr. Dexter=Science and Chemistry

 

Mr. Dexter was the Head of Science Subjects when I started at Tulketh in 1975. His wife who at the time was on maternity leave also taught Science at the school. He had wavy dark hair and a penchant for dayglo shirts and dark brown trousers in fact he wore a different colour shirt every day. In the third year onwards, he taught mainly Chemistry or Physics at O-level standard. He taught my form 3O, Chemistry and Physics. I've got to say that I liked Chemistry slightly more than Physics. The confirmation of this theory was in the exams before Easter 1978 which were a couple of months earlier than normal due to need to sort our subject options for the final two years. The Maths block and one of the rooms in the prefab block next door became our camp for two weeks for the entire third year. I didn't pick up enough results to become part of either Chemistry or Physics GCSE in the final two years. 

Mr. Dexter other great passion apart from Science was the board game Chess. He organised a Chess club which ran every Wednesday lunchtime for Second Years in room 16, which was on the top floor along with the three other Science rooms and a lab for preparing lessons. His pet hates were kids who smuggled their packed lunches into the room and would have a prefect on the door to watch for this.  There were at least 12 different Chess tables set up on the desks with their pieces some slightly battered and worn from years of use but still a nice little set up, especially in winter.

Along with Sean Harris, Chris Sutton, Paul Walsh, Dennis Winder and a handful of girls, I use to play different people every week in a non-completive way. Until one day Mr. Dexter suggested we have an inter-House Tournament. In the first round I was pitted against Graham Naughton who was in Lonsdale House as I recall. I managed to narrowly win that heat which them and a couple of other wins in the next two rounds put me up against Dennis Winder from Bowland House in the Semi-Final. I was quietly confident of beating Dennis because we had played many times at home, we were next door neighbours and I had usually managed to beat him, even though he regular beat me at Subbuteo Football.

All the following week in my registration group Mr. Blackwell and the other kids were hoping I would make it to the Final of year 2 Chess Tournament. There was even a mention of it in the assembly on the day of the match. I could not eat my lunch for nerves and maybe that didn’t help because after a bright start my mind went blank and I made some bad tactical errors which resulted in Dennis Winder winning easily. To say I was gutted were an understatement.

As I walked wearily back to afternoon registration Mr. Dexter caught up with me and said, “Never mind I thought you give it your best shot, there can only ever be one winner.”  Mr. Blackwell, back in registration seemed to be more concerned with Liverpool F.C progress in the European Cup but he did say hard luck. Mr. and Mrs. Dexter both left Tulketh in the summer of 1978. As I recall Mr.Carefoot, carried on the chess club after Mr.Dexter left  


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