tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6561249004966522983.post2357878744568914002..comments2024-03-29T12:07:40.970+00:00Comments on Patrick Comerford: A baroque façade that tells the story of an old school and eminent theologiansPatrick Comerfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00558394038241172440noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6561249004966522983.post-76867554548261622342020-09-03T16:11:36.473+01:002020-09-03T16:11:36.473+01:00"It is said there was a cricket pitch on the ..."It is said there was a cricket pitch on the roof of the school. . . ." --Not quite a cricket pitch, but there was room for a pair of practice nets, where bowlers could bowl (on asphalt) to batsmen. The roof playground was about 20 feet by 60 (I remember from 1947-52), wholly enclosed in a chicken-wire cage 15 feet high, so balls would not be lost during play, and was used regularly for outdoor exercise, once or twice a week under the supervision of a retired military Physical Fitness Officer. The commonest game was "cradle fives,"in which cricket balls were thrown into a "cradle," the size of a bathtub, made of spaced wood slats curved into a single large bowl. This meant that, however thrown, each ball would bounce in some unexpected direction, good practice for slips fielders at cricket. Teams and tournaments were organized from time to time.<br />There were only a couple of other rooms at roof level, the Fourth Form classroom and a storage room where I remember a huge coir mat, probably used for tumbling exercises out in the cage. There was another door at the eastern end of the playground into the top level of the headmaster's house, strictly out of bounds to boys and probably masters too. The headmaster lived in the eastern end of the building, on the corner of Dean's Court (then called Dean's Yard, I fancy), on five floors, with doors on every floor into the school. The boys were admitted to the headmaster's main floor study only for his weekly reading aloud (I remember only C.S. Lewis's first Narnia book) or else for punishment. Caning was normal in my day, serious but not savage.Don Phillipson djc.phillipson@xplornet.comnoreply@blogger.com