January 1967

I suppose that  bit of background won’t go amiss! In January 1967, I was still at school, still supported Huddersfield Town, and (apparently) still went to church. All 2008 comments are in Brown!

January 6th: Had a haircut – bought the diary! Decided to go to Blackburn (tomorrow)
January 7th: Match postponed – couldn’t go to Blackburn. Fartown (RL club) played St. Helens
January 8th: Went to church. Later went to New house

And that’s it for the first week. Looking at what follows, the entries tell me why the match was postponed – but read on and see for yourselves: (Remember I only became 15 last month!)

January 9th:     Sledging. Town for Division one (accompanied by a small drawing of a football ground)
January 10th:   School starts. Went to Halifax. 7-0 against BA. Not sure what the BA is – although at the time Bradford had two clubs: City and Park Avenue
January 11th: School second day. Clayton (teacher) is a fool. Went to rugby practice and to Mrs. Stocks. Mrs Stocks was my elocution teacher!
January 12th:  Moved (house) to 88 Warrenside. Steeny (Mr Steen – teacher) is an Irish Lepracorn
January 13th:  Steeny is still a fool. Kept in by him.
January 14th:  Town won (beat!) Bolton 2:1. Televised

From here – to be in keeping with the diary, weeks will start on Sundays. There are numbers in the margins – but I don’t know what they mean

January 15th: Went to Church. Saw ‘TOWN’ on tele. 3 pages of project.
January 16th: School. Cliffy kept us in all for the sake of a pencil – silly old fool. ‘Cliffy’ was Mr. Cliffe, the Woodwork teacher. He could be a real cross-patch.
January 17th: Did 2 pages of project. (Geography Project)
January 18th: School. Practice. Went to Robbo’s. Alan Robinson now lives in south Africa somwhere. He wrote to me once, just after Friends Reunited started charging for replies – which I wouldn’t pay. Shame.
January 19th: Have to go to St. Augustine’s for training. This was Rugby League training – I played with the Town boys.
January 20th: Had a bath. Went out with Michael (Blackburn). saw Holly (Paul Holberry) in town.
January 21st: Played Rawthorpe – Lost 37-0. Town played Charlton and won 2-1. Hellwell’s first.

A sad week then – losing 37-0 to Rawthorpe. Up until this year, my school – Deighton, had won everything in local rugby. Only St. Augustine’s itself ever matched us at rugby. By 1966/67 however, the older boys, the big lads (some of whom would play – briefly – professionally) had left to start apprenticeships here and there. The school ‘age’ year then, began in January, so many had already had their fifteenth birthday before the 66/67 year started. With my own birthday being in December – I was one of the youngest. Our team this year was made up of some younger 5th years (me) and some older 4th years.

January 22nd: Didn’t go to church. Went to Mam’s. Grandma came. Mam was my mum’s mum – we always called her ‘mam’ Grandma was Dad’ mum.
January 23rd: School. Perrin used me as an experiment. Wilkinson’s a fool and I’ve done bombheads homework. Don’t remember bomb head! Other two are teachers
January 24th: Perrin kept me in for trailing elastic around the school. Went to Mrs. Stocks. The elstic in question was that found inside a golf ball!! We trailled it all around the school – inside and out. Great fun.
January 25th: Didn’t do games (no kit). did 3 pages of project on Ukraine. To finish Canadian Prairies.
January 26th: Went to St. Augustine’s – practiced new rule
January 27th: Easy day at school. Went to town with Michael (Blackburn) and Pete (can’t remember – lived across road from me)
Janaury 28th: 3rd Round cup v Chelsea. Lost 1-2. I went to Town ground. Ref. on their side. ‘??’ played a blinder.

I’ll continue the last days of this month on the Feburay page.