Net Preparations 1961

From left: Maurice Biggs, John Savage, Herb Atkins, James Hanks, Martin Sanctuary, NK

Those boxes were HEAVY - and I don't mean the 'box' in the foreground!  Rear of the pavilion in the distance, so over to the right was Morley Hall. I'm assuming we were going in the nets because most of us are donning pads, but I remember the nets as being some way away on the other side of the drive, back towards the school.

I was puzzled by (a) the fact that we're padding up in an area that wasn't used for cricket, (b) the wheel tracks, and (c) the mound of earth over on the right. All is revealed in the 1962 Magazine - soil had been removed from the Morley Hall 'slope' in the summer of 1961 and deposited in the nether regions of the cricket field. We were probably dodging bulldozers when the photo was taken. The mound was used in the Spring Term of 1962 as an extra obstacle for the House cross-country competitions - with steeplechase hurdles added on the approach for extra difficulty!

Herb Atkins

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