This summer, I travelled back to KES for the OE Sport Festival and, inspired by this I decided to write down a few of my sporting memories from my school days – something I’ve been meaning to do for 25 years. For a short while, at the age of 74, on a cool, Spring day earlier this year, I even contemplated offering to play in this year’s hockey match. Thank goodness common sense prevailed. It was too hot to even stand on the astro with my cold beer and watch, so well done to those who raced up and down with great enthusiasm for the full 70! 

Where to start? Well, it must start with thanks to those dedicated and committed sports masters and club secretaries without whom most of our sport would just not have taken place. At Shirley Junior, Messrs Dedman, Weight and Howard presided over the major sports. At King Edward’s there was much greater variety and therefore many more involved. Who can forget Micky Mason’s introduction to the skills of rugby and hockey? Ray Paull, Mike Sergeant and Mike Thomas stand out for their contributions to 1st team sport and I should also mention Fred ‘Knocker’ White as he ran the Cross country team. He once gave me a Saturday detention for pulling out (at late notice) of a junior team. He explained that if I wasn’t prepared to run around the common for the team, I could run around the school field for a couple hours by myself! Fred (a fearless and highly competent wicket keeper, well-known for keeping wicket whilst simultaneously puffing on his pipe) was hard but fair. In 1966, I was selected to Captain Hampshire U15 Cricket and he prepared and presented me with a beautiful Gray Nicholls bat for me to use in the matches. 

I saw Mike Sergeant a few times after leaving school, once, sadly at Mike Thomas’s funeral. When I learned of Mike Thomas’s terminal illness I went down to Southampton to see him and I took with me my set of his match commentaries for the 1st XV rugby matches he presided over. I got the impression he’d almost forgotten about them despite the time that he must have put in meticulously writing up each match on the ‘roneo’ original and printing them off. Now, for those who fondly remember Mike, and particularly those who played for him in his 1st XV, it might come as a shock to know that Mike’s first love was cricket. When he joined KES, he told me that he wanted to run the 1st XI cricket team but Mike Sergeant had seniority and had beaten him to it by a few months. Instead, he took the 1st XV. During our hour or two spent together, I gave him the choice of either leading out Wales at the Arms Park or England at Lords and he chose the latter. He still carried a black and white photo in his wallet of the cricket nets, with Wilton Road as a backdrop.

I can’t remember much about middle school rugby, but I do remember R H ‘Brutus’ Jones was a national selector for the U15 schools’ sides and it was largely his influence which resulted in my appearance for the South. With Richard Collins (KES 63-70) at centre, I played full back for Hampshire Schools. From the Hampshire side I progressed to a divisional trial at Osterley. Selected for the next stage, I seem to remember I was ill for the next game but the other full backs on show were poor and I therefore found myself selected ‘in absentia’ for the South to play the North in the England trials weekend in Nuneaton. 

I was the only representative from Hampshire and travelled by train from Southampton on the eve of the game. The rest of the team travelled on the day from London. Arriving quite late at the army barracks where I was billeted, I missed the evening meal so settled down for a peaceful night. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out either as I found out I was lodging with the West team who proceeded to spend most of the night on their rendition of ‘Aye you got a light, boy?’ by the 'Singing Postman’. Sadly, the trial went no better. We prepared for battle on a cold and frosty morning and in the distance the team from the North looked BIG. Close up, this impression was soon confirmed. Within the first few minutes I gathered the ball in my own 25 and proceeded up field only to be met by a straight arm tackle across the bridge of my nose. The medics were called and inserted two large cotton wool lozenges into my nostrils to stem the blood flow. There they stayed for the whole game. I wasn’t too bothered about the final score but I know we lost. I can’t remember much about the post-match and journey home but I assume I was glad to be home!    

Ray Paull was a bundle of energy and he needed to be when it came to running school and OE hockey simultaneously. At the age of 14 we quite often found ourselves playing for school in the morning and filling in for an OE XI in the afternoon. Ray ran four OE sides, normally two at home at the Sports Centre and two away. In those days we played strong club sides like Guildford, Marlborough, Bournemouth, Chichester and Worthing. There were no leagues, just ‘friendly’ and highly sociable games. Away matches were a meet at The Bassett in Butterfield Road and a lengthy car journey. There was no M3 or M27, but the traffic was less and we normally started early and came back late. There were no drink driving regulations either in those days so it was an ‘adventurous’ time. Of course, there was no astro turf either so matches were occasionally lost to the weather and some were played out on wet and boggy grass. The advantage of grass was that all matches were played at the same time, finished together and teams were entertained together by the opposition. These arrangements provided the strong social base for the game.  

Roy Adams managed the OE footballers when I played with them for a few months in the Autumn term of 1969. I’d played rugby in the previous 2 years with Mike’s 1st XV and when I saw the footballers playing with the round ball on the school field the temptation to return to football was just too great. Or perhaps it was the thought of Mike Thomas’s punishing pre-season circuit training? Either way, I enjoyed the football but remain, to this day, a little disappointed that I turned down the opportunity of playing a last season of rugby with my cohort. 

Malcom and his family at the 2026 OE Sport Festival