Belfast High School 1959/60

ny and all to do with skules

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justinr73
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Belfast High School 1959/60

Post by justinr73 »

Just looking at my dad’s school yearbook.

He went to Hutton Grammar in Preston.

They only lost a couple of games that year and apparently beat Belfast High School in the last game of the season.

Were you on the tour Rum?

It says my dad was switched from the front row to the centre and added some punch to the three quarter line. He tells me he got 17 tries and made the final pass on 20 more!
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big mervyn
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Re: Belfast High School 1959/60

Post by big mervyn »

justinr73 wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2020 11:28 am Just looking at my dad’s school yearbook.

He went to Hutton Grammar in Preston.

They only lost a couple of games that year and apparently beat Belfast High School in the last game of the season.

Were you on the tour Rum?

It says my dad was switched from the front row to the centre and added some punch to the three quarter line. He tells me he got 17 tries and made the final pass on 20 more!
Tries were hard to come by in them days. The Ulster Schools Cup final in 1960 was a 0-0 draw between Campbell and Inst! Even the great Mike Gibson, playing for the Cream of Ulster, couldn't conjure up a score.

Belfast High School haven't a particularly illustrious rugby pedigree. I think they're the only Belfast rugby playing Grammar never to feature in a Schools Cup Final.
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justinr73
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Re: Belfast High School 1959/60

Post by justinr73 »

I won’t tell him that.

Given that he’s previously informed me that he liked nothing more than a 0-0 (when he was still a prop, presumably), I was a bit sceptical about his tries although:
a) he’s still got his marbles and
b) there were a few cricket scores amongst the single digits and tries would have been just three points then I think!
Dublin4
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Re: Belfast High School 1959/60

Post by Dublin4 »

No score games were not unusual in those days.
In 1962 England v Wales ended 0 0.
In 1963 Ireland v England was 0 0.
They must have been like watching paint dry.
rumncoke
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Re: Belfast High School 1959/60

Post by rumncoke »

It was the leather ball and if memory serves me right if you kicked for touch it was your throw in . so the game became a crawl up and down the touch line.

If the ball got wet, it got slippy and heavy and hard to kick thus penalties were less predictable and transferable to points on the board ,especially in schools rugby.

Also a knock on was more frequent a mishandle was a knock on no such thing as re -adjustment - the ball had to caught cleanly .

Games were a series of line-outs and scrums -- ball in straight and had to be hooked -- no pushing before the ball was in.

In some ways the game was as hard, but friendlier to the unfit ,who could reduce it to coarse rugby , thus the need for the fake injury-to recover- was avoided -- a good long touch-- kicking the ball into a near by field did the trick.
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solidarity
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Re: Belfast High School 1959/60

Post by solidarity »

rumncoke wrote: Tue Sep 08, 2020 10:35 am ...who could reduce it to coarse rugby...
Many years since I read 'The Art of...'
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