1981-82 Boston Grammar School football reunion

This photograph shows the 1981-82 Boston Grammar School football team. If you are on the photograph or if you were involved with BGS football around that time you are invited to a reunion at the White Hart Hotel, Boston on 11 June 2016  starting at 6:30pm for 8:00pm.

The reunion is being organised by Kevin Reeson. If you would like to attend the reunion then please contact Kevin either directly or via the webmaster.

The people on the photograph are:

Back Row

Chris Peall, Nick Pogson, Mark Craven, Jim McCullough, Steve Shipp, Martin Brooks, Philip Bullen, Rod Dunn

Front Row

Doug Laver, Shaun Frestle, John Allen, Mick Lyon, Kevin Reeson, Mick Smith

You can also find this photograph and list of names on the Old Bostonian Association wiki.

The School Goalkeeper - by Tyrone Dalby

When you're in late adolescence, it seems so important to have an identity, to make you stand out amongst your peer group; well that was how I saw it during the Sixties when I was at Boston Grammar School in my Lincolnshire home town, and from the ages of 17 to 19 I was the school goalkeeper, eventually receiving my "school colours" from the Headmaster, for which one had to go up onto the stage during morning assembly.

It all started when the Gannock's house team couldn't find a pupil to go in goal, my father had been a goalkeeper so I volunteered. Pretty soon I was diving acrobatically across the goal tipping hard shots round the post and my speciality became throwing myself onto incoming forwards' feet and smothering the ball. The reason for the latter was that, in the midst of depressing adolescence and losing one's girlfriend, at that time I had little concern for my health and safety! I then graduated to the school second eleven and when the first team keeper left the school, I became an unrivalled number one.

I particularly enjoyed the atmosphere on the team bus, many of us singing and playing acoustic guitars, we trotted out all the Sixties' chart numbers. Visits to Kesteven Teacher Training College and the RAF College at Cranwell, near Sleaford were a real eye-opener to me.

One encouraging and heartwarming detail I remember about all the Saturday morning home games was the sight of Mr Wilkinson, the elderly grey dignified History teacher, on the touchline; he had no connection with running the school team but he always turned out to show his support, and gave the very same shout of encouragement throughout each game - "Come on, the School," I don't recall him ever saying anything else; but I should have suggested to him a slight variation - "Come on, the School Goalkeeper," Ah, those were the days.

by Tyrone Dalby (BGS 1958-66)

Old Boys v BGS Football Match 2015

The annual football match between the Old Boys and Boston Grammar School took place on Thursday 26 March 2015. The Old Boys' final line up, after the replacement due to "man flu" of Martin Potter by Matthew Joyes, was:

1. George Dix
2. Ricky Drury
3. Luis Mundt
4. Steve Woodcock (Captain)
5. Tom Baxter
6. Scott Elleray
7. Nathan Hubbert
8. Matt Joyes
9. Elliot Pogson
10. Giles Elson
11. Paul Lenton
12. Alex Pycock
13. Paul Fossitt
14. Joe Vaughan

The final score was 3:2 to the Old Boys with goals by Luis Mundt, Tim Bell and Alex Pycock. The win was despite an own goal by George Dix.

Thanks to all who played or spectated. Photographs thanks to Peter Sharman and David Wortley.

OBA v BGS Football Match 2014 - report

I am disappointed to report a defeat for the Old Boys in the football fixture with the School First XI held on 3 April 2014.

The Old Boys took an early lead through the lively Lewis Mundt but conceded three goals to the School in a 'crazy' 15 minute spell at the end of the first half.

Paul Lenton - who had travelled from Nottingham to play - was unlucky to concede a (arguably) very dubious penalty and Jim Bedford - a double for Neville Southall - was equally unlucky not to save the resulting spot kick when he 'guessed right' but could not stop the goal to give the School a flattering 3-1 lead at the break.

The Old Boys steadied the ship at half time and controlled second half proceedings with some stylish, measured, 'Iniesta / Xavi' type play through midfield most notably from Drury, Hubbert, Chester, Parkinson and Baxter.

Strike pair - Giles Elson and Tim Bell - scratched and sniffed for opportunities 'up top' but had nothing to show for their considerable endeavours.

Old Boys' Skipper Steve Woodcock marshalled his troops from the back 'Beckenbauer' style assisted by the muscular George Dix and the classy, Kirton Town legend, Paul Fossitt at left back (The Blonde Maldini).

'Youngster' Elliot Pogson announced his arrival as a 'new' Old Boy when he scored from a remarkable free kick to put the Association back in the game at 3-2.

The impressive Nick Jackson almost stole a deserved equalizer for the Old Boys in the final seconds following a sublime 'dummy' from 68 year old super veteran - Mick Cockerill - but his effort squirmed agonisingly wide.

As is tradition, there were numerous robust, physical challenges throughout the game but this was an excellent, competitive match overall. A pleasure to watch. And all for free!

Congratulations to The School on their 3-2 victory this year.

Many thanks to match officials Steve Ross, Trevor Page and Pete Sharman for their contribution to the spectacle.

See you in 2015 !

Interested in playing cricket or other sports?

Old Bostonian Association Cricket Team 1965

As you should be aware by now, the 2014 football match between the "old boys" and Boston Grammar School will take place on 3 April at the school. See the relevant article for more details if you want to be a spectator - I believe that we now have enough players and officials.

Together with the annual General Knowledge Quiz, ably MC'd by Richard Anderson, and the Snooker Tournament, which, following the death of its previous organiser, Paul Mould, failed to take place in 2013, the football match makes up the group of recently held competitions between the "old boys" and the school.

In the past there were other competitions: cricket, tennis and golf come to mind but there were probably others.

The Old Bostonian Association President, Peter Sharman, tells me that someone has shown an interest in organising a cricket match. There's no date for it yet, nor even a guarantee that it will happen, but if you might be interested in taking part, please indicate you interest to Peter, either by email (president@bostonian.org.uk) or via his Facebook account - he is a member of the Boston Grammar School Alumni group at Facebook.

If cricket isn't your thing, or even if it is, perhaps you could think whether you might be able and willing to organise a competition between the "old boys" (under the name of the Old Bostonian Association, but not necessarily involving only member of the association) and the school. While it can certainly be a sporting, event, it doesn't have to be. Again, send any suggestions to Peter Sharman, you could add a comment to this post, or if you're a member of the Facebook group, why not start a discussion there and see if there is interest in your idea.

Just a footnote about the snooker, while, as indicated above, the death of Paul Mould put a spanner in the works of the annual tournament, a new organiser was appointed in 2013 and apart from running out of year, there was another reason for the competition not taking place: Nigel Wainwright was unable to raise a school team. A proposal was made to have a competition between "young" old boys and "more senior" old boys, so if this situation continues, we could be looking for even more snooker players than usual when this year's competition is being organised.

OBA v BGS Football Match 2014

The School v Old Boys - Annual Football Fixture

Date - Thursday 3rd April 2014 - Kick Off 4.30pm

The team is now commencing an intensive 48 hour period of 'carb and protein loading' in advance of the big game on Thursday.

Report to the Pavilion for 3.45pm approx.

Fag and a Red Bull at 4.15pm approx.

Kick off at 4.30pm.

16 man squad is confirmed as follows;

Giles Elson
Paul Chester
Steve Woodcock
Tom Baxter
Lewis Mundt
Tim Bell
George Dix
Ricky Drury
Nick Jackson
Nathan Hubbert
Alex Tilley
Paul Fossitt
Paul Lenton
Jim Bedford
Ben Parkinson
Elliot Pogson

Steve Woodcock is kindly arranging a kit for us but please bring spare shorts, socks etc.

Going is good to firm.

Drinks afterwards at The Indian Queen, Dolphin Lane from 6'ish - 6.30'ish onwards.

Please support your Association !

Danny Butterfield - now I understand

While working on the OBA website and magazine I occasionally end up doing random research on various old boys and other BGS related matters. A while ago I was researching (ex-BGS) football defender, Danny Butterfield.

In his profile I saw what seemed, even to me, not a fan of football, a slightly strange statistic. Now, scanning the news today, I found this article on The Guardian website by Georgina Turner, which explains all.

I am sure some of you footballer will already know this but it seems like something significant enough (though not recent) to record here.

There's... the Crystal Palace right-back Danny Butterfield, who had to play up front against Wolves in an FA Cup fourth round replay in February 2010 and ended up scoring the perfect hat-trick in seven minutes. (The story goes that Nathanial Clyne, who did play at right-back that day, might have moved to Wolves earlier in the week; had that happened, we might never have been able to enjoy Paul Merson's reaction on Sky Sports News – "They need the money, great result!")

Simon Ashberry - Feature

If you raise your head above the parapet you get tracked down. Simon Ashberry added details to the Old Bostonian Alumni Group on Facebook about John McDermott: It's Not All Black & White, the autobiography of Grimsby Town's John McDermott, which Simon has co-authored.

It's great to see people contributing to discussion on all of the OBA-related places around the web, but when someone writes something that needs a bit of research to work out (Simon didn't mention that he is co-author of the book), one thing leads to another and I tend to find out more about that person than I already knew.

In this case I found that Simon has been involved with Bradford Community Broadcasting for a long time and presents a regular programme. You can even listen to his shows on the web site.

Simon previously wrote Come and Sit with Us: A History of Boston Town 1964 to 2004 which is pretty self-explanatory. He is also webmaster of the Boston Town FC website.

Dick Massingham - Obituary

BGS Old Boys Cricket Team 1965 with Dick Massingham
on the front row, second from the right

Richard "Dick" Massingham

Dick passed away peacefully at Pilgrim Hospital on 4 April 2013, aged 85 years.

While Dick was not a Member of the Old Bostonian Association he played both cricket and football for the Old Boys teams.  For many years he was Registrar for Births Marriages and Deaths in Boston and was also a well respected local football referee.

OBA v BGS Football - Results

The final score for the 2013 match, held on 27 March, was BGS First XI 2 : OBA XI 3. So OBA regain the honours after losing in 2012.

OBA scorers were Lewis Mundt, Tom Baxter and James Munn.

OBA v BGS Football match 2013

Annual Old Boys Football fixture v The School is set for Wednesday 27th March 2013

Supporters welcome!

OBA Web site change

I've just removed a page from the OBA Website. The page in question was "OBA News". That's not to say there will be no future OBA news, just that this blog is a far better place for it. It means you, the reader, can comment, articles can automatically be advertised on Facebook, and it's just easier to post them.

There were two rather old articles on that page that haven't been published anywhere else, so I have reposted them here.

New notables on the wiki

John Cridland speaking
at the 2011 OBA Annual Dinner

There are two new articles on the OBA Wiki today. They are about two old boys who have gone on to very different careers.

• John Cridland is the current Director General of the CBI. He was one of two guest speakers at the 2011 Old Bostonian Association Annual Dinner and was also the guest at the 2012 Boston Grammar School Prize Giving. He is often in the news, making statements on behalf of the CBI.



Danny Butterfied

• Danny Butterfield is a professional footballer who has played for Grimsby Town, Crystal Palace, Charlton Athletic and Southampton. There is speculation that he is on the move from Southampton in the current transfer window. If there is any news it will appear on the Old Bostonian Association website. 

Simon Garner on 5 Live Sport

Simon Garner

Simon Garner appeared, talking about Blackburn Rovers on BBC Radio 5 Live's programme 5 Live Sport on 10 January 2013. If you would like to listen, it will remain on iPlayer for seven days (linked from the programme name above). The article including Simon starts at 17 minutes in, with Simon's contribution at 20 minutes 20 seconds.

Football

Simon Garner

Mike Pinner

Danny Butterfield

I have a wide range range of interests and some knowledge in a lot of areas, but we all have to have our limitations. One thing that doesn't interest me much at all, and therefore an area I know relatively little about (certainly compared to many of the people around me) is football.

New Wiki Articles (29 December 2012)

Pitcher Cup Winners 1973

I have created a few new articles in the OBA wiki today. There's no particular theme to them.

• Pitcher Cup Winners 1973
• Trip to Russia 1966
• Air Raid Shelters
• Speech Day 1959
• Debating Society

1991 Athletics

Boston Grammar School Sixth Form Sports Day 1991

When I set up the OBA Wiki project I intended to post at least one article a day. That was a resolution that was bound to be broken occasionally, and so it has been. It has been a few days since I posted a new article, but then in that time I set up this blog, so I can forgive myself.

I like the medium of a Wiki. Not only can many people contribute (and you are welcome to contribute to it) but you can get lost and when you start off intending to contribute an article on one subject, you can end up writing something on a totally different subject, or contributing small corrections or updates to many different articles. Whatever you do, it's all good, it's all progress.