Voices from the Past

One of the joys of writing this blog is that, every now and again and thanks to the wonders of the internet, a voice whispers from the past. I've probably had more comments on my posts about Chalvedon School, comprehensive school in Basildon New Town than anything else, but recently I've had a spate of comments on posts about our time at Bernard Mizeki College in Rhodesia. This one, received yesterday is typical:

"I was teaching at Goromonzi secondary school at the time. I remember Bernard Mizeki well - it was one of the few schools that were good enough to invite my African students for a tennis match! Goromonzi was an 'African' secondary government school but our links to schools such as Bernard Mizeki and Peterhouse were strong."

Thank you to whoever sent this comment. I too remember the friendly, though very keen rivalry between Goromonzi, Peterhouse - a mainly white school - and Bernard Mizeki. While we played football against Goromonzi - picture shows the Bernard Mizeki 1st XI football team in 1963 - Peterhouse was a rugby school. The main meetings between the three schools were, therefore, athletics and, in particular, cross-country running. Peterhouse wasn't very good at cross-country but both Goromonzi and Bernard Mizeki were, so my memory is that one of these two schools usually won the competition, which included several other schools, on overall points.

I have very happy memories of training cross-country teams. Most of the boys loved their sport, and many had a natural talent for cross-country, the main job therefore being to get them to peak fitness. We did this by meeting outside the library (above) every weekday morning before everyone else got up, and doing a good five-mile run. Anyone acquainted with Zimbabwe/Rhodesia will know the beauty of Central African dawns, which made these occasions so pleasant. Needless to say I had to cheat to keep up with the squad, so I rode a bicycle from which I urged them on.

Memories, memories.... How good it is occasionally to sit in the sun, as I am as I write this, and remember those far off, happy days.