BACK TO NEWSLETTER 2001 CONTENTS
Email 2001
Mark Farrand re John Dukes
From: Mark Farrand
Date: Tuesday, October 2, 2001.
Subject: Newsletter
Hi Nick
Another interesting message from the websites guestbook
Sent: Tue Sep 11 09:33:05 2001
Name: John Dukes 1948/53
Hometown: Lindford, Hants
Looking rather belatedly through the OC site I encountered the letter in 1999
from Brian Hanney - a direct contemporary at Clayesmore. He mentioned in his
letter P.G.(Piggy) Fry, Ian (Clopper) Pond, Malcolm Gasper and others. Memories
seem hidden but are awakened by a simple name. I was interested to hear of B.G.
(Bernard) Slater but was sorry not to have any news of Jeremy Spoor, both were
also direct contemporaries and, like most people of our generation, resolved to
meet in 1958 at the pub under Piccadilly Circus. We did not, of course! At that
time I was living in Barbados and could not get a "kitchen pass" and 7
days each way by boat made a long week-end. My very best wishes to all who may
remember me on the Cricket Pitch - who remembers the draw we forced on
Shaftesbury Grammar on their sloping playing field at Cann in 1953 when I kept
asking for the sight screen to be moved as their pair of bowlers were left and
right handed and so bowled either side of the wicket. A dishonourable draw I
suppose. Does anyone recall the experimental bomb we produced from dried Picric
Acid for Guy Fawkes 1952? We packed it in an inverted wine bottle, produced a
fuse from hessian string but forgot to allow for the fact that once over the
edge of the bottle it would fall in so our "fuse time" was cut in half
and we had hardly made the shelter of the bushes near the Ha-Ha before it blew!
Naturally, Carl Verrinder knew nothing of this escapade although he must have
wondered why we used so much Phosphorus Pentoxide in the Chemistry Lab
Dissector.
John Dukes (48-53)