Clubs & Societies 1962

1962 Magazine Reports

The Aero Club

‘The club was formed in October (‘61) under the supervision of Mr Hunter and Mr Blackhurst.Amongst the club’s many activities the most popular are aircraft modelling and aircraft recognition. Competitions for these have been held with good prizes for the winners.

During the year a series of talks has been given by RG Welburn, LR Collinson, Lussey and Guy, and we were fortunate in being able to borrow an ejector seat from the Air Training Corps.A club library has been formed with a generous gift of books about Second World War aircraft from Mr Blackhurst. More books will be purchased later as club funds build up.’

Table Tennis

This year there has been a greater interest shown in table tennis than for many years. Apart from the usual “knock-out” tournament organised by Mr Minards, the House team competition was revived by Mr Pickles and matches against other schools were arranged.

This year the “knock-out” competition was won by Ogden (4Arts) who beat Stewart (4X) in a very good final. The team competition was won by a very experienced Staff team, in front of East, who were surprisingly beaten by North. Because of better facilities we were able to arrange matches against Carlton GS and Hipperholme GS.

One pleasing feature to emerge this season is the remarkably high standard of table tennis in Forms 3 & 4 (ie Grange 59ers and Grange 58ers), and this augurs well for next season when we hope to enter a team in a new Bradford School League.’

Student Christian Movement

‘This is a new society which was founded in September (‘61). Its aim is to present Christianity as a vital and practical way of life.

Some of the meetings have been joint ones with the Girls’ School SCM. The programme has been very varied and has included talks by many visiting speakers, slide shows, sometimes with tape-recorded commentaries, illustrating the work done in mission-fields as far away as Kenya, Japan and Thailand, discussions and even a poster competition.

The activities of the SCM, however, are not solely confined to meetings. At Whitsuntide a party of members, together with other boys, spent a week’s holiday at Copernwray Hall, a Christian Holiday Centre a few miles from Carnforth. This was a most enjoyable event.’

The Chess Club

‘Chess continues to be popular. The “Silver King” tournament attracted the usual large entry and was ultimately won by Schmidt, who defeated Eks in the final. There must be something in the theory that the Continental mind is better adapted to the game than the native English product.

Many matches have been played against neighbouring schools. The Senior Team, chosen from Eks, Schmidt, Hargreaves, Pfeiffer, Dalby, Arnott, Roberts and Bennett, played 12 games, won 6, lost 4 and drew 2. Two of their wins were against the Girls’ Grammar School. It says much for the dedication of these gentlemen that they did not allow their attention to be diverted from the pieces on the board by the pieces around it.

The Junior Team - Bannister, Ogden, Holland, Lawson, Johnson, Wood and Wilkinson - won 3 and drew 2 of 13 games.

Finally a word of thanks to Mr Wright (DG), who has spent much time organising the club and supervising those long-drawn-out Friday evening matches.’

Sixth Form Debating Society

This year the Debating Society has had rather a lean time, suffering from lack of support and from after-school competition from badminton and table tennis. The society suffered another blow at Christmas when we said goodbye to our chairman, Dudley Hargreaves, who had been a real tower of strength and whose shoes in every sense it was impossible adequately to fill.

Nevertheless, several successful meetings were held, attended by a small but enthusiastic group of Sixth Formers. The inevitable question of nuclear disarmament was spiritedly debated and another enjoyable evening featured a visit from Rev. A Taul, pastor of the Estonian Church in Bradford, who attempted to show that science and religion were complementary rather than conflicting.

The highlight of the session was an illustrated debate on classical music v. Jazz, when guest speaker Mr B Baines did his best to win the Cliff and Elvis fans over to the ranks of the Basie and Brubeck supporters, and Neal and Elizabeth Stott tried to convince an audience who remained oddly unpersuaded that Mozart, Ravel and Shostakovitch were to be preferred to any of them.

Once again our thanks are due to Mr Hardcastle for his unflagging enthusiasm and support for the society.