Clubs & Societies 1963

1963 Magazine Reports

Aero Club

‘During the past year club meetings have been well attended. We were able to arrange 2 trips, one to Manchester Airport and another to Leeds University where we had an interesting lecture on the theory of flight. We hope to arrange further excursions this year, and to continue with our more normal activities of model-making and competitions.

We should like to take this opportunity of thanking Mr Blackhurst for his invaluable help, and also his gift of books to the society. We wish him all happiness in his retirement. We owe a great debt of gratitude to Mr Hunter too, who has also left us, for without his help and guidance the club would not have been able to continue.

We welcome Mr Wilding, who has taken over control of the club and appeal to all members to rally round in support.’

Radio Society

‘We have not received a magazine report from this mysterious boffin-like group; perhaps the printed page appears to them as a thoroughly inefficient and outmoded medium of communication in this age of Telstar (the satellite, of course, not the ice-cream man!). However, we gather certain certain things are Going On; we saw a small motor chassis cautiously negotiating obstacles in the main hall without visible means of guidance or encouragement; and complicated items of electrical equipment are occasionally seen going into, or coming out of, Mr Law’s car-boot. We hope he knows what he’s doing and will not electrocute himself, his members, or for that matter, us, during the session that lies ahead.’

Sixth Form Debating Society

‘The Society is again in session with a full programme of debates and discussions to last to the end of the Easter Term. We hope to invite one or two outside speakers to address us on topics of interest which will promote plenty of healthy argument.

Our programme began with a political motion, “That this House would return a Conservative Government at the next election.” Derek Stott proposed the motion, but in spite of his very well prepared and confidently delivered speech he just failed to convince the majority of his audience and the motion was lost by the narrow margin of 2 votes. We wonder if this will be a case of Grange thinking today what the rest of England will think tomorrow. Mr Wilson, at least, can feel suitably encouraged.

Butterfield, Head Prefect, is the Chairman of the Society and rules with an iron hand (!) There seems at the moment plenty of enthusiasm for the society and we hope that this will be maintained and even increased, as the session proceeds.’

Chess Club

‘There is not quite the enthusiasm for chess in the school that there used to be, but we continue to run teams in the inter-school Chess League, and achieved moderate success last season. Matches are played on Friday evenings both by junior and senior teams. On the whole the juniors did rather better than their elders.

The chess club also meets at lunch-time for informal games, limited in number by the shortage of sets and boards.

Johnson (VIB Sc) won the “Silver King” knock-out competition.’