OSAmag88

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 8 8
CLAss of '63
On Wednesday 24th October 2018 at around midday eighteen
Old Stationers from the Class of ’63 met at The Parcel Yard,
King’s Cross, for their fourth reunion in recent years. Needless to
say a good time was had by all.
We were pleased to welcome three new faces. Richard Cotton, a
former Mayor of Camden, the recently retired Reverend Stephen
Mares and that émigré to Turkish Cyprus Geoff Quick were
warmly embraced into the fold! We have some contact with
about 45% of our year group, and aim to engage more next year.
Aided by a few well-chosen pints we rolled back the years and
reminiscences were bounced back and forth across two long
bench tables. Richard Cotton pretended not to remember falling
into the boating lake at Sandown on our first year Form Outing,
led by Messrs Betton and Davis. Those of us in Form 1 all
remembered Mr Betton leading us onto the wrong ferry on our
way home. Consequently we arrived at Southsea instead of
Portsmouth Harbour, missing our train back to Waterloo. We
arrived home at about midnight, although some got back even
later as a result of Stephen Boulton (sadly not present) getting
his rucksack stuck in the sliding doors on the underground.
We also recalled a school trip narrow boating on the Dutch
canals in the Fourth Year, led by Messrs Zarb and Thomas. The
most notable memory of this jaunt was that “Taffy” Thomas had
a stunningly attractive wife who accompanied us, bewitching us
adolescent boys into gibbering idiots.
And Dave Clark confirmed that our Headmaster, “Nosh” Baynes,
really did say “this is going to hurt me more than it will hurt you”
before caning him, in this case for getting three detentions in one
week!
There was further chatter ranging on subjects as diverse as the
fear of Gus to the boredom of university chemistry courses. All
too quickly the lunch was over and we said our farewells,
determining to meet again in the Autumn of 2019.
Left to right: Keith Hacker, Clive Jackson, Stephen Mares, Robert
“Neddie” Segall, Richard Cotton, Nigel Dant, Peter Gotham, Simon
Gouldstone, Chris Bell, Peter Winter (at back), Frank Clapp, Steve
Bensley, Martin Lawrence, Geoff Edis, Jon Stern, Dave Clark, Alan
Burgess.
Geoff Quick also attended but appears to have eluded the
camera!
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