Sport

SPORT:

The school could not afford a cricket bat so they used a piece of wood cut down instead. For a hockey stick they used a limb of a tree with a clump on the end and used a tennis ball as a puck. They played that at recess. They played football and 'kick the tin' as well. In 'kick the tin' they would place a jam tin in the middle of a circle and someone would call a boy's name and that person would have to run in and kick the tin. If they missed, they would have to sit in the middle of the circle. There weren't a lot of sports played at that time.

Mr. Rogers, the principal, lived at Ardcloney (a big house still near our school). In Summer at lunch time they would sneak down the back of Ardcloney for a swim in Jacksons Creek, which was against the rules. When they got back they sometimes got caught because the teachers would feel their hair and if it was wet they would know that they had been swimming.

They used to play football against the Catholic school which was a lot bigger than their school. There used to be an oval which they played on where Coles is now. They would never win because if they did the Catholic students would give them a hiding after the match because they were much BIGGER and STRONGER than them. Mr Barr and his team thought it was easier to loose on purpose, rather than to get a hiding.

They used to write out their cricket and football teams when school was on and pass it around the class so they would know who was in what team, without the teachers knowing.

On Friday afternoons they had swimming lessons in Jacksons Creek near the Nook. It was like their swimming pool before they had a proper pool. Mrs Dunn took the lessons. By the time they got back to the school in the afternoon they were hot again. On one occasion a boy went home after swimming and found out he had forgotten something. So he had to go back to get it. He ended up drowning because he got caught on a snag by his togs and couldn't get off it. Later someone found him dead. The boy's parents lived and worked at Craiglee. There were also about another 5 or 6 people who drowned there due to them not being supervised.

This is a photo of Mr Barr at his home.