90 Woodlands, Rugby & Benhams

Woodlands Secondary School Upbury’s 13’s Rugby team had an away fixture at Woodlands one Saturday morning. Though I’d been dropped from the team I tagged along anyway with Twydall trio Clive Ward, Paul Parker and Stanley Slaughter, who were playing. Woodlands was a school with a reputation. Some real hard cases went there and a kid with a sneer on his lips was quick to fire an ominous warning when we entered the grounds. ‘Delaney will murder you’, he said, with undisguised glee.

He wasn’t wrong. The rugged Delaney won the game for them, but Woodlands didn’t get it all their own way. Our lads scrapped to the end and won fulsome praise for a gutsy performance that gave encouragement for the future and closed the door on my return.

At Twydall Green shops… on a drizzly Saturday afternoon, I pulled up sharply when a television caught my eye in Skinners’ window. A Welsh rugby international was being shown and for the next twenty minutes, I stood under the shop’s canopy, marvelling at the green pitch and the famous red shirts on the first colour telly I’d seen.

As the weather improved and daylight hours lengthened, Clive, Paul, Stan, John Greenland and me walked home from school more often.

Benham’s off licence – on the corner of Canadian Avenue and Toronto Road – is where we spent our bus fares on various chocolate bars. Choosing between a Mars bar and an Aztec wasn’t easy, but with so many goodies in easy reach, on a long open counter, it was only a matter of time before someone gave in to temptation. Once one did it, we were all at it, entering the shop each day, satchels open and flapping. With four of us wearing angelic faces and Stan trying his best, we’d spread out along the counter. After some deliberation we’d all buy an item or two, but in between…

There was only ever one person behind the counter – a youngish bloke, possibly the son of the owners. Other than five schoolboys mulling over their purchases, he never saw a thing.

The fun came when we got outside. One by one we showed off our swag. One or two items, usually, but John had us all gasping on the day he produced six assorted items from his satchel. Six was a record never to be beaten, and John was supposed to be the goody two shoes amongst us.