Excuses

There is a major problem in the world which is to blame everything on a current issue when things go wrong. Obviously, the current scapegoat is Brexit which seems to be cited as the cause of problems which have not happened yet. Casting my mind back today I thought of these previous issues which have faded into the past. (In no particular order)

• Decimalisation (blamed for price rises)
• Margaret Thatcher (blamed for all that is bad in the UK)
• The BSE crisis
• The Y2K bug
• HIV
• Brexit

I wonder how long Brexit will be retained as an excuse for people not pulling their fingers out!

Sport in the 1970s

My years at secondary school were mainly in the 1970s (I left in 1976). I was not good at sport but there were good reasons which dated back to primary school in the 1960s.

1. When we played football at primary school, it was assumed we knew the rules because we were boys. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Yes, the concept that when the ball gets through the goal mouth of the opposition, one's side has scored - this was clear. However, how one tackles and where one is allowed to go on the field (or not) was never explained.
2. This continued at secondary school where we played rugby, hockey and cricket. The rules of rugby were never explained (except for the 1st lesson when we discovered that a forward pass is not allowed). How to tackle safely was never addressed.
3. As a musician I was always fearful of injury so I guess I was a bit of wimp, but I tried. Yes I tried. I ran when I could and got stuck in: nobody noticed.
4. I hated PE. What was the point of it back then? Climbing a rope was pointless as I did not have the upper body strength to do so. Again technique was never mentioned. I forget other stuff we did.
5. The main reason I hated sport was the communal showers; I doubt these are allowed now. If only the PE staff had realised.

I wish I could go and explain to the PE / sport staff why I did not do well at sport. I think they would be shocked and ashamed of themselves for their 'macho' attitude.

I do wish I was better at sport. I tried golf as a teenager (when I was 16-18) but I was never really shown how to play, even though Dad did his best.

A few years ago I took up croquet but found gripping the mallet gave me very stiff fingers the next day. I dallied briefly with badminton in my early days of teaching when a few of us met on a Friday evening.

In my teens I mainly kept fit by cycling.

Sport - not for everyone.