School Athletics

[Guest]

Really enjoyed running at school- cross country was my favourite.. some lads used to stop at Nottm Knight for a ciggy!

I still have those yellow enamel badges with the stars on.

Packed in running 3 years ago...the wall became an ever- increasing problem.

Like our 'tough of the Track'...I could train on fish n chips.

[catfan 14,782]

Sport never did anything for me, I mean, who wants to run flat out around a track just to be quicker than anyone else ?Then be knackered fterwards !

We did'nt do too much sport at school cos we were told we were too rough, always a risk of injuring someone, javelins were kept under strict lock & key, with a PE teacher like ours that wasn't a surprise !

No disrespect to hg & other sport fanatics on here !

 

All this talk about Harvey Hadden Stadium brought back happy memories, I live two hundred yards away from the place, & well remember the "woods" being bulldozed to make way for it, me & my mates did climb the fence after hours with our bikes & do a few laps on the bike track tho !

All of five minutes worth.

[Chulla 4,946]

In 1951 I spent a month at Pipewood Camp. Whilst there we did a cross-country run around the local lanes. Unbeknown to me someone took a photo of some of us, and this came to light at a Crane School reunion a couple of year ago. Zatopek Chulla is eighth from the front.

[Jill Sparrow 9,677]

You didn't look like the Dalai LAMA then, Emil!! 

[TBI 2,351]

5 hours ago, iandawson said:

Really enjoyed running at school- cross country was my favourite.. some lads used to stop at Nottm Knight for a ciggy!

I still have those yellow enamel badges with the stars on.

Packed in running 3 years ago...the wall became an ever- increasing problem.

Like our 'tough of the Track'...I could train on fish n chips.

I'm surprised they didn't get a pint in too, Ian. We used to leave Mundella, run down past the Rock Gardens and stop at the snackery by the bandstand ( both still there today ) and stoke up with a couple of hot sausage rolls. We'd then cross spenny and had to leg it like mad past Becket. If it was their break time, them naughty lads would lean over the wall and gob on us as we went by. Lovely! Never sure if it was just a myth, but there was a story about some Mundellas one day, coming upon a lone Becket in the twitchell, grabbed him and gave him a leg-and-a-wing in the river.

 

 

 

[davep5491 360]

Caftan #27 I remember Harvey Hadden cycle track being open to the public in the evenings dozens of un-controlled kids flying around also watched  50cc motorbike racing on there most of the motorbikes were Itom perhaps sold by Andy Bone Arkwright Street.

[firbeck 859]

TBI, what years were you at Mundella, did you know my brother John Truman, a great bloke, known as Truzz, his little 'organisation' of pals were known as Fuzz, Buzz and Truzz.

[benjamin1945 15,561]

Last time I was at 'Harvey Haddon' was for a boxing do,one of my sons was on the bill along with both the Booth bros, this would be about 12 years ago,...........and as usuall one of the fans from my beloved old Bestwood estate had to be escorted from the premises for carrying an Axe under his jacket,luckily he knew me and went quietly (bless him) he as since past away,but the funny thing about that night was his Dad who I was at school with,thanked me for taking away the Axe,and he was one of the nicest blokes I ever knew,................

[katyjay 5,000]

davep, do you remember the dirt race track in Broxtowe Woods? 

[TBI 2,351]

3 hours ago, firbeck said:

TBI, what years were you at Mundella, did you know my brother John Truman, a great bloke, known as Truzz, his little 'organisation' of pals were known as Fuzz, Buzz and Truzz.

I was at Mundella 1965-72, firbeck. Sorry, but I didn't know of a John Truman during my time. 

[Guest]

Steve Trueman palled around with my older brothers.

[Guest]

<a href="http://s32.photobucket.com/user/iandawson61/media/20160917_212624-1_zpsphs2k1m5.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/iandawson61/20160917_212624-1_zpsphs2k1m5.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20160917_212624-1_zpsphs2k1m5.jpg"/></a>

Harvey Hadden stadium 1967 , one of my dad's photo's

[Guest]

Harvey Hadden stadium 1967 , one of my dad's photo's

[Chulla 4,946]

I remember it, KJ -remember my Philips track bike with the cow-horn handlebars? The track-bike races had a  short existence. There were a number of teams - our local one were the Cinderhill Saints. We are talking around 1952. The track bed was brick, that used to be the base of the water storage pond for the Broxtowe pit. THe Evening Post came one evening and did an article about it, with a photo.

[katyjay 5,000]

I never knew the history of the track, always wondered why it was there. Used to walk out to it when nutting. Never actually remember seeing any races. Vague recollection of your bike Chulla.

[Chulla 4,946]

Crane School athletes c.1952. What times they were - inter-school football, cricket, athletics.

 

 

[MargieH 7,423]

So which one is you, Chulla?

[Guest]

Who's the kid with a scowl Dave?..2nd row/third from left.

[Chulla 4,946]

Sorry to disappoint, but I was never into athletics, football or cricket. The scowler is Rob Waters, still around. I see his brother Keith, top row, second from left, every Wednesday - now he WAS a footballer.

[katyjay 5,000]

Do they have a sister Pauline? Not a common surname, I had a Pauline Waters in my class at some time or other. 

[Cliff Ton 10,009]

The identification of the guilty parties in the photo was officially resolved at the meet-up yesterday.

[davep5491 360]

#34 KatyJay Just found this one as I was in Italy for a week starting the 18th.

 

I remember some tracks in Broxtowe woods, one used to begin at the Woodfield/Lindfield Road entrance down a steep hill and across the stream. We made some 'tracky' bikes with big upturned handlebars and knobbly tyres from scrounged parts or purchased from a shop on Parliament Street, close to the Palais. 

 

There was another track that divided the woods down the middle (I think). My dad bought me a motorbike when I was 14 BSA 350 which we used to race along the track. There was an exit somewhere near your end of the woods which led into Nuthall. I decided to ride on the road and got to Heanor when two coppers came out the station and flagged us down. Bike was sold and I was fined £7 no licence, no insurance and no road tax, mate on the pillion £6 for aiding and abetting. Let me dad down badly on that one.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

We had a 'track' bike run round Billy Bacon's field, 50% of that was through the Leen...........One day went down after school at Ellis didn't half get a whack when I went home mud up to me armpits, shouldn't fall off I suppose.

[katyjay 5,000]

Davep, I don't think I realised there was more than one entrance into Broxtowe woods. The only one I knew was from Eltham Drive/Eltham Close. You went into the woods along a dirt path which led to the railway tracks of the pit trains. If you crossed these tracks you went into a meadow and over the meadow was Nuthall, turn right along the tracks brought you to Bells Lane. Left along the tracks took you to the only racetrack I knew of. I imagine it was behind Deepdene Way? 

[davep5491 360]

KatyJay, I've looked up some old maps, there was an entrance at the top Lindfield/Woodfield junction, might even have been another one at Westleigh Road. The track I was meant was the dirt path not actual race tracks, I vaguely remember a track somewhere near the Eltham Close end I also seem to remember a spring in that area. I hadn't realised it ran so close to Deepdene. I think the exit/entrance to Nuthall was through a road where some new houses were being built. Memory is not too clear but it was nearly 60 years ago.