why is it always...
Rugby..

I attended a normal North of England secondary school (comprehensive) in the 80s. The sport was wither rugby or cross country and given the stupid amounts of rain this always involved a great deal of mud. I was, at the time, a rather portly child and did not see the need to partake of any exercise and hated all sport. My parents even arranged for me to be taken out of sport in the later years of school so I could fit more GCE (the S didn't exist then except for the thickos getting CSEs) exams.

In the early years I had no choice and the school had just acquired a new PE teacher, who was a failed rugby star (He even had a stupid twatty hard-guy moustache and looked a lot the like the sports teacher out of "Gregorys girl"). His idea was to just play rugby at every lesson, in every weather. If you didnt have mud all over you by the end of the lesson, then you were made to roll in it before going in for a shower (WTF?).

In my case the showers rarely happened, as I was one of a group of kids who had to catch a bus to get home. The buses never waited and the lessons frequently overran, so going home dirty was normal at least twice a week.

At primary school I had won awards for rugby excellence (I still have the certs!!), so the secondary school turned a sporty youth into a fat lazy arse.

I went on to trial for the light blues boat at Cambridge University and am now seriously into fell running (in the mud).

My son eventually went to the same school and I was a bit bothered when he started coming home with his school uniform over his mud plastered legs. This turned out to be simple shower-dodging rather than any sadism by the teachers (at least that was all I was told).
(gearanach #wankwankwank, Sat 21 Nov 2009, 10:45, Reply)