It perhaps seems strange to think of a sport like boxing being one of the key physical activities taking place at Moor Allerton. But it was, certainly up until at least 1948, as this ticket shows. Did you box for or against Moor Allerton, or maybe you had a parent or grandparent who did? We’d love to find out more…
This programme is from 1939 – the final one before the school was closed temporarily during World War II.
Here’s a selection of sports day programmes dating back to 1936 and 1938 – a fine afternoon of events taking place in 1936 – including a full programme of boxing!
With our minds on the up-coming sports day(s) during the summer term, here’s a great selection of photos showing how they did it 50 years ago at Moor Allerton in 1963.
Among the athletes shown are Peter Phillips, Malcolm Gow, Ric Burslem, Henry Pugh, Colin Pugh and Ian Slater. If you are, or know any of these boys, then we’d love to hear from you and your memories of the day.
“Many great writers and thinkers have first expressed themselves in their School Magazine, and have no doubt that there are boys at Moor Allerton now, of whom it will be said, “He used to write for his School Magazine”.”
So writes headmaster Mr. W.S.V. Oliver in his foreword to the 1950 edition of the revived Moor Allerton School Magazine, reproduced here in full. A real labour of love, with a fascinating range of articles, reviews and opinions.
Do you have any copies of other Moor Allerton School Magazines? Perhaps you could scan and upload them here or email them to us at [email protected], or alternatively, if we could borrow them we can scan ourselves.
We’re sure that a chill runs down the collective spines of the school staff whenever it’s time for the dreaded school inspection! Well, it was no different way back in 1948, when the Ministry of Education sent in the inspectors to Moor Allerton. As we can see from their report, there were no problems, and the report provides an intriguing snapshot of the school at that time.
What Brian Epstein was to the Beatles and the Merseybeat scene of the 60s, former Moor Allerton pupil Danny Betesh was to the Manchester Beat scene at the same time. In fact, in 1963, he helped promote the first major tour for the Beatles!
Starting his career as an accountant, Danny Betesh set up Kennedy Street Enterprises, one of one of the most respected and successful promotion agencies in British entertainment. He had originally entered showbusiness as a ballroom owner but switched to agency work, booking such local acts as Freddie And The Dreamers and Dave Berry. In 1964, he launched a Manchester invasion of America, which culminated with Freddie And The Dreamers, Herman’s Hermits and Wayne Fontana And The Mindbenders holding the Top 3 positions in the US singles chart.
Since that golden era, Kennedy Street has continued to flourish as an agency and management organization. Among the acts they have represented are 10cc, Sad Café, Barclay James Harvest, Tony Christie and Godley And Creme. The number of tours they have promoted has been countless and include celebrated appearances by such stars as Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen and Morrissey.
We may be used to keeping up-to-date with all school activities these days via text, email, Facebook, Twitter and websites like this, but it wasn’t so long ago that the printed page was the only way of the school letting parents and friends know what was going on. We’ve unearthed an early example of the school magazine which dates back to 1936. It’s a fascinating record of the times, providing insights into the popular extra-curricular activities of the day (stamp collecting was apparently the talk of the playground, and there are some humorous, not to say surreal “Things we want to know” on page 4. Judging by the comprehensive round-up of sports reports, Bruce house was being well and truly beaten by Cromwell in both football and cricket. Come on Bruce!
Browse all the pages of the magazine below.
Author and publisher Anthony Blond attended Moor Allerton in the 1930s before continuing his education at Eton then Oxford University.
His father was Major Neville Blond CMG OBE, one of the founders of the Royal Court theatre in London. He set up his first publishing company in 1952 and was publisher and director of Private Eye magazine. Blond wrote two books about the publishing trade, The Publishing Game (1971) and The Book Book (1983) and a humorous novel, Family Business (1978).
Find out more about him on his Wikipedia entry or obituaries published upon his death in 2008 in The Guardian, The Independent, and The Telegraph.
Some Anthony Blond press clippings from the Moor Allerton archive:
We’ve quite a number of sports team line-ups in the archive. Here’s one of the football team from 1981, in which we are able to put names to the full line-up. If you’re on the picture, get in touch – tell us what you are up to now and what memories you had of playing in the team!
Moor Allerton Football Team, 1981
Back – Nawaz; Ette; Wong; Towers; Anderton; Aldrich; Mr. Doyle
Middle – Carmen; O’Driscoll; Ford; Boyd; Drumer; Harrison
Front – Burrows; Ince; Casson; Asanoan; Devaney
