Playing field | old-azurians

The Life of the Playing Field

By 1932 the Ordnance Survey map showed the completed first phases of development of the school in the Northeast corner of the 10-acre site. The school then comprised the original eastern quadrangle, the two later, smaller quadrangles on the Western side, with the Assembly Hall / Gymnasium in between. A bicycle shed, manual workroom and toilet block were located to the North. The remainder of the 10-acre plot was given over to playing fields and this utilisation continued until WW2.

The ground was not well-suited to the playing of games such as rugby football. At the time of the School’s 25th anniversary Mr A V Scudamore, the first PE and Games master, wrote:

‘Rugby fixtures started in earnest with the 1925-6 season. The first home match against Brighton College Colts resulted in the visitors winning by ninety-odd points to nothing. They knew how to tackle low and bring a man down; but they didn’t know how flinty the school ground was. Two dozen bandages and a bottle of iodine were insufficient to meet the needs of their casualties. The school team didn’t get a scratch.’

‘But it was now obvious that something would have to be done about the flints; so ‘stone-picking’ became a drill; a pastime; a punishment; an epidemic; and finally an organised nightmare. Boys made their appearance in lines; in sections; in echelon; in Houses, trousers and shorts.’

‘Each form had its own heap of stones which grew into cairns, which enlarged into pyramids. Forms which couldn’t make their own pile grow fast enough helped themselves – when unobserved – from the other piles. Backward boys were given the option of stone-picking or detention, and went stone-picking; bad boys were given the choice of a black ticket or a spell of stone-picking; good boys were given the option of stone-picking or a half-holiday – and took the half-day. Parents complained about the business until, fortunately, photographs appeared in the national press showing Eton boys stone-picking on their playing fields. Prizes were offered for the best pile at the end of a stipulated period. Then it leaked out that the train boys were daily arriving with satchels loaded with granite intended for the new harbour works at Shoreham . . . it is not known how many thousands of tons were accumulated.’

During the war years a substantial amount of the Southern playing area was taken over by ‘dig for victory’ allotments, a searchlight installation, and, on the Western boundary, a number of sunken air-raid shelters.

With peacetime resumed, the playing fields were restored to their previous state (including the flint-strewn surface), apart from the introduction of a small-bore rifle range on the Western boundary.

Over the remaining years of the School occupancy the area of the playing fields was eroded bit by bit as the School accommodation had to be expanded to cater for ever-increasing numbers of pupils and staff. Room had to be made in the Northwest corner for a new Dining Hall and several classrooms, and three more pre-fabricated classrooms were constructed on the playing field.

While the School was still waiting for the new building that had been promised, what remained of the playing fields was handed over to the College of Further Education to construct laboratories and instruction rooms. From that point onward School rugby, cricket and athletics could only be continued by resort to locations scattered across the Borough of Worthing.