M.M.S. Magazine - December 1956

At 4-0 the staff kicked off and were soon on the attack with Smith and Sharpe starting good threequarter moves. Then with only five minutes gone Dormand sprinted over to touch down in the corner. Play then became a little scrappy with the staff attacking continually. Then Smith picked up a loose ball in midfield. He split the defence with a brilliant run to send Cooke over by the posts to give the staff a 10—0 lead. Minutes later Harford scored with a solo run down the left wing.

The school team never looked liked scoring and as the first half ended the staff were well in command. Only Seale (G.) and English looked prominent in the school's few attacks.

The second half opened on the same pattern as the first with the timid school no match for the fast moving staff. This play must have saddened the school supporters who were surprisingly few for the first game of the season. After good passing between Sharpe and Beveridge (who had a very poor game) Harford was sent over to touch down in the corner. Many of the school's good moves were broken down by bad or forward passing.

In between two English tries for the school there was the highlight of the match. Dormand picked up the ball on his own 25 and after jinking and sidestepping five men, outran the sixth in a dynamic race for the touchdown. This made the score 25—10. Seale (G.) was then temporarily injured stopping a Kenyon foot-rush, but was soon joining in to what seemed to be a scrappy ending. Then seconds before the final whistle Cooke outran the defence to score under the posts.

After the match, Mr. Smith, the school coach, commented that after lots of practice and training the school would eventually have a good team.

At ten o'clock one Saturday morning in September at Victoria Modern School, there was the chattering of boys getting ready for the seven-a-side Rugby games.
A few minutes after ten o'clock the first game began between Victoria Modern, Dewsbury, and Dewsbury Technical School on the Victoria School playing fields. Victoria Modern beat the Tech. by 25 points to 5 points, each try scored counting 5 points.
Mirfield Modern should have played Southdale but unfortunately the latter did not turn up. Batley Technical School should have played Thornhill but only half of their team turned up, so Mirfield Modern had to play Batley Tech. in the second round.
Seale, who was captain for Mirfield, lost the toss and had to kick off because the Batley captain decided to play uphill.
Mirfield kicked off, Kennedy taking the kick. One of the Batley men knocked on and Middleton picked the ball up very well and swung it out to Walls, who then passed the ball to Cawthra who was coming up on the burst. He collected the ball and started running for the line. Four men came at him before he got to the line. These he handed off superbly before he got to the line to score a try and take Mirfield into the lead by 5 points to nil.
In the second half the Batley team was given a few penalties but they were driven away by the tremendous defence of the Mirfield team. Tackling was first class by Mirfield, especially by Seale, Cawthra and Dixon.
In the semi-final Victoria beat St. Paulinus' by 25 points to 10 points.
So when it came to the final the teams who were playing were Victoria Modern, Dewsbury, and Mirfield Modern.
Mirfield kicked off but the kick was not a very good one because it went straight to Fox, of Victoria.
Fox picked the ball up beautifully on the run and started towards the Mirfield defence but was brought down by Dixon.
Fox played the ball back to Ossett who swung it out to Bentley. They passed the ball across the field until there was an opening in the Mirfield defence and Fox took advantage and shot through like a bullet to open the scoring for Victoria. This made the score Victoria 5, Mirfield nil.
At half-time the score was ten—nil to Victoria. There was an interval of about five minutes then Mr. Smith, the referee, blew the whistle for the kick-off. The full-back for Victoria made a successful kick which found touch. There was a scrum down ten yards from the touch line and Victoria got the ball out successfully.
Both Victoria and Mirfield had some brilliant runs. At one time Fox broke away down the left wing. Three of the Mirfield defenders fell for the dummies then gave up the chase and left him to Seale and Cawthra. Eventually he was brought down by Seale.
A few minutes from time Victoria scored to make the score 20 points to nil.
In my opinion Mirfield Modern did very well to get to the final of the seven-a-side rugby. If tackling of the Modern School team had been as good as that of Seale, Cawthra and Dixon they might have done a little better.
Fox and Ossett were brilliant for Victoria and Seale and Cawthra were outstanding for Mirfield.
There was some good tackling by Dixon and Fox for the Modern School.

Mirfield kicked off and after two minutes Dewsbury got a try scored by Holmes and then Ellis converted. Then one of the Dewsbury players was offside but Seale (B.) failed to kick a goal from 40 yards.
Cook made a very good run down the right wing but was tackled about five yards from the 10-yard area. After 15 minutes had passed, Dewsbury went over the line but it was a dropped ball and there was a 5-yard scrum but there was no danger to the Mirfield line. Goodman then got possession and was running through but Barber made a very good tackle on him and Mirfield got possession, but once again they failed to get through. Seventeen minutes had passed when Dewsbury scored their second try by Howley but this time Ellis failed to convert. After 40 minutes Dewsbury got their third try scored again by Holmes and Ellis again failed to convert.
Half-time:

Dewsbury kicked off and Cawthra got possession and made a very good run but was tackled by Elliwell just about 10 yards from the Dewsbury line. After 70 minutes Dewsbury got their fourth try, scored again by Holmes and Ellis again failed to convert. Mirfield lost a lot of ground when Jefford gave a bad pass back and Dewsbury nearly scored a try. About two minutes from time Dewsbury got their last try scored again by Holmes and this time Ellis was successful in converting. Holmes and Elliwell were very big and could run very fast and tackle, but they had hardly any knowledge of Rugby.
Result:

Blackburn House was named after County Councillor Blackburn. The other names of houses in Mirfield Modern School are also named after people who played an important part in the foundation of our school.
Blackburn consists of 74 boys and 73 girls, two house masters and one mistress. The house master is Mr. Dormand, who is assisted by Mr. Beveridge; the house mistress is Miss Barber.
Boys' house captain is Tommy Haw, vice-captain Brian English; girls' house captain is Marlene Harson, vice-captain May Davies.
Since the school opened on May 1st, 1951, Blackburn has won several competitions. Here are the names of those that Blackburn have won:
Inter-House Drama: Blackburn and Bury, 1954.
Boys' Athletics: Blackburn, 1953.
Swimming: Blackburn, 1952.
House Champion's Cup: Blackburn, 1951; Blackburn, 1956.
These are only a few of the awards we have won.
Last year Blackburn did well concerning merits but so far this year we are behind the others. Not good—in fact, bad. I'm sure by the end of the year we'll be back at our normal position, first.
Concerning all boys' sports we have good sides especially at football where we have already beaten Bury 5—0. I gather the girls have a good cup-winning team also.
The headquarters of Blackburn are the Gymnasium where all our meetings are held.

Bury House was named after Mr. Bury who was the Divisional Education Officer before Mr. Blake. Bury House was named with the three other houses, Blackburn, Hardy and Thornton, when the school opened in 1950.
The officials of Bury House are Mr. Kenyon (house master), Mr. Robinson (assistant house master) and Miss Booth (house mistress). Boys' house captain is George Seale and the sports captain is Colin Sheard. The girls' house captain is Margaret English and the sports captain is Christine Buckingham. Junior captain for the boys is Alan Jones and for the girls Valerie Lister.
The previous house master to Mr. Kenyon was Mr. Powell who left at mid-summer. Before Mr. Powell it was Mr. Jordan who had been house master since the school opened in 1950. Before Miss Booth, Miss Collomosse, who is now senior mistress of the school, was house mistress.
Here are the Cups Bury have won:
House Championship Cup: Bury (1952-54-55).
Inter-House Athletics: 1954-55-56.
Inter-House Drama: Bury-Blackburn tied (1954). Inter-House Swimming: Bury (1951-55).
Inter-House Football: Bury and Thornton tied (1955).
Bury did not do too well last year with merits, but this year we are determined to win the competition.
Bury have not a very good football team this time. They lost to Blackburn five goals to nil. But Bury are all out to win the Rugby series. The girls have a good netball team. We are going all out to win the cups.
The headquarters of Bury House is the Science Lab.

Hardy House got its name from the Chairman of the School Governors, County Councillor J. Hardy. The house masters are Mr. Haycock and Mr. Harford and the house mistress is Miss Haywood.
The house officials are: Boys' house captain, Frank Fox; boys' sports captain, Christopher Kennedy; and boys' junior captain, Keith Fox.
On the girls' side Mavis Goodall is house captain, Janet Sykes is sports captain and the junior girls' captain is Susan Armitage.
There are 75 boys and 80 girls in Hardy House. Last year in the Blackburn Cup we were fourth but this year we are doing better. Already we were positioned second at the last house meeting.
Here are some of Hardy's past awards. In 1953 we won the girls sports and in 1954 also. Hardy boys also won the sports in 1953. Hardy won the Rose Bowl for Drama in 1956 and we won the Road Safety Sports Shield, too, in 1953. This year we are doing better in the football. Thornton have quite a good side but we thought we might have beaten them. But luck was against us, so we drew 0—0.
In the Swimming Gala we had bad luck and lost. We are hoping that house members will try to gain merits for both class work and sport to make this Hardy's most successful year.

Thornton was named after a local councillor, Mr. C. Thornton, and with the other three houses of Bury, Blackburn and Hardy, makes up the houses of the school.
Although Thornton has not done too well in the past the outlook is bright. After coming third in the Blackburn Cup last year we have started very well this year and are so far leading in the house competition.
The football season has just started and although we have not had a game we are expecting to do well with our strong all-round team.
The annual swimming competition will be the next sporting event where we are well represented. In the last three years we have won it twice and last year lost it by half a point.
Mr. Bland is our house master and is most ably assisted by Mrs. Whitaker and Mr. Hinkins.
Here is our winning record for the last few years:
Swimming: 1953 and 1954; boys' athletics: 1954; drama: 1952 and 1955; Blackburn Cup: 1953.

The netball team consists of: Shooter, C. Medley; attack, J. Popplewell; centre attack, P. Davey; centre, M. English; centre defence, M. Davies; defence, B. Ross; goalkeeper, L. Buckingham. The first match we played was against Horbury at their school. We won 10—15. It was a good game to say it was our first one. They gave us a good tea and all the team enjoyed it. All the other games we have played have been at our school.
M.M.S. v. Batley Princess Royal 14—12 (won); M.M.S. v. Templefield 12—11 (won); M.M.S. v. Batley Grammar School 14—11 (won). When the matches are at our school we provide our guests with oranges at half-time and at the end of the game we give them tea and biscuits. Our matches are mostly played on Saturday mornings. We have won every match so far and we hope we carry on in this manner.
We also have a second team who have won all their matches, too. The second team have only played two schools, Batley Princess Royal and Templefield.
The second team players are: Shooter, M. Goodall (captain); attack, N. Brown; centre attack, C. Walls; centre, A. Stead; centre defence, J. Thomson; defence, L. Shackleton; goalkeeper, J. Shooter.
Both netball teams enjoy playing netball because it is good fun and you make some good friends.

After early hopes the school football team has turned out most disappointing. Although the right wing trio of English, Cawthra and Lodge has been picked for the Spen Valley team and has been standing for two years in the school team it has failed to stop our run of defeats.
Our last match before Christmas looks our best chance yet, if we can have our fair share of luck which before has seemed to run against us. At Horbury we played easily the best football but were unluckily held to a 1—1 draw. Against South Parade, too, we were penalised in the last five minutes to lose 3—2.
So you see the scores have run a little unluckily for us but look out, for after Christmas it will be a different story. Here are the boys who have played for the first team this season:
Goalkeepers, Sheard, Butterfield; left back, Brook; right back, Haw, Brown; left half, Fox; centre half, Scale (B), Kennedy; right half, Lodge, Bradly; left wing, Mountain, Seale (G.), Wadsworth, Wakerly; inside left, Exley, Ledgard, Mortimore, Charlotte; centre forward, Cook, Seale (G.); inside right, Cawthra (capt.); right wing, English (vice-captain).

The school started playing Rugby this year under the leadership of Mr. Smith, the school coach. The schools teams improve every time they play.  There are two Rugby teams, Senior and Junior.
Two of the boys of the senior team were selected to go with the District team to York on the 27th of October, 1956. They were Seale (G.) and Kennedy.
About three years ago the school had a Rugby team under Mr. Mann, who has now left. One of the boys in that team was selected to play for the District team.  He was John Pearsall.
The school Senior team has played four games this time. They are: Victoria Modern {lost) 45—0, Batley Tech. (won) 10—5, St. Paulinus' (lost) 10—3, Dewsbury Tech. (lost) 19—0.
Rugby is very different from football. In Rugby you haven't a goalkeeper. Instead you have one full back. In football you are not allowed to handle the ball, but in Rugby you are allowed to handle the ball and also allowed to kick the ball.
When the ball goes into touch instead of having a throw-in you have a scrum. This consists of 12 men. They are hooker, two prop forwards, two second-row forwards and one loose forward on each side.
In football when you score a goal it is just left and called a goal, but in Rugby you have to score a try and then kick the goal.
You can score a try anywhere on the try line, then you are allowed to take the kick anywhere but you have got to be opposite the spot where you scored the try. If you convert after scoring the try the team is awarded five points, but if you don't convert then the team is awarded three points.