3C was known as the most awkward class in the school.
We had a great form master in Marcus Stott, who everyone respected. He even taught us the rudiments of chess during form period. However our English Master that year was a new teacher called Norman Olive,who could not control the class. Our Form Room was No 33, which overlooked the Mechanics Institute clock.

Every time the clock struck on the quarter hour, the class would stand up en-masse and sing "On Ilkla Moor Baht At"

Olive reported us to "Dick Cadman" the Deputy Head, who gave us a gentlemanly lecture on how to treat a new teacher.

Image our dismay when the next lesson which was P.E.
with "Gilbert Swift" was spent entirely on the wall bars.

Cadman had told Gilbert of our misdoings,and this proved a brutal way for Olive to get his revenge.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) Davchris@n3946.freeserve.co.uk

D Crouch (English) was another master who couldnt keep order. I recall when he turned to the blackbaord to write something, someone threw a tennis ball at the blackboard , and then caught the rebound. By the time Crouch turned round he hadn't a clue what had happened. I cant remember who the perpetrator was, but we were in 3X/4X (supposed to be the elite). Do Allan J or Brian Craven remember this ?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) brianmoate@hotmail.com

Sorry Brian, but is Brain Moate synonymous with the brain drain?

In the second year on the D corridor, we came to school equipped with flexible plastic "pea" shooters which we led down our sleeves and fired by blowing into the tube simply by lowering the head towards our blazer lapels - hardly detectable to the teacher. Pearl barley was the preferred choice of missile. In a quiet classroom session it was possible undetected to rattle the windows and the light shades and make the member of staff scan the skies to see if it was raining, hoping he wouldn't after all have to umpire a house match or run a net.

Don't remember the tennis ball incident specifically, Brian. But then, there were so many incidents involving the hapless Crouch, whom we nicknamed "Mervyn Cruddy" (after a Benny Hill character, I believe). It's impossible to recall them all - perhaps he could!
Wasn't he our Form Master at one stage?

I've two favourites - one was when everyone in the class waited for Crud (or was it Leeming??) with heads hidden below upraised desklids. When ordered to put the desklids down (which happened with a single CRASH) all pupils revealed themselves as suddenly requiring spectacles. Crud looked down at sea of goggles, and of course didn't want to order their removal in case the angry parent of a genuinely myopic child turned up to complain. The second one was when Paul Helliwell put to the test his theory that Creep's right eye was a glass eye. He achieved this by 'twoing 'im up' as he was writing on the blackboard with only his right eye facing the class. If Creep did have a glass eye, turns out it was his left one..

This is more a hall prank.
Much of the ceiling at the back of the hall was covered with small stalactited. All you did was to sureptitiously chew paper during assembly and, when it had reached an appropriate consistency, flick it up to the ceiling using a secreted six-inch ruler.
Over a period of time the sludge hardened and produced the desired effect .... and I don't remember anyone ever being caught doing it either.

Picture a paper dart exchange during a first form maths lesson. "Beaky" (semi-retired by then) stands back-to-the-class, writing on the blackboard. My whole life flashes before me as my misdirected effort collides with the board 2 feet directly above his head. Fortuitously, he turns at the exact moment to suppress the inevitable gasp/splutter from the class, and the offending missile drops undetected at his feet. I still don't know who to thank - classmate or Great Protector!