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| Joe Keddy 1955 | Athletics team 1955 - 3 photos | Waiting to jump 1955 | |
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| South House Relay Team 1954 | Unknown date/event | 1957 Track Events (4 photos) | |
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Your photo | Your photo | |
| High Jump 1957 (2 photos) |
Striving For
Their College
Norfolk News Friday 29th July 1955.
Boys and girls from all over Norfolk are resident pupils at Wymondham College, which is the County's "public school" for higher education. Here one of our staff reporters, with the help of a photographer colleague, puts a spotlight on this year of achievements in the field of athletics.
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What makes a successful athlete? Well, it's talent, of course, in the first place. Then enthusiasm. Then any amount of hard training and regular practice. On this three-layered foundation a reputation for athletic prowess has already been built up at Wymondham College. The boys and girls who have won so many successes this season have put the College well and truly on the athletic map. Two cups and 21 medals have been brought back to the College from the area, county and quadrangular athletic meetings for schools, and from various club championship meetings and inter-school events. For the boys and girls of Wymondham College it has been a season of "firsts" and "seconds" and "thirds" galore. |
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SIX OF THE 'STARS' At the quadrangular meeting, for instance, College competitors excelled in field events. The discus was thrown 149 ft. 8 in. by Brian Winn. who lives at Great Snoring, and 88 ft. 4 in. by Diana Gosling, whose home is at Dereham. The same meeting saw Philip Forrest, of Norwich, clock 10.4 sec. for the 100 yards. Another outstanding runner this season has been 16-year-old David Spinks, of North Walsham, who covered the 440 yards at the county sports in 54 sec. His relay team-mate, Brian Newman, knocked a second off the previous record at a youth championship meeting when he did the 220 yards in 24 sec. Another "flyer" on the track is Pat Coles, also of North Walsham. At both the quadrangular sports and the county sports, she was first in the 100 yards. |
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BEHIND THE SCENES Sports master at the College is Mr. Stanley Littlechild, whom many Norfolk audiences have applauded as a singer. He is guide and tutor to his charges, and his experience, youthful drive and patient planning are behind their achievements. "Many of the boys and girls work to my training schedules" he says, "But they are not too lazy to think for themselves. They use what I have to offer as a starting-point-not as an end-all." Mr. R. V. Metcalfe (head master of Wymondham College) adds "We are a young college, only four years old. But we are growing up quickly, and establishing ourselves. Our standards get better and better - not only in athletics. but in everything we do." |
David Spinks writes:
The Wymondham College Athletics Team of the early fifties was a daunting prospect for the opposition. There is a strong theory the secret of this early success was based on the following facts:
1. FOOD - Obviously the content had something of substance,
however, quantity was just enough to keep you hungry.
2. SLEEP- Lots of it. Lights out 8-15pm for most.
3. NOTHING ELSE TO DO - except cricket or Rounders! The catalyst, not realised
by the establishment
at the time, was that Athletics was a MIXED SPORT.
The combination therefore of:
1. Hunger.
2. Too much sleep.
3. No other sporting distractions and the chance to burst your braces showing
off to a special friend, was productive indeed.
The College was not without guile however and the introduction of a straight 440 yard (400M) track to host the County Sports in 1954 was just simply the last straw for the opposition. The look of terror in the eyes of the visiting crouch starters gazing the full length of the prospect before them was wicked indeed. It is not known if Stan Littlechild would approve these theories. He left soon after this early flush of success.
Wymondham College Remembered