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Swimming & Diving
We had one year when the school was too mean or too broke to pay for Highgrove, and we went to the open air pool instead. This didn't last – Fr Louis himself said no-one could learn to swim in the cold.
In the 50s we used to have swimming at the Wealdstone open air baths so from an early age we would associate swimming with being extremely cold and uncomfortable. We had a PE master called Mr. Baker who always had an eye for the pretty little boys and consequently after one summer holiday was never seen again and his name was never mentioned. He was quickly replaced by the then very new "Father" Louis - Peter Preston - who at that time used pain and authority to try and disguise his dorkiness.
I remember Mr. Baker at the Prep school and Allan Forester-Walker told me about his strangeness when we met at Prior Park. Baker used a point system to score the dives at the pool. 10, 9, 8 etc. Both Carol Muzik and I could not dive worth a penny so we both scored a ONE when we jumped in together feet first. Carol Muzik was a boy, by the way.
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