As I have said earlier on this board, I think that I went to the worst school in England, Dennis Road, Brum.
I was also treated like crap and thought as thick as s..., just because I was very quiet and didn't have a big mouth.
I was always in the top ten of all the "A" stream classes and in my last year finished 8th from a class of 44. The teacher's remark on my 8th place was "how on earth did a dunce like you manage that"! In P.T. I was given nought out of ten, with the remark "very weak". Little did they know that I was a star in one of the toughest sports on earth, cycling. Because I was so very quiet I never told (bragged to) anyone that I trained 50 miles each evening and at weekends 100 miles.
As soon as I could afford it I left England, FOR GOOD, to pursue my cycling dream of one day being world champion. Before I left I set three national records at 10 miles, 25 miles, 1 hour, (these records stood for nearly 20 years) and I did win several national and division championships. I moved to Holland at Easter and by September I was world amateur road champion, something that no other Brit had done before, or since, in the 84 year history of this race! Finished just behind Henry Cooper in BBC Sportsman of the year in 1967, 3rd in the Daily Express sportsman of the year 1967. I wonder what the Dennis Rd. P.T. teacher (Taffy) would have thought of that?
I now live in Belgium, speak several languages, have a degree in mechanical engineering and in electronics, all acheived in a foreign language. I have been decorated twice by the Belgian King, for sevices to Belgian industry, have my own page in the golden book of the town where I live, I wonder what the teacher's at Dennis Rd. would think of this "dunce" now?
Dennis Road School, the worst in Britain, if not on this Earth. The best move of my life, turning my back on Britain!