Singing Competition

[englishangel]

Ask'em Alex, you may have to email or pm Julian directly as I doubt he reads all our girlish witterings.

[Angela Woodford]

Back to thinking about the Singing Competition!

I was very proud of getting into the choir as soon as auditions permitted, as i longed to be acknowledged as musical - my father was an organist and choirmaster and the choir was my happiest thing at CH except...

The role I longed for the most was Leader of the first Altos! I had manoevred from 2nd Sop to 1st Alto so that I'd be the next senior person to be given the job once in the UV1, but no! A LV1 girl got the job, and I was put somewhere further down the line. I was bitterly disappointed and resolved to Show Them.

My opportunity came with the Singing Competition. I was the only UV1 choir member in House, and entitled to be the coach. The Psalm, I don't remember, but I lived, breathed, ate, drank that song "Follow Me Down To Carlow". No tiny detail of interpretation escaped me.

I attempted to ensure that every chorister would have a radiant smile by planning to pin a cutout of a Guinness bottle on the front of my shirt, but when the big moment came, the pin was blunt! I hoped that an apparent
fumbling with my cleavage was not noticed by the audience.

Accompanist Judith Points played like a woman inspired. There was no comparison with Sixes' fab performance, and of course we won! It really was a tremendously exhilarating moment which I have never forgotten. Miss Taverner was kind enough to congratulate me. "Perhaps this is where your talents lie?" she said. Too late, Miss T!

Miss Richards also waylaid me the next day. "I have never seen anything so disgraceful!" she said, jowls quivering in outrage. "The length of your skirt! Far too short!"

[Jude]

see - when you sing like an angel you can still be called a slut because your skirt is too short - and why?? Cos you have grown, and nobody in UVI will get new uniforms as they are leaving, so you end up with shorter and shorter skirts!

I hope however you enjoyed your winnings, and relished all the hard work you and the other girls had put into it!

[Angela Woodford]

see - when you sing like an angel you can still be called a slut because your skirt is too short - and why?? Cos you have grown, and nobody in UVI will get new uniforms as they are leaving, so you end up with shorter and shorter skirts!

I hope however you enjoyed your winnings, and relished all the hard work you and the other girls had put into it!

Iappreciate your kind remarks Jude. However, it wasn't quite like that... in 1971, the only possible "look" for a school skirt was still mini, and I had grown outwards but not upwards. However it was just so typical of Miss Richards... Does anyone remember her first name? "J"Richards. Note, in her case, I don't say Christian name. Not appropriate.

Munch

[Jude]

I don't remember a Miss Richards at all - Miss Taverner was our Lady of the choir - and she WAS GOOD!

One of the most endearing and long lasting remarks of hers was if you think you are going to make a mistake, for goodness sake make it loud! That way no one will think it was a mistake!

It's so true - until you actually hear something performed professionally - but even then there are the odd dud notes!

[Angela Woodford]

I don't remember a Miss Richards at all - Miss Taverner was our Lady of the choir - and she WAS GOOD!

Jude - Miss Taverner certainly was organist and in charge of the choir and v v good. Miss Richards was Needlework Mistress, deeply skilled at the put-down, expert at causing anxiety and grief. Something must have caused her to become that way. She had a few favourites.

Munch

[Jude]

I don't remember a Miss Richards at all - Miss Taverner was our Lady of the choir - and she WAS GOOD!

Jude - Miss Taverner certainly was organist and in charge of the choir and v v good. Miss Richards was Needlework Mistress, deeply skilled at the put-down, expert at causing anxiety and grief. Something must have caused her to become that way. She had a few favourites.

Munch

Hi Munch - we had Miss (Mrs??) Newbold for sewing - I so hate the things we had to make! The most put downs I got was from Miss Jukes - in cookery (or Food and Nutrition "O" level!!!) that all my icing on cakes was "anaemic looking - just like you" she would say!

Great!

[Euterpe13]

Miss Richards never, EVER, let us forget that she had left Cheltenham Ladies' College to give us the benefit of her presence...

I came from 6 years' convent teaching, and the nuns had taught us to sew and embroider very well . I still remember the humiliation of Miss Richards' inspection of the handsewn seam in the skirt we made in the III form - she said it looked machine-sewn - which would have been a compliment from anyone normal, but was delivered as the ultimate put-down. She made me unpick and resew the whole skirt, which I had to deliberately sew badly to pass muster. We were all guttersnipes to her...

[Liz Jay]

which would have been a compliment from anyone normal, but was delivered as the ultimate put-down. She made me unpick and resew the whole skirt, which I had to deliberately sew badly to pass muster. We were all guttersnipes to her...

Hi

The woman was terrifying!!! to me anyway definitely The Scariest, even Scarier than DR.
But once (oh joy!) she told me my tunic was TOO LONG....so I was able to legitimately acquire a shorter one - much more flattering and one of my happier moments.
Those inches mattered! And how nice to see my little knobbly knees again!
Does anyone else have memories of a strange Games mistress called (I think) Miss Norman, with an odd nasal voice and a habit of saying everything twice? Or did I make her up??

[englishangel]

Mary Norman, within a week of being at Hertford she knew all our names, I don't know how she did it.

And kept a mental list of our periods so you couldn't cry off swimming more than once every four weeks. Not that it ever bothered me but some girls really suffered.

[Liz Jay]

Hi Mary

Didn't she and the other games mistress inspect our feet, backs, and developing busts at intervals?

A horrible (Gormenghastian?) ritual invoving stripping to our baggy knickers and facing the judges as they sat at their desks making notes?
Somewhere between livestock judging at the local agricultural show and the toe-curling early X Factor audtions.

They made some utterly humiliating comments sometimes I'm sure!

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Hi Mary

Didn't she and the other games mistress inspect our feet, backs, and developing busts at intervals?

A horrible (Gormenghastian?) ritual invoving stripping to our baggy knickers and facing the judges as they sat at their desks making notes?
Somewhere between livestock judging at the local agricultural show and the toe-curling early X Factor audtions.

They made some utterly humiliating comments sometimes I'm sure!

Hi Everyone

Feet and backs assessed, and some (the lucky few) would than have to attend Feet or Back sessions.

I had to attend Feet sessions to lift my arches. Even now, after carting around more kilos than the average feet should have to bear, for more years than I choose to count, my arches are too high for me to wear clogs or other footwear that covers much of my upper foot (the dorsum?)

Sadly, Miss Norman, despite making me toss bean bags around with my toes cannot lay claim to the elegant outlines I leave when walking through wet sand: I never, ever had flat feet. My posture, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired, and I have often wondered whether I was supposed to be at Backs, rather than Feet

[Vonny]

we had Miss (Mrs??) Newbold for sewing - I so hate the things we had to make! The most put downs I got was from Miss Jukes - in cookery (or Food and Nutrition "O" level!!!) that all my icing on cakes was "anaemic looking - just like you" she would say!

Great!

I think it was MRS Newbold
Yes Miss Jukes wasn't shy with her put downs was she Goodness know why I CHOSE to do Food & Nutrition O Level There were only 3 of us so there was plenty of opportunity for her to spot our mistakes I used to have triple cookery first thing on a Thursday morning and remember how I used to dread it so much I would often be sick before the lesson. I could never eat anything at breakfast before her lessons. At the end of her lesson I would be so pleased that that was it for another week!

[Jude]

Poor you Vonny!
I was lucky in that although very public with her critiscim she very quietly at the end of the lesson (and they were always tripples) she would very quietly comment that my cake had risen the best, or I had remembered unlike the others to wash as I went along and so forth - so she dumped me down in public, but rose me up in private! I did get the highest grade ever for CH in a Food & Nutrition O level (for those days) - and she was very pleased with me!!!

Games Mistressess - there was one old haggard one who was obbsessed with netball courts, and if you didn't do something right (it could be you put your foot in the "wrong" place) she would make you run so may times around the net ball courts... I am now doing Alexander Technique to help my posture back and hips - last night was the first night for a while that I haven't managed to "send" myself to sleep. My feet are appalling due partly to ballet which I did before I started CH (I was SO sad when I found out there were no ballet classes, as I had worked up to blocks!) and the 2nd/3rd hand shoes that never actually fitted having my two middle toes longer than my big toe (pre-hensile feet - means I can pick things up with my toes and carry them etc... good party trick but hell for getting fitting shoes!)

[Vonny]

Our cookery lessons were triples as well. Funnily enough though, once I was in the lesson and rushing around etc the time soon went and the lesson passed quickly. All 3 of us who did that O level passed with B's. One girl was predicted an A, one a B and I was predicted a C. The Food & Nutrition prize (or whatever it was called) was given to the girl predicted an A Not that I'm bitter or anything

The netball teacher - was it Miss Dowty? Taken me a few minutes to come up with that name Must admit I hated netball (loved all other sports though) and used to generally mess around in those lessons so I don't think I was that popular with her.