Summer Times is the Journal of the Old Scarborians Association

age group teams, mainly as a left arm spinner,
culminating in the 1 st XI in the first year sixth
only to be demoted to the 2nds in my final
year! I also recall the evening games we had
against local village teams as members of the
Mart Regan XI. There were some very good
young cricketers spotted in the school play‐
ground who played in the team thus allowing
their talent to blossom. Nowadays political
correctness and a desire to shelter them from
their elders would presumably not allow this
to happen.
Having completed school, I moved on to
Leeds University to take a B. Com
(Accountancy) degree course. I was not alone
at Leeds as there were several other ex SBHS
pupils there ‐ Cedric Gillings, George Kendall,
Dave Pulsford, Dave Goulding, John Tennant,
Bransby Croft, Peter Youle, etc. Did George
Kendall ever make a profit on his betting ac‐
tivities? I played cricket for the university ‐ I
must admit the standard was not very high ‐
and football for the Economics Society.
In l959, after obtaining my degree, I went to
London in a very hot August to embark on
three years’ articles and sample the world of
work, starting on the princely salary of £400
per annum. I recall that we were given lunch‐
eon vouchers of 15 shillings a week part way
through the first year which were tax free and
you could get a lunch for 2s 9d in those days! I
managed to qualify as a Chartered Accountant
in 1962 and, unlike most other SBHS students
who had got away, returned to Scarborough.
I took over my father’s small practice in late
1962 and decided that I had to go for expan‐
sion. Another practice was bought in Scarbor‐
ough and a further office in Bridlington. In
1969, I merged with a larger firm which was
based mainly in Hull, but which also had
Scarborough and Bridlington offices. We then
had seven partners and six Plc audits. The
latter proved somewhat difficult to defend
against the large firm predators and so it was
decided in 1973 that a merger with one of the
9
big firms was necessary. I was not keen to
move away from Scarborough and so took
back the Scarborough and Bridlington offices
and an office in Market Weighton and com‐
menced again as a sole practitioner. Chris
Found joined me shortly afterwards (see No‐
vember 2003. issue). I retired on 31 st December
last having completed 41 years in practice.
On returning to Scarborough, I continued my
cricket career with Scalby, then Cloughton
from 1966 when I married and lived in the
village, returning to Scalby when we moved
back there. I also continued to play hockey ‐ a
sport I had taken up in London presumably
influenced by the matches which we used to
play on the beach in my latter years at SBHS
against the SGHS ‐ initially at York and then
for Scarborough. I thoroughly enjoyed both
sports, but sadly gave up early because of the
travelling and the demands of parenthood!
Badminton for a time and skiing to this day
took over. Outside office and sporting inter‐
ests, I was a member of Scarborough Round
Table for 15 years and I have been a member
of Rotary for 27 years. I have also been in‐
volved with the Institute of Chartered Ac‐
countants as president of The Humberside
and District Society in l991/2 and served on
the National Council from 1995 to 2003. Lo‐
cally, I have been a director of the Scarbor‐
ough Building Society from 1984 to date and
was chairman for eight years from 1994 to
2002. I was a director and shareholder of Bel‐
vedere Hospital until it was sold against my
wishes to BUPA and recently closed by them. I
have also been involved with a charity, Scar‐
borough Flower Fund Homes for about 30
years and chairman for the past 18 years. We
have managed to build 84 units of accommo‐
dation for the elderly in that time.
I did not think I had much to report, but seem
to have gone on for far too long and so it will
finish there. In any event I thought I was only
an ex‐officio member of the committee!