Duko Assault Course 1962

[MartinIDavies]

if you Google Speke House duko you will come to Flckr stream of tales of my time and duko.. Paul Jackson an ex duko boy and I have been exchanging tales.. I would imagone many of the things that happend to us you will recognise...

[fingerscarr]

MartinlDavies....just had a look absolutely fascinating ! shall read more tomorrow ! !

[MartinIDavies]

yes am I am semi-connected via Andrew Hillards old Yorkist site I owe him a paragraph on what became of me in the last 45 odd years interesting to see the extent of the duko diaspora.

[MartinIDavies]

On a sad note I read that a 2nd year student was found drowned in the school pool a couple of days ago.

[MartinIDavies]

Kib... I seem to remember hearing that prior to my arrival Sept 65 that the assault course was heavily used and a real bugger. All forms? Also that there were guard towers on school boundaries during the emergency. Do you know anything about this or was I just being set-up as new comer?

[fingerscarr]

@MartinIDavies i was at kirk '52-'56 and yes during the emergency there were guard towers and sandbags around the boarding houses .

seniors patrolled houses through the night and we had wind up air raid sirens to summon armed teachers in case of attack , teachers patrolled the grounds at night in land rovers. even remember planes bombing villagers on land about 800m to the right of exit from kirk , facing the dining block .

the cook was musembe ! ! ! suave rosam !

[MartinIDavies]

@fingerscarr thanks for writing this... I would liek to learn a lot more about duke during its colonial period.. 49 thru 66... do you recall churr a hops? dingleberries? windjamming

[fingerscarr]

@MartinlDavies ..churra hops (frog hops ) certainly do , suffered by slack rabbles at pre breakfast PT on the tarmac outside kirk .

windjamming, rugby run/ walk sprints up and down the field under i c reid were as bad !

not sure about dingleberries !

did you know there is a very active east african schools old boys organisation which arranges an annual picnic in sydney . can put you in touch via message facility if you wish !

[MartinIDavies]

@fingerscarr dingleberries was the name for those clay granades which were placed at the end of a whippy stick about 2 foot lond then whipped into the air at opposing side of the donga in the donga mud wars...

did you have to do frog catching in the donga in wet season. Entire Speke and Lugard rabble sloshing about in the swollen mudding donga catching frogs.. later green snakes which were kept in lockers until African cleaners complained and they were banned...

[kibobella]

It was built by the engineers of the british army detachment in 62 organised by Dennis Cooper (see picture of 'gym classes' on web site. He used it to provide some variety of physical education classes, one round of the assault course followed by a swim and then back to normal classes. When we got good at it he then had us carrying the 'telegraph' poles, for added interest. and it was great fun. To the best of my knowledge not one person was injured

[kibobella]

Good to see that the video is prompting some dialogue and memories. Does anyone out there able to name some of the unfortunate participants. I remember Tichbourne, what has happened to him. Maybe we could list the names on the Old Yorkist web site. My father will be amused to read what you guys used his assault course for.

[MartinIDavies]

Kib... hello Martin here this is a nice surprise. Tell us more about the assault course... when it was built, why, and how it was used..also interested in hearing entertaining tales of adventures and misadventures.. tell all..

[MartinIDavies]

Part 1 . Jan, great to connect. so funny. The use of the innocent expression 'to have a fag..' within the context of an all boys boarding school is subject to misinterpretation. I was rabble at the Speke and you being a senior boy (prefect?) in our sister house we would not have interacted. The course was shut down by the time I arrived although the trail and donga bridge was still there a short cut to the pool and school. Donga great for catching snakes

[golf9424]

I was there too, and did the course many times. Also a good place to have a fag in the bundu.

Jan, Lugard 1962-1965

[MartinIDavies]

Part 2.. Cigs I recall Kenya brands, Sportmans, 4Aces, Matterhorn and, of course, 10 centies the African cigs..and what the hell were they made of? Do you recall the McCloud brothers (Canadians) in Lugard. The elder your age the younger, Colin, was my friend. Do you recall the Lugard escape tunnel built by some enterprising boys in Lugard inspired by film The Great Escape.. and there was the famed late night bike incident although that maybe have been in 66 so you will have left

[golf9424]

Hi Martin,

Indeed nice to meet an old Yorkist in such an unexepcted place. I too had my share of Sportman's cig's, but also some more elevated brands like State Express 555. Got many a beating getting caught too. I think the tunnel must have been after my time, cause I don't recall it being made. Yeah, the snakes. We used to take them into the classroom, and have them appear through the inkwell in our desk. Great fun but also a recipe for getting beaten...

[MartinIDavies]

Jan.. oh yes I recall the beatings... it seemed one was beaten for almost anything... especially for a non satis of on the prgram. the bottom 25% were on them. I was on for 3 weeks but managed to get off it by moving up in the class ranking pretty quickly.. oh yes and then the running running ran us into the ground like the dogs we were

Stare Express I ecall being so very sophisicated drinking a coke at the Thorn Tree cafe in the New Stanley... trying to pick up girls

[MartinIDavies]

Beatings.. one could receive a canning for many things including: being late, being stroppy, lying, telling the truth, shooting stones at people on the train in the culvert, keeping snakes, being caught out-of- bounds especially if caught in the local African duka smoking and drinking cinzarno in coke bottles would disguise it. Walking on the grass in the main quad, walking thru main school doors, being out of uniform, stealing which was deserved, fighting. I will think of more

[MartinIDavies]

I was there,, in 1965... :-) thanks for posting