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18th January 2023, 09:08 AM
#11
Re: Anyone for tennis
I was on the Denholms cadet training ship the Wellpark in 1980 and when the ship was built the hatch Fwd of the accommodation had stanchions and nets fabricated so that it could be made into a football pitch. The deck crane when stowed lay across the hatch and the net was supported by the jib. The deck was painted with green non skid paint which I think was ordinary deck paint with sand mixed in. So if you fell on it it was like falling on sandpaper. Once full away on passage the nets were assembled and every weekend weather permitting there was a football tournament and with 24 cadets there was no shortage of players. Also saw deck golf on another Denholms ship with 'holes' painted on the deck and home made mallets and pucks. The photos show the crossing of the line ceremony and the second photo you can see part of the football pitch.
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Last edited by J Gowers; 18th January 2023 at 09:10 AM.
Senior Member
UK003715
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18th January 2023, 09:18 AM
#12
Re: Anyone for tennis
Eh! bah! gum! and to think in the 1950's all we had was pocket billiards!
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18th January 2023, 09:35 AM
#13
Re: Anyone for tennis
Different world it seems, galvanised bucket, replaced with washing machines, what no tumble dryers?, i remember the luxury on long voyage between ports, the swimming pool constructed of dunnage and an old tarp. the rec room aft on most ships, with a dart board and two old darts with half the flights missing, pack of cards consisted a full pack if you were really lucky, hardships !!!, nah , would do it all again if i could.
R689823
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18th January 2023, 10:57 AM
#14
Re: Anyone for tennis
Thing is Keith, it is a different game now . No time in port, can be breathalysed anytime. No social life onboard worth talking about and you need to speak maybe 3 languages as well.
Mind you having said that in years gone by you had to understand multi regional accents on UK flagged ships. Glaswegians always sounded angry to me , always thought they were chewing a wasp.
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18th January 2023, 11:13 AM
#15
Re: Anyone for tennis
That was one of the other entertainments we had James, an argument twixt a drunken Scot and a drunken Geordie !!! I accept its a different game now, but from what i read, i know which was the best era, only my opinion of course.
R689823
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18th January 2023, 12:33 PM
#16
Re: Anyone for tennis
Swimming down the tanks in a BTC tanker in ballast .......coming out shining in petrol or some sort of cancer causing fuel .....and filling in the clever bugger who thought it funny to drop the tank lid while you were swilled round like being in a washing machine in the dark.......can still remember my old mate george a west indian couldnt swim had his life jacket on .....panicking when the lid went down .......and myself shouting i will kill the count who did this......still remember it 60 odd years later.....eeh by gum we did have fun......never was on a ship with a bar .......cooks never made tabnabs......water rationed up the gulf and indian coast never went into rec rooms iether own cabins or on arsend when weather was good....3 cans a night sometimes ......often orangeboom beer.....maggots cockies and crabs .......it was the norm in tramps can still remember all hands coming to see wee beasties swimming round in a jar of pickled onions.......coal burning galleys....then the ore carriers came what a different world .....your own cabin .....steak twice a week .....all the ovies you wanted and short trips ......why yer bugger you wouldnt call the king your uncle ........better than your grannies yacht ... but it was all going then.. and now not many folk will even remember in a few years.....but looking back on a long busy life... its what always springs to mind.... and gives me proud and happy memories of a fine life for a young man ....R683532 cappy
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18th January 2023, 11:49 PM
#17
Re: Anyone for tennis
Hi Cappy.
Life is a funny thing. I have a nice house a loving wife {I Hope] and yet we still think those times years ago were the best thing since sliced bread. But they were, else we wouldn't remember them so clearly, maybe it was because we were young with the world our oyster.
Des
R510868
Lest We Forget
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19th January 2023, 05:39 AM
#18
Re: Anyone for tennis
Found an old photo today taken about 40 years ago.
Not sure who the couple are but her in doors tells me it is us.
If that is true then then I am as ugly as ever.
But she is certainly a good looker
Happy daze John in Oz.
Life is too short to blend in.
John Strange R737787
World Traveller
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