This section involves events and photos gathered or sent in by ex-Spurs members regarding their activities (mainly football-related) after they left St. Mary's Secondary School (where most of them studied), and/or, Sandakan. It will cover the years they were in tertiary institutions as well as the years of their early working lives.
** My Photo Collection
As the one keeping this blog alive, it will more appropriate that I start the ball rolling, while waiting for other ex-Spurs members to feed in their stories.
.jpg)
I entered Sabah College (SC) in January 1963 and was drafted into the college’s B-team. However, instead of involving in any of the forward positions, I opted for the goal-keeping duties. Incidentally, this position was not too foreign to me as I had kept goals for my class team during Inter-class competitions in St. Mary’s Secondary School.
The SC soccer teams (A and B) did quite well during those two years I was there, even though we did not make it to the top of the Inter-School Competitions in Jesselton (Kota Kinabalu). In recognition of the good progress of the soccer teams during that period, we were given a special memento and a certificate each by the Principal Dr. Rawcliff. I received mine by mail after I had settled into the next higher institution (Auckland University) in 1965.
*** Auckland, NZ
I landed in Auckland New Zealand in February 1965. Soon after, I was asked to keep goal in a friendly match between a hastily assembled Malaysian Students team and a local team. It was a disaster. During the previous years, I found that I needed glasses to correct my advancing short-sighted problems. Playing without my spectacles during bright day-time conditions in Jesselton, North Borneo (now Kota Kinabalu, Sabah) my vision was not impaired much. It was a totally different story doing so without my glasses during a match in the evening under poor flood lighting conditions in Auckand. I could hardly see the ball. I have now lost count of the number of goals I let in that evening!
The next Year (1966), I moved to Ardmore where the Auckland University’s engineering campus was located. It was some 30 miles south of Auckland and was thus quite far away from the AU main campus next to the Albert Park. Because of the isolation of the Ardmore School of Engineering (ASE), the engineering students tended to run wild with their activities. A lot of the students owned pre-WW II cars (old bombs) and a corner of the campus was turned into an open garage where do-it-yourself “mechanics” could be seen at weekends repairing or upgrading their old bombs.
>>>>My 1952 Hillman Minx with the open garage at back
Some groups also frequently indulged in heavy and noisy beer drinking sessions. One of the unused hostel rooms was converted into an illicit brewery to ensure a continuous flow of cheap beer. Occasionally, the engineering graduates would form ‘raiding’ parties and invaded the girls’ hostel in the neighbouring Ardmore Teaching Training College (ATTC)! In 1966, there was only one female student studying Civil Engineering in the ASE. She was a Malaysian. Because of the inappropriate facilities at the ASE’s hostel, she was accommodated at the ATTC.) The facilities at the ASE then were rudimentary. The lecture halls were ex-NZ Air Force hangars, and the students hostels were converted barracks.
<<<< Students about to enter a Lecture Hall
General view of Lamb House (Hostel) >>>>
Goal keepers were a scarce commodity at the ASE, and I was drafted into its soccer team during the three years I was there.
The ASE Soccer team only participated in matches with the various county teams in the small districts surrounding the Ardmore area. It was poorly financed. I had to provide my own “jersey” and football boot. My jersey also doubled as my winter pull-over! As a goal keeper, my job during matches was not a demanding one, as most of the opposing county teams were rather weak, and the actions hardly got to my end of the field. Because of this, keeping goal in winter was always a daunting and ‘chilly’ experience for a lad from the tropics!
(......Click Photo to enlarge)
* * * * * *
