Institutions that once turned out flannelled fools and muddied oafs are now obsessed with exam results.
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The vinyl stools and linoleum-topped tables fill up with grizzled drinkers, staid couples in their sixties, and flannelled young professionals, all scruff and asymmetrical haircuts.
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Flannelled Fool: A Slice of a Life in the Thirties is an autobiography by T. C. Worsley, published in 1967. It takes its title from a phrase in "The Islanders", a poem by Rudyard Kipling. Though Flannelled Fool is subtitled A Slice of a Life in the Thirties, much of it treats the author's childhood and education at Marlborough College before he began a schoolmastering career at Wellington College in 1929.
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Thomas Cuthbert Worsley (1907–1977), who wrote as T. C. Worsley, was a British teacher, writer, editor, and theatre and television critic. He is best remembered for his autobiographical Flannelled Fool: A Slice of a Life in the Thirties.
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Holmes attended Park View School in South Godstone, Surrey, and St Andrew's School, Eastbourne, before going to Malvern College in Worcestershire in 1919, where he was coached at cricket by Charles Toppin.Errol Holmes, Flannelled Foolishness, Hollis & Carter, London, 1957, pp. 6–12. In a school match in 1922 he took 10 for 36 in an innings.Holmes, pp. 14–15.
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He was a master for 42 years at Malvern College, Worcestershire, where he also coached the cricket team. He encouraged batsmen to attack, with an emphasis on front-foot drives. Several of his pupils became Test players, including R. E. Foster, Frank Mann, Donald Knight and Errol Holmes.Errol Holmes, Flannelled Foolishness, Hollis & Carter, London, 1957, pp. 17-18.
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Human settled in Sydney and married Mollie Walder (daughter of Sir Samuel Walder, the Lord Mayor), whom he had met on the boat to Australia for the 1935–36 tour.Errol Holmes, Flannelled Foolishness, Hollis & Carter, London, 1957, p. 113. He served in the Australian Army in World War Two with the rank of major. After the war he entered a business career.
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After the war, Holmes was persuaded back to Surrey as captain for two further seasons from 1947, and as late as 1955, at the age of 49, he came back to captain Surrey in one match against Oxford University, batting at number nine and scoring 49 runs. In retirement, he sat on MCC and Surrey committees. He published his autobiography, Flannelled Foolishness: A Cricketing Chronicle, in 1957.Wisden 1958, pp. 1015–16.
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Day Four began in earnest with Michael Clarke and Katich continuing their partnership from the previous day. However, Katich had already twice flirted with dismissal, saved only by chance both times. In the words of BBC cricket commentator Henry Blofeld, "It's very much a game of chess – white-flannelled figures on green grass." The English and the Australians proceeded into a cold war for a good part of the morning, with England attempting to frustrate the Australian batting, but with the latter refusing to take the bait.
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The story of his challenges to the traditions of the school is told in Flannelled Fool. With Stephen Spender he went to Spain during the Spanish Civil War, some of his experiences being recorded decades later in Fellow Travellers. His The End of the Old School Tie (1941) was published as part of the Searchlight Books series edited by Tosco Fyvel and George Orwell. He later worked for the left-wing magazine New Statesman as assistant to Raymond Mortimer the literary editor, and drama critic.
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Errol Holmes, > Flannelled Foolishness, Hollis & Carter, London, 1957, p. 133. The ground has hosted first-class cricket since the 1950-51 season, when the Central Districts cricket team was established and began playing some of its matches there. As of 2020, 55 first-class and 77 List A matches had been played there. The ground has hosted a single international match, a One Day International in the 1992 Cricket World Cup when Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe in a high-scoring match by three wickets with four balls to spare.
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Day Four began in earnest with Michael Clarke and Simon Katich continuing their partnership from the previous day. However, Katich had already twice flirted with dismissal, saved only by chance both times. In the words of BBC cricket commentator Henry Blofeld, "It's very much a game of chess – white-flannelled figures on green grass." The English and the Australians proceeded into a cold war for a good part of the morning, with England attempting to frustrate the Australian batting, but with the latter refusing to take the bait.
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The school became fully co-educational in 1989. The school has also been pioneering in other fields, making a major contribution to the School Mathematics Project (from 1961) and initiating the teaching of Business Studies at A level (from 1968). In 1963 a group of boys, led by the future political biographer Ben Pimlott, wrote a book, Marlborough, an open examination written by the boys, describing life at the school. The writer and television critic T.C. Worsley wrote about predatory masters at the school in his critically acclaimed autobiography Flannelled Fool: A Slice of a Life in the Thirties.
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The Bodyline tour of 1932-33 had caused such lingering ill-will in Australia that MCC decided to precede England's Test tour of Australia in 1936-37 with a non-Test tour in 1935-36 aimed at restoring good-will between the two cricketing nations. They chose the Surrey amateur Errol Holmes to captain the team, and instructed him to ensure the players' demeanour was "cheerful and pleasant" and that they would play the game "in the proper spirit". Each player was "carefully selected, not only for his cricketing abilities but, equally, for his ambassadorial potentialities".Errol Holmes, Flannelled Foolishness, Hollis & Carter, London, 1957, p. 109.
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England rarely matched Australia in the sharpness of their fielding, but this was regarded as the best fielding team England has sent in many years, and they "moved in the field like flannelled dervishes".pp32, John Clarke, With England in Australia, Stanley Paul, 1966 John Murray was an old friend of Fred Titmus and kept wicket to him for Middlesex. He was recognised as the best glovesman in England, but was kept out of the Test team because he was not as good a batsman as his rivals. Jim Parks was the son of the all-rounder Jim Parks and father of the wicketkeeper Bobby Parks.
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In 1934, through his lectures in London to the New Education Fellowship, Hahn met the educationalist T. C. Worsley and persuaded him to spend a summer term at the newly founded Gordonstoun in the capacity of consultant. In his memoir Flannelled Fool: A Slice of a Life in the Thirties, Worsley records his impressions of Hahn's penetrating character analysis, and his energy and commitment in the cause of human development, but as time went on he became critical of Hahn's "despotic, overpowering personality": > He revealed himself as having a fierce temper, a strong hand with the cane, > and a temperament which hated being crossed. Especially damaging to my very > English view, was his dislike of being defeated at any game. Hahn was an > avid tennis player.
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