Banstead Village

Mr Long used to drive a metallic green VW Beetle to my recollection - good and kind teacher.

I remember playing football with Mr Long and a group of French kids on our trip to France, along with Philip Enniss, Gary Rogers and Stephen Ruffell Hazel. Great day. He was a good man.

Was at the Middle School 1975-80.

I hated formal sports (still do) - but Mr Long was a decent and fun bloke.

He had a game he called "Longball" which was basically a rounders/cricket mashup: a softball and a pair of head height square targets - and I think a paddle bat rather than a rounders bat. You had to defend the target like the stumps, run back and forth like cricket. Well, it was like cricket without the grotesque rules, hard ball and people getting uppity because they took winning too seriously - it was an epic game.

I even remember him trying to give me fashion tips (!) - I never wore a tie but did my top button up. He told me it worked better with an undone top button (guess he was trying to make me look cooler rather than the epic geek I was :->> )


Top bloke all round!

This man traumatised me to this day. He may have been a good PE teacher but he made my life hell as an 8 year old and certainly in maths. My parents went to the school to complain how bad he treated me but to no avail. He may have been a ‘top bloke’ for some but he traumatised me for the whole of my education. In or around 1982. I still live with the scars he created in my early youth.

I disagree. He may have been a top bloke for the boys but he was horrendous to me. At the age of 8-10 then and 53 now, he traumatised my life. Impacted my secondary education. He stripped me of all confidence. So no, not a top bloke and his teaching methods would not be accepted in today’s world

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