Reg Saville had been teaching piano lessons at Spyway since 1962 and in November 1975 'The Old Man', as Eric was known in the Common Room, told him to take ten of the senior boys to Bournemouth for their piano exams.
RS asked 'The Old Man' for the official Royal School of Music form so that he would know the precise time and location but Eric gave him a chit instead with the details on: the time of the exam, the chit said, was 10am.
RS and the boys arrived in plenty of time in Bournemouth, found out where the venue was and, with time to spare, went for breakfast in Forte's. The boys were glad to be treated to a decent fry-up after the frugal school fare but when they all returned to the exam venue shortly before 10, the lady on reception said : 'Oh, we've been worried about you - you were supposed to be here an hour ago - you've missed the exams".
RS was shown the official documentation which had been sent to Eric, confirming the exam time as indeed 9am. The secretary, however, was very helpful and told RS she could re-arrange the piano exams for that very lunchtime.
This agreed, the boys and RS returned to Forte's for an early lunch, much to the pupils' added delight. The examinations successfully completed, RS and party returned to Langton in the late afternoon, to find Spyway very quiet, unusually quiet.
RS went to the Common Room to investigate, only to be greeted by an angry Geoffrey who said: "Eric's dead - and it's your fault".
Spyway had always been fiercely competitive at sport but it turned out that afternoon the delayed piano exams had meant the school's first choice of team couldn't be fielded against its greatest rivals. At short notice, Eric and Geoffrey were forced to play junior members of the school as substitutes.
The Spyway team was of course roundly trounced; Eric was very disappointed and the day's fateful events took their course, with Eric dying of a heart attack in his study shortly after the final whistle.
2 comments:
This story is utter rubbish. I was both a musician and a rugby player. On the day that Mr Eric died I played centre for the school first (only) team when we trounced Dumpton by the normal margin of about 60 - 10. A very sad day but he left us on a victorious afternoon.
I agree this story is rubbish as I wrote home the following day to my parents that we had won the rugby and only a small postscript that EWric had died.
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