This season culminates what in years to come might be known as the Nettleton era. Nettleton now leaves us after four years in the team, and in two years of captaincy he has lost only two School matches. His individual runs to date are 775, the highest since Norman Yardley. W. R. Pickersgill might well not agree with the term—the Nettleton era—for it was he who claimed all 10 wickets for 13 runs in the match against Giggleswick this term. (56 wickets to date; only once since the war has this total been surpassed, in 1951 by J. J. Youll with 61 wickets). Prospects for the future remain as bright as ever, for our Senior Colts team have had a quite outstanding unbeaten record this term. The Squash team has had its best season for many years, being undefeated in school matches. Three of the team, J. J. Vooght, R. D. Harding and G. A. Willstrop, won all their matches against other schools. The Colts team was also unbeaten. J. J. Vooght retained the Northumberland Junior Squash Championship. I have tried to give you a picture of the activities, achievements, hopes and aspirations of a large family of boys—certainly by no means conforming to any pattern or mould, but a group of individuals united in a common interest which makes our School. It is not fashionable today to beat the drum of "loyalty", "school tie" or what you may call it, to rest on privilege or to sit back on tradition. But I have never been more conscious in my long years in this responsible office of the enormous endeavour and selfless service of the staff I have the honour to lead, and of the devoted work of all at St. Peter's for the good of the School. We look forward with confidence whatever the future may hold, and will continue to try to deserve that support with which our parents, old boys and friends encourage us in so rich measure.
LORD JAMES'S SPEECH The Dean, Mr. Sheriff, my Lady Mayoress, Sheriff's Lady, Headmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen: May I first say, in all sincerity, what a great honour it is to have been asked to distribute these prizes, partly because St. Peter's is an old and great School, but mainly, I think, because those of us who know something about the educational history of the last twenty-five years will know that it is the truth that there are, in fact, few schools in England that owe more to their present Headmaster than does this; although I expect everyone knows that, there is no harm in saying it again and explaining why I am particularly glad to be here. The second thing I must do is to thank the speaker of the Latin oration for the kind things which he said. It is really a tribute to the human mind in its power of forgetting things which it wishes to forget. I think I was reasonably good at Latin in the London matriculation, but I listened to that speech in almost complete incomprehension. There were only four words I understood, and one of them was manifestly inappropriate since not even my best friend would associate the word "equitatis" with me. I should have thought that more people would have understood that joke in a school of this classical tradition, but although I paid tribute to the human mind I must also pay a tribute to the speaker, because even without the translation one has gathered from his manner that he was, indeed, saying kind things even if they were concealed in what can be called the decent obscurity of a learned language. 10
