When I began doing this rundown of the people I’d been to school with, it was purely to get something down before I forget it all. Just random junk and snippets of memories was all I intended, but judging by my super-duper stats, it seems that the notes on my former classmates is the most popular bit. Hopefully I haven’t upset anyone.

Anyway here are a few others from my year, though not my class:

David ‘Honda’ Henderson: The main thing I remember about Honda was that he had the hardest shot in our year. When he leathered a ball it flew. I remember being hit on the thigh on a cold morning in games by him a few times and I can still feel the sting.

Honda lived on Cedar Road, Fenham and had a sister I think. He was always up for football and cricket after school – though football was his strength. I always thought that he was a good friend to have, as he was loyal and reliable and he didn’t moan much (unlike me). I don’t think anyone disliked Honda (everyone called him Honda, not David) and he had many friends from throughout our year – he was in ‘R’ (class).

Graham Walton: Graham was good friends with Honda and also in the same class as him. Graham lived in Arthur’s Hill close to St. James’ Park on Diana Street.

I got to know Graham quite well – he was briefly the drummer in our band and I went to the Queen gig at Knebworth with him and Darren Wainwright. Although he wasn’t in my class, I did get a handful of classes with him – Games, Physics and possibly Geography and he went on the Field Trip to Ford Castle in 1984.

Graham was fairly shy and quiet on the surface, but he opened up once you got to know him. He didn’t like sports very much at all though, which was unusual for a friend of mine. I’m not sure if I saw him after school, although I may have seen him on Diana Street a couple of years after school, but I’m not sure it was him – I heard he was working in a sports shop for a while. He also took plenty of photos at 6th form nights out that I would love to have a look at one day, although I’m sure they are long since gone.

David Erichsen: David always seemed to be smiling. I liked him a lot and thought he was one of the ‘good guys’, a good friend to have and always up for a laugh and joke. I think he lived in Chapel House or somewhere out that way.

I took Physics with him and we mercilessly teased Mr. ‘Bamber’ Armstrong and learned next to nothing in two years. I think he also went to Ford Castle where we had a pretty good week there. I think David’s sport was rugby. I also recall him having a family bereavement late in our time at Rutherford and although I would say he was a friend at the time, I had no idea what to say to him or how I should act. I’ve never set eyes on him since, but a he was a genuinely nice lad.

Darren Bolton: I could probably fill a book with stuff about Darren. Often known as ‘Daza’, he was another of ‘R’s boys. Darren lived on Fenham Hall Drive with his Mam and Stepdad and later a newborn brother came along.

I liked Darren and he was loud and opinionated (I was quiet and opinionated) and was a major fan of Spandau Ballet and Howard Jones. We would often talk music and play music in Jeff White’s front room as we played snooker. We would each make a mix tape and take turns on whose would be played each night -let’s just say it was varied.

Darren also had his own snooker table (with huge pockets), but there was less space around it, so we played at Jeff’s mostly. I do remember him chipping the cue ball off the bed of the table and smasing a glass presentation case – the look on his face was priceless. Another thing he did in his house was to pilfer his Stepdad’s soft-porn mags at any opportunity and would often bring them down to show the lads.

We had some good laughs together, playing cricket, golf, football etc on the Convent field and at Rutherford  in the days when security guards didn’t throw you off school grounds at night. He really loved cricket and supported Nottinghamshire for some reason, although he was not the best player among us, he was very keen indeed. He developed his off-spin and seemed to like to bowl that, but he never made the school team unfortunately.

In spite of being close to him, I never saw him from the age of 18 on.

Alan Faulkner: Alan was an easy boy to take the piss out of. He was fairly dopey and very timid, but he was not a bad sort at all. He was probably picked on too much because of it as he was such an easy target. He had that ‘daft as a brush’ quality about him and a comical laugh that you could hear from 100 yards.

Alan lived on Beaconsfield Street, at the top nearest the West Road and I think his Dad was Irish and his Mam Scottish. Oh and I remember his middle name was Charles. His Dad was over-protective and would frequently take boys to task for how they treated Alan – this of course made things much worse.

I saw him recently in The Gate in town and he still looks the same – a weird semi-limping walk, shirt hanging out as ever and that ‘got dressed in the dark look’. He has barely changed in almost 25 years. I hope he’s happy and he probably is – the simple things made him happy.

Phil Aitman: Phil was our year’s leading heavy metallist. He liked loud metal and dressed accordingly – even playing guitar as he got a little older. He once had a go on my cheap strat copy in the 6th Form common room and bizarrely he had a nose bleed on it. I later swapped him a guitar at his parent’s place when we had all gathered there to watch The Exorcist. I think Phil and me were the only 2  boys to play guitar in our year – they’re all it at these days, but in the 1980s guitar was not the thing – it was all synthpop and drum machines.

I liked Phil and he was one of the boys that made our room in Ford Castle on the Field Trip so pleasant. I first spoke to him as we both stood watching rugby in games in the first year, both having notes from our Mams saying we couldn’t do it. I was pretending to have a bad leg, but I’m not sure what Phil’s ailment was, or whether it was as fictional as my own.

Phil lived down at New Mills later at school, but I’ve a feeling he lived in Benwell earlier on at school. I don’t think I saw him out of school very often, if at all, other than the aforementioned Exorcist video night. I think I did see him once on the bus a couple of years after school but I wasn’t sure it was him as he’d grown his hair (or maybe he hadn’t) and I didn’t speak.