I first met Dave in 1955 when he transferred to King Edwards School from (I think) Moseley School where his father taught. We had similar interests and lived not far from each other. Before long there was a group of four of us (including Michael Halsey and Robert Goodsman) who frequently played together and were in and out of each other’s homes.
Dave was very bright at school. He was probably the best chess player in a school which did well in the prestigious Sunday Times National Schools chess championship. There were a number of good players but Dave definitely had the edge.
Dave was always very modest about his ability, perhaps even diffident. My mother used to say that Dave never looked her in the face when he was speaking to her.
During several school holidays we would stay at Oakley Hall for a boy’s holiday party, where unusual games (both indoor and outdoor) were the order of the day. These were run by two Christian gentlemen, nicknamed Sunny and Eggs. In the evenings we made our own entertainment and I recall on one occasion the four of us did a sketch, a film skit, which opened with Dave in a leotard banging a gong (Rank style) except that we had the sound effect on a tape recorder of a lion roaring (MGM style)!
These were happy days. Tiddlywinks (official international rules, written by Eggs, with squopping as important as potting) was a passion. I remember we talked Birmingham University into lending us the baize from one of their snooker tables, which we have yet to return. We held the world speed potting record for a team of four, in fierce competition with Bristol and Manchester Grammar Schools in particular.
We all went to university, Dave to Bristol, but still met up during the holidays.
We were all very naïve where the opposite sex was concerned and it was a surprise to us all when Dave became involved with a debutante, Jackie, who he married.
After Jenny and Sue were born, they moved to Cantley Crescent in Wokingham where coincidentally I was living with my wife Kay. We all got along well. Dave and I formed an enjoyable bridge partnership winning a number of county competitions and one year reaching the fourth round of the top national bridge knockout competition, the Gold Cup.
In addition to his undoubted intelligence Dave was a very practical individual and was very adept at making and repairing things (probably inherited from his father). He made a card dealing machine for Zener cards when we were dabbling unsuccessfully with extrasensory perception.
Dave also had a dry sense of humour – on his birthday card for my 21st birthday he wrote, congratulations on having been being born on September 23rd 1943. I may say the front of the card was a bizarre chess problem he had composed specially.
Dave was a lifetime friend and I will miss him greatly, as will, I am sure, his two wonderful daughters, Jenny and Sue.
Colin Flood
