HOW A BULMERSHE COLLEGE CATCHPHRASE WAS BORN...

 

How A Bulmershe College Catchphrase Was Born…

John Follett was from the East End of London and he supported Millwall ‘no-one likes us’ FC, who then played their football at The Den in the chillingly named Cold Blow Lane. John was noisy but immensely likeable. 

He ran the volleyball club and was the subject of a marvellous moment in a match at Twickenham’s St Mary’s College in London. I didn’t attend because I was probably watching a football match somewhere… 

Apparently, with the match tied and the opponents on a roll, John called a time-out. Soon a guy approached John who was likely taking as long as he could over the time-out off court and made some comment about the timing and maybe the length of John’s time-out. I was informed that John turned to the chap, his eyes almost certainly bulging with anger from his grimacing face but he addressed the guy remarkably pleasantly, if somewhat loudly: 

“Are you an official?” 

In a hushed sports-hall, the fellow visibly shrank somewhat and replied that he wasn’t and so John’s immortal retort then rang about the court like a battle-cry from Bulmershe: 

“Well, f… off then…” 

Bulmershe won…

BACK ROW: TONY CLIFFORD, DAVE HALL, MARTIN PHIPPS;
AT THE FRONT: ME & JOHN FOLLETT...

Consequently, whenever we wanted to get rid of a visitor, a trespasser or the like from our corridor, we would simply enquire: ‘“Are you an official?” 

We would then collapse laughing at the puzzled expressions we received. 

We knew what it meant though…