There have been many stories about how the three of us met, I can't remember which ones are true, so I will keep to the facts.
Our school year group went to an activity centre near Calshot Spit for three of four days where we all tried windsurfing, canoeing, track cycling, climbing and other sports. Part of this "week" away was a nighttime disco. This event was compulsory and our sleeping quarters were out of bounds during this time.
I didn't like the idea of a disco, I had never been to one and didn't intend to go to this one. I don't know why Pete and Leo were trying to avoid it. I have heard that at least one of them didn't like the music and there has been talk of avoiding a breakdancing competition.
Pete and Leo knew each other from their primary school and I knew Pete from our tutor group. We managed to avoid the disco by taking a walk in the dark and chatting about such deep subjects as space and time travel. This allowed us to approach the bedrooms from an unexpected direction and sufficiently late to find the doors unguarded. We then spent the rest of the evening quietly keeping our heads low and talking rubbish. I had found my kindred spirits.
At the time Pete would spend his spare moments drawing fire engines. He could also draw dustbin lorries, as long as they looked like fire engines with dustbin lorry rears. Pete was the short broody quiet one. He was reasonably intelligent, but never seemed to push himself.
Leo was gregarious. The product of an academic father and a mother who was wild at heart. He soon found a reputation for being around when things became broken. No one could say these breakages were always his fault, he just seemed to always be there.
I was the dreamer. Some of my ideas were good, some very silly. It was up to the other two to filter them and sometime we got it wrong.
Some time later we had taken to visiting each others houses and playing darts. Each of us had access to a dart board at home and our own set of darts. Then we would walk the streets of Portchester talking nonsense and exchanging private jokes.
It must have been an Olympics year. It was a warm sunny evening. I don't know who had the idea of having a javelin competition in a deserted play park near my house and using darts, but we started.
The first throw was Pete (we only had three darts that day). It went up in the air into the grass of the park and lost.
Leo's throw went high and to the left, into someone's garden.
I had just decided not to throw when a policeman arrived on a bicycle. He was very interested to know why the three of us were in the park looking in the grass and carrying a single dart.
On another occasion it seemed a good idea to ride our bikes on a field near Portchester Castle and pretend to be the Red Arrows. We tried riding three abreast with the two outer bikes pealing off to return crossing in front if the leader. We tried cycling head on and passing each other as close as possible. It was all going so well, until a forth person on a bike arrived and Leo tried to involve them. This resulted in a collision and the most buckled wheel I have ever seen.
We spent many days and evenings together. We shared our thoughts and our concerns. We spent one evening laying on a children's roundabout gazing up at the full moon convinced it was getting bigger and about to fall on us.
We all had secret crushes on girls and tried to egg each other on to actually talk to them. We would walk the streets of Portchester covering miles each night, passing the houses of these girls and hoping for a glimpse of them at home.
In the three or for years that we were in school together none of us went out with a girl (at least that's how I remember it)
We had other friends on the outside of our threesome.
Simon Brown was an oriental looking boy. He was a font of knowledge on many scientific and engineering subjects and in hindsight, although we were partly in awe of him, we didn't give him the credit he deserved. He also seemed the most grown up person and most stable person we knew. The last I heard from him, he had applied for a job in defense research and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he was a leading professor in that field.
Jim Cronk in my mind is filed alongside Simon. He was studious and worked hard, but didn't seem to have the natural gifts that Simon had. In later life Jim formed part of a five-a-side football team founded by Leo and Pete. We played in a league on indoor pitches on a Fareham industrial estate. The Piano Players included myself, Leo, Pete, Andrew (Pete's brother in law), Jim and our star player Riccardo, a friend of Leo's from work I think. One night a week we would dress in similar coloured clothes and play two or three games of football. Each half was about 5 minutes which was plenty of excercise for us in our late 20s and playing against kids in their teens. The team name came from a slang term Pete would use "That's pianos" meaning "not very good". The team eventually was taken over by a younger, fitter group and after a while we were no longer asked to play.
Nearing the end of our time in Portchester Community School, we were unsure of where we were going next. We had a poor view of life in Portchester, considering it as a place full of old people and no prospects. Pete decided to join the Royal Navy, following in his father's footsteps. I decided to tag along to a number of Royal Navy careers presentations and considered that joining as an Artificer in the Royal Navy would give me a paid job close to home with the same qualifications as if I had gone to college. Pete joined for similar reasons and we were all set to join up on the same day.
In order to qualify to join as a Royal Navy Artificer, I needed O level or high CSE grades in Maths, English and a science subject. If I was to join straight from school, my exam results would not arrive in time. I was given a series of MOD exams which I passed and was given a joining date of 31st August 1987.
Pete also passed the same exams, due to an administrative problem with his medical exam, Pete's joining date was delayed until January of the following year.
I was very young and didn't know much of the world, so I thought if I was going to defend the United Kingdom, I should know what it looks like. I have always had a keen interest in railways and rather too much interest in timetables. Somehow I persuaded Leo to come with me on a seven day tour of the UK by train. Pete either didn't fancy it or couldn't afford it.
We were told by our parents that we had to stay each night in a bed, so we joined the Youth Hostel Association, with a view to using these establishments on our journey.
The spring before our mamouth trip, we took a trial run of youth hosteling by cycling around the perimeter of the Isle of Wight over 3 days. I remember that we took the car ferry from Portsmouth, so I assume we cycled to the car ferry. We could have taken the train to Portsmouth Harbour station as that would have made sense. The reason why I remember we took the car ferry, was that one of us chained our bike to the barrier at the front of the car deck and couldn't get it unchained when we arrived, stopping the cars from leaving. I think that may have been me.
The ride was harder than I expected, as the Isle of Wight has a lot of hills in a small area. With the support of Leo I was able to finish it.
For the seven day train journey I had completed two schedules. One for our families which included overnight stays in youth hostels and hotels each night and one that only included two overnight stays. Both involved taking the first westbound train from Portchester station on the first day and both ended on the same train on the seventh day.
