After moving from Rockhampton to Brisbane, a Toowoomba Grammar old boy being my grandfather keeping in the sense of the Grammar boy spirit enrolled his eldest son David into Brisbane Grammar School. My uncle was readily accepted into the school and in 1966, the first ever Baskerville Grammar boy began to form. A Baskerville Grammar boy is formed over the five years of schooling that is offered at Brisbane Grammar, and none of the nine graduated boys of the two generations so far have failed to fulfil the giant footsteps that have been left by the legend of the Baskerville boy. My first experience with the Baskerville boy within the social setting of the school community was in 1998 at the GPS Track and Field Championships. The scene was Nudgee College and the rich blue tartan track, the four by four hundred meter relay was in progress with Nudgee in first position and Grammar in a close second coming into the last leg of the race. What happened next was unbelievable, the school spirit among the blue supporter army was rising, as Michael Baskerville (or more commonly referred to as ‘Baskers’) received the batten. Nudgee sprinted out ahead too put themselves thirty meters in the clear, but the cool mind of Basker’s prevailed and took the race in a strangle hold. Whether he knew what he was doing or not is beside the point, Basker’s came round the final bend neck and neck with the Nudgee athlete. With the roar of the Grammar supporters behind him, he ripped down the home straight for a momentous Grammar victory and Howsy was ecstatic with joy and in the censored version came out with “you bloody ripper”. I remember from that day on, I wanted to be just like my cousin when I got older. This type of man, the Baskerville man is what I aspired to be, aimed to achieve in my time Grammar. Just over three months later, the chance for me and my cousin achieve this dream was upon us. For a day or so, Mitchell and I were known as Mitchell and Stephen respectively, but that was very short lived. On Tuesday morning at roll call Mr. Green began to read out the students names; “Mitchell Baskerville?” “Here sir” “Stephen Baskerville?” “Here sir” The response from the form seniors in the room at the time was immediate. They slowly made their way over and began saying “So you boys are Baskerville’s” and not knowing what the big deal was me and Mitchell responded with a curious “yeah”. Little did I know the consequences of being a Baskerville at Grammar, but from that point onwards we were both known as Baskers. The word began to go out that there were two new Baskerville’s within the ranks of the school, and I almost felt as popular as the Beattie twins. Despite being a Baskerville and having my name spread around the school, I felt that there was something missing within my life. The only two people at school that I really felt I had good friendships with were my cousin Mitchell, which was expected, and Rajneel Puran. These were the two people I knew I could count on when I needed someone. Now Mitchell and I just had one of those friendships that all cousins do, where you love to be friends but also don’t want to be the same and people saying how similar we were. But Raj and I had a totally different type of friendship. I think what made our friendship was that we both had a common interest, we both loved to get up to a bit of mischief both in and out of class. In those two years that Raj was here at school with us, we had some unforgettable memories. Except in this time I was friends with Raj, I did receive five afternoon detentions in year eight, and two in year nine. Except Raj being the character and sweet talker as he was, managed to talk the malleable Mr. Gee and get me and the rest of the guys off the detentions, except he still took the punishment. It was this quality and qualities like these that really shone and showed me what a good friend Raj was, despite other people’s opinions about him. So in all year eight and nine were good old times, where 8D and 9D were apparently the worst classes some teachers had taught ever, with the ever present paper wasp wars, continual chatter, a few broken windows and annoyance of teachers. All of these memories will stick with me forever, and they have formed who I am today. Sport was another big thing to me and a very important part of the well rounded Baskerville boy figure. Now the first and only sport that was of any significant importance to me in year eight and nine was my life long passion of Rugby. Ever since I was six, the only thing out side of school that I can really remember is football consisting of rugby league, oztag and rugby union. I used to spend hours out in the parks behind our various houses tirelessly practicing kicking and passing. And so when the rugby season finally came around I was signing up as quickly as possible. That year was a memorable one, playing in the thirteen B’s, C’s and D’s, with a try in each team. In the fourteen’s I ended up playing the whole season in the B’s and one try. I knew that I was not the most skilled or valued player in these teams, and that I did not really fit in with the rest of the players in the teams, but I consistently turned up to training after training, game after game and tried as hard as I could to play well and fit in. Just being out there on the field made me happy, knowing that I had a place in a team, and that I had a part to play while enjoying myself. I was part of the year 8 B gymnastic team as well, a strong Baskerville tradition. This only lasted one year, and after the new gymnasium was built, my gymnastics career died in quite unfair circumstances. I was told by another gymnast that Mr. Fritz had kicked me off the team, and so I never went back. But a year later I was told by this gymnast that he was only joking, and all I could do was think what could have been. This reaffirmed my thoughts that I would never make friends and be a real Baskerville boy. In year eight I also enjoyed singing and joined Grammar Vocal Ensemble. I was surprised to learn that Baskerville’s before me had also enjoyed singing, and people were quick to point this out to me. It was as if I could not live up to the standard left by previous Baskerville’s, it was just so hard. At the start of grade ten, I was shocked on the first day back at school to find out both Mitchell and Raj had left the school. There was talk of both of their leaving’s but I did not want to accept the fact that they wouldn’t be there, and on that first day back it really started to hit home that it wasn’t just some joke. That first semester back in year ten was the hardest semester I ever faced at my time at Grammar. I no longer cared about the Baskerville boy, I began to rebel. The name calling from classmates, such as A.D.D. and ‘get involved’ I could no longer handle, and I started to take my anger out on the perpetrators. I had about seven or eight music block scuffles that semester, hurting only a few people along the way. One thing that I did learn from that experience is you do not want to pick a fight with Hongy. I felt the only friends I had left were those Terrace boys and All Hallows girls that I caught the train to and from school with, and they still are good friends today. That semester my Rugby career hit a high for a short period with Howsy and Mr. Mewing naming me in the A’s for the trail against B.B.C. This was an exciting yet very scary time for me, as I did not really have the build of an A’s player. It just happened to be my luck that the two tackles that I made that day were on Quinton, the prop forward and the huge in-centre, both times blacking out for a few seconds and straining my left shoulder’s rotor cuff. That ended up being seven weeks on the sideline and finishing the season with games in the A’s, B’s and C’s. Halfway through my schooling career at Grammar and mum and dad bought a house 100 meters down the road from school. We moved in in the June/July holidays and I decided to play a new sport as well. I began basketball as some fun and fitness. I began in the D’s as a reserve as it was the first time I had ever played basketball, and for the first time I actually started making some decent friendships with some of the boys, and started realising there was hope yet and even though I had had a bad year so far I could still be a great Grammar Baskerville boy. As the Basketball season passed, I progressively improved from scoring two points in my first five games to scoring sixty points in my last five games, gaining a place in the C’s team and getting best and fairest player for the 15D’s. Moogerah in year 10 was also one that I will not forget. Not only did I win $30 gaining the most points on camp for helping out which I would normally do, but also was awarded the French Legionnaire shirt which is a Mr. Brilliant tradition every time he goes to Moogerah to honour the most reputable person on the camp, as well as gaining respect from my class. Another thing that started happening when we moved to the city was we began attending church, Brisbane City Church in the Valley. I and my siblings thought it was just a waste of time, finding it boring and pointless. We didn’t go much at all, as little as possible the better we thought. But then one night I made a life changing decision at one of the big youth concerts mum and dad made me go to, I accepted Christ into my life and became a Christian. This changed my life forever, the music I listened to changed, I thought before I spoke, my thoughts were changed and my whole way of life was challenged. I believe that this part of my life has just helped me grow and mature so much from a Baskerville boy into the Baskerville man. Year eleven and twelve has been a blur of sporting and academic endeavours. It started with 16D cricket and more friendships. Then came rugby where I found myself with a try in the first game, as well as broken leg on the opposite side of the field to where I was meant to be. This allowed me to act as a cross country timer, and support the fella’s who were running. Later in the season I tried to play Basketball but I was still suffering from weakness in my broken leg. So I decided to focus all my attention on Track and field managing, which I will come back to soon. This was the year I also became very involved in church and youth group, youth on Friday and church twice on Sunday. I did not only do this because I loved God and wanted to practice Christianity, but also because I had found my spot in a community, and had formed so many friendships that I had to pinch myself to see that I was not dreaming. Year twelve has been such an amazing journey so far. It has had so many special moments that I will cherish forever away in my memory banks. The formal, QCS, sneaking home for lunch all those times, many good times. I also took on many responsibilities, chairman of the ISCF (Inter-School Christian Fellowship), form senior of 9B and was junior leader at rage youth, Brisbane City Church’s youth group. I also had some great sporting achievements in year 12. I ran in my first ever GPS cross country championship and ran a 1� personal best on the day of 24 minutes and was 7th in for Grammar in 40th place overall. I played in the 2nd XV after thinking I was going to be in the 4th’s and had a great season with a few wins. In these teams I was greatly respected, and I felt the Baskerville spirit in me was really working away and maturing. The final sport in which I participated in this season was track and field. As a manager my job was to know everybody and everything about them. As this person you may think people would get annoyed with you for being a sticky beak, but instead of this I actually formed great friendships with many of the boys. They looked up to me as a leader, and all I was doing was being myself, a Baskerville, all that I knew how to be. My commitment to the team also meant that I had plenty of contact with Mr. Clancy and his coaching staff, as well as the girls he was coaching. These girls and Clancy provided me with an outside view and told me that I had such a good relationship with all the boys in the team, and I realised I was beginning to touch the school with my Baskerville spirit. My whole time at Grammar as a Baskerville boy was reflected just last Saturday at the GPS track and field championships. Not only did my own crowd shout out my name when I walked pass them, but so did some of the Terrace and Ipswich crowds. What really impressed me though was that Mr. Clancy had got me this world cup jersey, and as something even more special, one of the girls Clancy coaches, Alyce went and got it signed by all the middle distance crew, my team. It was so special and showed me that I was as much a Baskerville boy as any other Basker’s that had passed through the school. I had made it; I had finally satisfied my self, I was very much like my cousin, like what I had aspired to be. The second generation of Baskerville’s within the framework of Brisbane Grammar School is starting drawing to an end for me, but hopefully the legend of the Baskerville spirit will live on within the historical buildings in the school. Hopefully once my brothers and cousins finish it will not be long at all until a third generation begins a new epic adventure of discovering the Baskerville history.
