I was in Switzerland when I received an email in early September 2026 advising me that there was going to be a dinner three months later to celebrate 50 years of Football (Soccer) at Sydney Grammar School and I wryly commented

‘That’s a long way to go for a dinner’.

But the more I thought about it, and with the encouragement of our son David, I was soon really struggling to find reasons not to go.

The fact that this is the third article I have written about Sydney in the last 14 years is perhaps indicative of the formative influence the almost 4 years I spent teaching at Sydney Grammar School 1973 to 1976 had on my subsequent life and career.

It was in every way the making of me.

Not so much the teaching but being exposed to the competitive and ‘can do’ Australian mind set, which encouraged me to both set up by own business at the same time as I was teaching and to keep going and never take No for an answer.

And without a shadow of a doubt, the highlight of the almost 5 years that I spent in Australia was the three years I spent coaching soccer twice a week at Sydney Grammar School after lessons and then with a game most weekends.

 

The more I thought about it I realized it would be possible for me to go because our annual family Christmas get together (42^nd consecutive and still counting) was planned for Vancouver BC and I was planning to spend October to December in Thailand and Sydney was only 8 hours from Thailand, which is a lot more manageable than  24 hours from Europe and could be easily combined (sort of!) with a journey from Thailand to Vancouver.

Our son, David, and his family visited me in Switzerland and I told him about the planned reunion dinner and he very succinctly commented:

‘Is there a reason not to go?

You have always said how you enjoyed living in Sydney and coaching the soccer’.

I am a great believer in taking advice from our children (usually!) so the decision was made. I had originally planned to spend 2 months writing in Thailand from mid October, so the only decision was did I make a short return trip to Sydney for a week or so and still write for 7 weeks, or did I leave Thailand late November and spend longer in Australia and/or combine my visit with a break in the Philippines which has direct and competitively priced flights to Vancouver.

In the end I decided on the latter and after 4 weeks in Thailand (a lot of photo editing but not much writing) I flew to Manila with almost 40kg of baggage, which was mainly Christmas gifts as I had a set of 8 framed pictures for all family members. Framing is dirt cheap in Thailand which is why my Christmas gifts are getting rather predictable!

The plan was to leave most of my baggage in Manila, take a return flight to Sydney, meet up with my Thai neighbour Marko back in Manila for a two week holiday in the Philippines, and then retrieve my baggage and fly to Vancouver.

So, on Sunday November 25 after 4 days in Manila I found myself checked in and waiting in the departure lounge fully three hours (which will be hard for anyone who knows me to believe!) before take off for my overnight flight to Sydney. I have been burnt innumerable times with problems at Manila Airport so this time was taking no chances!

Upon my early morning arrival in Sydney I transferred to my Airbnb in the inner city suburb of Darlinghurst, less than 500 meters from Sydney Grammar School where the reunion was due to start with a tour of the school fewer than 36 hours later.

And perhaps it is appropriate to give some background on just how and why football was introduced to Sydney Grammar School back in 1974 and the role that I and my fellow coach Don Schumacher played.

Sydney Grammar School is one of the most famous and prestigious schools in Australia and renowned for its academic excellence. In the UK a Grammar School was usually a state school for more academic students, traditionally only accessible by a selective entrance exam for students at the age of 11. The exams were known as the 11+ and those who were successful gained entry to a Grammar School where they had every chance of continuing to university or one of the professions. Those who failed went to a traditional High School where they studied fewer academic subjects and instead studied woodwork, metalwork, gardening and rural studies to prepare themselves for careers in factories, farms etc.

For the record I failed my 11+ which is a cross I have had to bear all my life (!), but in fact I got a second chance and by the skin of my teeth was able to transfer to a Grammar School five years later and do a final two years at the local Grammar School, ending up as the first in my family to go to university.

So, when I started work as a teacher at Sydney Grammar School in February 1973, I assumed it was a state school for the academically gifted. It was indeed a school for the academically gifted, but it was an independent fee paying school serving the Great and the Good of Sydney i.e. the Establishment!

The school was founded in 1854 by an Act of Parliament and opened in 1857 and, as well as having an outstanding academic reputation, it was traditional for all students to play two sports and the main team sports were usually rugby, cricket or rowing. And all teachers were expected to coach a summer and winter sport.

The headmaster at the time of my appointment was Alistair Mackerras, a member of one of Australia’s most distinguished families with 4 famous siblings including the famous conductor Charles Mackerras. Alistair Mackerras was far from a natural sportsman or sports fan, so relaxed the traditional emphasis on compulsory sport by allowing the less sporting inclined students to do Social Work in Inner Sydney or Musical and Arts activities instead of sport, which undoubtedly aroused some suspicion from Old Boys, the Faculty and some members of the parental body.

However, when there were sometimes 5 teams in an age ground e.g. The Under 15A, B, C, D and even E, the standard of Rugby or Cricket in the lower teams was not that high and nor was the calibre of coaches recruited from the faculty, so perhaps Alistair Mackerras knew what he was doing – better to have a talented and fulfilled violinist rather than a resentful rugby player with little interest or talent for the game.

And unknown to me against this background a number of boys had been repeatedly asking if the school could field representative Football teams to play against teams from the other Independent Schools.

After several knockbacks the school establishment/sports department decided that Football could be introduced on a limited basis in 1974, and for some reason which eludes me it was Don Schumacher and myself who were given the responsibility of coaching the 4 teams – a 1^st XI, the Under 16s, Under 15s and Under 14s.

From memory I think we agreed I might have had marginally more experience or background in football, but Don had a commitment after school on certain days, so he ended up coaching the First Eleven and the Under 16s in that inaugural season and I looked after the Under 15s and Under 14s for two afternoons after school.

My Under 15 team were quite successful, so I decided that I would prefer to stay with the same team the following season, when they were the Under 16s, and the following year when they graduated to the Senior squad, I again stayed with them and coached them as the 1^st XI.

And despite some reluctance from some Rugby diehards on the faculty when I put together a Staff team, many of the Rugby coaches were happy to join in and play on the Staff team. I arranged several games each season against the various school teams and also against staff teams from other schools.

So, it was against this background that I arrived in Sydney for a dinner to celebrate 50 years of football at Sydney Grammar School, and remarkably both Don Schumacher and myself were still alive and able to attend. As was Harvey Hamilton, who played on the staff team and coached after I left, and is now in his late 80s!

I had left Sydney Grammar in August 1976, so coaching the same group of boys for several months for three consecutive years obviously made a lasting impression, and was very much the highlight of what was really the only long term (4 years!) job as an employee that I have had in my life, as I have been fully self employed for the subsequent 50 years.

I think all of us from time to time meet up with an old friend, acquaintance, colleague or school chum who we may not have seen for 20 or 30 or even 40 years or maybe occasionally even longer.

However, the closer I got to arriving in Sydney, the more I realized it was really something very special to go from seeing a group of people pretty regularly to not seeing them at all and then reconnecting en masse 50 years later.

It was indeed a unique opportunity and our son David was so right to encourage me to attend.

And of course when I was a young teacher the age difference between me aged 25 and the 15 year old students on my team was vast, almost a third of my life time and two thirds of their lives. Now I was 76 and they were 66, we are pretty much of the same generation and the difference was negligible.

When I last saw them they were students with not a clue of their career paths, and now most of them had had their careers and were enjoying retirement after careers as Lawyers, Pilots, Surgeons and whatever.

And I am still working? Something wrong there me thinks, but the reality is that’s the way I am wired. I like to keep busy and cannot really imagine not working.

I said this was a reunion with people I had not seen for 50 years but there were three exceptions as David Macdonald and Rob Feller had both visited me and stayed with me in the UK around 1984, when we were in the early stages (year 5) of establishing what ended up as a very successful Educational Travel Company aimed at providing Educational Study Tours for schools just like Sydney Grammar!

And more recently in 2016, almost ten years previously, I visited Don Schumacher in Tasmania, which you can read about here. That was 40 years after I had previously seen him and seemed like only yesterday, so where did the last ten years go?

And indeed, it had been Don who had contacted me with details of this reunion.

Once I was settled in at my Airbnb, I checked in with Kymbal Dunne, who had contributed a tremendous amount of time organising the reunion and sending out regular updates re the program and who was attending. After a tour of the school we were having dinner at the well known Tattersalls Club and I thought I had better check if there was any dress code as I had sandals, trainers and trousers but alas Jackets, Ties, and shoes are rarely part of the Bromfield persona, or should it be attire, given I spend most of my time in either the Tropics (too hot) or Mountains. So, I sent the following WhatsApp to Kymbal:

‘I don’t have a jacket for this evening, but I do have shirt and trousers – which is a significant improvement on Thailand where I live in shorts and vest!

But more importantly, in regard to dress code which is preferable between sandals and socks or trainers?

This seems to be a recurring motif with Sydney Grammar as I recollect having to buy a pair of shoes at Coles on route to my interview with Mackerras in January ‘73

See you later’

Kymbal’s reply stated

‘Michael, as Mackerras would say. You haven’t changed. You don’t need a jacket but you will find that others will have one. You don’t need it. Would prefer shoes and socks as sandals and trainers are usually unacceptable. Also, long pants, not jeans. So do your best, just don’t look homeless’

The only time I wear shoes is at weddings and funerals and I think the last time I bought any was in Kuala Lumpur when after buying tickets for the Kuala Lumpur Symphony orchestra and an evening featuring the music of Danny Elfman, the eagle eyed ticket seller told me that sandals were OK for women but not men so I spent a day hunting around KL street markets looking for a pair of cheap shoes which I wore once and which have spent the last 9 years subsequently unworn in my home in Thailand.

On this occasion a quick search of Thrift Shops in Sydney revealed a large Savers shop on nearby Oxford St and for $14 I found a presentable faux leather pair of shoes that almost fit me.

Looking for shoes reminded me that when interviewed by Alastair Mackerras for a position as a Geography teacher in 1973, I bedecked myself in a collection of carefully assembled clothes acquired as I travelled through Asia. A leather jacket from the Bazaar in Istanbul, a shirt from India or Indonesia, trousers that had lived in my rucksack for 12 months, and topped off with a pair of shoes bought from the Australian equivalent of Woolworths en route to the interview!

I think the dilemma for Mackerras was that he was desperate to recruit a Geography teacher and there was only two weeks to the beginning of term. He could tell I was not stupid and obviously I was more than capable of teaching Geography to the sons of Sydney’s finest with two university degrees and having already travelled through 60 plus countries.

However, there was something about my mélange of not so carefully combined attire that bothered him. So he concluded…..

‘Well, I think I can offer you the position Mr Bromfield but you will need to do something about your appearance.’

And there was me then thinking I was wearing my Sunday finest and here I was 50 years later still scrambling around for suitable attire for Sydney Grammer School.

Some things indeed never change!

We were due to gather in the former play area just inside the College St entrance to the school at 5pm for a tour led by Steve Gonski, a former teacher at both Grammar and the Edgecliff Preparatory School. When I made my way to the entrance I found about 20 people already there before me and instantly recognised my fellow coach Don Schumacher, who I had last seen ten years previously in Tasmania. And indeed, as Steve Gonski was outlining the plans for the tour of the school and mentioned it was good some people had come interstate for the day, Don quickly piped up

‘And Michael has come from Thailand’.

I also recognised David Macdonald, star winger of my team and who I had been corresponding with in the weeks prior to my arrival. In fact, I had got to know his parents quite well when they always came to watch matches, and whenever I visited Australia between 1976 and 1995 usually paid them a visit and joined them for dinner.

We were soon off and running, or rather walking, and the highlight of our tour of the school facilities was two magnificent auditorium that were very definitely not around 50 years ago, and indeed many of the facilities were second to none. As we walked a smartly dressed and very ebullient guy was telling me that I never knew it at the time, but it was he and his football that was responsible for a cracked rear window in the 1960s Standard Vanguard I drove around Sydney and parked in the playground.

I could remember the car but not the cracked window and realized it was one Hugh Ford who was belatedly owning up as the culprit 50 years on! It was great to see him as he was probably the fittest and most athletic of the boys I coached, and I had always had a soft spot for him as his mother had tragically died in London from an asthma attack whilst he was a student at Grammar.

I had also been friendly with his father who was a published author and I still have two of his signed books in my library back in the UK. Hugh has certainly had a colourful and varied career having represented Australia in football at schoolboy level and run against top athletes at Bislet in Norway in the 1970s before working as an immigration lawyer. Hugh had made a fairly late decision to attend once he realized I would be coming and it was so good to see him. He was interacting with everyone as if he had last seen them yesterday, not 50 years ago!

As we walked around the school various boys (sorry mid 60s guys) came up and introduced themselves. We ended up in the Great Hall where school assemblies were held, and the walls were covered with portraits of many of the headmaster’s who had left their mark on this famous institution.

Sydney Grammar School, or Grammar or SGS, could not have a more central location than its position on the edge of downtown Sydney, next door to the Australian Museum, a few hundred metres from the cathedral and facing Hyde Park, which in early colonial days was the site of Sydney’s first racecourse, and less than a mile and a half to two of Sydney’s most famous landmarks, the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

After a nice group picture to record the reunion, because for sure none of us will be coming back 50 years hence, we made our way across Hyde Park to Tattersalls Club and I enjoyed talking to a sprightly Harvey Hamilton, now in his late 80s and who had also, like me, made his way to Australia not as a £10 Pom (the fee one had to pay for an otherwise free on board passage to Australia as a migrant) but by travelling overland through Asia, although in his case in 1961 whereas I made the journey in 1972.

And when I arrived at Tattersalls surprise, surprise my trainers would not have been at all out of place and indeed a lot more comfortable than the shoes that I had scored from the charity shop!

The dinner was very enjoyable. I was seated next to Martin Sacks who was a consistent goal scorer in the teams that I coached and had to face some ribbing from former teammates for also being a prolific scorer with the fairer sex. I was facing Hugh Ford and adjacent to David Macdonald so plenty of familiar faces on my table.

Also seated on my table was John Ellicott whose father Bob Ellicott is a familiar name to many Australians, as he was Solicitor General in Malcolm Fraser’s government. John had broken into the first Eleven as an underage but very skilful 14 year old and played for the First Eleven for an unprecedented 4 years! We were chatting when we walked around the school and he told me his partner was a travel writer and during the dinner we discovered we had a shared interest in gambling and writing. He had written a biography of the famous Australian bookmaker Robbie Waterhouse and by coincidence I had purchased the book on one of my visits to Australia, read it with interest and it is still on the shelves in my library in the UK!

It was good to chat some more with Hugh Ford who could not have been more affable and friendly and he updated me with stories of his post SGS football career, including playing for an Australian schoolboy team and pro football in Sydney. He transitioned into Athletics and competed on the track circuit in Europe against some famous names, which did not surprise me as I remember he was phenomenally fit as a 15 year old. He is still coaching club athletics in Canberra.

He made an interesting short speech which was quite moving as he paid tribute to the influence I had provided to him, and for me that was perhaps the wheel coming full circle. I know very well I only escaped the confinement to a state High school in Bournemouth due to the influence and motivation of my Geography teacher, Mr Johnson, and in turn I became like him, a Geography teacher and subsequently an Educational Tour Operator.

Whilst Hugh was making his comments, Marty Sacks turned around and said

‘I can’t believe you are here. We always thought you were the coolest of the teachers with your long hair’.

I have never thought of the words ‘Cool’ and ‘Bromfield’ were likely to be found in the same sentence, but will take it coming from Martin who has had a very successful career as a TV actor in both Hollywood and Australia, where he had the lead role in ‘Blue Heelers’ for 12 years and only last year appeared in ‘The Survivors’ on Netflix. I found some images of my long haired self as a teacher at Grammar in the 1970s on my phone and Martin was made up commenting

‘That’s just how I remember you, its great you could come’.

Not long after the dinner started Rob Feller arrived because, like Surgeons the world over, Rob had been delayed as getting away from a hospital is never as simple as planned when there are patients on hand but it was great to see him. Immaculately dressed, the same charming smile and I don’t know what he has been dieting on the last 50 years but its worked wonders, as other than distinguished grey hair he did not look a day older than when I last saw him, which turned out to be 1984 and not 1976 as he had been one of the two who had visited me at Templecombe in the UK when he was travelling through Europe.

There were a number of speakers who gave their perspective on the introduction of Football to Grammar and it seems the wheel has now turned full circle. In 1974 there were four football teams and around 4 or 5 Rugby teams per year group, so somewhere around 30 Rugby teams in total I suspect.

Today the number of football teams is around 35 and just 8 Rugby teams, but obviously there is still some resentment that despite the 50 year unquestioned success of football at Sydney Grammar School, the premier pitch at Weighill Sports ground is still reserved for Rugby on Saturdays!

I had been asked to talk about the Coach’s perspective on the introduction of football to Grammar and I combined this with comments on my post Grammar career and how pleased I was to come back because the time I had spent in Australia, and at Grammar, without question had been the most formative period of my life because, as well as teaching, I had used the time to set up my first business. But for sure the most enjoyable aspect of my 5 years in Australia had been coaching the football teams. Rather than repeat myself I will add a summary of my words as an addendum to this article.

My comments and anecdotes seemed well received and I was kindly presented with a Leather football inscribed with the words ‘Sydney Grammar School’ and badge. I could not help but smile at the irony. When passing through Sydney in March 2023 (See here) I could not get past security to pay my respects at the office. This time I was offered a tour of the school and a memento!

Following my speech a very dapper Harvey Hamilton with a pony tail and excellent memory (in parts!) had his turn to speak. Harvey had joined Grammar in 1965 and retired in the 1990s and added some comments and embellishments about my post Grammar career in Sydney, selling Racehorse systems and for sure some of those tales (probably like mine) had been warped by the passing of time. Some sounded plausible but I could not remember the incidents and others were very definitely not true.

But for sure there were some entertaining tales.

During the evening were frequent references to our ‘Masters’ and ‘Teachers’ although now we were almost the same age group and no longer Teachers and Students. I found this both strange and understandable as I still think of my former teachers as Mr Johnson and Mr White etc.  But it was so strange to hear myself described in the same manner. It is a long time since I have been called Mr. or described as a ‘Master’ and in the Philippines where ‘Sir’ and ‘Madam” (or ‘Mam’) are common forms of address, I am quick to correct the addressee by saying ‘Michael not Sir’ which I find far too deferential.

After the dinner there was still time to mingle and catch up with other attendees. Some who had played but not in teams that I coached and others that I had taught Geography but not coached.

Michael Warman was a striker who scored regularly whenever he played for my teams. He had lived in the USA for 40 years but was now pleased to be back in Australia which is understandable given that Americans have elected a madman to the Presidency to divide their nation and inflict mayhem on the world. (That is my comment not Michael’s but I gathered he was as anti Trump as I am and he asked me about the disturbing rise of the extremist Reform Party in the UK). He loves being back in Sydney which he feels is now truly a major international city. I think it has been for a long time!

Geoff Rosenburg used to play Centre Half for my teams and made sure he came to say goodbye and to thank me for coming. I think it was Geoff who said he had an abiding memory of my taking corners and free kicks with a wicked curl like Bend it Like Beckham. I would not go that far but I do remember once scoring a goal direct from a corner in a Masters vs Boys game and perhaps that was what Geoff remembered. Geoff was recently in Murren where I have a home but sadly, I was in Thailand when he visited but hopefully, we will meet up again before too long on one of his visits to Europe.

In fact, amazingly out of the 30 attendees there were two connections with Murren because Andrew Blackman has an apartment in Wengen, Murren’s sister village and knew the Schonegg Hotel where my Argentinian friend Maria worked last year. He has stayed in Murren and competed in the famous Inferno, the world’s longest downhill ski race.

Roger Engel was captain of the first Eleven in 1974 and 1975 so I did not coach him, but he came up and introduced himself and Joshua Shrubb told me that when he got injured at practice, I drove him to either Town Hall or Central Station in my Standard Vanguard so he could get a train home. He had vivid memories that the underside of the car chassis was so rusty he could see the road through the holes of the rear passengers floor! I had long forgotten that detail but I now remember that it was true!

Peter Bennett told me that I did not coach him but I taught him and he said he remembered my lessons as interesting because of my slide shows of places I visited. That was good to hear as I have singular memories that my lessons were quite boring and predictable and it was because I felt if I could not motivate myself to prepare more interesting lessons then teaching was probably not the career for me. But I do remember I used Slide presentations to make places come alive and my subsequent career as an Educational Tour Operator was based on

‘Learn to Travel. Travel to Learn’

because students learn and remember when they see and experience things and places.

Peter had particular memories of a slide of a long haired me in Singapore standing next to a sign prohibiting visitors with long hair!

I have long been intrigued how all of us hold on to a particular memory or comment in a conversation or event for 50 years and another person present at the time has probably never given it another thought!

So, the evening was a great success and without a shadow of doubt well worth the effort to come. In fact, I would go so far as to say it was the highlight of the year for me.

It is always good to retain friendships and contacts but a rare opportunity indeed if one has the opportunity to reconnect with an entire group of people from an earlier passage of ones life, let alone 50 years earlier!

In fact, a privilege rather than an opportunity and one which I very much appreciated. I was really quite touched and impressed at how friendly and welcoming everyone was to me and it was a most enjoyable evening.

And a great deal of thanks and gratitude should be directed to Kymbal Dunne who organized the evening with an unrelenting barrage of emails and reminders.

I subsequently met Rob Feller for a couple of hours in a Darlinghurst Coffee Shop where we also spotted the former Manchester United Australian goalkeeper Mark Bosnich so the football theme continued. It was good to catch up with Rob and learn about his medical career and plans and hopefully we can stay in touch and meet up again. Rob always hovered between the A and B teams until eventually cementing a place in the A team but he has the distinction of scoring the best goal I have ever seen scored in schoolboy football.

 

David Macdonald continued the Macdonald tradition of hospitality by having me for dinner with his wife, two of his charming kids and brother Peter who I am sure I coached for one year. David is a retired pilot, and we worked out it was his dad who also held a pilot’s license, who took me on a flight over the Sydney’s North Shore Beaches in the 1970s in an effort to cure me of my (then) fear of flying. David’s third child is an ordained priest doing a PhD at Cambridge so hopefully I will be able to catch up with David on one of his forthcoming visits to the UK.

I stayed in Sydney for 6 days after the dinner and as well as meeting up with Rob Feller and David Macdonald found the time to visit Coogee, Rose Bay and Double Bay, all areas where I used to live. I took the Ferry to Manley prior to meeting the Clan Macdonald and also to Watsons Bay where I made the short walk to South Head.  I followed the magnificent urban coastal path from Coogee to Bronte to meet up with John Connell, postgraduate student at University College London when I was an undergraduate and subsequently Professor of Geography at the University of Sydney.

And I also found time to visit Circular Quay, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Art Gallery of NSW and I so enjoyed my time in Sydney I was wishing I had made it a two week visit rather than just one before returning to the Philippines.

And the other highlight of my visit to Sydney was a self guided walking tour of the magnificent collection of Art Deco buildings in Elizabeth Bay and Potts Point which you can share here.

I am sure part of the feel-good feeling throughout my stay came from the dinner and carried on into my visit and I often found myself wondering how my life may have panned out if I had not left Sydney in June 1977 to return to the UK. For sure there can be few cities in the world which offer the range of amenities that Sydney can provide.

It was a unique opportunity to reconnect collectively with so many people from a long ago period of my life and one that I enjoyed and appreciated immensely.