oips revisited

The post on oips has excited a number of memories. Hugo Bagnall-Oakeley (Ha 51.1-55.2) e-mailed to say 'when I was at school oips referred to a game of rugger/cricket which took place on Wednesdays when the rest of the school were marching about, stripping brens etc in the CCF. You had to be 14 before you could join the Corps so most boys would only have been eligible for oips for their first one or two terms. Thereafter it was obligatory to join the CCF. The blog suggests that oips meant everyone who wasn’t in the XV or XXX but this certainly wasn’t the case in the 1950s.'


This is corroborated by Will Harte (C 80 - 85) who posted a comment to say oips were Wednesday afternoon activities for Removes before they joined the CCF. By the time Will and I arrived CCF was not compulsory for Middles and Vths as it was in the generation above, but there were other activities including Duke of Edinburgh on Wednesdays for those who chose not to join. I have a feeling the lack of compulsion may have been quite a new thing.

Meanwhile George Staple (M 54.2 - 57.3), the current President of the Haileybury Society, confirms that 'hoips was (is) definitely pronounced oips, or it was when I was there. But it was cool to drop your 'h's in the 1950's. In fact the more of a toff you were, the more you dropped them.'