Raymond Nudds

He was a pupil at Whitcliffe Mount Grammar School, Cleckheaton, before going to Leeds University where he was awarded his degree in maths. Throughout the war years he served also as a Bevin Boy at a mine close to Wakefield.

In 1949, following his post-graduate training, Mr Nudds joined the staff of King James School where he remained until his retirement in 1984.

After several years experience, colleagues suggested that it was about time that he sought promotion.

However, given his insatiable love of cricket – he was a prominent member of the Knaresborough Cricket Club – he was content to remain second in the maths department at King James.

Mr Nudds was passionate and enthusiastic about mathematics. When starting with a new set of students, parental comments were mixed.

Some praised the fact that their son or daughter had done more maths in one year than they had done in the previous year. Some students found difficulty in keeping up.

Either way the final results were always excellent. He tried to get as many students through O-Level and A-Level as possible. In the later days when the school turned comprehensive, Pythagoras and calculus were replaced with trying to teach a three-dart finish on the dartboard to Form 5C.

Mr Nudds always liked to solve the maths teasers posted on the school noticeboard by fellow colleagues Mike Wilkins and the late Dick Beetham. He would spend many hours trying to win the prize on offer. More often than not, Raymond was the only one to find the solution. Pupils always knew that they could curtail his maths lessons in the summer term by bringing a transistor radio and turning on Test Match Special.

Mr Nudds loved his cricket and encouraged the pupils of King James to bowl at him in the nets by putting a shilling on the top of each stump for anyone who was able to knock them off. He rarely lost money and always achieved a thirty minute batting practice at lunchtime!

He was captain of the Knaresborough Cricket Club’s second team in the early 1960s. Usually the main challenge for him was to round up 11 players.

In 1963 he was successful when he led the Knaresborough team to win the Reserve Division ‘B’ Championship – the first ever trophy won by Knaresborough Cricket Club in the Airedale and Wharfedale League. He was also a member and supporter of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club and a Vice President of Knaresborough Cricket Club.

In his early years at King James School, Mr Nudds put his sporting prowess to good use by coaching cricket teams. At the same time, he gained valuable DIY knowledge and skills by staying after school to pick up tips from the woodwork master, the late John Metcalfe.

Mr Nudds was also a passionate walker and founded a mountain walking group. For 10 months of the year he organised a weekend walk each month. Initially, the group comprised staff and colleagues at King James School but this was soon extended to family and friends. Scafell Pike, Great Gable, Helvellyn, the Coniston Old Man were among his most memorable and favourite climbs. Several mountain huts were used, including the Yorkshire Mountaineering Hut in the Coniston Copper Mine Valley.

Mr Nudds was a true Yorkshireman whose character and life lightened many a difficult day. He leaves a wife, Audrey to whom he was married for 61 years, a sister, Dorothy, a son, David, two daughters, Barbara and Margaret, four grandchildren and one great- grandchild.