MALACCA HIGH SCHOOL FIELD

Before the Second World War, the school did not have a playing field and the school made use of the Bandar Hilir English School field. The present location of the field was then a marsh area. A field was made by filling the entire area with mud from the sea and the field slowly began to form.

During World War II, the School was used as the Japanese Adminitration Centre. After the war, the British Army took over and used the school as a depot for army vehicles. The field was gravelled, sheds were put up, workshops and air raid shelters were built.

Originally, the School field was situated in its present position but occupied the area that had the breadth of the final straight part of the road leading to the HSOBA and its length was from the road to the opposite fence, that is, including the Form 1 block, Industrial Arts blick and the Hostel.

The school took over the building in 1947. A lot of manual labour was carried out; spades and cangkuls were used and students helped out to clear the field of the gravel, sheds etc.

Volunteers among pupils turned up in the evenings to clear the field. There were depressions that had to be filled in and levelled.

The large trench across the field posed the biggest problem. The cutting of the grass in the school field was another problem. The field was so large that groundsmen using seythes would find the task of cutting grass an unending one.

In the first few years the games played were football and cricket as the field was found to be too uneven for hockey. We had our first post war sports in 1949. Rugby was introduced in the same year.

Athletic Standards were introduced in 1951. All this while, the condition of the school field kept on improving. In 1960, we acquired a narrow strip of land on the far side of the field away from the main buildings.

The field was further increased in size when we obtained the land that extended from our field into the CHIJ fence. A drainage system was put in during the preparation of the newly obtained land.

Meanwhile the area on the north side of the field was soon giving way to buildings. The new Hostel, Industrial Arts Block, 2 Science laboratories and classrooms came up.

The football, rugby and hockey fields were forced to take temporary positions during the 3 years when we had the small field as the new field was being prepared and the new buildings were being constructed. Thus, we could afford only a 300 metre track during the years 1973, 1974 and 1975.

By 1976, the field is almost ready although there was still some filling going on. The new basketball court took shape at the north end of the field and the tennis court was being prepared adjacent to it. According to Mr. Low, the school field would be settled in two year time (1978).

Converting Hard Copy to Soft Copy: Page 170 Optimist 1976