Ivor Cutts - Sportsman and teacher.

(From Yorkshire Post)

Ivor Cutts, well known in South Yorkshire as an all-round sportsman in the 1940s and 50s, has died at the age of 83 in Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire. He served for 11 years as headteacher of Northstead County Junior School, Scarborough, retiring in 1982. In class he was an entertainer. He delighted in the company of small children, and they in his. He radiated enthusiasm for wide reading, hard work, sport, nature and conservation; he sparked the interest of the unwilling by finding what they were good at, and developed the more naturally able with his drive and wit. A lover of poetry, he inspired many 10-year-olds to memorise large chunks of it, including Edward Lear's nonsense verses, Shakespearean sonnets, Keats, and his particular favourite, Leisure by WH Davies which begins: "What is this life if, full of care, "We have no time to stand and stare?" Ivor, pictured left, had his pet hates - even in the natural world he so venerated. He was less than keen on domestic cats, grey squirrels and the moles that destroyed his lawn. As an avid birdwatcher, he railed against the collecting of eggs. Several of his ex-students kept in touch well into his retirement. He and his wife Joan, both teaching at Maltby Grammar when they first met, were honoured guests at a school reunion last summer.

The son of a colliery deputy at Conisborough in 1921, Ivor went to Mexborough Grammar School where he excelled at English and athletics. At cricket he was a fierce ...