A Grammar-School Boy Looks Back

Listening to him as he went on and on berating us about our depraved sexual practices, I wondered to myself if he thought that this was the first act of buggery as he so succinctly put it, between Ras and me which we had committed under the showers today. Did he not realise that what he thought he was about to nip in the bud, as he put it, was already in full flower, which would need a lot more than a onetime nip to kill it.

"Unfortunately, I have another pressing appointment for which I must leave shortly, and I therefore do not have time to deal with this matter adequately this evening; you two boys will attend Saturday morning detention tomorrow. That is all for now; you may leave and go home. Reeves, before you leave, I have to thank you for your prompt action in bringing these two debauched boys to me; their actions have to be stopped as they risk setting a bad example to the rest of the school where an undercurrent of sexual curiosity, as ever, runs strong. I will not tolerate any boys, even those of age, as these two here are, indulging in the sort of unnatural, sexually deviant acts in which you caught them. You truly are to be commended for your vigilance Reeves."

Ras and I took the bus home together."Well," he said, "Is that it? All that we are getting is another fucking Saturday morning where we copy out lines of meaningless rubbish for three hours."

"Listen Mate," I replied, "Get your head out of the clouds and put your feet firmly on terra-firma. If you think that old sod Basher, with his devotion to the curative powers of the cane, is going to be satisfied with giving us a Saturday detention, you are dreaming; you are in cloud cuckoo land my friend."

"So what do you reckon he's going to do to us and when?"

"Listen Ras; Basher is going to take the skin off our naked arses, of that I am sure. I saw him cane two lads for smoking a year or so ago and he really laid into them, and this, as an offence, is much worse. So I think that we are in for high-jump; no let me correct that; I know that we are in for the high-jump and there is not a damned thing we can do to avoid it. I am afraid that we are just going to have to grin and bear it. What we have just done is like waving a red flag before a bull and believe me, Basher is going to take it out on our arses, for once Basher gets the bit between his teeth, there is no accounting for what he might do. I hate to be such a doomsayer, but in my heart of hearts, I just know that is what is going to happen; we, my friend, are going to get our arses well and truly roasted."

Ras managed to raise a smile as he looked at me: "Well if you are so sure about our immediate future, then my view is that we might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb, so how about you coming around to my place this evening? My mother will not back till late as she is going to a friend's place and she never gets back before about eleven. So why not come round and let's finish what we started in the shower this afternoon. If we are going to get our arses thrashed, we may as well have had the full pleasure from the act for which we are to be flogged: the act of buggery as Basher so neatly put it. But listen, it's just going to be another beating; we've both had lots of them in our time at Bishop's and we've always survived; and it will be the same with this one, even if happens as you predict. So anyway, come round tonight and give me a really good hard fuck before we enter the arena tomorrow morning; just bugger my arse good and proper so that and we can both confront Basher bright eyed and bushy tailed if and when it comes to it. Beaten but not cowed is my motto in time of such adversity."

"Ras, I admire your spirit, but something tells me that this time will be the worst beating ever. I think Basher will thrash the living daylights out of us; just let's hope that I am wrong; but somehow I don't think I'm going to be; and remember he has our friend, Reeves, hovering in the sidelines and he is such a weasel of a man that I am sure he will egg Basher on in any way he can. As far as I can see, apart from hitting us with his razor strop as hard and often as possible in the gym, there is nothing he enjoys more than watching some lad or other get his arse skinned by Basher. Anyway, you're on for tonight; what luck your mother is out for the evening; I'll be round straight after supper around six thirty and I will endeavour to give you the very best I can."

Saturday morning arrived to find Ras and me sitting in the front row the of the detention room copying out the "text for the day". There were four other much younger boys also in detention that day, dispersed, as ever, thinly across the room. The invigilator that morning was the vinegary old Latin master, Mr. Harding, a man who was approaching retirement and was literally counting the days to the moment when he could leave and take his pension. He managed to make Latin, never a very popular subject for most boys, the most boring thing in the world. From the sour look on his face that morning, one could see that he was sorely displeased to have to give up his Saturday morning to supervise the detention class; but that was the way it was; there was a rota among the masters who, on their appointed day, had to turn up and spend three borings hours looking at a group of boys who were dying equally from boredom. "I will, have no talking at all." was the only thing he said to us as we settled down to the fascinating task before us. I doubt that he had any idea why two boys from the upper sixth were under his beady eye that morning.

It was about ten and we had all been scribbling away for about an hour when the door flew open and the Headmaster entered totally unannounced. From then on, things developed much in the way I had predicted. Whenever the Headmaster entered a classroom, the protocol was that all the boys present stood up, which all but one of us did. Basher looked at the one figure that still remained sitting there and said: "You boy; what is your name and where are your manners? Stand up boy when I address you." The lad in question was was a first-former who was clearly unaware of what he should have done; he stood up and said that this name was Keith Lodge, omitting to add the obligatory "sir" to his answer, which was another black mark against him; he just stood there hanging his head, saying absolutely nothing in his defence; not that there was much that he could have said; but Basher clearly had every intention of taking him to task for his deficiency and said: "I will deal with you little later, Lodge, as I have more urgent matters which demand my immediate attention. But be assured, boy, I shall not forget you and I will endeavour to set you on the right road before you you leave here this morning. Now Harding, I am afraid I have to ask you to let me take Sullivan and Robertson away from your care for a little while, as we have some very pressing matters to deal with." He then indicated that we should follow him to his study.

Things were about to happen in exactly the way I had predicted to Ras; we were going to be thrashed; that much was abundantly clear; but when we entered Basher's study, I suddenly realised that things were going to be to be much worse than even I had pessimistically forecast. The first ominous sign was that our nemesis, Mr Reeves, was also in attendance. A chair was already in place in the middle of the the room and my heart missed a beat as I saw standing nearby two deep bucket of water in each of which a birch rod was soaking. So there it was; we were going to be give a taste of the legendary birch; every schoolboy's worst nightmare. It has always been rumoured that Basher occasionally resorted to this, the most painful of all methods of corporal punishment, but we had only ever half-believed it; but now, this very day, here it was; and those fearsomely gruesome rods were about to be visited on each of our arses.

Basher began: "Robertson, Sullivan; in view of your abominable behaviour, attention to which was brought to me yesterday through the excellent vigilance of Mr. Reeves, I have decided that I have no option but to punish the two of you very severely: very severely indeed, in fact. And so, gentlemen it is with great regret (I am sure what he really meant was "with great pleasure") that I have decided that only the birch rod will suffice on this occasion; I shall begin by giving each of you twelve cuts of the birch across your our naked bottoms. And before I begin I think we should thank Mr. Reeves, for giving up his Saturday morning to assist me in this unpleasant task. It shows an exceptional devotion to duty; and moreover, he came in very early this morning and it is him we have to thank for these excellent freshly made birch rods, which now await you."

A flash of fear provoked by an instant release of adrenaline coursed through my body as I took in the significance of what the Headmaster had just said: "I shall begin by giving each of you twelve cuts of the birch across your our naked bottoms." My God; it sounded as if he was intending to give each of us twelve cuts of the birch as starters; but what was to follow? All indications were now that things were going to be much worse than my direst predictions to Ras. And I was right, for as you will shortly see we underwent the most severe punishment that I can imagine any school boy ever having to suffer.

"Gentlemen, kindly remove your blazers, your shoes and take of both your trousers and underpants, and then stand there facing me against the wall with your hands on your heads" barked Basher, whilst Reeves looked with obvious approval at the proceedings. In all the times I had been beaten by Basher over the years, I had never ever been required to remove even my trousers; but let me just add that even then, Basher was capable of giving a lad's arses a really painful leathering through his trousers. But now we were going to be thrashed on the bare and with the birch, which, by general consensus, took pain to whole different level; and moreover, we had to suffer the additional indignity of standing there with our sizeable sex organs exposed to the gaze of both the Headmaster and Mr. Reeves, which added extreme embarrassment to the fear that we both felt.

"I'll take you first, Sullivan. Please approach the chair and bend across the back and place your hands on the seat. Mr Reeves would you oblige me by holding Sullivan down by the shoulders, as I do not wish him to move whilst I apply the birch. And perhaps you would also call out the number of strokes; I shall pause for some fifteen or so seconds between each stroke to enable him fully to appreciate the effect of each individual stroke."

Ras took up his position over the back of the chair and said to Basher: "It will not be necessary for Mr. Reeves to restrain me sir; I am quite capable of controlling myself without any outside help."

"As you wish, Sullivan; but just let me remind you that if there is any resistance on your part or movement from the position in which you now find yourself, I shall start again from the beginning and there will be no allowance for strokes you have already received; so young man; on your own head be it to control yourself throughout your punishment; lose control of yourself you will simply add to your pain."

I looked on in horror as Basher prepared to begin thrashing Ras's naked arse, the two globes of which were in a totally unblemished and in what might almost have been called a virginal state. That would soon be changed for it was already abundantly clear that Basher had every intention of giving both our arses a truly awful roasting. He began by tucking the tail of Ras's shirt up his back, thereby exposing his two buttocks in their full glory; and quite glorious they, in fact, were; Ras was a well built young man and had, by any standard, as I myself knew only two well, a very fine arse indeed. Basher then picked up one of the of the birches from its pail, of water, shook it vigorously to get rid of the excess, which went all over the tatty carpet on the floor and finally positioned himself on Ras's left and prepared to deliver his first blow.

He nodded to Mr. Reeves who called out "One". Then with no warning, Basher brought the birch down with enormous speed and force, landing his first stroke in the centre of Ras's arse; the twigs of the implement spread out over a good area of the exposed bare skin and Ras, not unreasonably, let out a cry of pain. There was then the long pause of fifteen seconds before Mr. Reeves called "two" and Basher delivered his second cut. Have any of you reading this any idea of what it is like to be bent over a chair, having your naked arse thrashed black and blue with a bundle of birch twigs? Just pause for a moment and count fifteen seconds; you will see that it is a very long time: a pause which seems even longer, an age, in fact, when you are already in pain and bent across a chair awaiting further strokes of the rod and not even being sure where the next cut will land. But that was the way that Basher did it; just think of it; twelve stinging strokes one after the other, spaced at fifteen or so second intervals; the full punishment took practically three minutes, during which to his great credit, Ras managed to remain perfectly composed other than for emitting a few cries of pain.

I was obliged to stand there, with my hands on my head and watch Basher beat my lover's arse black and blue. Almost before he had begun, I had a raging hard on and by the time he had finished my cock was already dripping pre-cum. I hated to think that I was being sexually aroused and even taking a certain pleasure in watching my friend being punished, but the honest truth of the matter was that I was. I felt ashamed of myself as I analysed my feelings; but as we all know it is a feeling which happens to most boys when they see a classmate being thrashed, only then to be followed by an immediate wave of sympathy mixed with admiration for the lad who has been beaten. But I also saw that Mr. Reeves was displaying a bulging crotch, which showed that he too, as a grown man, was not immune from the erotic overtones of what was happening. As for Basher himself, there was not the slightest sign at all that he was in any way sexually aroused by his actions; he seemed to me to function as a soulless beating machine.

Basher finally told Ras to get up and go and stand with his hands on his head against the wall. Ras, full of tears and in utter agony, did as he was told and I saw that he too, in spite of the intense pain, was rock hard and had the embarrassment of having to display his erection in front of all of us. Basher then motioned to me to take my place over the chair, which I did with a feeling of great fear as to what I was about to undergo; but I had no option but to obey. Mr. Reeves stepped forward and made as if to hold my shoulders down, but I shrugged him away as I had no intention of undergoing the indignity of being restrained whilst I took my punishment, least of all by a weasel of a man like Reeves.

Basher accorded me the doubtful privilege of using a new birch on my naked arse and let me tell you that when it actually happened, it was a lot worse that it seemed when I had watched Ras being beaten and even that had looked terrifyingly horrible. Of all the implements used over the years to punish schoolboys, the birch is easily the worst, or possibly, looked at from the master's point of view, the best. The pain gradually builds up to well nigh unbearable levels as stroke follows stroke; but stuck there, as you are, over the back of a chair, you nevertheless have to bear the unbearable. A birching and a twelve stroke birching at that, is easily the worst experience any schoolboy can undergo; it is an absolute nightmare; a nightmare for me perhaps, but Basher pressed on relentlessly giving me a stroke every fifteen seconds or so, with the sycophantic Mr. Reeves, assiduously calling out the numbers. By the time he had finished some three minutes later, I, like Ras, was full of tears; try as I might, the pain was just so intense that I could not stop myself crying; gone was the stiff upper lip; it had melted away under the intensity of the pain.

Basher motioned to me to regain my place, hands on my head, next to Ras. And there we stood wondering what was to come next. I have to say, that even sporting a rock-hard cock as I still was, I no longer cared at all that itt was on full view; I was in so much pain that I just wanted the whole drama to end as soon as possible. But it was not to be, for I had not been mistaken in the meaning of the Headmaster when he had said: "I shall begin by giving each of you twelve cuts of the birch."

"Well gentlemen, you have now had the first part of your punishment, but I do not want you to think that it is yet over, for let me assure you that you are not being let off so lightly for your sinful behaviour; (so lightly! A twelve stroke birching; he had to be dreaming to call that light!) The school regulations allow me, as Headmaster, to give any boy up to a maximum of twenty-four stroke of the cane or birch for any one offence, across his naked buttocks if I deem it necessary, which in this case I did. Now your offence is one of the gravest and I cannot in all conscience allow such unnaturally deviant, sexual behaviour to pass unpunished. It is my intention to stamp it out here and now, for such activities between boys (were they permissible between boys and masters or between master, I wondered as he ranted on?) will not be allowed in this school. Your offence is one of the gravest and I cannot and will not allow such behaviour to continue, as I have already made clear to you. And, therefore, with a view to eradicating such unnatural practices completely, I am now going to give each of you an additional six cuts with the cane as a complement to the birching you have just received. You will, I am sure, appreciate the leniency with which I am treating you as an additional six cuts will bring your total punishment up to eighteen cuts in all, whereas I could, if I wished, give you a further six to bring the total up to the twenty-four allowed by the school rules. However, I hope that with an additional six cuts with the rattan cane, you will realise that you must stop your abominable behaviour immediately."

Whilst Basher had been addressing us, Mr. Reeves, clearly by prearrangement, as nothing had been said, had moved the chair to the side and placed two lower backed chairs in the centre of the room back to back. Basher nodded his approval at the new arrangement and turned to us and said: "In my youth I was myself fortunate enough to have been educated the prestigious public school, Rigby, in Lincolnshire; and it was there that I learned first-hand, how beneficially corrective the vigorous use of the cane on an errant boy's backside could be; I was myself subjected to such beatings on several occasions and I can tell you that they set me on the straight and narrow path which I have assiduously followed ever since. (It was hard to believe that the Headmaster intended us to take his remarks seriously for it all sounded like a load of sanctimonious hogwash to me.) Now at Rigby School, beatings were given by the Headmaster in what was known as the Rigby Position; and it exactly this position which I now propose to use to administer the next part of your punishment."

"Sullivan, if you please, kindly approach the two chairs which Mr. Reeves has positioned in readiness; kneel on the seat of one chair and bend across the backs of the chairs, placing your hands and head on the seat of the second chair. As you will see, this arrangement places your bottom in a more or less horizontal position, which is generally considered by those experienced in the finer points of the use of the cane, as being the optimum in terms of height and orientation to allow the very best results to be achieved; it is generally considered much superior to the normal position, which was that in which I have just birched you, as the cane can descend directly vertically on to the waiting buttocks of the errant boy, in this case, you, Sullivan; but fear not, Robertson, I will not forget you and your turn will soon follow. As you will see, it allows the caner, in this case me, to position his strokes with extreme accuracy, which is precisely my aim now in adding the six additional cuts to your well birched bottoms. I have every intention of seeing you two boys leave here today with backsides throbbing with pain at a level beyond anything you might have imagined possible when you entered here a short while ago. But I must again stress that your joint offence is so abominable, that you both deserve the greatest of sanctions."