Yes Biggin I think you are right. The best bit was the co-ordinated climbs. First you took the request from EHAM (for example) you then rang the sector (e.g. Clacton) and repeated the climb request - meanwhile EHAM could hear all of this and understandably became confused - then having got approval from Clacton you repeated this again to the EHAM person who by then had pretty much lost it! You then handed the strip to an STPO who input the time, level etc to activate the plan - no wing update panels in those days - decision was that wings would never need to make an input!!!!!!!
We don't really learn do we
....still make duff decisions by people who don't understand the operational processes and needs!
Oh well, it was a fun time anyway.