OC NEWS

and by doing so secured victory, £1,000 prize money and a large trophy.

Barbara Parsons, widow of Kenneth Parsons (40), was seen on BBC1’s Antiques Roadshow in October. She was showing his war diary and parachute jacket and telling the story of his time in Normandy from the early hours of D-Day. The photo is taken from Edward, Kenneth and Barbara’s son’s book “Band of Scholars” about his father and his peers at Oxford.

Cameron Jones (18) was part of the winning team at the 2019 BCS Cyber Crime Cup, a cyber-security competition held live at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester and as a spectator sport (a world first!). In all, 200 students from 65 teams at 35 universities entered the competition. Through qualifying rounds in November, these were whittled down to ten teams of five, who qualified to battle and hack their way through live elimination phases at the Etihad. Two teams emerged on top to secure places in the live final: Cameron and his teammates from Royal Holloway University of London and the University of Manchester. The final involved the teams hacking into a bank to gain access to the most funds, despite the bank having two factor authentication with mobile one-time passcode.

Cameron said of the experience: “Although I haven’t decided on my final career, I am choosing modules in my course that focus on AI and Cyber Security.” After his team’s victory, I am sure some of the companies that were at the competition like IBM, BT and BlackPhone will be only too interested…

Cameron and his team mates managed to ‘steal’ £27,000

David Wheeler (96) and his eldest daughter, Evelyn (just 11 at the time), climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in July 2019 for charity, reaching the peak

of Africa on Tuesday, 23 July. It is possible that she is the youngest British girl to get to the top!

Former England and Harlequins rugby union player, Fiona Pocock (07), came back to visit the school in November 2019 along with Susannah Townsend, part of the winning Great Britain Hockey team at the Rio Olympics, to take training sessions with the Fourth Year rugby and hockey teams.

Fiona gave a very useful insight into both the highs and the lows of elite level sport – she was seriously injured in the 2010 World Cup and fought back to play for England again. The pupils really appreciated a visit from a real-life OC rugby hero who is inspiring future generations of players. Fiona tweeted after her visit: “Great to visit my old school and coach the boys’ rugby. Thank you for having us and for your continued support.”

She now plies her trade as a personal trainer and along with Susannah they offer services as keynote speakers, elite coaches in leadership and sport, as well as delivering highly successful camps.

On 1 September 2019, Pippa Williams (16) completed her fundraising swim along the The River Thames; 22 miles of freestyle swimming from Reading to Maidenhead; 13 hours of bone-chilling cold and innumerable bits of river flotsam and jetsam... but over £3,200 for Macmillan!

Pippa said after the swim: “At 13 miles it was the cold rather than tiredness that was the most significant factor; with the River Thames at around 17 degrees Celcius, over the last six hours I had been in the water, and despite all the effort of swimming, body-heat was ebbing away. A change of wetsuit and a hot chocolate at Hurley Lock seem to reverse the decline and I am very pleased to say that I’ve done it!

“It did take 13 hours to swim the 22 miles from Reading to Maidenhead which was longer than expected; the Thames was not kind, there was very little flow to assist me, but, starting at 7:30am and finishing in the dark and guide by mobile phone lights from the river bank, I finished at 8:30pm.

“I’m just chuffed I managed to make it to the end and I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has donated. Because of everyone’s kindness and generosity, I’ve tripled my initial goal and raised just over £3,200 for MacMillan Cancer Research. “

Pippa is currently studying for her PGCE at Homerton College, Cambridge following her Psychology degree at Cardiff.

Rhidian Brook (82) has a new book out Godbothering: Thoughts, 2000-2020 - As heard on ‘Thought for the Day’ on BBC Radio 4. Rhidian tells us: “It contains around 120 of my Thoughts from last 20 years”. John Humphrys’ front cover quote sums it up: “The problem with Rhidian’s ‘Thoughts’ is how often I find myself agreeing with him. Most annoying!” It is available from all good bookshops.

OC Rosie Botham (19)

released her EP ‘Blue Sunday’ worldwide in May whilst still at school. In September, her music was featured on BBC Radio Solent’s “BBC Introducing” slot. It is the Churcher’s College Record Label, Ramshill Records’ fourth release to date and has been a team effort, including musical help from the following talented OCs and students:

Rosie Botham (19)

singing, song writing, piano

Barney Emmens (19)

bass guitar and track mixing

Elizabeth Turner (19)

violin and string quartet arrangement Frances Flannagan (19) violin Ryan Wilkinson (19) viola

Halcyon Sheen (19) cello Charlie Morris (19) drums James Coni (20) guitar Gus Tranter (20) keys

The EP is available on all recognised streaming and download platforms.

Crispin (Spin) Glancy (19) has been awarded a place at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). A huge well done to Crispin and we wish him all the best for the future.

In May 2019, Tom Payne (18), currently studying at Solent University won the Yacht Engineering Students’ model yacht race – an annual event that began more than 40 years ago as a bit of ‘end of term’ fun.

The race forms part of the first-year unit assessment for students on Solent’s BEng (Hons) Yacht and Powercraft Design and BEng (Hons) Yacht Design and Production degree courses. The field of 42 first-year students competed for the coveted title on a predominantly light wind regatta held at Gosport Boating Lake, under the scrutiny of their lecturers.

Students spent 100 hours designing and building the vessels to conform to the yacht design rules, with 85% of the unit mark awarded on

their computer aided design, and the build quality of their models. They then race them upwind and downwind to pass their design unit. The last 15% of their mark is awarded on how their yacht performs on race day.

Previous winners of this annual race are now responsible for designs of Open 60 race yachts and Ben Ainslie’s Americas Cup campaign.

Vanessa Pearson (16) decided to study at Arts University Bournemouth after leaving Churcher’s to pursue her passion for art and design. She graduated with a First Class BA (Hons) degree in Modelmaking and was also awarded the ‘Dean’s Prize for the School of Art, Design and Architecture’ at her graduation ceremony.

Success did not stop there as Vanessa also won the ‘Best Use of New Technology’ award and was shortlisted for the ‘Best Finish on a Model’ award at the National Modelmaking Graduate Show ‘New Blades’ in London. She has now begun her creative career, employed as a Product Modelmaker at the Cambridge Design Partnership, becoming part of the creation process of medical and consumer products.

“I want to share how rewarding and accomplished a career in the Creative Industries can be.” explains Vanessa. “I initially got on to the Arts University Bournemouth course with an A Level in Fine Art, this was in no small part thanks to Churcher’s College Art Department and Al Saralis going above and beyond to help me prepare a great portfolio. I recommend to any students interested in pursuing a creative path to follow their passion, it is possible to make a career from it.”

Sisters and artists Saffron (19) and Jasmine (16) were pretty busy last summer as they held a joint art exhibition, which was open for three weeks in September in the new Black Barn Gallery on Durleighmarsh Farm.

The land of the rising sun has heavily influenced Jasmine and Saffron Morita’s work as they have a Japanese mother and an English father. Their close links with their Japanese heritage is clear to see. Their identity is expressed through their artwork and its fusion of colours, with their paintings reflecting their experiences and perception of Japan. Both studied fine art at A Level with Jasmine currently studying Fine Art at Brighton University and Saffron studying Japanese at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) University of London.

Local artist Jackie Dredge, who also happens to be a part time Art Technician at Churcher’s and the brains behind the Black Barn Gallery, wants it to showcase local talent and new emerging artists.