Castle House in 1937, showing Head of House Basil Eckersley who died this year, seated on the left of Housemaster Bentley. An account of Basil Eckersley's life can be read in the OV section of this issue of The Vigornian. The photograph was provided by the School Archive.
S R Davies, Cert Ed
P.C. Thompson, M.A.
M J Roberts, B Sc
J M Roslington, B Sc , CPhys, M Inst P , M I I T T
B. Grif fiths, B.Tech. (Careers)
E Reeves, M A
Mrs C F Roslington, B A
R A Fleming, B A
D.P. Iddon, B.A.
S Le Marchand, B A
R N G Stone, M A
R P Mason, B A
M.R. Gill, B.Sc., M.A., M.Sc.
Mrs S P Grif fiths, B A
Mrs N R Anstey, Cert Ed
S M Bain, B Sc , M Sc
M.D. Rudge, B.A.
J T Wheeler, B Sc , C Chem , M R S C
D G W illmer, M Sc , PhD
P T Gwilliam, B A , M Phil
Mrs. K. Appleby, B.A.
Mrs C M Cox, M A , M Sc
R J Davis, B A
Mrs L M Ghaye, B Ed , M A
J.L. Owen, B.A.
C A Gallantree-Smith, B A
Mrs E R Hand, B A
T R Sharp, M A
Mrs. C. Painter, B.A.
Mrs S H Le Marchand, B A
Mrs F L Short, B A
M C Poole, B Sc , PhD
*Mrs. C.R. Horacek, M.A.
Mrs T D Marskell, Cert Ed
Mrs H M Arthur, B Sc , C Phys , M Inst P
Mrs. P.A. Edwards, B.A., M.Sc.
*Mrs J P Maxwell-Stewart, B A
Revd M R Dorsett, B A , M Th , PhD , Cert Theol (Chaplain)
Miss N. Featherstone B.Sc.
R P Gear y, B Sc , C Chem , M R S C
A A D Gillgrass, B A
S C Cuthbertson, B A
Simon Potter (Head of School)
Lor na Shaddick (Deputy Head of School)
Har riet Priddey (Deputy Head of School)
Chris Fulton
Rebecca Gwilliam
Tom Hand
Headmaster T H Keyes, M A
Second Master A K J Macnaughton, M A
Senior Mistress Mrs. P.A. Stevens, B.A., M.A.
Director of Studies R C Baum, M A
C T Haywood, B A
A.W. Longley, B.A.
S M Atkins, B A
*Mrs J D Clark, B Ed
*Mrs M M Longley, B Ed
Mrs. J. C. Vivian, Cert.Ed.
Mrs R J Ter r y B A , M A
I C Robinson, B Sc
*Mrs S M Beesley, B A
Miss J. Cooke, B.A.
*Mrs A D Cross, B A
N J Maloney, M A
*Mrs C E Battr um, B A
D.J. Haddock M.A., D.Phil.
Mrs H E Char man, M A
J M Hughes, B Sc
A J M Maund, M A
C.W.S. W ilson, B.A.
R A Ball, M A
*Mrs K Bishop, M Sc
Mrs A Hines, B Sc
D.A. Jones, M.Th
Miss D S Law, M A
J J Mason, B Sc
Mrs N Sears, B A
J.N. Adams, B.A.
C Atkinson, B Sc
Mrs L L Guy, B A
R J James, B Sc , PhD
Miss R.A. Lee, B.Sc.
E I Lummas, B A
*Mrs L Martyn-Smith, B Soc Sc
M D Parkin, M A PhD
T.D.H. Smith, B.A.
Miss R M Wain, B A
Music:
D.E. Brookshaw, B.Mus., F.R.C.O.
H R Thurlby, L R A M
Mrs V J Gunter, G T C L , L T C L
*D G Phillips M A , F R C O , C H M , L.G.S.M., A.R.C.M.
Kate Her riot
Charles Jef ferson-Loveday
Kate Long
James McCreath
Matthew Porter
Guy Potter
The King’s Junior Schools
King’s St Albans
Head: R T Bellfield, B Ed
Deputy: J T Walton, Cert Ed , F R G S
Mrs A D Walton, Cert Ed
*Mrs. L. Jackson, M.A.
Mrs R Reeves, M Ed
D Mews, B A , B Sc , Cert Ed
Mrs C Woodcock, B A , Cert Ed
Mrs. B. W ilson, B.A., Cert.Ed.
*Mrs N Cain, B A , P G C E
Mrs K J Kear-Wood, B Sc
Mrs J Pitts, B Ed
W. Toleman, B.A.
*Mrs M A Keyes, M A
D Braithwaite, B Ed
Miss S Davies, B A
C. Power, B.A.
Miss G Riley, B Sc
King’s Hawford:
Head: R W Middleton, M Sc
Deputy: A.C. Hymer, B.A., M.A.
Mrs S Roscoe, Cert Ed
*Mrs J M Tune, B Sc
Mrs C Heath, B Ed
*Mrs. J. Purser B.A., M.A.
M R J Dawes B Sc
J Whitmore B A
* Mrs G M Wales, B A
* Miss E. W inscom. B.A.
R B Cook, B Sc
Mrs C Rawnsley, B A
* Mrs J Bayliss, B Sc
Mrs C. Knight, B.Ed.
Miss K Champion, B A
Mrs J Douglas, B Ed
Pre-Prep:
Mrs. P.M. Bradley, B.Ed.
Mrs J N W illis, Cert Ed , B A Ed
Mrs C A Grif fin, B A
Mrs L Baxter, B Sc
Mrs. J. Far mer B.Ed.
Mrs D M Mayo, Cert Ed
Miss J Goodier M A
Miss J Meredith B Ed
David Richardson
Naomi Roberts
Catharine Robertson
W ill Smith
Simon W illmore
Peter W instanley
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who enjoyed a brief boom in popularity following the success of the film The English Patient, was fascinated by the cultures of the other peoples with whom the Greek world came into contact One such people was the Persians whom Herodotus commended for their school national cur riculum (although he didn’t use quite that phrase) This consisted of three elements: riding, shooting and telling the tr uth
As we in this countr y brace ourselves for another overhaul of secondar y school education, we might well look back longingly at the simplicity of the Persian system Riding covered a whole range of motor skills but also fitness and courage Shooting, one might say, contained within it modules of Physics and Maths (calculations of distance, trajector y, force and so on) and, insofar as its ultimate purpose was to protect the countr y, of that vogue concept
Citizenship Telling the tr uth just about ticks all the PSE, moral and spiritual boxes of the cur riculum. Add a bit of Latin and Greek and you have a cur riculum that ser ved many independent schools in this countr y in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries well enough to provide people who ran an empire!
My point in all this, which you may be forgiven for missing, is that it is just as important in this day and age as it was in the time of Herodotus almost 2,500 years ago that education should provide a training for life and not just a body of knowledge and skills in a vacuum What I shall remember most about the group who have just left us in the Upper Sixth in the summer of 2004 is that they not only did outstandingly well at A level but also left this school as people who we felt would, with ver y few exceptions, cope with whatever life threw at them, prove to be loyal friends and have a sensitive eye for the underdog I wish them well and look for ward to meeting them in years to come
You will read in the pages that follow of many dif ferent skills and achievements I am delighted that King’s pupils this year have again achieved remarkable things not only in sport but also, for instance, in competition at a national level in Debating, General Knowledge, Music, creative writing, Economics and jour nalism One or two ancient Persians would also approve of the fact that a Sixth For mer rode a horse to victor y in a race meeting at Cheltenham and that two others represented England at shooting!
We are bracing ourselves at present for the start of the biggest project that the school has undertaken since the building of the new theatre (which incidentally has benefited this summer from major improvements to the foyer and galler y areas). This is, as most of you know, a new librar y in the bottom two floors of School House, overlooking the gardens We expect that it will be completed in the summer of 2006 I am most grateful to all the parents and OVs who have contributed to this project so far. We know that it will make a huge contribution to the academic life of the school In the meantime, we continue the makeover of our science laboratories Three Biology labs were given the treatment in August.
Among the staf f to whom we have just said farewell, I must make particular mention of Patricia Stevens who has played such an important role over the last 14 years in seeing King’s through the transition from a predominantly boys’ school (and a fine one at that) to the remarkably balanced, purposeful and happy coeducational establishment that it has now become
The first girls, of course, joined King’s as long ago as 1971 This was the initiative of the then headmaster, David Annett who died earlier this year So much of what is distinct about King’s now (its ethos, its high standards and its buildings) was developed by David I commend to you the tribute to him that you will find in this edition of the Vigor nian and leave you with the nicely understated words which the writer of the school’s histor y used of him, and of which any Head would be proud; “Of all the recent Headmasters, he has made himself probably the most accessible to his pupils And in a rapidly changing society, in which the young have been setting their elders a bewilderingly fast pace, he has continued to understand them and to credit them with some sense ”
PATRICIA STEVENS
Patricia herself recalls with some amusement (and with a sense of irony as someone whose later responsibility included writing detailed job descriptions of others) that when, back in 1990, she asked John Moore for a brief for her role, the answer was simply to the ef fect of: “Just tur n King’s into a successful coeducational school” Did she succeed?
Christopher Wren’s famous retort comes to mind: “si monumentum requiris, circumspice” She came to King’s a year in advance of the ar rival of girls at 11+ and used part of that time to visit a large number of co-ed schools around the countr y This proved of huge value both in helping the staf f to anticipate pitfalls and in giving them confidence that King’s would be able to get it right She invited the Head from one of the schools that she visited to address the staf f at King’s He reportedly said, “When a boy is challenged over an infringement of unifor m regulations, he considers it a fair cop When a girl is thus challenged, she regards it as the opening move in a series of negotiations!” W ise words, and Patricia ensured that plenty of practical wisdom of this sort underscored our move to full coeducation
She would be the first to play down her part in all this and to say that she simply brought ideas, made people think, coordinated discussion and then made sure that theor y was steadily tur ned into practice The real point is that her judgement on these issues, as on so many others, was always so good that ever yone had confidence that where Patricia led, it was not only safe but right to follow Her particular strength was not so much to speak from a lecter n to a gathering (although she could certainly do this) but to encourage, prompt, ask challenging questions, cajole, praise or, at times (let’s be honest!), insist. As a result, she car ried people with her because they knew she understood their concer ns
She came into a school where the decision to take girls had been agreed but not entirely embraced by the whole community And even among those who had embraced the change, there was an inevitable masculinity of outlook that would take some years to modify It would have been easy to cultivate the image of a strident campaigner for the rights of girls and, indeed, female staf f Patricia, however, was wise enough to see that if she kept asking the right questions and prompting the right priorities, and had the occasional quiet but tough word in someone ’ s ear, steady progress would be made towards the balanced community that we now are It probably helped that the early generations of girls who joined at 11, or even younger at St Alban’s, were reasonably robust and confident
One of the more stubbor n opponents of coeducation required more than simple persuasion and cajoling, it seems I have in mind, of course, Mike Stevens whom Patricia mar ried in 1998 It was a match that initially surprised, then intrigued and finally delighted the friends of each of them
when it became clear how well these two strong-minded, intelligent and cultured people were suited to each another All who knew them felt that they richly deser ved to spend many years developing their common interests in literature, drama and travel. They soon established a home that became a regular haven for friends who enjoyed good food and wine, excellent company and lively discussion Mike’s progressive illness changed this all too quickly and left Patricia in the lonely position of having to fight for the professional medical support that should have been readily prof fered in a society like ours but had, in fact, to be battled for at ever y step Her enduring equanimity, patience, selflessness and wisdom were severely tested, but ultimately strengthened, by the huge demands on her mental and physical energy Patricia’s ability to cope with all this and to continue so ef fectively with her pivotal role at King’s ear ned huge respect and admiration from the school community.
It was in these recent tough years that I got to know Patricia She has been a constant source of wise counsel, appropriate restraint and good ideas She has also been enor mously good company and has a wicked sense of humour I know that this feeling would be echoed especially by the English Department who have known her so well as a generous, loyal and er udite colleague She will also be remembered war mly by successive generations of pupils whom she has taught or assisted pastorally with such skill and commitment. One must not overlook, either, her personal involvement in so much of what has gone on outside the classroom at King’s
It is rare that you find someone who is so good with people and so good with paper Schools have had to be increasingly defensive about risk and litigation Patricia can claim the credit for for mulating and continually revising a large but reassuringly sane and digestible bank of policies and procedures that ensure that we do what we must, but do not lose sight of what really matters
When Patricia took on Oscar (her lovable, headstrong and clueless labrador) we could only assume that she had become so used to handling awkward but basically well intentioned males at King’s that she felt she needed to keep these skills in use Oscar and Mike, I was pleased to hear, have got on really well
Patricia will look for ward, I know, not only to having more relaxed time with Mike in a well-ear ned retirement but also to seeing more of her grandchildren She takes with her the war mest wishes of all with whom she was involved at King’s We hope that she will keep in close contact with the school to which she has given so much She was the right person in a ver y important role at a critical time in the school’s development
When Robin Thurlby came to King’s in 1980 there was already an impressive choral tradition established in the school How fortunate it was that, in Andrew Milne, the school had a headmaster who was not only strongly sympathetic to music, but also a keen string player who had a desire to see the development of the same excellence in orchestral playing It was his for ward thinking that led to the creation of the post of Head of Strings, but it was Robin’s
appointment that ensured that a solid backbone of string playing was developed over the next few years and thereafter nurtured and maintained until the present day as the basis for all the school’s orchestras Robin’s close involvement with the music at St Alban’s and his love of sowing the seeds of good violin playing in the ver y young have meant that the King’s Schools have been blessed with excellent orchestral playing for the last quarter centur y He has overseen the founding of both the St Alban’s Orchestra and string group, the training and conducting of the senior school’s Chamber Orchestra and the organisation of the St Alban’s Infor mal Concerts along with the senior school’s Young Per for mers Concerts These concerts have provided a per fect preparation for future generations of Keys Society members However, one perhaps saw Robin at his finest in the annual Orchestral Day that he established a few years ago Aided by an intrepid band of music staf f and Sylvia Egerton, Robin would steer upwards of ninety young pupils from all three King’s Schools through a day of intensive preparation for an orchestral extravaganza held in the theatre the same night, usually with a special percussive or flag-waving role for the audience built in to the finale! During the last fifteen years I have been so grateful to Robin for his enthusiasm, hard work and professionalism in both the classroom and the concert hall He has been a supportive and convivial companion on the foreign concert tours of the last eight years and will be sorely missed as a full time colleague now that he has retired It is a pleasure, though, still to see him ever y week in his new role as a peripatetic violin teacher, still as concer ned as ever to develop the “ per fect bow hold” and solid technique!
D E B
Marie joined the Physics department in September 1995, having been poached from Malver n College (costing John Moore a bottle of whisky by way of ‘transfer fee’). Since then she has made a huge contribution to the school, teaching physics with great distinction, r unning Choir House, and helping with activities too numerous to mention, but including notable successes with a string of Young Enterprise groups In the Physics department I have particularly valued her forthright opinions, support, advice and reminders (ie nagging), as well as the excellent relationships she has built up with her students. Always looking
for ways to do things better, she will be greatly missed. We wish her all the best as she moves onwards and upwards to her new post of Second Mistress at Shrewsbur y Girls’ High
Daniel Phillips came to King’s School in the Summer ter m of 1998 with the most glowing of reputations from Uppingham School where he had previously been Organist and Head of Academic Music Both cathedral and school were soon to discover how worthy he was of such accolades Like his predecessors Daniel was appointed to spend half his time as Assistant Cathedral Organist and the other half as a member of the music teaching staf f However, because of his devotion to achieving the ver y best at all times, the two halves added up to much more than a whole Superb organist, pianist, accompanist, gifted and thorough teacher, inspiring and able choir trainer, willing and cheer ful colleague, Daniel was successful in all that he did around College Green Noteworthy, as part of his legacy to school and cathedral, are the Fourth For m Music Competition, which he re-established and organised, and the Worcester Cathedral Voluntar y Choir, which thrived and grew under his inspired leadership He will be remembered with great af fection by choristers, pupils and colleagues alike King’s College School, W imbledon is indeed fortunate to have gained Daniel as Director of Music and will definitely be a place to watch for musically in the coming years!
Nick Maloney joined the staf f in September 2000 having worked at Westminster School both as a boatman and parttime teacher of Economics after retur ning from some time spent abroad At King’s he taught principally Economics and Business Studies, and took over as Master-in-Charge of Rowing in 2001 from Andy Guest
It quickly became apparent that here was a young man full of energy and enthusiasm, with the ability to communicate that enthusiasm to his pupils His teaching method was simple: teach the basic principles, encourage the pupils to develop their understanding, and then explore the application of those principles in the real world. Nick always expected the highest standards in the classroom, and woe betide anyone who did not maintain those standards at all times
As a rowing coach and master-in-charge, Nick was never less than wholehearted in his approach, always looking for new ways to take the Boat Club on to higher standards. Particularly notable was his interest in the entire club, as keen that Lower Remove novices should leave each games session with a positive, enjoyable experience, as that the top senior boys and girls should achieve the highest possible technical and training standards Under Nick a residential junior
training camp became an annual event, alongside several ver y successful overseas training camps for seniors A measure of Nick’s impact is the school’s haul of medals at the National Schools’ Championships, and the number of athletes who have represented Great Britain in recent years, both in sculling and sweep-oar events.
Nick has left us to retur n to Westminster School, this time as a full-time teacher of Economics His colleagues here will miss not only his professionalism in the classroom, but also his energy in staf f football We wish him and his new wife, Teresa, well in their new life in the capital
John joined King’s in September 2001, having retur ned to teaching after time working as an Analyst/Programmer. He was originally employed to teach Mathematics, but it wasn’t long before he was teaching ICT as well He was part of the Key Skills team and he even taught some DT in his final year Not an easy person to replace! He was involved in many aspects of school life, from his role as a Fourth For m tutor to editing the Bulletin and Stepping Fourth, and helping out with the Industrial Conference and with the lighting for ‘Les Miserables’. He introduced the mathematics department to origami, which is now a regular feature of Maths Club and open mor nings We wish him well in his new post as teacher of ICT at Northampton School for Boys
The Common Room has welcomed the following members of staf f:
Katie Adam has joined the English Department After completing her degree at Exeter University, Katie travelled in Australia and then spent two years juggling work for a travel company with the challenge of establishing a private archive for a local family Eventually, however, she could ignore her vocation no longer and Katie began her teaching career at Dauntsey’s School in W iltshire and has come to King’s from The Cheltenham Ladies’ College When not reading (a rarity), Katie enjoys gardening, yoga, walking on windswept beaches, watching films, making cakes and escaping for holidays in the Scottish Highlands
Christopher Allsop is the Cathedral’s new Assistant Organist Educated at Colet Court and St Paul’s School, London and Trinity College, Cambridge as Organ Scholar, before ar riving in Worcester Christopher was Assistant Organist at Bir mingham Cathedral and Organist at the Blue Coat School in Edgbaston
He and his wife, Amanda, often spend their spare time horse-riding or walking They also enjoy exploring unusual places, most recently Iceland
Thomas Bowley has joined the Mathematics Department He completed his Maths degree at The University of Manchester and then did an MSc at The University of London After this he spent two and half years teaching Maths and Science at a r ural school in Zimbabwe, where, among many other strange experiences, the syllabus meant that he had to teach pupils how to wire a 3-pin plug despite there never having been electricity in the region! He has spent the last five years teaching at a girls’ school in North London. In his spare time he likes to go walking and enjoys foreign travel; last year he was fortunate enough to be able to combine these interests by hiking the Inca Trail in Per u
Graham Gunter is the school’s new Head of Strings He has moved from The Chase, in Malver n, where he taught music for four years, and prior to which he was the Senior String Specialist at Malver n Girls’ College for six years.
He has a keen interest in sports, playing squash and football regularly, and enjoys reading a wide variety of fiction when time allows
Sue Hincks has joined the School as Second Deputy Head, taking over much of the work of the for mer Senior Mistress After gaining a First class degree in Moder n Languages and Moder n Histor y from Magdalen College, Oxford, she did a PGCE in French and Ger man. Her first teaching post was at The King’s School, Peterborough, where she took part in The Celebration of Kings, the 450th anniversar y of the founding of all the King’s schools at the Royal Albert Hall After two
years, she moved to Marlborough College, where she took up a residential post in a House of sixty boys and twenty Sixth For m girls. While at Marlborough, she became Head of Junior Scholars and helped set up the Scholars’ Day House as a centre for academic pursuits She was later made Head of French After seven years, a move to Gresham’s School in North Nor folk followed; she was Head of Languages in a Department of fering six languages She also wrote the timetable and worked in a girls’ Boarding House Sue enjoys singing and keeps fit through yoga and dance.
Sarah-Kate Millar is the school’s new Head of Rowing She has extensive coaching experience, spending the last three years as Head Junior Rowing coach for New Zealand (coaching the women ’ s Eight to victor y at the Youth Olympics), as well as being Head of Rowing and teaching PE at Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland
Her hobbies include travel, sports psychology, Kayaking and all Multi Sport activities ‘Skate’ only ar rived in this countr y at the start of this year and her best experience in the UK so far has been Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival.
Anne-Marie Simpson is another newcomer to the Mathematics department, in which she is to teach parttime She completed a degree in Mathematics and Chemistr y at De Montfort University, Leicester in 1993 and after this she spent five years working as a Laborator y Technician at The Alice Ottley School. This confir med her decision that she would like to take up teaching so she took her PGCE at the University of Bir mingham and has spent the last five years teaching at schools in Droitwich and Ludlow. In her spare time she enjoys reading and gardening and ser ves as a councillor on Upper Arley Parish Council
The Physics department has welcomed Sue Stone Sue came into education by working as an Educational Interpreter for profoundly Deaf pupils in various mainstream Primar y and Secondar y Schools Eventually she decided to
cross the desk and went to University College Worcester to do a PGCE, then spending three happy years teaching at Prince Henr y ’ s High School in Evesham, before coming to King’s
W ith a busy family and Church life she doesn’t have a great deal of time for hobbies, but she loves the outdoors, particularly hill walking, cycling and camping in the summer and skiing in the winter She likes the theatre, but doesn’t get there often enough, and always saves up lots of good books to read in the holidays She enjoys cooking, handcrafts and DIY, but hates ironing and not being able to reach the top shelf!
David Grinnell joins us as the new School Staf f Instr uctor for the CCF His career spans twelve years in the Ar my as both a Physical and Adventure Training Instr uctor, as well as having worked in both independent and state schools He has taught PE and Games, as well as holding the appointments of Head of Outdoor Pursuits and Senior Lear ning Mentor More recently, Dave graduated with a BA Ed (Hons) A keen participant in anything ‘outdoors’, he is mar ried with six year old twins.
David Annett, Headmaster from 1959 to 1979 died earlier this year. He built on the foundations laid down by Ronald Kitter master to develop a school with an enviable academic and musical reputation, at the same time as moder nising the site with a new Dining Hall, Sports Hall, Boathouse, Wolfson Building and New Block. The picture below was taken during the recent renaming of the New Block as The Annett Building However, his most far-reaching achievement, after a long fight against the loss of the Dircet Grant, was to ensure the sur vival of The King’s School as an independent school and to introduce of girls into the sixth for m
A full account of his achievements can be found in the OV section of this magazine.
This has been another excellent year for the Army Section; we have been particularly fortunate with our Senior Cadets, particularly CSM Cameron Baldry and both CSgts Jones, who have inspired and motivated the Junior cadets in training and competitions and contributed to the success of so many areas of the CCF’s life themselves Nowhere was this truer than in shooting, where, along with Duncan Colquhoun, they achieved a very high level of success last year Numbers of those attending regularly at Friday parades continued to increase, the most junior cadets from last year returned from their first experience of Army life at an excellent Summer Camp at Wathgill in the Yorkshire Dales filled with enthusiasm and passed that enthusiasm to many others joining the contingent for the first time in September
We were also delighted to welcome our new Commanding Officer, Major Jim Featherstone, who joined us at the beginning of the year to allow Colonel Davies to concentrate upon his other considerable responsibilities in the school Major Featherstone has a wealth of experience in the Regular and Territorial Armies as well as with cadets in the Worcestershire ACF and we are very fortunate to be able to benefit from his skills From his first outing, to Swynnerton Training area as part of our Military Skills training, his high standards and wide experience were obvious and will take the contingent forward in the years to come
As usual, the contingent took part in many of the district and regional competitions that are run for CCF The teams acquitted themselves well in every event in which they participated The Michaelmas Term began with perhaps the most gruelling of competitions After that weekend of Military Skills Practice at Swynnerton, near Stafford, in September, we did well in the Brigade Military Skills Competition held over an entire weekend at Nesscliff at the beginning of October
Almost immediately afterwards came the District Orienteering Competition on Cannock Chase where we again did well, despite some ‘temporary mis-location’ on the part of one or two competitors In an attempt to improve map-reading skills, two very successful Night Navigation Exercises were held on Friday evenings in the local area, the cadets dealing with appalling weather conditions particularly well The Spring brought the March and Shoot Competition, held as ever at Swynnerton where once again, the team spirit which so typifies King’s in general and the CCF in particular was very much to the fore
Particular success was celebrated once again at the District Skill at Arms Competition during the Summer term, where although we failed to retain the Falling Plate Competition for a third year, Henry Smith won the Best Individual Shot in the morning’s competition It has been another very successful year for Shooting at the school, with County and National representation as well as real success in inter-school matches These rely upon the dedication and training of WOII Hinds, the SSI Bob retired from the CCF at the end of this year and we should be grateful for his dedication to shooting in particular and the CCF in general over many years He will, of course, continue to be involved with shooting in the future at the school
Summer Camp took us to West Tofts Camp near Thetford in North Norfolk, where we enjoyed perfect weather and a huge range of activities, morning, noon and night The accommodation was comfortable, if a little more basic than that at Wathgill last year, and there was a relaxed “can-do” attitude from the staff on the camp which meant that the training was expertly planned and very well run by the regular camp staff This included a high adrenaline day of “Operating in Built Up Areas”, which saw the cadets crawling through sewers and storming buildings and an excellent Range Day with all cadets firing issue rifles and machineguns as well as shotguns and competition bows and arrows! The camp concluded with a very effective night exercise run by the contingent In their excitement to prepare a perfect exercise the contingent officers struggled with kamikaze bicycles and spraying water containers , but once out in the field (driven by to the exercise by the Gurkha off-road champion driver) this training, with night ambush,
pyrotechnics demonstration and platoon attack, followed by an escape and evasion exercise, was an excellent culmination to the week’s camp The contingent acquitted themselves particularly well in all aspects of camp and maintained the highest traditions of enthusiasm and selfreliance which had been established through the year We thank the WOII Hinds and the cadet SNCOs for all their efforts, look forward to promoting some excellent cadet JNCOs to command roles through next year and look forward too to the arrival of our new SSI, WOII Grinnell. As a former Regular Soldier with the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters’ Regiment and member of the Cadet Training Team, his expertise and enthusiasm will be invaluable A J M M
It has been another good year for KSW CCF with the Contingent continuing to grow, and it was great to welcome the new Commanding Officer Major Jim Featherstone
Numbers of those attending regularly has increased, with the majority of Part One Cadets from last year returning from their first experience of RAF life at RAF Benson and RAF Halton on their Summer and Easter camps filled with enthusiasm The Section has been blessed with very experienced NCOs, for the second year in a row, and they have shouldered much of the responsibility for the Section and Contingent training. Last year we were fortunate to have three Senior Cadets with great experience; Flt/Sgt James Delin did much to lead and motivate the Section with Sgts Gavin Forbes, and Rory Ewers assisting to provide excellent lessons for the Part Ones and Part Twos This year the most Senior Cadet in the Contingent comes from the RAF Section: Cadet Warrant Officer Laura Morris She has the support of the other senior Cadets in the Section, and is able to rely upon Flt Sgt Stephen Humphreys who is the new RAF Section Commander
The Section took part in the Ground Training Competition held at RAF Stafford, and although they didn’t do as well as last year they certainly showed considerable promise for the future
After an Autumn term without flying – caused by Flt/Lt Featherstone breaking her collar bone, the Section took to the sky again in force during the Spring and Summer terms, and this meant that most of the Section were able to record flights in their ROS books In addition, we took advantage of a day’s gliding at Little Rissington. The Section is also
fortunate enough boast no less than five Silver Wings (solo gliders) amongst the current Upper Sixth Sgt Laura Hughes attended the Cadet Leadership Course held at RAF Stafford early in the summer; and she came back from the week of intensive physical training declaring that it was the best thing she had ever done.
Easter Camp took us to RAF Halton Camp near Aylesbury, where we enjoyed reasonable weather and a huge range of activities The accommodation was very comfortable, the training expertly planned and run by the ACLO and his staff, and it was clear that the five cadets from King’s thoroughly enjoyed themselves It should also be mentioned that the land where RAF Halton is sited once belonged to Lord Rothschild, and he donated it to the RAF to help support the war effort. The Officer ’s Mess is really spectacular, having been the Lord of the Manor ’s Country Residence; in fact it has even been used in a Madonna video, so grand is the setting!
Six cadets also attended Summer Camp at RAF Benson, with Colonel Davies as the accompanying officer, although one can only imagine their delight to find that they were to be accommodated under canvas for the entire week! The camp certainly was not without its slightly hairy moments, although I must assure everyone that all the cadets were safe! In fact, one of the helicopters lost a tail rotor which resulted in the whole squadron being grounded during the investigation, and one of the Tutors also developed a serious problem
We once again have a full and varied programme planned for the coming year, and are particularly looking forward to getting to know the new SSI, WO2 Grinnell, who brings with him an extraordinary amount of knowledge and expertise about matters military.
The winter season is split over two terms, Michelmas and Lent Two teams competed in the British Schools League during the Lent term The experienced A team in the A section of division five and the inexperienced B team in section C The A team finished joint top of the division with Arvreck A and Cameron Baldry was the division’s top shot
The B team won every round and won their division before the conclusion of the competition However, when the handicap was applied, they were relegated to second spot Helen Jones was the division’s top shot
A Team B Team
Cameron Baldry Helen Jones
Richard Jones Nick Baxter
William Jones Jon Cook
Duncan Colquhoun Tom Chilman
Henry Smith David Richardson
Cameron Baldry and Duncan Colquhoun represented England in the Home Countries competition and were awarded Red Rose blazer badges
Cameron and Duncan, along with the Jones twins, Richard and William, represented Worcestershire in the National Counties Championship Worcestershire won the competition and the marksmen were awarded their County badges
Spending time at the Old Chapel is often a highlight for pupils at King’s. Directly after their summer exams, each Lower Remove form spent three days on camp engaging in a variety of outdoor activities. Pupils enjoyed a canoe journey down a section of the River Wye, orienteering, climbing, the use of a high level ropes course, and a challenging mountain walk on the Black Mountains Pupils camped in the grounds of the Old Chapel, assisted with domestic chores, and cooked their own meal with an interesting variety of success My thanks to the many staff who gave up their time to give assistance running the camps
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award offers an individual challenge and encourages young people to undertake exciting, constructive, challenging and enjoyable activities in their free time The range of activities that participants have undertaken has always been wide at King’s During this year participants have involved themselves in activities from first aid to animal welfare for the service section, fishing to learning a musical instrument for the skills section, and
rugby to sub aqua for the physical recreation section
For many participants the expedition section is one of the most memorable This year Bronze groups completed a 15 mile expedition over the Long Mynd, Silver groups covered 30 miles in the Peak District and a group of Sixth Formers successfully managed a challenging 50 mile expedition through the Lake District What follows is the account of the final day of this four-day Gold Award expedition by Sarah Marks,
“As usual we set off late again today, although not as much as the other days Westy was feeling ill when he got up but he wanted to carry on so we set off at a slow pace I think that most of us were secretly pleased that we had an excuse to walk slower! It was wet in the morning, but the weather improved through the day and it was really nice later on The cloud did chase us up one of the hills, however It was Good Friday so there were many other people walking, including numerous Duke of Edinburgh Award assessors Many of them stopped to talk to us about what we were doing They all seemed to be able to instantly recognize that we were on
a Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition I am not sure how they knew but we were glad of an excuse to take a break and discuss our adventures After lunch my leg started to hurt considerably, resulting in me walking really quite slowly Rushy and Will decided they would carry some of my equipment for me; when I tried to stop them, as they were carrying too much already, they just took it out of my bag anyway! Oh well, I didn’t complain too much about that though, as I did want to finish the expedition on that day Due to our slow pace we were well behind schedule. We did eventually reach the end of the expedition. We were all very tired but also extremely happy that we had all completed this section of the award The hot cross buns that the teacher had bought for us probably tasted better than any hot cross bun had ever tasted before or will again “
This was the last section that Sarah needed to complete in order to gain the Gold Award She has recently been presented with the award at St. James’ Palace. It requires a great deal of effort and considerable commitment to reach this level of the scheme Well done Sarah on a richly deserved award The other members of her expedition group, Will Westwood, James Rushforth, Will Jones and David Richardson, will hopefully soon also be on their way to a Gold Award presentation
This last year has seen more pupils than ever taking part in the programme, whether as part of Duke of Edinburgh, Key Skills, ‘Nunnery Reading’ or the traditional Saturday morning activities
The D of E Bronze students have to complete twelve hours of service Many students from the Upper Remove choose to do the service component in Worcester in charity shops after school Other pupils opt to organize their own placements nearer home. Quite often the students will choose to work in pairs or a trio. The Key Skills element takes place on a Tuesday afternoon when a group of about twenty pupils visits Redhill Primary School Working in small groups the Upper Sixth link up with different classroom activities, working alongside the teacher and pupils This has been a successful venture, with a number of our pupils expressing their enjoyment The staff and pupils at Redhill find the help given in the classroom of great benefit My thanks go to AJMM who has assisted us in our visits
On a Friday lunchtime we have been visiting Nunnery Wood Primary School when a group of Upper Remove, Fifth, Lower and Upper Sixth pupils has been taking part in paired reading Not only do the pupils improve their reading skills but they enjoy the association with older pupils
The Saturday morning activities of gardening, decorating and visiting continue to attract interest I am very grateful indeed for the help given by Catherine Sides and her father, Bethany Westwood, Mohan Gondhalekar, George and Conrad Clarke, James McCreath, Lorna Shaddick, Felicity Ounsted and Jo Taylor.
The Saturday morning work could not have taken place without the help of the following members of staff- ER, DEB, HEC, AJMM, DGW and MCP
C.A.G-S.
The Young Enterprise Scheme at King’s goes from strength to strength, continuing to offer Lower Sixth students the opportunity to set up their own companies, develop products,
manage their profits (and losses) and thus to do all the things that real companies have to do in an increasingly competitive marketplace It has been said by some that participating in the Scheme is a little like taking an extra AS level, and there is no denying that the best Companies are extremely committed to what they are doing For the first weeks, meetings take place at least once a week as the companies struggle to give birth to innovative ideas that will make them all millionaires! However, as ‘the season’ proceeds with Trade Fairs and Area Finals to think of, the pace tends to quicken – and not just for the pupils! With each company having a Link Teacher and at least one Business Adviser from the local community, Young Enterprise is truly a communal experience!
In 2003-4 there were no less than six companies plying their wares These were TEAM HAPPY ENTERPRISES, TRICKSTER, WHIZZBIES, SMALL IDEAS, INSPIRE and AURORA CREATIONS TEAM HAPPY ENTERPRISES, TRICKSTER and WHIZZBIES were placed highly at the prestigious Guildhall Fair in the Spring, and nearly all the Companies dramatically improved their sales figures at Stratford a week later, in spite of gale force winds doing their best to knock over the stalls These three
companies also qualified for the regional Final at The Chase High School in Malvern, where WHIZZBIES – the ingenious creators of a new softer Frisbee (ideal for the pocket!) – also won the award for the evening’s best presentation All in all, it was a year of solid achievement If, perhaps, we did not carry off quite as many of the glittering prizes as usual – it was heartening to see so many involved Our thanks go to the Advisers and Link Teachers who gave so unstintingly of their time and, of course, to the students themselves
The inter-house general knowledge quiz was won again this year by School House, whose buzzer-happy captain Gavin Forbes was then promoted to captain of the school team With the help of Lorna Shaddick, Gareth Ceredig and Michael Cairns-Terry - and substitutes Jonathan Cairns-Terry and James Ellingworth in some matches - he led the team first to a victory in the Severn Region, then to a place in the national finals (i.e. the last eight in the country) with a win over Monmouth School, and finally to the outstanding achievement of winning the Plate competition - i e the competition for the four teams who were knocked out in the national quarter-finals
In the junior version we managed to reach the semi-finals of the West Midland region, though coming up against King Edward’s Birmingham was, as usual, the termination of our hopes
There was an explosion of activity this year, largely arising from the establishment of a new debating society that meets every Tuesday For the first time there was an inter-house debating competition - two in fact, with Creighton winning the junior version and Wulstan the senior. While Catherine Sides (UR) was the rising start of the public speaking area, winning best individual chairman twice in the Worcester ESU competition and best speaker in the Malvern Rotary evening, several other younger pupils were making their mark in debating James Bartholomew and Sarah Copsey (UR) represented the School in the new National Competition for Young Debaters at Oxford, and James again, this time with Josh Crowther (LR), were one of our teams in the two-day event at Durham University In the old-established Mace, Mark Nicholls and James Morcom (L6) made a good showing, as did Hayley Simmonds and Leanne Sheen in the
local junior version called the Taylor Trophy Last year ’s debating stars, James McCreath and Lorna Shaddick, had an outstanding year: once again they reached the last four of the Midland Debating Competition, they took part in the Cambridge Union contest, they were within one point of reaching the last eight of the Oxford Union, and in the similar event at Durham they almost made the semi-finals - in both cases from a field of dozens of the best debating schools in the country In fact we are fast becoming one of that number!
This academic year has involved two very big displays The Hostel and its beginnings as a boarding house in 1903 to its refurbishment as the school’s administrative centre, was completed for the successful reunion in November 2003 and much encouraged by PAD Brown’s web site and many contributions from Hostel OVs. The display is now safely housed in display books so it can be revisited easily. The other major display was completed for the memorial service for David Annett (HM 1959 - 1979) in June 2004, following his death earlier in the year Seeing much of his career and achievements at King’s in photographs and newspaper articles, supplemented by the loan of family albums is a humbling experience The first Development Committee’s booklet donated by Donald Howell, Chairman of the Governors (S 53 - 61), reveals just how much King’s was in need of facilities, but more seriously the newspaper articles chronicle our survival and change from a direct grant grammar school, not wanted in Worcestershire comprehension plans, to independence Articles for Connect, the magazine for OVs, were on Castle House following their reunion in 2003 and then in May the wide ranging work of the School Archive It is interesting to note the number of real archivists amongst the OV community
Amongst the many wonderful donors, John Bagenel (S 3639) sent a superb photograph of the opening of the School Gardens at the prize-giving in 1931 He and his wife, Patience, are long standing correspondents Rare informal photographs were lent by Mark Blakeway (H 71 - 80), including a unique picture of yard cricket behind the Hostel, and from C H Eames (H 54 - 60) came a photograph of a mock election in 1959
Mrs Rosemary Kelly, an historian in her own right but also the grand daughter of the Reverend Chappel, made contact this year Her memories of her grandmother ’s stories form a moving account of the difficulties of the headmaster at the turn of the twentieth century with the added burden of the appalling death toll amongst his ex-pupils in the Great War There was also the news of an extraordinarily generous legacy out of the blue from Basil Eckersley (Ca 30 - 37) who had contributed his memories of pre -war King’s to the 450th History
Lorna Shaddick and Kate Freeman in the Upper Sixth produced a leaflet history of the school for distribution on Open Days Lorna and James McCreath made a good start on an article on the Tuck Shop for Connect whilst Stephanie Taylor and Sarah Marks did sterling work on the mountains of accessions
From the Lower Sixth, Becky Bader, Chris Crabtree, Lawrence Gill, Stephen Humphreys, Amanda Magill, Tom Pember-Finn, Amanda Smith , Harri Gallantree-Smith, Suzannah Watson and Phillipa Whiteman all played their part on a regular basis to keep the work of the School Archive going
The King’s Herald 2004
March saw another gathering of the newspaper-in-a-day team A group of keen writers, designers, artists and computer people gathered in the ICT Department to produce edition number 14 of the King’s Herald Having prepared a new design and set up the hardware a few days before, the team met at 6 30 am for the start of a very full day’s work, sweat and tension
Headed by editor Lorna Shaddick for a second time, we were confident that we knew the system and this time working in just a single room, the workflow was very successful, culminating in a finished newspaper in time to be posted to the judges by the last post of the day
Our paper was also produced in ‘Compact’ edition for commuters and others who prefer the ease of the smaller edition The distinguished judging panel was impressed by the work of the students and awarded the paper with a ‘Distinction’, the highest level of achievement.
This year has seen a flourish of activity for the Climbing Club Our weekly Wednesday sessions have been punctuated by regular trips to Martley and Gloucester climbing centres, and we had our first international trip (to Wales!) based at the Old Chapel We look forward to using the new centre that has recently opened in Shrub Hill for further challenges, even though our own wall has just under gone a re-shuffle with new routes and traverses added With many cries for more Jaffa Cakes, afternoon Fourth Form climbing has taken on a new wave of enthusiastic members eager to show off their prowess on the wall Along with the older diehards the school Climbing Club continues to be an enjoyable activity for all ages and abilities
David Heslip
This year we have had seven new scuba recruits hoping to explore the deep sea During the Spring term we regularly attended theory lessons and pool training sessions In the King’s pool, we practised safety exercises and even had an attempt at Octo-push Such training enabled us to work towards our BSAC Open Water qualification, allowing us to dive to eighteen metres In doing so, we were able to visit wreck sites and marine life on the various trips throughout the year
This year we have had three successful trips to Stoney Cove in Leicestershire, where we discovered a sunken helicopter, plane cockpit, submarine, bus and much more – even a few vicious pike All trainees on this occasion were able to lead a dive and in doing so, could boss their teachers around!
Recently we attended our first night dive, which I think has been the best dive so far It was exciting descending in the
darkness, and with the underwater torches the visibility and marine life were awesome
We have also completed two successful weekends diving down in Plymouth Here we were able to experience some fantastic wreck dives, including the newest artificial reef, the Scylla, as well as the James Eagen Lane, an old war ship bombed just off the coast of Cornwall
Congratulations to James Riley, who successfully completed his Ocean Diver, Tom Smith who qualified as Sports Diver and Steven Holloway who made good headway with his Dive Leader course Those remaining are hoping to complete their Ocean Diver qualification during the Autumn half term.
Scuba is brilliant fun and we are looking forward to recruiting new divers in the Spring term I recommend this sport to anyone, as it is a fantastic opportunity and the teachers are fun to be around
Laurence Clarke
We arrived at school early on the departure day ready to pack the school bus with our kit There were four students on the trip, three diving instructors and Miss Lee who was diving with us After a three hour trip, we arrived at the campsite with the RIB (our boat for the week) and heading off to do our first dive for the day This was a simple dive just to check that we were fine with the salt water and variable conditions of the open water This was my first salt water dive and I was really excited With the first day over and our new washing duties done, we went out to the campsite restaurant for dinner We were allowed in the games room after the meal where we played pool. Later we settled down in our tents for a well-earned sleep, which would be of great importance as we would later find out
We embarked on lots of dives that weekend including the James Eagen Lane, which was very impressive I was amazed to see the abundance of such colourful marine life in what would be considered to most as ‘murky’ water There were many exciting moments throughout the week Miss Lee had one of the most funny and embarrassing moments of the trip about which we are all sworn to secrecy I’m sure she will elaborate on the incident if you ask her
On the last day of the week we had a whole day at the Eddey Stone Lighthouse, 20 miles out of Plymouth Sound, which was a fantastic day diving expedition
We all managed to get our new qualifications by the end of the week I would like to thank everyone involved for making the trip such a success and enjoyable week, especially Miss Lee and John Kingsley who have put a lot of time and effort into making the Sub Aqua Club so successful
James Riley
Once again, the English department ran a weekend trip early in the course for Lower Sixth Literature students to visit “Brontë Country” in North Yorkshire We feel that experiencing the sense of place and exploring the importance of the local landscape in many novels is vital to understanding the texts The village of Haworth, especially the Parsonage Museum, offers excellent background and context to characters and narratives created by the Brontë sisters In particular, the atmosphere of the windswept moors provides a powerful background to the events of ‘Wuthering Heights’, the novel that Lower Sixth Literature students study for the first module of their AS level
It was for these reasons that the students, accompanied by HEC, Mrs James, LLG, SHLeM, TDHS and AJMM set
off by coach on a sunny Friday lunchtime in late October to brave the interminable journey to North Yorkshire The journey clearly took its toll upon the staff, who were seen to be laughing hysterically with relief as soon as they sat down to supper After the excellent meal, we moved into a consideration of the context of the novel and the task of “selling” the concept to various reader groups, which tested the textual knowledge of some of the students (and one or two of the staff) to the full. And so to bed.
If anyone had been uncertain about the plot of the novel, the first practical exercise of the morning would have thoroughly confused them After a fine breakfast, the task of presenting the story of the novel in a maximum of five minutes and “ in the style of ” everything from Grand Opera to a children’s story set the mood for a very enjoyable and educational day
Many were kind enough to suggest that the staff ’s “western” version brought the novel into a newer and sharper focus It certainly caused hilarity, as did the Head of English’s selection of headwear for the walk into Haworth. He may need more artificial insulation ‘up top’ than most, but his Gallic choice caused one of his colleagues to ask, “ you’re not really going to wear that, are you?”
We walked into the village of Haworth and reported to the Parsonage Museum, originally home to the Brontë family and now the base of the Brontë Society A most informative and entertaining guided walk around the village followed, which left a clear impression not only of the village of Haworth itself in the time of the Brontës, but also of their lives and activities in this thriving but unhealthy location
Further contextual understanding was provided by the Museum, with its fascinating displays and in particular its manuscripts
After lunch, we travelled up on to the moors above Haworth for a bracing walk, led by SHLeM, via the Brontë Falls to Top Withins Farm The pause at the bridge gave the opportunity for impromptu scrambling for some (Risk assessment what Risk Assessment ?) before continuing to the ruin which may well be, by its geographic location, the inspiration for the Earnshaw home, torn from their grasp by the villainous Heathcliff Wind-blown and feeling at one with the rocks beneath the landscape, we returned to the coach for the journey home to Worcester
I should once again like to thank the students for their good humour, enthusiasm and pleasant company and my colleagues for all their efforts and support before and throughout the weekend; these combined to provide an excellent experience for all
A J M M
Pupils of all ages took part in the three Mathematical Challenges, organised by the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust The Senior Challenge, for Sixth Formers, took part in November King’s pupils achieved a total of one gold, eight silver and six bronze certificates
The Intermediate Challenge took place in February with pupils from the Lower and Upper Removes and Fifth Form taking part They achieved a total of nineteen gold, forty nine silver and fifty four bronze certificates, with ten pupils qualifying for the European Kangaroo. This is a more advanced challenge taken by pupils across Europe and beyond! James Ellingworth achieved a merit in this competition John Richardson qualified for the Intermediate Olympiad, a very demanding two hour paper He did extremely well, coming sixty fourth in the country and achieving a certificate of distinction
Pupils from the Lower and Upper Fourths took part in the Junior Maths Challenge in April. They achieved a total of sixteen gold, thirty three silver and fifty six bronze certificates, with three pupils qualifying for the Junior Maths Olympiad
At the beginning of the Summer term, a team of four pupils, George Austin-Cliff, Zoe Monkley, Peter Anderson and Katherine Rollins from the Upper Fourth and Lower Remove took part in the regional final of the Maths Team Challenge
The team achieved a very creditable fourth place out of the twenty seven schools taking part. Particularly noteworthy was Zoe Monkley, who stepped in at the last moment, with no previous experience!
The aim of the Modern Languages Society is to allow Sixth Form students studying French, German or Spanish at King’s to meet as a group and work towards the organisation of a themed event to which members of the Sixth Form, parents and teachers with an interest for French, German or Spanish culture are invited A group of Lower and Upper Sixth linguists gathered at the first meeting of the newly established society early in the Spring term of 2004, eager to contribute ideas for a themed evening event Led by Miss Wain, the small group quickly came up with the idea of a Salsa evening, and immediately began producing posters and tickets for a ‘Salsa Soirée’, feeling it appropriate to offer a taste of all three cultures with famous Spanish Salsa dancing and French and German foods Tickets were sold to students and parents for a small price, covering the costs of the extravagant delicacies and non-alcoholic sangria!
And so on the 22nd March, the dining hall was draped in red, white and blue, a professional Salsa dance instructor twirled and swayed in front of a large turn-out of students and parents imitating her every move, teachers nibbled at tasty French biscuits and German cake and several members of the society tossed pancakes and served them to hungry customers During a break from the dancing, guests were tested on their general French, German and Spanish knowledge in a short quiz and prizes were awarded for this and the best dancing costume of the evening
The Salsa Soirée was a great success and encouraged the Modern Languages Society to work towards other social events, such as a wine tasting evening, yet to be held and eagerly anticipated.
Kate Iddon
I n t e r n a t i o n a l N e w s d a y 2 0 0 4
On the 10th July twenty five pupils, three staf f and two doctors flew to Kathmandu on a four week adventure After a couple of days in Kathmandu we continued our jour ney, flying over Everest, to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Lhasa is 3600m above sea level and so we were required to spend four days there acclimatising It is a city of contrasts with the old Tibetan core sur rounded by a moder n Chinese city of glass-fronted buildings and dual car riageways The centre is dominated by the ever-busy Barkhor Square and the Jokhang Monaster y The Potala Palace, for merly the home of the Dalai Lama, is spectacularly perched on a rocky outcrop overlooking the city and we had to keep pinching ourselves to make sure we were actually there and not just dreaming
It is unfortunate that one of our group, Hannah Joyce, did not acclimatise well enough to the altitude The doctors were concer ned that she might suf fer long-ter m damage if she remained at altitude She was therefore evacuated to Kathmandu and then to England This is a huge disappointment, when you have been preparing for a trip for two years. Hannah bore her disappointment well and showed
tremendousdeter mination and grit by retur ning to Kathmandu for the last week of activities in the various charitable projects. This highlights the importance of taking doctors with us on these adventures and I am extremely grateful to them for shouldering the medical responsibilities
Leaving Lhasa we travelled by land cr uisers across the plateau towards Everest It is such a vast countr y; along the side of the road are kilometre markers giving the distance from Beijing. We were around 5000km from Beijing, yet were only 7500km from Worcester! It took several days of travelling along bumpy, unmade roads to reach the Rongbuk
Monaster y, our resting-place while we explored the north side of Everest for three days Anybody who visited the week before our ar rival or the week after our departure saw nothing of Everest but for the three days we were there we had cr ystal clear views Everest is magnificent but at the same time disappointing The road, built by the Chinese, means that it is accessible to ever ybody without ef fort and that took away a little of the magic. Having been to the south side on
several occasions I appreciate the ef fort that it took to get there
Leaving the popular and accessible Everest we travelled to Nyalam and the start of our trek to Shishipangma Base Camp By way of contrast, this is a remote area inhabited only by nomads, yaks and a host of wild flowers Only ten people, before ourselves, had visited this region this year and the nomads were as curious about us as we were about them They would stand at the entrance to the mess tent or sit outside our tents and watch us ver y closely Had they had cameras they would have been clicking away They were
however delightfully independent people In the summer they set up their camps between four and five thousand metres, taking their yaks, sheep and goats to pastures made
that covered the hillsides All too soon the trek was over and we retur ned to Nyalam, a shock after the beauty of the mountains and the people who roam their slopes There was an air of sadness about the town as both Tibetans and Chinese tried to eke out a living in the remote outpost of China Poverty stared us in the face with mothers and babies begging at our table for scraps of food We were only too pleased to leave The jour ney from Nyalam to the Nepalese border is only 30km but it took us three hours Soon after leaving Nyalam we entered the sun Khosi Gorge on a road perched high on a near vertical mountainside with water falls cascading over the top of us I would have loved to have walked down it and been able to take some photographs
Unfortunately a bumpy land cr uiser jour ney does not lend itself to photography. It has to be one of the great road jour neys of the world
Back in Kathmandu we spent a week working on our charitable projects in an orphanage and in schools. A fascinating trip of culture, wide-open spaces, mountains and contrasts and one I would not hesitate to repeat
lush by the monsoon rains. In the winter they drop to slightly lower levels but retain their remote independence Unlike the people in the towns and villages, these people did not beg We had nothing they wanted; just a mutual curiosity and
I consider our association with them to be one of the highlights of the trip
Unlike Everest, Shishipangma did not show herself to us throughout our trek While this was a disappointment it was not the end of the world We kept getting glimpses of huge, tumbling icefalls, precipitous faces of rock and ice, all parts of a giant jigsaw but never completed There was always enough to whet our appetites, to encourage us to want to retur n another time However, what we lacked in views was amply made up for by the huge variety of alpine flowers
(Because of a lack of space, unfor tunately we are only able to print the second half of this repor t.)
Despite the lack of jungle cats, much to W ill Woodhouse’s disappointment, the ‘Island Safari’ on the following day proved to be a fantastic, if muddy, experience AADG was delighted to lear n that the venue for our next game, against St. Leonard’s School, was to be Yorkshire Cricket Club Batting first King’s were bowled out for 189 in the final over of the innings, Steve Bilboe scored 82 and showed great stamina occupying the crease for two hours in sweltering heat. He was well supported by Sam Cullen who contributed 38 in a partnership of 93 A professional bowling per for mance meant the game was never in doubt as the opposition were bowled out for 98 Ben Ford and Tom Cullen proved an ef fective spin combination taking 4-25 and 3-22 respectively with Ollie Bendall taking three stumpings
The impressive ground of Wanderers Cricket Club, the oldest club on the island and home to Tony Cozier and Pedro Collins, was to host our next two games Against a strong Alleyne School King’s str uggled in the field conceding 215-6 in 33 overs, W ill Smith escaped with respectable figures taking 3-31 in 8 overs In reply some poor shot selection lead to King’s collapsing to 148 all out Tom Weston top scored with 35 Following this defeat the squad was fired up for the game against Wanderers the following day. An excellent per for mance in the field and some tidy spin bowling from Tom Cullen (3-27) restricted the opposition to 135 in 25 overs on a fast scoring ground A good opening partnership of 58 from Steve Bilboe (32) and Tom Weston (31) provided a sound platfor m, but increasingly poor shot selection from the middle order meant King’s limped to an exciting 3 wicket victor y Following this pleasing victor y we visited the fish market at Oistins, where a lobster dinner could be eaten for a mere £10, before heading into Bridgetown and a classy waterside bar with great lights over the harbour The next day proved to be the highlight of many people’s tour We were treated to a luxur y catamaran cr uise up the west coast of the island, stopping to swim with turtles and tropical fish A free day provided the squad with the chance to go sur fing at Crane Beach, a picture per fect location on the east coast of the island. Pete W instanley seemed particularly skilled on the board Another definite highlight of the trip came the next day with the fantastic opportunity of playing at The Kensington Oval, the venue for the 2007 World Cup Final Rammy Arafa worked up a head of steam on the fast track and was unlucky to only pick up one wicket It was W ill Smith with his extra bounce who did the damage taking 4-16 as the Lester Vaughan School were reduced to 81 all out The result was never in doubt. Guy Davies scored a fluent 14 before Sam Cullen led the team home with 17 n o The final free day was used to enjoy the tax free shopping in Bridgetown before a presentation evening wrapped up a fantastic two weeks Thanks to the ‘supporters’ - Guy Potter and James Davis for being such willing scorers and to Si Potter and Charlie Jef ferson-Loveday for showing us all how to sunbathe. Many thanks too to DPI, AADG and MRG for their help on the tour which was an amazing, never to be forgotten experience
Will Smith and Sam Cullen
It’s 1 00 a m It’s dark, cold and the city lies in shadows A large group of teenagers meets on the edge of a car park under a gloomy tree An air of excitement r uns through the group as they have short conversations about what is to come Eventually, a bus pulls up by them They all fight their way onto the bus. The bus pulls away leaving no trace of the group
This, of course, is the Classics Italy trip 2004: a trip that would take a number of students to Italy, not only for them to enjoy a new countr y and its smells but also to lear n that little bit more about classics. The bus took us to Gatwick airport where we caught the plane to Naples, Italy From here we would catch another bus and experience our first taste of Italian driving The hotel, though plain, was pleasant and the staf f were ver y kind. We had already had “heated discussions” about rooms on the bus, so managed to take our luggage to our rooms without too much fuss
That after noon we took our first look at Sor rento, the town where we were staying Mr Stone led us to the centre of the town and left us to explore for a while We ran of f to invade the town only to discover the place was already flooded with English people We decided to explore the shops and find something to eat instead We found the place impressed ever yone with its beauty and friendly atmosphere The food also helped to sway a few people.
The following mor ning we caught a train to Pompeii where we looked at the ancient r uins We had, of course, looked at pictures of the r uins in Classics lessons but nothing could have shown us the massive scale of the place We managed to get lost regularly Each building seemed as interesting as the next, and as soon as we got there it felt as if we were leaving The next day tur ned out to be just as interesting as we climbed Mount Vesuvius The mammoth climb tested all our endurance skills and knowledge of walking songs The volcano itself was not that amazing but the view we got from the top was. As we looked around we felt like we could see anything and ever ything
Over the next few days we looked at many more exciting locations including: Herculaneum, Naples Museum (full of statues of naked men standing proud) and Capri, a little island of f the coast of f Italy It was soon time to leave We all had great fun in Italy and probably lear nt a little bit too. We
made new friends that we didn’t even know went to the school, and lear nt to enjoy art and ancient r uins Thank you ver y much to all the staf f who took us and whose comical anecdotes made the trip
Joe Shrubb
During the half ter m holiday in Febr uar y a group of eleven Fifth For m pupils accompanied by myself and Mrs I Hayward visited Madrid We saw a number of interesting places - El Escorial, The Royal Palace, the world famous Rastro market and the Reina Sofia Art Collection We also had a language class not long after we ar rived on the Friday after noon We managed to book a visit around the city on the top deck of a big red London bus. We also spent some time shoppingMadrid has some wonder ful shops and their prices are so keen Despite my anxieties over the hotel and its food we were really pleased with what el Hostal Marlasca had to of fer The staf f were ver y pleasant, with the added bonus of a friendly dog to greet us in reception The weather was exceptionally good - bright, blue sky and war m sunshine and the pupils were a pleasure to be with They all enjoyed their visit and lear nt much Spanish. A big thankyou on behalf of us all is extended to Mrs Hayward for her kindness, sense of fun and endless patience
In the last week of August, a group of pupils and teachers from King’s set of f on a trip to Holland It was not the usual sort of school trip, however We were not really going there to see the sights It was not a study visit or a language exchange And we were based at a cemeter y!
Actually, it was at a rather nice youth centre near a pretty village called Ysselsteyn: a series of wooden chalets in a circle around communal benches and a campfire. The cemeter y next door, strikingly beautiful but also deeply moving in the late August sun, contained 32,000 stone crosses marking the graves of all the Ger man soldiers who died in Holland in World War II. W ith us at the centre was a group of Ger man students, from the Cathedral School in Magdeburg, with whom we had agreed in advance to share the experience The two groups mixed thoroughly, each chalet accommodating some of each.
The main purposes of the week were that these two groups, fifteen from England (Upper Remove and Lower Sixth) and fifteen from Ger many, should get to know each other well, that they should work together in the cemeter y to help conser ve the gravestones, and that they should take part in joint discussions, games and exercises on the theme of peace and reconciliation They wrote down their thoughts and their reactions to the work they were doing We made a video recording, in Ger man and English, of parts of their discussions and of their conclusions. These words and images will for m part of a project between the two schools for which they both have European funding, the results of which will be sent to Br ussels next year as an example of European cooperation. A school from Holland and one from Poland are also in this partnership and working with King’s on other projects
What was it like for English students to be tending Ger man graves? Some of us found it strange at first but as you washed each cross and read each name, you realised that these were people who, with ver y few exceptions we supposed, never wanted to be in a war or to take the life of another human being Their deaths caused the same anguish to the families they left behind as the death of any soldier in any war There were civilian graves too One, for instance, for a one-day-old child, and, almost next to it, another for an 89 year-old man. War does not discriminate on grounds of age
The staf f at the centre invited in a local man, bor n in Holland and in his late 70s He was from a Jewish family and had been in Auschwitz and other camps in Ger many and Poland His stor y (he spoke excellent English and Ger man) was spell-binding. His sur vival was due to a mixture of luck, deter mination, ingenuity and the generosity of spirit of some of his Ger man captors
We also visited the house in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her family, also Jewish (but from Ger many), were in hiding for two years to escape deportation They were not as lucky as our Jewish guest They were, of course, discovered, and all but one of them died in dif ferent concentration camps Anne Frank, whose diaries tell so bravely of her life in hiding, died of typhoid weeks before the end of the war, aged 15
How did our pupils feel about the whole experience? In the words of one: “I feel that I have lear ned the importance of inter national friendship. We should all tr y to break down
the bar riers that separate cultures” Another student at first felt rebellious at the idea that he would be helping to clean the graves of Ger mans when Ger man soldiers had inflicted great suf fering on a previous generation of his own family in WW2 By the end of the week he was able to say: “I started to sympathise with the Ger mans who were forced into fighting by Hitler and the Nazis I can now see why there is a cemeter y for the Ger mans because it symbolises the suf fering that war creates, and I hope that through these symbols there may never be a war like this again”
The group commented on the strangeness of playing football and volleyball, singing, laughing and chatting just the other side of the fence from this vast cemeter y “It seemed disrespectful at first” said one, “but then isn’t this part of what they died for: that for mer enemies should become friends?” I think that we would all say “Amen” to that.
Each year King’s of fers the Fifth For m a chance to take part in a cultural exchange to Melbour ne, Australia after they have completed their GCSE examinations. Alex Gibbons, Alex Lyons, Emma Ash and I felt this was a once in a lifetime opportunity which we could not let pass us by
After the twenty-four hour flight it was great to finally ar rive and settle in I attended Trinity Grammar School where ever yone was ver y friendly and after a couple of weeks they started to refer to me by my name, rather than ‘The Pom’! Their style of teaching is remarkably dif ferent to ours and made me appreciate how lucky I am to be educated in England
Whilst there I saw some Aussie Rules football games, went to the MCG and travelled along the Great Ocean Road I discovered things about Australia which I hadn’t known, like the huge size of the countr y and its isolation
The highlight of my visit was my week in Sydney seeing all of the main sights, including the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, and also being in a TV advert and having ‘tea’ with Dawn French and Lennie Henr y
Overall, the exchange was a big success and a life-changing experience I would certainly recommend it to anyone who is interested and I would like to thank the school, especially Mr Gill, for making this experience possible.
Toby Lamb
In June five girls from the Lower Sixth travelled to Le Vesinet, a suburb of Paris for a week of work experience Our home for our time in France was dor mitories in the local sports centre, not the obvious choice of lodgings, but they were cosy and peaceful when a game of basketball wasn’t being conducted downstairs For meals we were given the use of the French chateau across the road where we amused ourselves ever y evening with tr ying to make the cookers work
We were all put in dif ferent placements, to ensure that we had no option but to speak French to our fellow workers Becky spent her time productively in the local bookshop and even had the privilege of being taken to Paris to shop for books and lunch Emma became the new waitress at a French brasserie where she became expert at pouring pints and char ming the locals The rest of us were able to experience Emma’s excellent ser ving skills ourselves when we used the brasserie as a meeting place for lunch and a chance to hear English spoken once more! Katie worked in Le Raisin Vert clothes shop and though it was reportedly not too busy she had plenty of opportunity to practise her French with the exceptionally chatty owner Amanda was the odd one out with two placements; the first was in the infor mation centre for a day while the remainder of the week was spent in a boulangerie ser ving an unbelievable variety of bread Last but certainly not least, Emily ser ved in the librar y where her organising, book binding and music playing skills were put to good use.
Although work took up a lot of time there was still time to have fun The Monday after ar riving we managed to navigate the railway and metro to spend the day shopping in Paris followed by time at a funfair next to the Louvres In the evenings we amused ourselves by cooking and chatting to two French Canadian exchanges who were living in the chateau Finally to celebrate the last night we treated ourselves to an intimate dinner at a local restaurant
Overall the week was a brilliant and worthwhile experience with the unanimous opinion that we couldn’t have hoped for a better place in which to do our work experience
Amanda Magill, Rebecca-Jane Bader, Emily Scaife, Katie Humpage, Emma Hayfield
Last March members of the Lower and Upper Remove were ver y excited when our French visitors ar rived on the first leg of our exchange There were twenty nine pupils from the Collège du Cèdre in Le Vésinet, Worcester’s twin town, accompanied by two members of staf f. They spent an enjoyable week with us, spending some time in school, one of the highlights being a College Hall assembly! They also visited Oxford, Stratford and climbed the Cathedral Tower Our party left for Le Vésinet at the end of May by coach. We took the Tunnel and ar rived at the Collège du Cèdre at about 5 o ’clock in the evening Our pupils quickly disappeared with their partners We all met up the following day at school where we were fortunate enough to go to a couple of lessons, ranging from English and French to Maths! This was followed by a trip to the Palace of Versailles which included a guided visit Unfortunately, the Hall of Mir rors was being renovated
at the time. The weekend was spent with the families. The following week we spent the day in Paris, beginning with a visit to the Eif fel Tower The weather was excellent, af fording us magnificent views over the city We then had a coach tour of Paris with a short stop in Montmartre, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Louvre before retur ning to Le Vésinet for a reception by the Twinning Committee All too soon our visit was over and we retur ned to Worcester the next day Several of our pupils have kept in contact with their French partners and are intending to organise their own visits in the future
Due to the lure of beautiful scener y and a beer festival on the alter native exchange to Bavaria, it was a ver y small group of just 3 pupils and myself who set out ver y early on the 25th March to spend a week with families in Worcester’s twin town of Kleve We travelled across to Ger many by coach along with a group from the RGS who were doing an exchange with another school in the town The jour ney was rather long and boring but eventually we ar rived in Kleve to be met by our host families and whisked of f to unfamiliar houses
The next mor ning we congregated at the school and the boys swapped stories about their partners, the homes they were in, the food they’d had for breakfast and ever ything that they found dif ferent. Fortunately they all seemed happy.
The next day we met the Town Mayor who told us a bit more about the town and the links between Worcester and Kleve We had our photo taken for the local press, who unfortunately omitted to mention the King’s School in its press coverage as he assumed we were all from the RGS!
On the Saturday we went to Düsseldor f by train and discovered that the Ger man rail system can be as bad as the British fro engineering works at weekends! We went to the top of the TV tower and got great views over the Rhein and the sur rounding area
The rest of the weekend was spent with families and then it was back to getting up early for school, which began at 8am The plus side was that they finished by lunchtime most days One mor ning we were given an interesting tour of Kleve by one of the teachers who told us a lot about the histor y of the place
Other days out included a trip to Cologne (more trouble with trains!) where we went up the many steps to the top of the impressive cathedral and drooled at the chocolate factor y. We then sat outside and enjoyed a lovely meal alongside the Rhein in the sunshine We also joined the RGS on a trip to Münster and had a tour of the town as well as time for shopping.
Overall it was a successful, enjoyable and (I hope) beneficial trip
A new biennial Ger man exchange involving eighteen Upper Removes and a Fifth For mer took the pupils, RAB and JDC to the Ber nhard-Strigel-Gymnasium in Memmingen, an hour’s travel from Munich, Lake Constance and the Alps.
We were there during two big local festivals, Fischertag and Wallenstein The first begins with a street festival on the Friday night and then early on the Saturday mor ning the menfolk leap into the stream r unning through the town tr ying to catch the biggest trout and so be crowned fisher king at the ensuing beer hall ceremony with its litre measures of drink The second celebrates a 17th centur y Catholic general who brought security and prosperity to Protestant Memmingen during the Thirty Years’ War, and leaves appropriately dressed soldier y and camp followers numbering 2000 in total putting on shows for a week
The pupils accompanied their exchange partners on trips, sampled various aspects of Ger man culture (from castles to Kegeln and beyond), and attended early starts at school, as well as developing GCSE skills in class regularly The weather was beautiful throughout all but a day of the stay, including the Wandertag, when all classes in the school go on trips, but excluding the day that an Alpine hike had been planned Guided tours of Munich, Bavaria’s capital, and Ottobeuren, a baroque Benedictine monaster y, added to the range of experiences on of fer
The intensive linguistic exposure gave great confidence to most of those taking part and gave their written and spoken expressiveness a far greater range - to quote one of the company, “Miss Cooke, who at the beginning of the trip spoke no Ger man, made remarkable progress over the two weeks”. Living in a family and testing all those classroom phrases for real must surely be the best way to improve a language in a relaxed and pleasurable environment
And what of the future? More Bavarian festivals and a whole range of private contacts leading to family-based skiing, climbing, football and closer inter national relations All bodes well for some of our most outward-looking and openminded pupils
‘Dad, I want you to take me on a school trip to the Christmas Markets in Cologne I know we’ll have a good time and ever yone is going Anyway Mum is too busy to go ’
What right-minded father could resist his daughter’s pleading, especially when such a back-handed compliment is combined with the prospect of generous amounts of gluhwein and a first visit to this wonder fully festive spectacle to kick of f Christmas?
Suitably full of Christmas cheer after a superb carol ser vice in the Cathedral, my fellow parents and I boarded the coach heading for the Channel Tunnel, looking for ward to a few snatched hours of sleep before a busy schedule of wallet emptying in Cologne, courtesy of our young charges.
Little did we know that despite Christmas only being days away, the French were in no mood for silly hats and crackers and had decided to blockade the ports Their poorly timed industrial action meant a fr ustrating night spent in a Folkestone car park as schedules were hastily adjusted and the best made of the situation
Now, the thought of being stuck on a coach full of excited children for getting on for eighteen hours is enough to make even the most patient amongst us blood r un cold That said, I have no hesitation in praising the children for their patience and good humour throughout – testimony to their respect for the excellent staf f who ran the trip, and the power of a stack of videos (a debt of great gratitude is owed to Frodo Baggins, Har r y Potter and Shrek from all
the adults on the trip)
Our ordeal on the outward jour ney, that would put a Japanese game show to shame, did nothing to dampen the spirits on ar rival in Cologne, and the Christmas markets certainly didn’t disappoint They are ever y bit as char ming, atmospheric, interesting and, for want of a better word, downright Christmassy as you would hope for After our first foray in the markets we moved on to the famous chocolate factor y and the banks of the river Rhine Unsurprisingly this proved a hugely popular destination, although how much of the fabulous chocolate intended for loved ones at home actually made it back to Worcester is debatable!
That evening we retur ned to the markets to see them at their best Although when the sun goes down the temperature drops dramatically, the bustling crowds, traditional music , carols and the enchanting light displays are enough to war m even those most Scroogelike cynics who pretend to hate Christmas
I will unashamedly put my head above the parapet and say I love it and there can be no better way to get in the festive mood than a visit to the Christmas markets if you get a chance.
In fact, I was feeling so festive I had even forgiven the French enough to stock up with some wine at the hyper market on the way back You can’t knock them; they make wine almost as well as they car r y out their industrial action!
Our thanks, as parents, must go to Richard Ball and the rest of the staf f for making the trip possible and so enjoyable, and to all the children on the trip who behaved so ver y well
Tom Sears
The group left school at midnight and by four in the mor ning all were safely aboard R yan Air’s flight to France At the destination airport the drop in temperature was noticeable and as we reached the resort things began to feel
particularly cold Les Deux Alpes had been chosen for its height and reliability of snow as we were travelling at the beginning of the season Fortunately our choice of resort was one of the four or five in France that had enough to ski on at that time Remarkably snow conditions from the mid station upwards could not have been better and with the extra that fell during the next few days, we could ski down to the village by the end of the week The pupils were extremely well behaved and all enjoyed the usual skating, bowling, quizzes, discos and crepe nights
We did have a couple of snowboarding injuries resulting in two pupils being brought of f the mountain for treatment Chris Crabtree broke his collar bone midway through week and Nick Tsang tore the ligaments in his shoulder on the last after noon I had neglected to include stitch removal in the risk assessment but Dr Cullen had sent me of f with a surgical blade, some tweezers and instr uctions to remove the stitches in Tom’s lip from a r ugby injur y. A highlight of the week! Thanks to JJM, FLS and her husband and the skiers and boarders for a thoroughly enjoyable trip
C W S W
This ski trip was brilliant! Some parts of it were less fantastic than others, but it was still a great experience
Ever yone was excited, ner vous and a little bit sad to be going but we shouldn’t have been sad because in the end we had a great time
When we ar rived in Austria the first thing we did was collect our hired equipment which was great because we got cool skis and boots Once all of that was sorted out we drove to the beautiful accommodation What was also great about the hotel was that it was in a village and had little shops and Austrian people living in gorgeous little houses mostly made of wood We were all told who we were sharing with and then we had to lug our bags up the stairs to our rooms The rooms were ver y nice and ver y pretty, with lovely views of the mountains
We were up at around 7:00am, had breakfast, then left around 7:30am Our first day’s skiing was incredible! We skied for about two hours and had about thirty minutes for break then we skied for another three hours.
We also did after skiing activities like swimming and we also went shopping in a real Austrian town which was so beautiful, and the chocolate was super!
On the last evening before we left to go home there was a disco. It was ver y funny and I think we all needed a break and needed to chill Some people danced and some didn’t but it was all great There were two other schools there and they were all having a good time too
The next mor ning we packed up ever ything and went skiing for the last time Our instr uctor told us all to take of f one ski and then skied of f with them and we had to chase after him!
Femke Witney and Alice Wickham
Politicians justifying wars are apt to choose examples from histor y selectively, so it was perhaps no surprise to have heard so much about the dangers of appeasing a dictator before the Second Gulf War Just as pertinent a lesson might have been of fered by the First World War for anyone interested in unintentional consequences and the descent of human endeavour into futility and waste Bitter ness over that earlier war was succinctly expressed by the poet Rudyard Kipling with the lines:
If any question why we died
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
Cynicism about the role played by national leaders is certainly nothing new, although misgivings about the way intelligence has been handled by gover nments more recently does lend an uncanny relevance to Kipling’s words
What perhaps distinguishes the First World War from our own more recent conflicts though is the scale of loss in an age of conscription and mass ar mies Kipling’s anguish caused by the loss on his only son is made all the more power ful by the knowledge that so many headstones in each cemeter y tell of grief multiplied on an unimaginable scale Most parents will readily identify with the sentiments of a man who had suf fered what for most is their greatest fear, eloquently expressed by another bereaved parent, the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith,
‘Whatever pride I had in the past, and whatever hope I had for the future, by much the largest part of both was invested in him Now all that is gone ’
It may sometimes have been dif ficult for the thirty four largely Lower Remove visitors to the battlefields to have the same insight initially into the scale of the tragedy inscribed on the landscape before them, but the battlefield trip continues to make a lasting impression on ver y many of our pupils
We stayed in Bethune once again this year, roughly midway between the Somme and Ypres battlefields, which allowed us to visit the Ar ras and Vimy Ridge sectors of the front. Our work, as on previous trips, tackled issues ranging beyond purely militar y aspects of the war, to examine the life of soldiers behind the lines, the controversies sur rounding the British Ar my ’ s treatment of deserters, the poetr y of the war and the approach to remembrance adopted by dif ferent countries after 1918
The Histor y Department is indebted on this occasion to CRH and a parent, Dr Inglis, whose company and good humour were much appreciated, alongside a ver y useful photographic contribution to the trip.
An excellent record for a team which on its day was capable of producing outstanding attacking r ugby as witnessed at Taunton, Dublin and at home to Monmouth A small t e a m , t h e y c o u l d c o m e u n s t u c k a g a i n s t power ful opponents but they showed great character, especially in the last four matches, when a severe flu outbreak meant numerous regular players were absent They also did well to cope with the loss of the captain Simon Potter whose foot injur y r uled him out after just seven games His power ful r unning had been a feature of the early matches as had his strong tackling Peter W instanley took over the reins and was equally successful, albeit with a ver y dif ferent style of leadership The
main strike r unners were W instanley and Charlie Fellows Both are exceptionally elusive players and at their best in broken play Probably the most improved member of the back line was Sam Cullen whose per for mance at scr um-half against R G S Worcester was as good as I have seen at King’s Last year ’ s number 9, Huw Dimond, moved to fly half and, after his customar y six week absence following the game versus Blundells, once again showed himself to be an accomplished p e r f o r m e r, c a p a b l e o f p l a y i n g a l m o s t anywhere in the back line
The for wards lacked size, partly because of the loss of three large props on pre-season
t
W i l l m o r e e v e r r e t u r n e d t o t h e f r a y, h i s physical presence helping the team cope with the heavier grounds and packs encountered after half-ter m The willingness of Stuar t Chandler and Guy Potter to fill in at prop was
King Henr y ’ s Coventr y Won 29 - 0
Old Swinford Hospital Lost 9 - 29
Blundell’s Won 19 - 15
Solihull
KES Camphill
in schools r ugby histor y It is unlikely ever to be repeated at King’s School, especially as it resulted in one of our few defeats
14 - 10
30 - 5 War wick
King’s Taunton
34 - 10
46 - 0
High School Dublin Won 45 - 11
Hereford C S (D Mail) Won 37 - 11
Monmouth Won 42 - 8
Adams G S (D Mail ) Won 10 - 0
Hereford C.S. Won 5 - 3
R G S Worcester Won 16 -12
Bristol G S Won 9 - 3
Northampton G S Lost 3 - 15
Bishop Vesey’s Lost 17 - 23
an indication of their mental and physical toughness, qualities not always found amongst King’s students James Ranson showed that he has the ability to become a leading player over the next two years whilst Joe Newcombe was a b r a v e a n d d e t e r m i n e d f l a n k e r w h o consistently led the tackle count The second row was always likely to be a problem but the emergence from relative obscurity of Tom Lea and Tom Johnson was a massive boost TJ was a line-out jumper of real class and he was extremely unlucky to be injured just before the RGS game Thankfully his replacement Stuart Doolittle rose to the challenge manfully Against Old Swinford, King’s fielded three sets of twins in the First XV the Potters, Cullens and Fellows, an event possibly unique
Lower down the records of the junior teams show the problems facing r ugby at King’s Under attack from numerous other sports it has had its position as the school’s major winter game steadily eroded This year over fifty boys in the Sixth For m opted for the g e n t l e , a n d u n d e m a n d i n g We d n e s d a y after noon pursuit of social football, resulting in the Third team having to be scrapped and on occasion the Seconds having just the bare fifteen players Rowing is now an all the year round sport, with numerous potential A team r ugby players taken out of the equation Even Saturday fixtures no longer have priority over other activities The position of B teams is now perilous – in the last three years at the Under 14, 15 and 16 age groups King’s have won just one B team fixture
Food for thought
The traditional dismal start at Brecon saw King’s win just one game out of five, and lose potentially their best player, Peter W instanley, for the rest of the season At the Marches a heavy defeat by a power ful Wellington College side and a nar row loss to Rugby saw us enter the Plate This was the tur ning point of the season as the confidence gained by winning this competition at a canter was huge At the North we won our qualifying group in fine style; sneaked a thrilling quarter final against Manchester Grammar School before losing to S e d b e r g
tour nament, in a scintillating semi-final, going down 26 – 31
Action from 1st XV v WRGS (cour tesy of Worcester Evening News)
The King’s tour nament was once again held at Droitwich Rugby Club, and attracted a q u a l i t y f i e l d H e r e w e h i t t o p f o r m a n d stor med to the final, trouncing Old Swinford and Bromsgrove in the quarter and semi-finals,
h a v i n g w o
e n o u g h t o d e f e a t a C o l s t o n ’ s s i d e w h i c h contained two players who flew out the next day to represent England in the Under 19 World Cup in South Africa My thanks to all at Droitwich R F C for their generous hospitality and war m welcome
At Rosslyn Park our group did not look too t h r e a t e n i n g a n d q u
m
n
d relatively straightfor ward Two minutes after the kick-of f of the first match it seemed anything but – we were two tries down; had a man in the sin-bin and had just conceded a penalty five yards from our line, probably the worst start King’s has ever made at the National Sevens The character of the side then showed through as they came back to win by five tries to two and went on to gain convincing victories over the other members of the group
On the second day we looked a strong team against Eton, winning by 29 points to 10 but then once again lost to Wellington College in a fiercely contested quarter-final, the pace of their ‘flyer’ and the influence of a Home Counties referee leaving us fr ustrated and r ueing over what might have been Simon Potter, restored to full fitness after h i s m i d - w i n t e r b re a k , w a s a n o u t s t a n d i n g captain, whilst at the North of England Charlie F e l
tour nament In the last two competitions our most influential per for mer was Tom Cullen, whose ability to win cr ucial tur nover ball was vital to our success Josh Kelly retur ned to for m at Rosslyn Park whilst Henr y Fellows produced some fine cameo per for mances Unfortunately injuries prevented us from fielding a team of three Fellows, two Potters and two Cullens, the
matches were still being cancelled just before half ter m (the amount of water the boys needed to take on board in early fixtures c
problems) Fortunately, not too many fixtures were cancelled and ultimately we had a better
spite of his slight build he’s a brave tackler His five tries in our demolition of Camp Hill was a real highlight ) Old Swinford was the start of a bit of a slump where we str uggled for consistency in matches
We rarely had two good halves in one match, nowhere more noticeable than against Blundell’s where a comfortable half time lead was thrown away and we lost 27 – 21 Against Solihull, well down at half time, we fought back in the second half We str uggled against Rendcomb’s 1st XV but remained unlucky to lose to a tr y resulting from a penalty harshly given against Charlie Fellows for unlawful tackling
Our most satisfying games came later in the season, with wins over War wick, Monmouth and Bristol Grammar Against King’s Taunton we showed enor mous braver y: outplayed in the first half on a pitch so lacking in grass and in such sweltering temperatures that we felt we should be dressed for the beach, we lost 15 – 10 (good individual work from James Hall opening up the opposition) We could have won, even though we finished the game with just thirteen standing players, the conditions having taken their toll Beating Bristol was most satisfying, courtesy of tries from Ror y Biddulph and Tom Car r (in his only game) and against Bishop Vesey’s we played our best r ugby winning 20 -10, having eased of f in the
disappointments: of the thirteen matches had we won six and significantly we were never outplayed
King Henr y ’ s, Coventr y is a good start often providing a much needed confidence boost before the tougher fixtures, but they made us work hard for our nar row win by just five points Henr y Fellows provided our only tr y, a g
g fixture and probably the best side that we played (Henr y was the leading points scorer over the season; he spots a gap well and in
second half Keelan McNally inspired with his direct approach and James Rushforth showed unusual deter mination when going for ward
Against the Grammar School it looked as if we might be swamped early on but with seconds remaining the dif ference between the sides was two points: up stepped W ill
Wo
W ilkinson’s drop goal to win the World Cup surely clear in his mind He stood poised just in front of the opposition twenty two and the
ball came invitingly back – and then it was on the floor, leaving W ill racked with guilt that he had let the side down It was an unfortunate end, especially for a player who had been so committed throughout the ter m
There was a willing core of players who trained doggedly and inspired the rest of the team, especially the younger members What he lacked with words Andrew Hawkes didn’t lack in deter mination and example on the flank Who will forget the Tom Hand team talks? He must have been up all night before the games preparing them Guy Br unt was strong in the for wards and we missed him when injured I apologise for not mentioning e v e r y o n e b u t w i t h t h i r t y s e v e n p l a y e r s representing the side there simply isn’t the space – and the editor won’t allow it.
In spite of the numbers involved my abiding memor y of last year is an unfortunate one It is spending virtually ever y Friday around the s c h o o l b r i b i n g , p e r s u a d i n g e v e n b e g g i n g people to make up the numbers to play for the seconds It is disappointing that this should be the case in a school such as ours and equally so that the third fifteen be abandoned as a lost cause Let’s be positive, however: this year got of f to a cracking start in ter ms of enthusiasm: each practice has seen numbers of at least twenty which makes my task so much easier: my desperate plea for more players in last year ’ s Vigor nian must have had an ef fect
The season started of f slowly with a number of games being called of f due to hard pitches This made it ver y dif ficult for the team to get any continuity in its play The team did have a lot of potential, but unfortunately during the season a number of key players progressed to the 1st XV, leaving some big holes in the side which were always going to be hard to fill
There was improvement over the season t h o u g h , w i t h s o m e n o t a b l e p e r f o r m a n c e s from the for wards The set pieces were our strongest area of the game We were able to compete in ever y match, and in the line-out
managed to pressurise well on opposition ball
Our major weakness was a lack of cutting edge with ball in hand
We often created good attacking opportunities through strong phase play, but then str uggled to finish them of f This w a s t h e c a s e i n t h e for wards and the backs
To overcome this the team worked ver y hard on its defence and support play and it was good to see further improvements in these areas
Our best r un of the season came in the C o u n
Evesham 34-10 and Old Swinford Hospital 1412 along the way we made it to the semi-final In these two per for mances the team showed great character and finished of f some well worked moves Unfor tunately we lost the semi-final in a closely fought match where some of our early season weaknesses retur ned to our game
Overall I was pleased with how the squad worked throughout the season The boys showed a lot of commitment and a number of t
T h i s w a s a n e x t r e m e l y u n p r e d i c t a b l e season due in many respects to a lack of depth within the year group It only needed a couple of injuries, particularly to key personnel, for the side to fall apart The loss of Tom Core early in the season to a badly broken ankle, Piers Har ris str uggling with a foot problem for a significant number of games, and Jef f Ballard missing cr ucial matches meant there were big gaps and some players regularly playing out of position
When we did have a full line up, the backs were always an attacking force Ed Jones has real pace at outside centre, Freddie Hughes has both pace and size to his advantage on the wing, and Jonathan Middleton is an extremely i l l u s i v e r u n n e r f r o m f u l l b a c k T h e m a i n problem was one of a lack of ball from the pack Apart from Richard Lea, we had no size in the for wards at all, which meant that even if we did get to the breakdown first, the ball was often tur ned over, despite the best ef forts of Jack Her riot We str uggled in the tight all season with probably the smallest front row on the circuit, and this meant we rarely had a platfor m from which to launch our backs N o t a b l e v i c t
Cathedral, KES Aston and King Henr y
Coventr y Although the season was not an outstanding success in ter ms of games won, a number of players made significant progress at a personal level, and this can hopefully be built upon next year
The side had a successful season and a highly respectable playing record of played eleven, won seven
The start of the season was a bit ‘stop-start’ due to games being cancelled and understrength sides being fielded due to a number o
commitment and character, putting up brave
Monmouth However, each time we finished on the wrong side of close scorelines Big wins however then came against King Henr y ’ s
Cathedral and there were nail-biting victories against KES Aston and Bristol GS
The per for mances then stepped up a gear for the remaining two fixtures The boys worked ver y hard for each other in grinding out a 26-5 victor y against a strong Bishops Vesey’s side in a ver y physical encounter T h e n ,
influential in the pack, while Ben Hardy’s power troubled most opposition James Ward and Luke Ar mitage stole vital line-out ball and provided the back bone in the for ward pack along with Oliver Jenkins and James Riley
Dominic Wood was electric at scr um-half and dictated the pace in ever y game The latter linked well with Tom Gwynne at fly-half to set the rest of the backs free Andy Hughes was both solid in defence and creative in a
y important tries in the closer games
The team also won the plate at the Solihull Sevens competition, beating Nottingham HS in the final At the War wick tour nament we progressed to the quarter finals of the main competition Despite trailing 19-0 we beat
Monmouth to reach the semi-finals, but were beaten by the eventual winners, Solihull
Many thanks go to Mr W ilson for coaching so expertly throughout the season
Tom Gwynne
I think it’s fair to say that the Under 13s e n j o y e d a m i x e d s e a s o n S o m e v e r y encouraging results were interspersed with a few disappointing losses
After a slow start with hard pitches causing a number of early season cancellations, our
f i r s t w i n a g a i n s t K i n g H e n r y ’ s C o v e n t r y promised much However, a nar row loss to Solihull showed us that we could not be complacent
Highlights of the season would have to be the two hard fought victories against Bishop Vesey’s and War wick, both of which saw us hold on to win by only one score The character displayed by the boys in these matches can only bode well for the team’s future
Of the for wards, W ill Har ris, Jake Lock, J a c k J e a v o n s - F e l l o w s a n d E d H a r t l e y impressed throughout the season, with Liam Gwynne, Jack Everton and Matthew Marskell featuring prominently in the backs
For the B XV Tom Hallett and Ror y Johnson stood out for their commitment and hard tackling
T h e s q u a d c o m p e t e d i n t w o S e v e n s tour naments during the Spring ter m A good s h o w i n g s a w u s b e a t M o n m o u t h , Nottingham, Princethorpe and St Joseph’s College in the group stages at War wick, but a nar row loss to the host team (the eventual winners) meant that we took no further part in the competition
At Solihull we found ourselves in the strongest group of the tour nament with War wick (again) and Aylesbur y Nar rowly losing to both these teams meant that, whilst they progressed into the main competition (both eventually reaching the final), we were consigned to the ‘plate’, for which we were far too strong We had convincing victories over KES Camp Hill and KES Aston, winning the final 54-0
C A / J L O
As a result, the next three games were won with something to spare, Hereford Cathedral, King Edward’s Aston and RGS Worcester all b
strong for us in another close defeat, we then travelled to Bishop Vesey’s in our last match of the Autumn ter m and came away with a hard-ear ned win, with a deciding tr y in the last minute
V
Solihull, King Edward’s Bir mingham and King Henr y ’ s Coventr y and a hard fought draw against Oldswinford were most pleasing, as were three good wins for the B XV and the C XV’s nar row defeat against Solihull and inspiring victor y over King Henr y ’ s
outstanding in attack and defence and he forged a good understanding with scr um half, Joe Senior A hard-working and tenacious set of for wards, in which Henr y Waltier and Greg C
dominated their opposition and won much good ball for skilful backs
These four players were joined by Oliver G
Houlbrooke, Har r y Iddon, Richard Hartley and Jolyon Hale in representing the school at the War wick Sevens tour nament, winning three and drawing one of their five matches, eventually finishing second in their group D P I /A W L
UNDER 12 XV
W ith the first two fixtures against probably the strongest teams on our list, War wick and Monmouth, the team had to ‘hit the ground r unning’ Both games were lost, War wick nar rowly and Monmouth quite convincingly in the end, but lessons were lear nt from mistakes
In the bleak mid-winter frosty winds made moan. The earth often stands hard as iron, and the water like a stone is spread evenly across the King’s games fields It is not often considered to be an ideal time to assemble a team and then work towards building a cohesive unit that can ef fectively compete against other teams who have, in most cases, been together for some time Still, at least snow had not fallen, snow o n s n o w, s n o w o n snow; for that we all had to wait a little while. Despite all of t h e d i s a d v a n t a g e s caused by the time of y e a r, t h e f i r s t X I made an impressive start to the season
T
School, ended in a comfortable victor y by
two goals to nil The home side, marshalled by captain W illiam Woodhouse, took hold of the game, and the opposition defence was punctured on two occasions by the pace and high quality finishing of Peter W instanley E a r l y
College have almost always ended all square It was, therefore, ver y encouraging when King’s coasted to a four-one victor y. The outfit from the Cotswolds were no match for an improving team who looked particularly g o o d g o i n g f
players; Keelan McNally, James Hall, Peter W instanley and Charles Jef ferson-Loveday
The destination of the manager of the month award for Januar y was surely secured with another four-goal haul against King Edward’s Camp Hill A second brace for W i n s t a n l e y,
m H
w Dimond and James Lamb proved to be too much for a Camp Hill side that only managed one by means of a consolation There is still some confusion about the final goal of the game, scored by W instanley apparently, since a blizzard swept across the pitch during the later stages making it impossible to see more than a few yards He is convinced that he scored – others are less certain Fortunately, for the twenty-two snowmen that retur ned to the changing rooms, the Siberian conditions did not ar rive early enough to force the abandonment of the game, but they certainly made it dif ficult to find the balls after wards
Febr uar y began with a fiercely contested d r a w a t B
provided a stor my backdrop to a br uising
encounter that ended with each side having scored one goal, with Dimond netting once again The coach jour ney home was long but spirits remained high as the fixture against local rivals, RGS Worcester, was just around the cor ner, and this season it was to be played at St George’s Lane for the ‘Worcester City Cup’
There is nothing quite like the atmosphere
t h a t i s e x p e r i e n c e d w h e n p l a y i n g u n d e r floodlights Add to that the local rivalr y, the large noisy crowd and the professional touches added by the host club, and suddenly you have all of the ingredients required for a most memorable occasion Both teams began rather ner vously and the first half was a helter-skelter
March brought a change in fortune as the team demonstrated great ‘bouncebackability’ to ear n a one all draw with Clifton College, thanks to Toby Hewson’s strike, in the final game of the regular season
All that remained was the Monmouth six-as i d e c o m p e t i t i o n A s e r i e s o f e x c e l l e n t per for mances saw King’s reach the final where they lost nar rowly to a ver y strong side from Millfield Thus a season that had promised much, and delivered the Worcester City Cup, finished on a high note after being in danger of spluttering to a rather disappointing end
J T W
af fair with all of the passion of any local derby King’s took an early lead when James Hall opened the scoring, but RGS str uck back to level the scores just before the inter val The second half saw some good football and one fur ther goal each At full time the score remained level and penalties were required to d e c i d e t h e d e s t i n a t i o n o f t h e C u p I t i s important to note at this stage that Luke Baghdadi in the King’s goal had not managed to even come within two yards of saving a penalty in the pre-match practice The tension grew as each penalty was taken – it was clearly going to take a steely ner ve to win this game The unlikely match winner was found in the King’s goal A hat-trick of saves by an inspired keeper brought an exciting victor y in this particular Cup Final
W ith the cup won it was time for the mid season break – half-ter m In recent years there has been much debate in the professional game about the merits of such an inter r uption in the fixture programme It is said that it would provide the players with an opportunity to recharge their reser ves of energy ready to b e g i n w i t h r e n e w e d v i g o u r f o l l o w i n g t h e inter r uption Unfortunately, it seemed to have quite the opposite ef fect on the King’s players and for m took a tur n for the worse Two rather lacklustre displays, which were characterised by a loss of defensive stability, resulted in defeats a t t h e h a n d s o f M o n m o u t h a n d P a t e ’ s Grammar
The season got of f to a great start with a 72 win over Bromsgrove, with four goals from S i m o n H o l p i n a n d o n e e a c h f r o m A l e c Mabbott, Freddie Hughes and W ill Simner
Our next game was a lot closer as we squeezed past Monmouth 4-2, with more goals from Freddie Hughes and Simon Holpin After losing to Wyclif fe at home, we came up against RGS Worcester Another tight game saw us take the lead early on through Freddie Hughes and then we had the chance to take a two goal lead, but the penalty sailed over the bar We eventually lost 4-2, Alec Mabbott
T h i s w a s a t r e m e n d o u s s e a s o n f o r t h e seconds, winning all but one of their games with the other being a 2-2 draw This success was based around a talented side who had a great deal of deter mination Nowhere else was this more clearly shown than in the draw against a ver y impressive Pate’s Grammar School side, who were also undefeated Kings’ twice came from a goal behind to score with the last kick of each half, and it was certainly deser ved Much of the impetus came from a ver y skilful midfield and an attack which c o n t a i n e d f a r t o o m u c h p a c e f o r m o s t opponents W ill Smith led the team ably from midfield, with Alex Dobbins, James Lamb and H e n r y F e l l o w s p r o v i d i n g m u c h o f t h e backbone and thr ust of the team The cutting edge was Josh Kelly, whose goal tally was well into double figures, and who would surely have been in the 1st XI without his commitments to r ugby Other highlights of the season were a 62 thrashing of RGS Worcester, and a 9-0 dr ubbing of Bromsgrove One of the reasons that the seconds did so well was that in a large number of positions there was little dif ference between themselves and those players in the first team Ver y few schools that we play can match that type of depth That may change this year as we add to, and strengthen, our fixture l i s t w i t h g a m e s a g a i n s t M a r l b o r o u g h , Loughborough and Old Swinford A A D G
scoring our second after good build-up play with a good clean strike
Our final game was played in tor rential rain and hail The game was the closest so far, Clifton winning 4-3 but our per for mance was superb and goals from Freddie Hughes and the captain, Rob Middleburgh, were well taken and thoroughly deser ved
Notable per for mances during the season came from Jon Inglis in goal and Jef f Ballard, Alex Hale and Alex Jackson in defence The midfield was strong and battled well, with Joe O ’ C o n n o r a n d T h o m a s L o n g l e y g e t t i n g through particularly skilful and brave work Freddie Hughes was the top scorer with seven goals, his pace and strength ter rorizing most defences.
The B team trained hard but unfortunately only had one game; they lost to the Grammar but played good football at times George Kitchen was an influential captain
The team competed well against tough opposition and never gave up; the never-saydie spirit was par ticularly evident in the second half against Wyclif fe when we nearly tur ned round a two goal half-time deficit. We all enjoyed our season and would like to thank Mr Le Marchand for coaching and managing us throughout Robin Middleburgh
At the start of the season I told this team that it was good enough to go through the season undefeated After a disappointing draw away to Wyclif fe in the first game, clinched only in the dying seconds, this prediction looked rather foolish Better per for mances would be needed if we were going to win a single game, never mind remain undefeated
The next two games brought us two convincing
v i c t o r i e s , b e a t i n g H a n d s w o r t h 8 - 2 a n d Monmouth 6-0 The first and only defeat came a w a y f r o m h o m e a g a i n s t a s t r o n g R G S Worcester side The final game was against a tough and skilful Clifton eleven, who were the strongest opposition we encountered King’s rose to the challenge and put on their best per for mance of the season Vaughn Thomas, Dominic Wood and Charlie Driscoll drove the game for ward, Tom Gwynne looked dangerous ever y time he had the ball and James Bennett and Oliver Jenkins worked tirelessly up front
The game ended in a hard-ear ned 3-3 draw and was one of the best games of football one could expect to see at this level
This is a strong group of players who showed an excellent attitude throughout the season and I predict that one year they will remain undefeated! The B team won two of its three games, beating Wyclif fe 4-0 and Clifton 3-0
H
J u d g e d b y s u c c e s s e s a t n a t i o n a l a n d inter national level, this has been a first-class season for KSWBC Two championship gold and two championship silver medals at the National Schools’ Regatta put King’s at the top of the medal board for élite, championship events at the most important domestic regatta of the calendar The summer also saw no fewer than three club members representing Great B r i t a i n , o n e a t t h e J u n i o r Wo r l d Championships in Banyoles, Spain, and two at the Coupe de la Jeunesse in Ravenna, Italy Meanwhile the Girls’ First Eight and a coxless p a i r r e p r e s e n t e d E n g l a n d a t t h e H o m e Inter national Regatta To illustrate that such successes are no flash in the pan, three for mer
pupils, Beverley Gough, Phil Beard and Seb Pearce, won their events at Henley this summer
Expectations were quite high given the talent, strength and experience of some of the senior boys, and the group was greatly augmented by the addition of the ver y promising Junior 16s The winter training programme was devised to develop strength, but also avoid injur y, and included elements as diverse as elementar y Pilates to help with core strength and concentration, and water polo sessions
Despite this the head race season had more than its fair share of disappointments Ar riving late at the Fours’ Head on the Tideway, the boys missed the earlier, quicker stream, while the weather made a victim of both the Scullers’ Head and the main Head of the River Race, the biggest domestic head r
disappointment continued when the First Quad managed only third place in the Schools’ Head of the River Race, having collided with a W indsor Boys crew while in the process of overtaking it; meanwhile the Junior 16 Eight, coached in part by James Trethewie, our popular Tasmanian gap-year student, ended an excellent row by catching a crab in the last 150 metres, thereby losing what would probably have been a top-three place T h e E
, Switzerland proved productive in developing a strong squad ethos – something that laid the foundations for a much more successful summer Zac Purchase went on to win the National Junior Regatta for Small Boats, one of his personal goals for the year In early May more squad members enjoyed success when they travelled to Ghent Inter national
Maxwell and Richard Poole, in the toughest field of junior quads assembled outside top junior inter national level, finished fifth, just
a couple of seconds behind the fastest British
per for mances in singles and doubles
The National Schools’ Regatta proved to be a wonder ful weekend On Saturday the Junior 16 Eight won silver medals in ‘B’ Eights and Zac Purchase defended his single sculling title in impressive style On Sunday he joined Duncan Brown, Tom DenleghMaxwell and Richard Poole to take gold in Championship Quads, the top British race for single-club and school crews
June and July remained ver y busy; the Junior 16 crew went on to win Novice Eights at Reading Amateur Regatta, beating local favourites Reading University, while further pots were won at Ironbridge The Junior 16 Quad attended trials for the GB-France match, but missed out to a ver y strong Tif fin S c h
selection for the eight by the smallest of margins
Britain in a double scull and coxed four respectively at the Coupe de la Jeunesse, while Zac Purchase went to the Junior World Championships in a double scull
The ar rival of the Junior 16 girls into the s e n i
younger squad than in previous years, early ideas of competing as a Junior 16 eight and a more senior four having quickly evaporated with the virtual disappearance of a ver y promising J15 group The autumn sessions on the water had to be devised to take account of the need for these girls to be taught the r udiments of sweep-oar rowing, w
concentrated on a coxless quad
Initial signs suggested that what this squad lacked in sweep oar experience it made up f
per for mance at the Fours’ Head placed the Junior 16s in the top third of a large Women’s
S e n i o r 3 c a t e g o r y F u r t h e r g o o d r e s u l t s followed after Christmas with a victor y at Wyclif fe Big Head for a Junior 16 eight and at Worcester Head for what would essentially remain the Girls’ First Eight
By the spring it had become more certain
t h a t w e w o u l d a g a i n e n t e r t h e G i r l s ’
Championship Eights at the National Schools’ Regatta, so the Schools’ Head of the River Race provided the first reliable for m guide for the season The eight was pleased to come third behind Kingston Grammar School and Headington School; although sixteen seconds behind the leaders, a bronze medal at National Schools seemed now a ver y realistic goal
Easter training camp provided the chance for some real improvements to be made in technique and boat speed away from other distractions, as four athletes demonstrated soon after at Ghent in May Amy Wright and Celia Ballard beat the inter national field to b e c o m e F l e m i s h N a t i o n a l C h a m p i o n s i n Junior Coxless Pairs, and on the Sunday they were joined by Har riet Driver and Rose Moule, winning a bronze medal in Junior Coxless Fours The squad therefore had reason to feel confident when the Ghent four were rejoined by Sarah Cowbur n, Laura Hughes, Ella James, Hayley Simmonds and cox Natasha Shaddick at the National Schools’ Regatta Here the girls exceeded expectations with a magnificent p e r f o r m a n c e , c o n v i n c i n g l y s e e i n g
H e a d i n g t o n S c h o o l a n d H a b e r d a s h e r s ’ Monmouth to secure the silver medals in Championship Eights, about a length and a half behind Kingston Grammar School. The feat was repeated the following day in the Championship Fours, where this time King’s defeated Kingston Grammar, but were pushed into second place by Latymer Upper School. These achievements, as ever, owed much to the careful attention the crews received from Paul Sterckx throughout the year
The summer certainly did not end there
The eight beat Imperial College at Reading
Thames Rowing Club in the final, but once again KSWBC drew the eventual winners, Holy Spirit from the USA, in the first round at Women’s Henley Although the Junior 16 four missed out on qualification for the GBF
a convincing gold medal for the eight at the National Championships in July ensured that KSWBC represented England at the Home I
Pier repont Meanwhile Celia Ballard and Amy Wright again combined in a coxless pair
Both King’s crews rounded of f a highly successful season with second places in their events No fewer than six of this year ’ s eight will still be available next season, a cause for some optimism
Since last year ’ s promising Junior 14 group was reduced to only a handful of boys and girls by the start of the Upper Remove, it was more important than ever that the Club recr uit a good number of committed pupils f r o m t
Tr i b e certainly achieved this with the LR girls, rotating crews regularly to maintain interest, and working hard to ensure a solid technical base for their sculling during the autumn
Early successes included both Wyclif fe head races, the second in Febr uar y seeing three girls’ quads in action The boys started in Januar y and were given the added incentive this year of being able to prepare for the o c t u p l e e v e n t a t t h e N a t i o n a l S c h o o l s ’ Regatta, now that sculling riggers had been bought for the Peter Beaumont They were greatly helped in this by the enthusiastic coaching of Charles Illing
Following the great boost of a three-day camp over Easter based at King’s Chester, both girls and boys entered their first regatta at Shrewsbur y with the quads enjoying three races each in their mini leagues The two g i r l s ’ q u a d s s h o w e d h o w f a r t h e y h a d progressed by the time of the National Schools’ Regatta with one reaching the final The boys raced respectably, but the highlight of their season came at Tewkesbur y in a
par ticularly thrilling final in the octuple event, King’s nar rowly beating Cheltenham College and Monkton Combe to the finish
The two girls’ quads went on to race at the N a t i o n a l C h a m p i o n s h i p s , w h e r e t h e y experienced some ver y windy conditions at Holme Pier repont Both crews raced gamely, but the A crew were about four seconds from q u
repêchage This group of boys and girls has shown plenty of promise and commitment; will greatly strengthen the club in the years ahead
The School Regatta and Boat Club Dinner were held on Sunday 4 July Both were ver y well attended by cur rent and for mer pupils, as w e l l a s p a r e n t s . I
Headmaster named the two new crew boats acquired this year, a Janousek eight and Filippi coxless quad, ‘Andy Guest’ and ‘TRS’ respectively, in recognition of both coaches’ ser vice to KSWBC over the years The Club’s handsome Carl Douglas single was named ‘Persuader’, an af fectionate reference to our retiring boatman, RMH. The dinner was a lively af fair Our guest speaker was Richard Hamilton, inter national medalist and coach, who engaged his audience on the theme of meeting challenges. The evening was also a fitting tribute and fond farewell to NJM, who has made such an impact at King’s as masterin-charge since 2001 We all hope he may have occasion to regret leaving such a strong club when King’s crews meet Westminster crews in the years ahead!
T R S
Having just taken over the Athletics at King’s I was unsure what to expect At times it w a s d i f f i c u l t , w i t h m a n y
commitments to other sporting teams but numbers were heartening and we managed a number of fixtures
I think that each year group will always be dif ferent and our aim must be to provide a programme for those who wish to participate
This year we have had two training sessions
per week, one at the city track and one at the school fields. A number of matches were
County Champions were
Tom Amphlett Inter Boys Javelin
Tom Mitchell Inter Boys 400m
Beth Ghalamkari Inter Girls Discus
Inter House Athletics
1st Kitter master 306 pts
2nd Creighton 284 pts
3rd Chappel 270 pts
undertaken against RGS and, whilst results did not go our way, a large number of pupils gained valuable experience
New Record Holders
Tom Amphlett UR/ 5th Javelin
Hannah Button Girls 800m
Jess Higgs SG Shot
Beth Ghalamkari SG Discus
Charlie Fellows UR / 5th 110m & 200m
Amy Jones SG 100m & Long jump
Our showing at the District Championships
Championships
From these championships six pupils went on to represent the county at the Mason Trophy in Bir mingham
After a hectic two weeks organising the
Victor ludor um SB Sam Cullen W
Charlie Fellows K
Victrix ludor um SG Amy Jones Os JG Rosie Pennell Cr
Senior Sports Day the actual day came as
evening saw some great per for mances, with six school records being broken Kitter master eventually took the honours but I hope that all t
experience
Sports Day was a great success, with more pupils involved than ever before L4E and U4B took the honours and five records were set
W ith the 300m being a new event for the girls, Sophie Dee and Nicola Slack set the standards for Lower Fourth and Upper Fourth respectively
Beth Per r y broke both the 200m and High Jump records for Lower Fourth Girls with two impressive displays
Ed Hartley moved the Upper Fourth boys High Jump record on by 1 cm and Ror y Johnson deser ves a mention for just missing out on the 800m record by 1 second
This promised to be a ver y enjoyable and successful season: a settled and experienced side, a new young captain and a tour of Barbados to finish In many ways it was both enjoyable and successful, but the early season weather meant that there was no fluency to our cricket, in particular with our Saturday fixtures before half ter m The first weekend was beautiful, but we had finished by 3 00pm having thrashed a new addition to the fixture list, Bishop Vesey’s The next two were lost to t
relented we bowled Hereford Cathedral out for 22 in the Chesterton Cup, knocked the r uns of f in three overs, and were again
fixtures before half ter m saw an easy victor y over King Edward’s, Stourbridge and a ver y close success over a much improved Old Swinford eleven Thus the first half of the
Ford
continuity, especially in the longer for mat of the game This lead to many of our players str uggling to find consistency, especially the top order batsmen Although Stephen Bilboe e
recorded towards the end of the season, - he played particularly well in Barbados This was a disappointing retur n after his previous prolific season Much of the problem was down to a desire to score too quickly, and
Record: Played 23, Won 12, Lost 7, Drawn 4
Batting (Qualification 100 r uns)
Inn n.o. best r uns Av
S Cullen 19 2 78 557 32 76
S Bilboe 19 1 89 580 32 22
T Weston 21 2 65 425 22 36
O Bendall 19 3 58* 343 21 43
H Dimond 20 3 65 324 19 05
T Cullen 92 37 106 15 14
B. Ford 17 3 34* 148 10.57
W Woodhouse 14 3 24 109 9 90
Bowling (Qualification 10 wickets) Ov Mdns Best Runs Wkts Av
K McNally 82 5 21 3-8 288 19 15 15
W. Smith 135.3 28 4-16 459 30 15.30
S Cullen 119 2 11 5-15 445 28 15 88
B Ford 65 1 13 4-17 274 17 16 11
J Kelly 115 20 4-27 353 21 16 80
T Gwynne 58 5 11 4-33 198 11 18 00
T Cullen 112 24 3-12 348 18 19 33
therefore his shot selection was not as diligent as it should have been Sam Cullen prospered with both bat and ball, scoring 557 r uns and t a k i n g 2 8 w i c k e t s H e i s a n u n o r t h o d o x batsman when it comes to technique, but he scores ver y quickly and is extremely motivated to do well
To add to the vagaries of the weather, the bowling lost a real asset in any cricket, a left ar m slow bowler who tur ns it, when Tom Cullen went down with glandular fever early in the ter m He was sorely missed for some six weeks, and it wasn’t until Barbados that he rediscovered his rhythm The opening attack of Joshua Kelly and Keelan McNally had both pace and variety They will both be back next year, and much is expected of them W ith Tom Cullen missing so much cricket it was left to B e n F o r d t o p r o v i d e t h e s p i n o p t i o n , something he did with increasing skill and reward as the season progressed He will play a cr ucial part in the side next year, as he will also have to combine the role of opening batsman with a significant number of overs Leaving the team after five seasons was W ill Smith, whose medium pace, usually uphill or into the wind, could always be relied upon by the captain in a time of need He even made progress up the batting order, simply by playing straight and making the most of his net opportunities to improve his technique. Another to depart after a similar number of seasons was Huw Dimond, who remained an enigma till the end He
should have scored so many r uns, but never did This was a real shame, because he gave a considerable amount to cricket at King’s, but in ter ms of figures, has little to show for it Huw also shared
t h e ‘ k e e p i n g d u t i e s w i t h Oliver Bendall, who like him also failed to produce the n u m b e r o f r u n s t h a t h i s talent suggested Oli did, however, add to the team in many other areas, though t
p before big matches were not amongst his strengths
We d i d p l a y s o
o d c r i
season, most notably against KES Bir mingham and the
w
1 3 2 - 0 a t lunch, only to be bowled o u t f o r 1 6 4 T h e s i d e s h o w e d t r e m e n d o u s character to fight back and dismiss their opponents for 143, and this was certainly one of my best moments in m y t i m e w i t h c r i c k e t a t King’s Against the MCC we
bowled tremendously well to have them 81-8 at lunch, and although they managed to recover to 143 all out, we still had an excellent opportunity to gain a second victor y in four years This looked increasingly likely as we progressed to 70-1, but with the loss of the s k i p p e r w e f a i l e d t o t a k e c o n t r o l o f t h e situation and ended 20 r uns short Our first defeat against RGS for three years was again the result of naïve batting, descending to 17-4, from where there was no retur n The annual battle with the OVs was again won by the old boys, whose team seems to get stronger ever y year, but it was pleasing to see so many recent leavers playing
A separate Barbados appears elsewhere, but suf fice to say that six victories out of seven, the Kensington Oval and beautiful weather, meant that it was a fabulous trip My thanks, as always, to DPI, especially for his ef forts in organising the tour
If the ter m had ended a week earlier than it did, the 2nd XI would have been undefeated after its best season in living memor y Four of the six matches were won, one rained of f after we reached a promising position, and the KES B i r m i n g h a m g a m e w a s d r a w n w i t h t h e opposition almost down and out The bowling w a s a l w a y s m i s e r l y, o f t e n p e n e t r a t i n g , supported by generally reliable fielding and a number of excellent catches In Guy Davies we had a slip fielder who could actually catch, as two superb ef forts against Bishop Vesey’s and KES Bir mingham proved Simon Insley, whose bowling was often a major force - e g 4-20 in the rain-finished match against Solihull - also took a corker against KES Patrick Dykes, who has shall we say a languid air about his fielding, p u l l e d o f f a q u i t e i m p o s s i b l e c a t c h a t midwicket in the Solihull match! Almost all the bowling this year was of the faster variety, with Peter W instanley (8 wickets for 52 in the first four matches) and Keelan McNally (6-14 in his first two matches) making life dif ficult, if not scar y, for some weak opposition batting Liam Fahy improved as the season went on, picking up 2 wickets for not many in each of his last t h r e e m a t c h e s , a n d c a p t a i n M i c h a e l W ilesmith, bowling of f his longer r un this season, took 10 wickets The solitar y spinner, Patrick Dykes, often picked up a solitar y wicket in the few overs allowed to him. I should also mention Laurence Hughes’s 2-5 at Hereford
S u r p r i s e p a c k a g e w a s To m L e a , w h o w a s brought on to ever yone ’ s surprise against KES and took 3-5!
The batting, which was adequate for dealing with the weaker oppositions, was not nearly so threatening against substantial bowling sides
Hence our two defeats in the last two games, against the OVs and, sadly, RGS Worcester, where we could muster only 108 and 76 r uns respectively Even against KES we managed only 134, thanks largely to Charlie Fellows’ 42 and the consistent Tom Lea’s 26, but our bowling compensated in this instance as KES were reduced to 75-9 But there were some g o o d e x c
Hospital there were good innings from Stuart Doolittle (41) and Luke Baghdadi (61), who also maintained an excellent standard of keeping throughout the season Guy Davies’ 34 not out and 43 helped us to win the matches at Bishop Vesey’s and Old Swinford
H
W instanley’s 120 against KEC Stourbridge, h
W ilesmith and McNally, gave us a total of 2914 and an eventual winning margin of 217 r uns!
So of those eight matches that were not called of f for rain, mumps (Bromsgrove) or inability of the opposition to raise a team (Brecon) we won 4, drew 2, and lost the final 2 Not a bad record and, as usual these days, a delightful bunch of cricketers to umpire!
R N G S
The season was seriously spoiled by the weather, but it was definitely an enjoyable and successful summer for this team all the same
T
p Vesey’s, when a fine bowling per for mance restricted Vesey’s to 102-6 in their 35 overs
p
To m Longley, Jonathan Cook and Jonathan Inglis and two sharp r un outs were the key points of the innings Steve Poole claimed the first 50 of the season when he and Matt Humphreys stroked King’s through to an 8 wicket victor y The next match, against Solihull, was played in the drizzling rain, but this did not prevent K i n g ’ s p
per for mance with the ball as Solihull were all out for 96, Jonathan Cook and Jonathan Inglis the main destroyers This left King’s with a real chance of victor y However, rain set in
and the match was abandoned with King’s in charge at 22-0
S e v e r a l g a m e s w e r e t h e n p
p o n e d because of the weather, but the rain didn’t dampen the team’s spirits when it came to training Practices were always well attended and the team’s belief in winning was proved again at Hereford Cathedral. We posted a total of 147, Sophie Le Marchand top scoring w i t h 3 7 ,
Hereford were all out for 66. Once again, Jonathan Cook was the main wicket taker with 4-15, and he was well backed up by Inglis, Goodreds, and Poole Christ College Brecon were our next victims, with Longley, C o o k a n d H e l e n B e
Brecon batting look second rate Longley then batted beautifully to get 50* in the 9 wicket victor y
Steve Poole and Tom Longley were the side’s heaviest scorers with the bat The way they per for med in the team’s 39 r un victor y against Pershore HS made Mr Le Marchand and Mr Robinson pur r with delight Our next game against K E S Bir mingham was the most exciting of the season, and we really s h o u l d h a v e w o
dismissed them for 72, with Chris Goodreds bowling brilliantly However, we got ourselves into a real mess with over-cautious batting early in our reply and after 25 overs we were 26-4 Though Hugh Thomas and Inglis put on 43 in a late charge, it wasn’t enough to win us the match Jonathan Cook needed to score six of f the last ball of the innings, and he was caught on the long-of f boundar y! The season didn’t end on a high note against RGS as we lost by 12 r uns, but Steve Poole batted quite beautifully, making 71*, Matt Humphreys batted fluently for a stylish 24 and Sophie Le Marchand made 17*.
Our final record of played 7, won 4, lost 2, with 1 abandoned (we were going to win it!) was ver y creditable We thoroughly enjoyed our cricket and would like to thank Mr Robinson and Mr Le Marchand for their work with us
Jonathan Inglis
Played 14, Won 9, Lost 3, Abandoned 2
The season started ver y well with three s t r a i g h t v i c t o r i e s w h i c h i n c l u d e d t w o undefeated forties from James Yelland and one from captain Tom Br yant The defeat by Chase High School in the County Cup was ver y disappointing; especially considering Tom Gwynne’s bowling analysis of 4-0-7-4
The batters responded splendidly to win the n e x t t w o g a m e s h a n d s o m e l y, h i g h l i g h t s
being Kit Smith’s 104 not out against Christ
C o l l e g e B r e c o n a n d a c e n t u r y o p e n i n g partnership between Tom Gwynne (65) and Br yant (68) against Pershore High School
against Brecon, ending up with the season ’
continued his rich vein of for m with 44 a g a i n s t K E S B i r m
enough in a two wicket defeat The game of the season followed: a 207 r un defeat of local rivals RGS Worcester An opening partnership of 251 between Tom (160) and Liam Gwynne
(63) totally demoralised the opposition, who were rolled over for 92, chief destroyers being L i a m G w y n n e ( 4 f o r 1 3 ) a n d Va u g h a n Thomas (3 for 9)
There was a healthy competition for places throughout the season with eighteen players representing the team There was good depth in both batting and bowling, the fielding was generally sharp, and the keeping of Andrew Hughes tidy Hughes also showed promise with the bat All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable season
M C P / J J M / J A
Played 11, Won 9, Lost 1, Drawn 1
This was an excellent season The boys were involved in not only the usual Saturday fixtures, but also in the County Cup and in the national cup competition, representing Worcestershire
They won all their Saturday matches which included fine victories against Bishop Vesey’s, Hereford Cathedral School, Brecon and KES Bir mingham The game against Solihull was rained of f; a disappointment as we were in a strong position of 118 for 5 In the national cup competition we reached the semi-finals h a v i n g h a d a n i m p r e s s i v e w i n o v e r Oxfordshire by 6 wickets Sadly, we lost the semi-final to Staf fordshire (our only loss all season)
In the Worcestershire Cup we reached the final, beating three teams on the way quite convincingly, but we knew that our opponents this time, WRGS, would not be so easy They
bowled first and we scored 133 for 5 of f our 30 overs Their tur n came after tea and we bowled them all out for 88 Matthew Marskell was named man of the match for his fier y bowling
Dominic Hor ne captained the B team Sadly, they had four games cancelled, but of the three matches that were played two were ver y close They lost nar rowly to Hereford Cathedral School and to WRGS, but lost by 72 r uns to KES
Liam Gwynne topped the batting averages with 44 followed by Jack Jeavons –Fellows with
Matthew Marskell and Jack Longley Sean Robinson bagged 14 and Jonathan Preston
cricketers who are avidly supported by a group of knowledgeable parents M R G /A W L
We star ted the season with fairly easy victories over Bishop Vesey’s and Hereford C a t h e d r a l S c h
per for mance of the year was recorded by Rhodri Dawes who took 7 for 10 of f 6 5 overs
The next opponents were Solihull and we lost a ver y tight game chasing 125 but we only reached 118 for 6 Greg Campion played ver y well for 37 not out but our top order batting did not get enough r uns In the next match we lost to Bromsgrove who scored 160 for 3 in twenty overs and we could only score 90 for 8. Against Bishop’s Hereford we scored 123 for 1 but they overhauled our score for the loss of 9 wickets in a tense thriller Our 68 for 8 against The Chase was never likely to be suf ficient but we bowled ver y well on the w h o l e a n d a l m o s t s n a t c h e d a n u n l i k e l y victor y We restricted the batsmen of KES Bir mingham to 98 for 7 of f 30 overs but once again the batting failed and we were all out for 54
The last two games produced a distinct i m p r o v e m e n t i n o u r f o r t u n e s F i r s t w e defeated Oldswinford Hospital by 10 wickets with our openers Emmie Le Marchand and Richard Barker knocking of f the 57 required
without loss The last match of the season saw o u r b e s t t e a m p e r f o r m a n c e a g a i n s t t h e Grammar School. They made 136 all out with Rhodri Dawes taking 4 for 25, Har r y Iddon 2 for 27 and Emmie 2 for 16 We batted ver y steadily, making the r uns fairly easily for the loss of only four wickets. Rhodri scored an excellent 55 not out and Richard Barker made an accomplished and aggressive 38
Well done to all the boys who have clearly i m p r o v e d d u r i n g t h e s e a s o n T h e y h a v e practised enthusiastically and tried hard in games and I hope that next year thay will improve still further
J L O /R J D
Sixty eight senior matches were played We won thirty six, lost nineteen and thirteen matches ended in a draw The results have continued to improve in all year groups
It is a great credit to the school that thirteen of our players were selected across the age groups to represent the county and Hayley Tur ner (L4) was selected to represent the Midlands
( U 1 7 – B e t h G h a l a m k a r i a n d F r e y
Marskell)
(U15 – Rebecca Busher, Nicola W ilkinson, Sarah Porter, Lucy Senior and Becky Tur ner)
(U13 – Issy Hershman, Sophy Howard, L u c y C o o
E m m i e L e Marchand and Hayley Tur ner)
It was great to see such a high standard of hockey being played at the Inter House c o m p e t i t i o n B r i g h t t r i u m p h e d o v e r Kitter master to break their many years of dominance
T h e L
y resur rected annual competition by 3-2 The young ones did not r ule the roost in the Staf f v Sixth For m Despite a number of ‘ringers’ in the school team the staf f won 1-0 with a superb penalty cor ner strike from AADG
Thank you to all staf f and pupils involved for ef fort and commitment to training and matches
F L S
The squad enjoyed an athletic start to the season, beating Chase 3-1 ( Jo Hallett 2, Har riet Priddey) They were fresh from the summer tour of Australia They did well to draw with Malver n College the following week as key members were missing They went on to lose to a ver y strong Pate’s side 2-1 (Hallett) but their passing was a major factor in this defeat
At the U18 County Tour nament
t h e y b e a t M G C 1 - 0 ( K a t y
H u m p a g e ) b u t o n l y s e c u r e d a
d i s a p p o i n t i n g d r a w a g a i n s t Malver n College King’s were the strongest team but they could not convert good play into goals and as a result did not qualify for the next round
A good confidence boost came from beating KEC Stourbridge 8-0 with superb midfield play and too many scorers to mention We again d o m i n a t e d t h e m i d f i e l d w i t h a good win against a ver y strong KES
B i r m i n g h a m s i d e 2 - 1 ( H a l l e t t , Humpage)
I t w a s a m i x e d e n d t o t h e autumn ter m with a 2-1 defeat to Hereford (Hallett) but we allowed the opposition too much room in defence We then won against King’s G l o u c e s t e r 1 - 0 ( H u m p a g e ) a n d played superb hockey much to the dismay of their Headmaster. The most satisfying result was a draw against Bromsgrove 1-1 (Hallett) and we played some of the best hockey all season.
T h e s p r i n g t e r m w a s m u c h shorter with both Chase and KE
B i r m i n g h a m c a n c e l l i n g f i x t u r e s ; however, we enjoyed a ver y satisfying win over MGC, winning 5-0 (Hallett 4 , G h a l a m k a r i ) , s h o w i n g g r e a t
a t h l e t i c i s m t o o v e r w h e l m o u r opposition
Sadly we lost 3-1 to Cheltenham Ladies (Gwilliam) and our patter ns
o f p l a y w e r e u p s e t b y s o m e controversial umpiring decisions
It was a fitting end to the season when we reached the final of the Sixth For m County Tour nament and d r e w 1 - 1 w i t h Wo rc e s t e r S i x t h For m College The girls put on a superb display of skills and their
t e a m w o r k s u r p a s s e d t h e opposition It was a great shame to lose on flicks Some excellent goals were scored in this tour nament but Jo Hallett takes the title of top goal scorer this season Jo will take over as 1st XI captain from Jess Higgs n e x t y e a r a n d c o n t i n u e t h e d e v e l o p
highest level at King’s
Hockey Colours
Full: Half:
Becky Gwilliam Naomi Roberts
Jess Higgs Lauren Wood
Har riet Priddey Emma Hayfield
Kate Her riot Jo Hallett
Abi W illiams Katy Humpage
Jenny Tamblyn
Lucy Allen
Beth Ghalamkari F LS
This squad of girls worked well together throughout the season They seemed to gel as a group and this certainly helped in matches
The team was well led by Naomi Roberts who proved to be a mature and able captain,
The season started well with a 1-1 draw against Nunner y Wood, with the for ward line dominating play throughout They then went on to play Cheltenham Ladies’ College This was a fast and hard game, both sides having their fair share of shots at goal but the match ended in a 0-0 draw
Malver n Girls’ College did not prove to be as strong as expected and we beat them 4-0, with Sara Neville and Naomi Roberts scoring two goals each King’s Gloucester were our next victims, succumbing to a 5-0 defeat, and the girls then went on to beat Malver n College 11-0! A further victor y was added to the list with a win against Chase High School
W i t h o n l
K E S Bir mingham), the season ’ s playing record was superb and was due to these girls - Naomi Roberts, Emily Scaife, Annie Sutton, Alice B
Smith, Anna Byr ne, Helen Smith, Har riet Davis, Har riet Driver, Emma Phillips and Freya Marskell, who was also selected to play for the Under 17 County Squad
This was a County Tour nament where King’s played 4 matches, losing 2 and drawing 2 It was ver y disappointing as we had beaten all of our opposing teams in the past King’s did not play their best and let chances pass without scoring
The Under 15s played ten matches in the 2003/2004 season, winning four, drawing two and losing four They showed incredible team
spirit and were keen to improve as a team Sophie Le Marchand was top goal scorer with a total of nine with Rosie Pennell coming second with five Rebecca Busher went on to represent us at county level Helen Jones deser ves a special mention as she showed a great deal of deter mination in this her first season as goalkeeper My choice for the most improved player would have to be Tara Owen, as her skills and tactical awareness improved immensely throughout the season
In the first match against the Chase we were a little fragmented and lost 2-1 (Sarah Porter) in the dying seconds We were much better against Malver n College and displayed good passing skills to win 3-0 (Porter, Lucy
S e n i o r, N i c k y W i l k i n s o n ) I t w a s a v e r y exciting game against Pate’s as Nicky went of f injured with a comfortable lead but they came back strongly and we only just held on to a 43 lead ( Porter, W ilkinson and Lizzie Unwin) Defensive er rors cost us the match against KES Bir mingham, losing 3-2 ( Porter, Senior) but we bounced back to beat Hereford 3-1 the following week (Porter 2, Senior)
We did not quite do enough to go through to the next level at the county tour nament We drew against a ver y strong Prince Henr y ’ s side and sadly also drew with MGC Our only win was 3-0 against Ar rowvale HS (Porter, Unwin and Senior)
We did not lose a game in the Spring ter m, drawing 1-1 with MGC ( W ilkinson) and then drawing 3-3 to Cheltenham Ladies which was a n e x c e l l e n t g a m e ( W i l k i n s o n , S e n i o r, Porter) In the final game of the season we beat the Alice Ottley 1st XI 2-0 with Sarah Porter scoring both goals, claiming the top goal scorer title with ten goals
The season began with two defeats The match versus Pate’s Grammar School was on a ver y boggy pitch, and the second was against King Edward’s High School We did play much better on astro but failed to hold on to an early lead in the last few minutes of the game
We then went on to secure good victories against Hereford Cathedral School, Malver n Girls’ College in both A and B team matches and Nunner y Wood
We per for med ver y well in both the 11-as i d e a n d 7 - a - s i d e C o u n t y t o u r n a m e n t s , reaching the final in both and only losing by one goal to Bromsgrove School in both games
Howard, Isabel Hershman, Lucy Smith, Lucy Coomer and Charlie Mills for representing the County at this age group, and also to Lucy L
during the year
Record numbers of Lower Fourth girls volunteered for practices It was fortunate therefore that the skills of Tim Barlow, an England Hockey coach, were present to direct them to impressive levels of success
T h e r a n g e
b i l i t y a t p r a c t i c e s w a s considerable, ranging from, for example, Hayley Tur ner, a county hockey player to those whose first experience of the game had been picking up their sticks in that ter m ’ s first games lesson! However, the sheer exuberance and commitment present in each girl was the uniting factor that guaranteed each member of the squad would tur n up ever y Thursday evening for practice
Throughout the course of the Autumn and Spring ter ms, all three Under 12 squads enjoyed a series of matches against a number o f d i f f e
certainly favourable, as King’s won an easy
i o r school early on in September and continued to enjoy a winning streak over the coming months, losing ver y few matches.
C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s g o t o E m m i e L e Marchand, who was of fered a place in the county squad Also, well done to Zennija
C
improved ever y time she donned her kit!
The season got of f to a tremendous start early in September with pleasing success at the Brayford a
We won the event and t
To
weeks later Under the
Worcester Sixth For m College in the final
This put King’s through to the regional round in Januar y The next series of matches were i n t e r- s c h o o l f i x t u r e s , w h e n w e
Cheltenham Ladies’ College 19 – 3, but lost to Bromsgrove 18 – 20 The team was desperately disappointed to lose that game, but they became even more deter mined to do better, and went on to win matches against Hereford
S i x t h F o
Grammar and King Edward’s, Stourbridge, with only Bablake providing tough enough
opposition to force a 21-25 defeat
The spring ter m began with the West Midlands Tour nament, where we met the best of Herefordshire and Worcestershire It was an outstanding day for King’s, with ever y member of the squad eager to prove that the school could achieve the goal which had eluded it in previous years – to win this event!
T
strength, and with Becky’s strong captainship, they won their section comfortably, beating Wrekin College in the semi-finals This put
building on the power and deter mination they had gained during their recent tour to Australia For the first time King’s were outright winners of the event and
School, a team we had lost to earlier by one goal At half time the scores were even, and it
was clear that there was little to separate these two good teams King’s though began to raise their game to a higher level, enabling us to win nine goals to seven and being crowned West Midlands Champions for the first time ever The delight from the squad was increased by the fact that this win put us into the National Finals to be held in March
Training became even more intense and the squad of Becky Gwilliam, Emma Hayfield, Naomi Roberts, Anna Derbyshire, Jo Hallett, Lauren Wood, Har riet Priddey, Jessica Higgs, S a m m i P e r r y, C l a i r e M o s e l e y, S o p h i e L e Marchand and Stephanie Doolittle set of f for Manchester to do their best! As it was the first time the players had encountered opposition with such power and strength it was ver y tough, b u t t h e g i r l s t h o r o u g h
y e n j o y e d t h e experience and although they were ner vous, they per for med extremely well We did suf fer s o m e i n j u r i e s , b u t a s t h e t o u r n a m e n t progressed our players raised their game again, and came away feeling justifiably proud of themselves
I have the greatest respect for the girls in the first team squad, and thank them for their c o m m i t m e n t a n d c o n s t a n t h a r d w o r k throughout the season They have been a delightful and rewarding group to coach, and I wish them, particularly the leavers, many more years of netball enjoyment
R A
A pleasingly large squad of girls tried for places in the 2nd and 3rd VII squads this year, and it was particularly rewarding to see a n u m b e r o f g i r l s r e t u r n i n g t o n e t b a l l o n Wednesday after noons after some years away from the sport The players showed a real enjoyment of the game, and were a friendly, good-natured group, supportive of each other, and a pleasure to teach Aimee Bettridge was selected as second team captain, working well to encourage all the players to do their best, and develop their netball skills Her main squads consisted of Toni M a r s h a l l , S o p h i e
E c k e r s l e y, H e l e n P i t t s -
Tu c k e r, M i k i l a S u t c h , D a n i e l l e S h i n g l
u r a Brown, Hannah Kimber, Becky Jef fries and Aimee Painting
T h e f i r s t m a t c h t o o k p l a c e e a r l y i n O c t o b e r
a g a i n s t R G S Wo
lost, the 3rd squad won convincingly The next two matches for the 2nds were equally tough, a g a i n s t C h e l t e n h a m L a d i e s ’ C o l l e g e a n d Bromsgrove, but the skills of the team were steadily improving and the valuable match experience paid of f as they then met The Alice O t t l e y a n d w o n 1 0 - 5 , f o l l o w e d b y P a t e ’ s Grammar who they beat 18-14. Bablake in December was a tough game for our second team, but the girls remained undaunted, going on to beat King Edward’s, Stourbridge 19-6. In the spring ter m they lost to Dean Close but ended the season on a high note, beating both Malver n College and Wrekin
I t h a s b e e n a p l e a s u r e t o s e e t h e development of these players over the season, and I know that they have thoroughly enjoyed both the competitive aspect and the games sessions and training The quality of play on court has been excellent, and I thank them all for their hard work and commitment
T h e Te r e s a P a g e t o u r n a m e n t h e l d i n Bromsgrove opened the season and with little practice time available we managed a ver y creditable second place The final against North Bromsgrove was closely fought and it was only in the final seconds that we lost the game Two of the girls, Emma Phillips and Freya Marskell, showed their Australian style o f p l a
retur ned from the Senior Hockey and Netball tour ‘Down Under’ Emma Ash and Jemima W illiams worked well together in the shooting circle, whilst Sophie Hart linked the attack and defence at centre Claire Gott and Alice K
opposition under pressure in defence The District Tour nament at Nunner y Wood was hard fought with five wins, one draw and one d
qualified for the County Finals W ith so few girls in the squad we called on younger players who slotted in well, but we were knocked out
of the County Tour nament by the Alice Ottley and North Bromsgrove The remainder of the season saw good wins over Hereford Cathedral School and Malver n College with nar row losses to Dean Close and Wrekin College M M L
At the inaugural Under 15 tour nament that we hosted last year, we managed to come second to The Alice Ottley through some rather casual play in some of the matches However, when we next met The Alice Ottley and after a few practices we managed to cor rect our previous encounter and we won 23 – 3 From this point on the team per for med well throughout the season and when the team was at full strength they proved to be u n b e a t a b
against Wrekin
(won 18 -13) and Malver n College (won 118), brought out the competitive nature of the team and under pressure we controlled these games magnificently Alice Hershman kept her cool in the shooting circle and along with Sophie Le Marchand, who covered areas of the court at great speed, achieved a high success rate in goal scoring Centre court players were Zoe Rowe, Helen Bellfield, Clare Pitts Tucker and Tara Owen, all of whom
r unning smoothly Sarah Lewis, Stephanie
D
dominant in defence, constantly tr ying to outwit the opposition and usually succeeding County representatives at this age group were Stephanie Doolittle and Sophie Le Marchand M M L
Tour nament and having had little practice we were ver y hesitant in our first match This we duly lost to Nunner y Wood 3 – 4 However, we then went on to win the remaining five
matches and qualified for the County finals in s e c o n d p l a c e T h i s w a s h e l d a t M a l v e r n College and yet again we met Nunner y Wood in the semi- finals Our confidence was high this time and we played a controlled game, nar rowly winning 9 – 7 In the final against Bromsgrove the score went with the centre pass, goal for goal, see-sawing back and forth, and as the full time approached the tension was unbearable for some of the spectators In the final minute King’s scored to take the lead and held on to win the game 10 – 9 This was a great experience for the girls and all of them played to a higher standard than in previous games The confident shooting from Lucy Clayton and Lizzie McBennett did not waver under pressure Emily McNally intercepted passes on a regular basis and with Nicola W ilkinson and Lizzie Unwin in attack the ball moved ef fortlessly into the circle Imogen Schofield and Sarah Porter were stretched to the limit in defence and had to adapt ver y s w i f t l y t o t h e s p e e d o f t h e g a m e T h e y proceeded to the West Midlands Regional Tour nament where they met a ver y high standard of play which was a new experience for them They failed to make the semi finals but lear nt a great deal about raising their game At the Bromsgrove Tour nament in M a rc h w e h a d c o n v i n c i n g w i n s a g a i n s t Cheltenham, Dean Close and Bromsgrove, but lost to Repton 9 – 12 In the semi-finals we lost to Bablake who went on to beat Oundle in the final
The season began strongly for the A team who beat St Mar y ’ s 6-4, Cheltenham Ladies’ College 9-8, Wyclif fe 24-9, KEHS 13-12 and Alice Ottley 5-4 They were disappointed to come unstuck against a strong side from Pate’s, losing by one goal, but it was excellent practice for the District Tour nament, where they were unbeaten, scoring 36 goals and only conceding 8 The squad was delighted to be Worcester City Champions, and trained hard for the County round that followed soon after wards Here they found the competition m u c h t o u g h e r a n d a l t h o u g h t h e y b e a t B i rc h e n s a l e a n d B r e d o n H i l l , w e r e v e r y disappointed not to get through to the semifinals The final match of the season was the toughest of all, against Wrekin, but our team gave a spirited per for mance and ended the year knowing that they were a strong side with tremendous potential
The B and C teams trained equally hard and also enjoyed their fixtures, with rewarding victories over Alice Ottley, Pate’s, Wrekin and Cheltenham College
This was a delightful group of girls to coach, as they showed real enthusiasm for netball and a w i l l i n g n e s s t o w o r k v e r y h a r d b o t h i n matches and training I thank JC for her help in coaching these girls N R A
The Under 12 squad was a hard working and naturally talented group, so the season b e g a n w i t h h i g h h o p e s We w e r e n o t disappointed, with A team wins against Pinvin, Cheltenham Ladies’ College, Wyclif fe, KEHS and Alice Ottley, and a draw against Pate’s in the first ter m The B squad beat Pinvin B, Alice Ottley and Pate’s but lost to KEHS in a fast game The C team lost their first match, but lear ned from the experience and went on to win the next two The spring ter m began with a ver y tough tour nament at Bromsgrove for our A team, where they met new opposition, and did well to come away with third place Our A, B and C teams had a clean sweep of wins over Hereford Cathedral School before the A team went on to beat Wrekin and Cheltenham College The season came to a spectacular conclusion with both the A and B t e
Tour naments, remaining unbeaten in all their matches The A team scored 48 goals for and only conceded 5, whilst the B team scored 35 goals for and had only 5 against, clearly emphasising the excellent standard of play compared to our local rivals
Eight matches were played by the Fourth For m teams this year with tremendous success The Under 12 team lost only one match
Under 13 team were undefeated Special
thirty L4 girls regularly attending training on a Friday night Both Lower and Upper Fourth tour naments were fiercely competed with over thirty girls playing in the L4 competition
Results were as follows:
Lower 4
Runner up Emma Chapman
W inner Alice W ickham
Upper 4
Runner up Issy Hershman
W inner Natalie W inwood
U
cancelled early in the ter m due to rain and therefore only nine matches were played this summer The Under 18 girls and mixed teams remained undefeated but the Under 14 and Under 15 teams were less successful, winning only three matches Alice Hershman and Claire Tamblyn qualified a year young for the C o u n
creditable fourth The Senior Girls and Senior Mixed doubles tour naments were popular with record entries in both events
Results were as follows:
Senior Girls Doubles
Runners up Rosie Palmer and Harriet Priddey
Winners Lucy Smith and Beccy Whear
Senior Mixed Doubles
Runners up Beth Ghalamkari and Joe Street
Winners Annie Sutton and James Lamb
participating, ranging from L4 to U6
Less successful was the sixth for m trip to W imbledon Unfortunately we chose to visit on the wettest day for five years and did not see any tennis However the girls were inspired by a smile from Boris Becker and a wave from John McEnroe!
Due to poor weather and limited time before exam leave this team only played one of their three scheduled matches Rounders is a popular game with this year group, many opting for it during Wednesday after noon games and fifteen participated in the one match against the Alice Ottley School It was a
mention should go to Charlie Mills and Issy
creditable fifth despite being a year young Training sessions were ver y popular with over
The Under 15 rounders team played three matches The girls beat Hereford Cathedral
School 19 5 to 4 5 and Malver n College 25 5 to 9 5 but unfortunately lost to St Mar y ’ s Convent 22 5 to 17 5 They scored a total of 62 rounders and conceded only 31 We had a squad of nineteen girls practising consistently through the ter m and it was dif ficult to let ever ybody have enough match play J D C
This was an excellent season, with the girls enjoying both the practices and the matches
The season started with the only defeat of the ter m, a ver y close match against Hereford Cathedral, 17 5 - 21 5 The next match was against Hanley Castle in which all the girls played well, with ef ficient fielding and strong batting giving the side a comfortable 24 5 - 14 victor y
The girls continued to play at this level, beating St Mar y ’ s Convent 12 - 5 and Chase High School, 21 5 - 0
The match against Alice Ottley was a little too close for comfort We had a comfortable lead of 13 rounders to 5 as the AO went in for their second innings, but some rather relaxed fielding let them back in to the game and the score was 13-12 on the last ball Luckily they only managed to score half a rounder, enabling us to win 13 – 12 5
This squad has some talented players - Nicky W ilkinson and Lizzie Unwin were superb as Deep fielders and the top scorers were Nicky W ilkinson, Lucy Senior, Becky Tur ner and Sarah Porter
This is a well attended after noon activity with up to thirty enthusiastic girls attending on a Tuesday after games W ith the help of Mrs Broomfield the squads were able to develop their skills throughout the season to enhance their game tactics against some strong opposition
U13A
v Hereford Cathedral School won 22 - 2
v Chase HS won 17 – 8
v Wyclif fe Junior School lost 14 – 19
v Alice Ottley School won 19 – 15
U13 B
v Chase HS lost 11 – 9
The highest scorer of the season was Charlie Mills, closely followed by Lizzie Stedman and Sophy Howard, but all the girls worked hard in p r a c t i c e s , s u p p o r t
matches and contributed to a successful and enjoyable season
Rounders was once again a ver y popular sport among the girls in the Lower Fourth with pleasing numbers of girls attending training ever y week, always with loads of energy and enthusiasm! Matches were highly successful with the girls working ver y hard together and their skills improving all the time The A team had strong wins over Hereford Cathedral School, RGS Worcester, The Chase and Alice Ottley The B team found the opposition much tougher in their matches, but it was clear to see that great
fought Overall in matches the fielding was much stronger than the batting, and there was impressive teamwork between the players with excellent backing up on the pitch Issy Anstey, Jade Baker, Emmie Le Marchand, Louise Gwilliam, Hayley Tur ner, Ellie Soper and Lucy Spring were particularly outstanding on the
Stansfeld and Victoria Heath were dominant Deep Fielders.
encourage and train this group
The Fourth For m age group showed great commitment and willingness to improve this year. Regular attendance at the Saturday practices brought about significant progress,
Under 18 team in action
culminating in an impressive per for mance in a match against Bromsgrove Basketball Club, with the school team scoring over 100 points to finish easy winners The Most Valuable Player awards were presented to Ilya Rasovic (L4) and Jonathan W ilson (U4), with the Most Improved Player awards going to Hiten Patel (L4) and Jack Bumford (U4) Other players making good contributions were JonJo McArdle, Tony Jef free and James Gillett
At sixth for m level a core of talented players became the backbone of the side that played matches against Worcester Technical College and Bromsgrove Basketball Club Despite
Muf f Mur fin coaching during a time-out
losing both matches, the side lear nt a lot from the experience, and will go on to be a force to b e r e c k o n e d w i t h
contributions were made by Lewis Sadler, James Rees-Phillips, Guy Davies, Joe Brennan, Richard Grimer and Simon Potter, with the award for Most Valuable Player going to Tom Hand, and the Most Improved Player awards going to Dan Freeman and W ill Ballard.
Muf f Mur fin continues to give generously of his time in the Saturday practice sessions and at Sixth For m matches We are all ver y g
encouragement
The start of the year saw us welcome Prof Peter Northam as the club’s new head coach following the departure of David Kirby to teach fencing at Eton College. “Prof”, as he is now known to our fencers, has settled in well and is demanding high standards of a group that is largely new to the sport We also said goodbye to a number of ver y experienced Sixth For mers at the end of the last academic year, whose energy and reliability will be sorely missed This has meant that the intake of beginners has been much larger than usual with just over twenty five taking up places on the beginners’ course Having passed their grade one examinations just before Christmas almost all of our new beginners have gone on to join the main club session, meaning that we now have around forty regular fencers on a Monday evening W ith such a new group most of the club’s training sessions have focused on developing blade skills at both foil and sabre The club competition at the end of the year a l l o w e d a l l m e m b e r s o f t h e c l u b t o demonstrate what they have lear ned and many showed great promise as competitive fencers We look for ward to them beginning competing in the Autumn when they can take inspiration from the gold medals for Sabre ear ned by Nick Bar nett, Aria Rahmanian and Z a c C h a n d l e r a t t h e S p r i n g Te r m ’ s Bir mingham School’s Teams competition D A J
For those of you who don’t know, and I c a n ’ t t h i n k t h e r e a r e m a n y, L e s Misérables is a multi-award winning adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic novel about one man’s determined survival in the face of relentless persecution and the triumph of the human spirit, set amidst the social and political struggles of nineteenth century France Dealing movingly with pain and suffering on both
revolution The original RSC production was slated by the critics when it first opened at the Barbican Theatre in the early ’80s, but over 18 years on and productions are still going strong in cities the world over, including the West End of London It is an international theatrical phenomenon, which many b
’s
t musical I have to agree with them
producer, then comes up with the idea
of releasing a ‘School Edition’ so that s
Massachusetts, got in immediately and mounted a production in March 2003 They were in the midst of rehearsals w h e n t h e i r e x c h a n g e p a r t y v i s i t e d
King’s in the January of that year
S L e M , T
mounting a production at King’s, but we would have to submit a request quickly b e f o r e s c h o o l s e v e r y w h e r e s t a
e d getting in on the act This meant that the s t a ff p a n t o m
Christmas would have to be put off for one more year, but this really was an opportunity too good to miss
featuring sublime music and superb lyrics, it sweeps its audience along through a passionate tale of endurance, s e l f - s a c r i f i c e a n
e d y a
n s t a backdrop of a nation in the grip of
r o w n productions of the show We didn’t hear about this straight away, but then our
N o o n e , h o w e v e r, s h o u l d underestimate the enormous amount of w o r k t h a t w e n t i n t o m o u n t i n g t h i s production The school edition is not very much shorter than the three hour L o n d o n p r o d u c t i o n , a n d m a k e s immense demands musically and in terms of staging and production School Edition or not, this was still going to be
an incredibly ambitious production Had King’s bitten off more than it could chew w i t h t h i s o n e ? N o t a c h a n c e T h e p r o d u c t i o n , a s I ’ m s u r e y o u k n o w, whether you were fortunate enough to get a ticket or not, was a magnificent success in every respect A triumph, that will long be regarded as one of the finest and most memorable productions ever staged at King’s Staging a production as big and as complex as this takes an enormous degree of skill and organisation, but directors SLeM and SHLeM handled everything beautifully and, together with m u s i c a l d i r e c t o r D E B a n d choreographers TDM and OV Gemma Martyn Smith, worked extremely hard to get nothing but the very best out of their t a l e n t e d c a s t T h e s h o w l o o k e d fantastic We are now used to seeing professional standards of production in
the John Moore Theatre, but who can forget Chris Crosswell’s spectacular multi-level set (complete with barricade that emerged effortlessly from the stage l e f t w i n g w h e n r e q u i r e d ) , a n d h i s stunning lighting?
It sounded fantastic too The music is all in this sung-through show (i e there is no spoken dialogue, it’s effectively an opera), and the orchestra under DEB’s d i r e c t i o n d i d f u l l j u s t i c e t o t h e magnificent score I Dreamed a Dream, Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, On My Own: every song is a winner and in such an emotionally charged show as this can’t fail to thrill and move an a
n i q u e opportunity to pull this production off last year when we had a particularly strong assortment of singers including a number of ex-choristers in the Sixth Form These included Ben Humphrey (Valjean), Simon Renshaw (Marius), Paul Humphries (Thénadier) and Peter Lewis (Enjolras), all of whom gave superb performances distinguished by excellent singing and fine acting We are so used to seeing Ben in comic roles, and playing the clown generally, that it was particularly moving to see him carry off this central role with such skill and understanding. He conveyed the pain and humanity of this character totally, and portrayed the age of the older Valjean remarkably effectively His rendition of Bring Him Home was a particular highlight for me His arch adversary Javert was played with great c
Excellent performances in terms of both acting and singing also came from the
(
(Fantine), Abigail Williams (Eponine) a
T h é n a d i e r ) J e m i m a a n d P a u l Humphries were unrecognisable as the grotesque Thénadiers, and managed to make them suitably comic in numbers such as the show-stopping Master of t h e H o u s e w h
s Catharine, unfortunately, was not well during the run and lost her voice, after which she switched roles with Anna Byrne who was no less excellent in the part of Fantine
L
featured probably the largest cast seen in recent years on the John Moore
T
George Watson T
his singing voice and the power of his performance
only in the Upper Remove Stars is
performer worked incredibly hard and gave their all, having been expertly drilled by SLeM et al. In many ways the real star of this production was in fact the ensemble, every member of which was singing and acting their hearts out throughout. Who could fail to be moved b y t h e c o m m i t m e n t a n d p
w e r demonstrated by the whole company in numbers such as At the End of the Day and Do You Hear the People Sing? Congratulations must go to every single p e r s o n i n v o l v e d i n t h i s m a g n i f i c e n t production, whether pupil or member of staff, on stage or off; and thanks for t h r i l l i n g a n d d
audiences who were fortunate enough t o w i t n
remarkable achievement.
S M A
As with the annual Fifth and Sixth F o r m p r o d u c t i o n , t h e F o u r t h F o r m Drama Club alternates between staging a play and a musical This year it was time to do a play Room 13 is a stage a d a p t a t i o n o f t h e a w a r d - w i n n i n g children’s novel by Robert Swindells. It i s a h o r r o r s t o r y, s e t i n W h i t b y i n Yo r k s h i r e , t h e c o a s t a l r e s o r t t h a t inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula and where, in that classic, Dracula himself first arrives in Britain
A party of middle-school children is staying in a hotel called The Crow’s Nest that hides a scary and sinister secret “Room 13” does not exist by day, but at midnight an airing cupboard on the top floor landing is mysteriously t r a n s f o r m e d i n t o a g o t h i c c h a m b e r (Room 13) where a vampire lurks, luring his victims to him in order that he may feed on their blood A young girl on the school trip, Fliss, has seen all this happening in prophetic dreams, and soon has to convince her chums Lisa, Gary and David of the terrible truth Naturally they take some convincing, but eventually they agree to help Fliss defeat the ‘Beast’, having realised that
another girl, EllieMay, has become the Beast’s latest
v i c t i m T h e y a r e encouraged in their e n t e r p r i s e b y a
m y s t e r i o u s o l d
w o m a n , S a l l y
H a g g e r l y t h e , whose sister was lost to the Beast
w h e n t h e y w e r e
c h i l d r e n D e s p i t e
r e g u l a r l y g e t t i n g
i n t o t r o u b l e w i t h their teachers, the g r o u p f i n a l l y
o v e r c o m e t h e Beast in a climactic
s c e n e w h i c h enabled Will Harris and his entourage
o f z o m b i e s t o
w r i t h e , h i s s a n d
g u r g l e t h e i r l a s t breaths in suitably dramatic fashion.
A large cast of o v e r t h i r t y U p p e r and Lower Fourths had enormous fun performing this play There were too many good performances to name them all, but Sophie Kavanagh proved herself to be a real natural in the central role of Fliss, and she is clearly an exciting prospect for future school productions Excellent performances also came from Femke Witney, Josh Harper and Jamie Tidy as Lisa, Gary and David Poppy
G a l l a n t r e e - S m i t h w a s s u
D a w s o n , L u c y B o y n e t t a n d G e o r g e Williamson, were so convincing as the three teachers that I still expect to see them walk in the Common Room!
A particular mention should be given to Piers Watkins and Emily Pugh who had to take over the roles of Andrew R o b e r t s a n d E l l i e - M
S
d e r l a n d respectively after Felix Porter fell ill, and Lara Raybone injured her ankle. They stepped into these parts at a moment’s notice with the minimum of fuss, and even managed to somehow memorise their lines as they went along so that neither of them had to read them from the script Very well done to both of you!
C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s t o a l l i n v o l v e d , however, and a big thank you as usual to Chris Crosswell who had to work very
location adaptation S M A
This double bill was presented by Lower Sixth Drama and Theatre Studies students in May as part of their AS examination. An indication of the quality o
productions may be drawn from the fact that the visiting examiner awarded ‘A’ grade equivalent marks to everyone involved, with a number of the students being awarded maximum marks
The first play, Blue Heart is written by the critically acclaimed playwright Caryl C h u r c h
original experiments with theatrical form a n d l a n g u a
Desire and Blue Kettle, both concerned with separation and reunion in families.
Churchill makes her audience work hard and leave the theatre thinking about their own behaviour by employing non-
problems caused by social taboos and difficult family relationships
Heart’s Desire (directed by SHLeM) is set in Alice and Brian’s kitchen, where the couple and the husband’s sister await the visit of their thirty five year old daughter, Susy, who has been living in Australia for a number of years The scene is repeatedly frozen and reset
with sections having different outcomes a n d e v e n b e i n g p l a y e d a t d i ff e r e n t speeds, like the takes of a film waiting to be edited. Words and sentences are broken and distorted and oft-repeated p h r a s e s b e c o m e c l i c h é s P r e j u d i c e s and family secrets are hinted at with the intervention. of other characters: Susy’s drunken brother implies incest between father and daughter and the arrival of S u s y ’s f e m a l e f r i e n d f r o m A u s t r a l i a (probably a lover) upsets the family’s n a r r o w - m i n d e d a t t i t u d e s a n d g o e s some way to explain the tensions in the f a m i l y A s t h e s c e n e d e v e l o p s i t becomes clear that we are watching scenarios running through the heads of each of the characters Both comic and t h o u g h t - p r o v o k i n g , t h i s s h o r t p i e c e
ob s es si on a nd , a s w e l e a rn of t h e different circumstances which led each w o m a n t o g i v e h
replaced by either ‘blue’ or ‘kettle’ The f
l l y increases until the final exchange is a
i n i t s language, intelligible only though tone, movement and emotion Words are no longer able to communicate the reality of the situation and have been devalued by their use for deception The gap b
s demonstrated, and, as in Heart’s Desire,
themselves
rejects the ease of linear story-telling and does so much more to expose the complexity of family relationships by r e v e a l i n g t h e p o t e n t i a l o f d r a m a t o surprise and challenge an audience Emma Allies gave a particularly strong performance as Alice in a cast that also included Lawrence Gill and Charlotte Moreland in leading roles
Blue Kettle (directed by SMA) has a more serious tone, but also concerns t h e c l a s h i n g o f r e a l i t i e s a n d arbitrariness of events Derek (Richard Best) collects mothers, pretending to a s t r i n g o f w o m e n ( A m y P o l i c a r p o , B e t h a n y M a r t y n S m i t h a n d B e t h a n Horn) that he is their son, given up for adoption four decades ago He is a conman and initially sees the idea, to the disapproval of his girlfriend Enid (Becky P i t t s ) , a s a w a y t o e x t o r t m o n e y However, the con develops into an
Both plays explored the horrors and realities of family life in the 21st century, shared the themes of disruption and loss and illustrated an almost joyous flouting of theatrical conventions
The second play Finding the Sun (directed by LLG and SMA) was written b y t h e A m
Albee It displays Albee’s usual skill in penetrating the everyday relationships b
i s w a y deeper and deeper, and expressing the contradictions and frustrations inherent in the relationships His pathways into the inner feelings of his subjects never lead to easy solutions to their problems
Finding the Sun involves four couples arriving on a sunny beach, and the revelations of their backgrounds and the effect on their current circumstances are complex Two of the married couples
are haunted by the two men, Daniel and Benjamin (sensitive performances from Guy Corbett and Chris Crabtree) having been gay lovers in the past, a f a c t w h i c h p e r v a d e s t h e i r c u r r e n
relationships with their wives, Cordelia a n d A
(
s
v e performances from Hollie Meredith and Lucy Studd) A third couple is a mother, E d m e e , a n d h e r 1 6 y e a r o l d s o n Fergus, yet innocent of much of the knowledge of the world, the fourth an ageing husband and wife, Hendon and G e r t r u d e . T h e i n t e r p l a y o
poignant, and leads to a climax of unresolved frustration and fear
F
n
r m a n c e s came from Alex Hancock (Edmee), Phil A r n o l d ( F e r g u s ) , J a m e s M o r c o m ( H e n d e n ) a n d E
(Gertrude) GCSE student Emma was filling in as we were short of someone to play this part, but she gave a wello b s e r v e d p e r f o r m a n c e t h a t demonstrated a good understanding of
impressive given that she was only able to attend a limited number of rehearsals, as the play was generally rehearsed in AS lesson time, and she completed what proved to be a first rate cast in a moving, funny and memorable production
Mark Wheeller, a Southampton-based drama teacher who has been a senior examiner for Edexcel’s GCSE Drama course Wheeller has written a large number of plays for his own youth theatre, but a number of these have gone on to be produced professionally t o g r e a
Education (T I E ) companies who tour schools with their performances.
Wheeller ’s issue-based plays, many of them well-researched true accounts, are particularly appropriate to GCSE drama students who are required to use drama and theatre skills to explore serious issues. They are also designed to be simply staged with little scenery or props, and to utilise many of the techniques and strategies taught on the GCSE course.
This is the harrowing true account of the life and death of Catherine Dunbar w h o d i e d a f t e r a l o n g b a t t l e w i t h anorexia nervosa at the age of 21 The play charts the devastating effects of the illness on Catherine and her family In this production, the challenging role of Catherine was movingly portrayed by Kate Fulton, with Catherine’s family and other characters played by Hollie Ballard, Jonathan Cranton, Claire Gott, Simon Insley, Charlotte Nock and May Tsang The play was also presented to the Upper Sixth as part of their Key Skills course
T h e o t h e r t w o p l a y s , To o M u c h Punch for Judy and Legal Weapon, b o t h d e a l t w i t h t h e s u b j e c t o f dangerous driving and so they were performed as a double bill under the umbrella title Road Rage
To o M u c h P u n c h f o r J u d y i s concerned with the specific issue of drunk driving, and tells the powerful true story of a girl who killed her sister in a car accident after both had been out drinking The performance featured h i g h l y c h a r g e d p e r f o r m a n c e s , particularly from Francesca Weaver as Judy (the driver) and James Rowe, equally convincing as P C Caten, the policeman who was called to the crash and who just happened to be a family friend. The quiet intensity of the scene in which he had to break the tragic n e w s t o J u d y ’s m o t h e r Vi ( A l e x Brunnock) was almost unbearable to w a t c h . S o p h i e C o d d p l a y e d t h e unfortunate victim, Judy’s sister Jo, and other parts were played by Ralph Jay and Claire Hicks
Legal Weapon deals with the related issue of speeding This was a fictional tale, but one nevertheless based on f a c t u a l r e s e a r c h T h e p r o d u c t i o n featured powerful central performances from James Carey as the Narrator, Darach Duffy as Andy, the speeding driver, Chloe Hampson as Jazz, his t w o - t i m i n g g i r l f r i e n d a n d O l i v e r W h e a t o n a s h e r n e w b o y f r i e n d , p r o f e s s i o n a l f o o t b a l l e r M a t t . E m m a Baldry, Jenny Palmer, Edward Bales, K r i s t i a n D a v i e s , L i a m F a h y, A l e x Gibbons, Sally Moore, James Round a n d D a v i d P h i l l i p s w e r e t h e o t h e r members of a strong cast S M A
It has been a great pleasure to settle in to our new Music School in Castle H o u s e t h i s y e a r T h e c o n s i d e r a b l y increased facilities, particularly in the important realm of music computing, have been much appreciated Not least has been the daily delight in working in an environment that is as light, airy and well-designed as the old School House p r e m i s e s w e r e g l o o m y a n d unprepossessing! We are delighted to h a v e b e g u n o u r s e c o n d y e a r o f residence with two more new pianos. This almost completes provision for the department and allows full use of all the practice rooms
T h e a n n u a l H o u s e M u s i c Competition was held in College Hall on Monday, 20th October We were pleased to welcome back David Evans, D i r e c t o r o f M u s i c a t U p p i n g h a m
School, to adjudicate. He had recently a d j u d i c a t e d t h e F o u r t h F o r m M u s i c C ompeti tion w ith
c e r t a i n l y d i d
occasion! For a second year Heather Uren (‘cello) was a triumphant winner of t h e J u n i o r S o l o S
t h
p e r f o r m a n c e
f F
n c o e u
’s C e l l o Sonata. Andrew Furniss (organ) gave a s p a r k l i n g p e r f o r m a n c e o f G i g o u t ’s Toccata in B minor to win the Senior S o l o S e c t i o n Ye t a g a i n C r e i g h t o n House were to win the House Song Competition with their musically refined performance of Beach Boys Medley The Winners’ Concert that followed on Wednesday allowed the large audience to hear these and some of the other excellent performances from a hard fought competition
The three School Concerts were all highly successful The Autumn Concert included Hamish Mc’Cunn’s Overture
L a n d o f t h e M o u n t a i n a n d F l o o d , Vaughan Williams’ Folk Songs from Somerset, Handel’s Concerto Grosso in D major and a selection of light choral numbers from the School Choir The Spring Concert was to prove to be our last opportunity to hear DGP’s expert direction of the Fourth Form C h o i r w h o s a n g p a r t o f C h i l c o t t ’s c h a l l e n g i n g P e a c e M a s s H RT conducted the Chamber Orchestra in a fine performance of Elgar ’s ever fresh Serenade for Strings, while VJG gave us the lighter side with her Wind Band performance of Herbie Martin’s Night Flight to Belize First Orchestra gave dynamic performances of two of J Strauss’s most popular works, Unter Donner und Blitzen and the TritschTratsch Polka The School Choir gave impressive performances of works by Lassus, Philips, Gershwin and Carter that some of them would soon be singing on tour in Lisbon By the time of the May School Concert we knew that we were reaching the end of an era with the news of HRT’s impending retirement and DGP’s success in being appointed Director of Music at King’s C o l l e g e S c h o o l , W i m b l e d o n H RT ’s final performance with the Chamber Orchestra that he has fostered so musically in the last quarter century featured Heather Uren in a beautiful p e r f o r m a n c e o f Vi v a l d i ’s C e l l o Concerto in G minor Another leaver, Andrew Furniss, joined First Orchestra in College Hall gallery for an articulate and musical performance of Haydn’s D major Organ Concerto To conclude the concert DGP gave us an impressive r e m i n d e r o f h i s c r e d e n t i a l s a s a n outstanding organist and accompanist in the School Choir ’s performance of John Rutter ’s Psalmfest
By contrast the St Clement’s Church
C o n c e r t h e l d i n F e b r u a r y w a s s p e c t a c u l a r l y l e s s t h a n s u c c e s s f u l Fortunately the concert was better than t h e r e h e a r s a l , b u t t h i s w a s nevertheless a nightmarish reminder that the same performers would be performing the same repertoire and more a week later in Lisbon!
D u r i n g t h e F e b r u a r y h a l f - t e r m holiday fifty six pupils and five staff spent five highly enjoyable days and nights in the Portuguese coastal resort and casino town of Estoril, near Lisbon After my inspection visit the previous October I had been slightly concerned that the local leisure facilities did not
seem to offer much and that there was a likelihood of smallish audiences at the concerts. In the event all my worries were to prove quite unfounded The local beach, which had appeared small, uninviting and desolate one the late October evening, was a perfect leisure v e n u e f o r b e a c h g a m e s , g e n t l e promenade strolls to nearby Cascais and eating out on the smallest or largest budgets. The Piano Bar near to our hotel allowed some of our older pupils u n e x p e c t e d e x t r a p e r f o r m a n c e opportunities when they were allowed to t a k e o v e r t h e c a b
r e t t o r a p t u r o u s receptions on two free evenings, while
the floodlit casino fountains and moonlit sandcastle building on the beach kept younger pupils amused Our repertoire for the tour included Lassus’s Mass and Motet Vinum Bonum, Philip’s Ecce Vicit Leo, Willcocks’ virtuoso arrangement of L o r d o f t h e D a n c e , Vi v a l d i ’s C e l l o Concerto in G minor (Heather Uren‘cello), Elgar ’s Serenade for Strings, S a i n t - S a e n s ’ M o r c e a u d e C o n c e r t (Gareth Ceredig - horn), Gluck’s Dance of the Blessed Spirits (Elizabeth FaneF l u t e ) a n d a v a r i e t y o f w o r k s f o r chamber ensembles and wind groups Tw o l e n g t h y, e x a c t i n g r e h e a r s a l s e n s u r e d t h a t t h e i g n o m i n y o f S t Clement’s was put well behind us by the time of our first concert in the Cultural C e n t r e i n C a s c a i s T h i s w a s a magnificent venue in a tall, converted Romanesque church The acoustic was generous and the audience filled the
hall and gallery The next day we gave our concert before and after the main Sunday morning mass in the modern church of San Miguel in the beautiful city of Sintra, home to two of the country’s royal palaces Our audience must have numbered well over three hundred, while the mass saw upwards of five hundred in the congregation The acoustic, with at least a three s e c o n d e c h o , w a s
afternoon, after a very pleasant lunch a
Geronimos Monastery in Belem, we arrived at our final concert venue, the vast baroque church of San Vicente de F
soaring soprano solos that began the c
hundred feet away from the other three parts of the choir in Richard Marlow’s
Ballo del Granduca on one of the world’s great historic organs and the concert was to end with a scintillating encore performance of Chilcott’s Every time I feel the Spirit These three concerts and their venues were to prove some of the most outstanding that we have experienced on any of our six foreign tours since 1996
Musicals are exacting works to stage in schools, not least because of the challenge of finding the right people with acting ability and vocal range for all the parts It was therefore very e x c i t i n g t o s e e h o w e a s i l y a n d successfully all the varied roles in Boublil and Schönberg’s contemporary classic, Les Misérables, were filled in December ’s memorable performance, many of them by Upper Sixth pupils who were in the right place at the right time This was to prove such a popular choice of work that at least two of the cast, Simon Renshaw and Catherine R o b e r t s o n h a d t h e i r p a r t s f u l l y memorised well before rehearsals had e v e n b e g u n ! T h i s w a s a m o s t memorable production with which to be i n v o l v e d a n d i t i s f u l l y r e v i e w e d elsewhere in this magazine.
Other events involving the school’s musicians during the year were the C a r o l S e r v i c e a n d o t h e r t e r m l y
cathedral services, memorial services for David Annett and Geoff Scaife, the GCSE and A Level Composers’ Concert, the Young Performers Concerts, Fourth
F o r m M u s i c C o m p e t i t i o n a n d t h e
O r c h e s t r a l Wo r k s h o p w i t h t h e i r associated concerts These four latter
e v e n t s h a v e , a s e v e r, b e e n i n t h e capable hands of either DGP or HRT I must record my immense gratitude to them for all their hard work in preparing and running these events which, as far as the workshop and the competition are concerned, involve hundreds of people f o r t w o w h o l e d a y s ’ w o r k
Congratulations to all pupils who took part in these both for the high standards
o f p e r f o r m a n c e a n d t h e h o u r s o f
preparation they gave to their tasks
With Keith Bridges’ retirement the previous year DGP and I approached overseeing the previously successful Keys Concerts with some trepidation
We need not have worried; the Keys Choir rehearsals were in the very safe hands of Andrew Furniss and Catherine
R o b e r t s o n , w h o c h o s e v a r i e d a n d c h a l l e n g i n g r e p e r t o i r e , r e c r u i t i n g , rehearsing and conducting with great success in the year ’s five concerts
Congratulations to all senior pupils who organised each concert and to the many pupils who performed so well It was a great delight to have to play very few accompaniments at these concerts; we a r e p r e s e n t l y b l e s s e d w i t h a g o o d number of very able pupil accompanists who rightly took up the challenge of p r o v i d i n g m o s t o f t h e p i a n o accompaniments We said farewell to a
particularly strong group of Upper Sixth Keys Society members at the last Keys Concert Taking his cue from David Newsholme last year, who challenged the choir with Finzi’s Lo, the Full, Final S a c r i f i c e , A n d r e w F u r n i s s a c h i e v e d great success in ably steering the Keys Choir through the many difficulties of Britten’s Hymn to St Cecilia to end a memorable concert. They were the epitome of all that should be best about school music – gregarious, proactive and fully supportive of all the school’s musical activities.
These same leavers were a strong part of the large School Choir that sang S t a n f o r d ’s B e a t i Q u o r u m Vi a a n d Howells’ Collegium Regale Te Deum at the annual King’s Day Service in the cathedral in July. A welcome feature of this service and the Carol Service over some years now has been the way in which recent OV singers will appear in the days before asking if they may rejoin the choir for the occasion I hope that we will see some of last year ’s leavers doing the same in the coming years!
The Music Department was greatly saddened to hear of the early death of Michael Parks (OV) during the summer Michael was a great supporter of the s c h o o l ’s m u s i c a n d e n j o y e d h a p p y years at King’s especially with his Keys Society friends, Sam Bayliss, Chris Husband and David Newsholme Our deep sympathy goes to his parents and sister, Angela
C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s t o K i n g ’s S c h o o l musicians both past and present who have achieved the following successes during the past year Peter Holder, just thirteen at the time, played the solo o r g
(percussion) and Heather Uren (‘cello) both concluded their first year in the N Y O
d P r o m performance of Smetana’s Ma Vlast and Mahler ’s First Symphony Andrew F
Scholarship at Sheffield Cathedral for 2004/5 After successful undergraduate c a r e e r s i n L o n d
n o r C a m b r i d g e , Shulah Oliver, Alastair Brookshaw and Allan Clayton have all won prestigious postgraduate scholarships to further their musical and theatre studies in London
This was the first Dance Showcase that I had ever taken part in and as I sit writing this now I wonder why I had never made the effort to take part in more Actually I do! I can’t dance I have seen other Dance Showcases at King’s and I can safely say that 2004 provided t h e m o s t v a r i e d a n d e n t e r t a i n i n g Showcase that I have seen
Firstly we were treated to the Lower Fourth Dance Club’s ‘Celebration’ This was captured brilliantly by these girls in a joyful array of various moves with long strands of material that culminated in a fantastically choreographed ending that showed us the girls breaking free of society’s limitations.
Next was a dance that was truly a privilege to watch ‘Fly’ This beautiful p i e c e w a s c h o r e o g r a p h e d a n d performed by the very talented Naomi Roberts and Sophie Tomlin Both Sophie and Naomi performed as always, in a true, emotional and convincing style
A f t e r t h i s p i e c e c a m e t h e U p p e r Remove girls showing us what they do in their spare time! ‘Pretty Woman’ was taken from the hit film, starring Julia R o b e r t s , d e p i c t i n g h o w a m o d e r n woman could spend a day. This was worryingly convincing as each and every girl performed their moves as if they did them in their sleep
We then moved on to a very talented trio indeed
‘Fever ’ certainly was the operative word in this piece Harriet Davis, Fran Weaver and Sophie Codd created their v e r y o w n ‘ h o t ’ i n t e r p r e t a t i o n o f t h e classic jazz song The dance was well timed and performed with a great deal of conviction from all three, who showed e v e r y o n e t h a t j a z z i s s t i l l v e r y entertaining
The next piece is always a classic in any situation ‘Grease’ was the word with U4D as they strutted their stuff all over the stage almost effortlessly Some of the form were visibly nervous on stage but had no need to be as this piece supported itself and its cast with some fun moves and great music
Another ‘star ’ of the King’s dance contingent was Jenny Geary with her Irish Dancing
The next piece was a fantastic dance by Jemima and Abigail Williams As both are already accomplished dancers, they had to work hard to impress the crowd,
and they didn’t disappoint with the ‘Hot Honey Rag’ Chicago really did come to t o w n a n d t h e t a p r o u t i n e w a s unbelievable and impressed everyone in the house As did the next item on the list, Upper Fourth Breakdancing This was the result of Craig Kemp giving the
w h o l e y e a r a t a s t e r w o r k s h o p o n b r e a k d a n c i n g T h e p u p i l s c l e a r l y enjoyed their time on stage performing for us After the interval they were on again to show us how well they worked w i t h m o d e r n m u s i c , p e r f o r m i n g t o
Justine Timberlake’s ‘Senorita’, after w h i c h t h e L o w e r R e m o v e g i r l s performed a fantastic version of ‘Mein
H e r r ’ T h i s p i e c e w a s t i m e d t o p e r f e c t i o n , w i t h w o n d e r f u l l y s u b t l e moves
Next was a solo piece by Alice Walter
who danced very energetically to the Marilyn Manson version of the classic pop song ‘Tainted Love’
The next piece was another one of those special moments that you feel p r i v i l e g e d t o h a v e w a t c h e d T h e talented Naomi Roberts and Sophie Tomlin were joined this time by Louisa Tomlin (sister), who is enough to make a n y p a r e n t ’s h e a r t m e l t , a n d t h e fantastic, remarkable and quite frankly, sickeningly talented George Williamson who really is one to watch out for on the stage over the next few years at King’s So I am green with jealousy as I write this about ‘Earth Song’ All showed a natural flair for dance as they moved effortlessly about the stage with a grace that was just magical to watch I was absolutely speechless (hard to believe I
know!) after seeing this performed for the first time
And then for the grand finale, as the Fifth Form girls treated us all to a spectacular ‘Space Jam’ This really got the audience and cast moving along to the beat and proved to be an ideal finish to the show
But in the end none of the above would have been possible without the tireless efforts of Mrs Marskell In the programme she said that, ‘ all the pupils have worked hard to make this a n e n j o y a b l e e v e n i n g ’ b u t c r e d i t where credit is due Mrs M worked incredibly hard to make this and all the other evenings of dance possible and I for one think that she does it very well indeed! Long may it continue!
Benjamin Humphrey
(Ben did not report on his own performance with Gemma Martyn Smith Both performed superbly and with great style in their rendition of ʻRoxanne ʼ It was the first time an OV had come back to participate in the Dance Showcase )
Sitting on a cliff side, desperately hanging on to a drawing board and flapping paper, whilst being buffeted by d r i v
, i
w o u l d b e understandable to doubt the wisdom of bringing upwards of ninety pupils to Cornwall each year In saner and drier moments it is easy to recognise that this i
Lower Sixth AS group undertook a trip to St Ives one weekend early in the Autumn term. This served to bond the group and was successful in moving them on from GCSE by involving them in critical and contextual study activities in the Tate and smaller galleries We are particularly grateful to Michael Porter, a p r o f e s s i o n a l a r t
a l standing, who welcomed the pupils to his studio which is based in an old warehouse in the middle of the working port of Newlyn Michael is a modest man, but he welcomed the interest of the pupils and was good at describing t h e p r o c e s s o f r e c o r d i n g a n d abstracting imagery
Two groups of GCSE art pupils also
visited St Ives during the Autumn half term The groups visited and worked in The Tate Gallery, Barbara Hepworth’s Sculpture Garden, smaller galleries and artists’ studios A number of artists delivered slide talks and led workshops in the stunning landscape. The pupils all p r o d u c e d a l o t o f w o r k w h i c h contributed to the very high percentage of A*s achieved by the group in their summer examination.
T h e A r t D e p a r t m e n t c o n t i n u e d t o organise and host exhibitions in The John Moore Theatre Gallery Two very s u c c e s s f u l p u p i l e x h i b i t i o n s w e r e organised, one of GCSE work and a n o t h e r o f A l e v e l t e x t i l e s . F o u r professional exhibitions also created interest amongst pupils and visitors The first exhibition was by former pupil Victoria Williams. A recent graduate in f i n e a r t f r o m T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f N e w c a s t l e , Vi c t o r i a p r e s e n
d l a r g e a b s t r a c t p a i n t i n g s w h i c h c r e a t e d unusual visual effects through the use of bands and threads of colour
The second professional exhibition featured the work of Enrico Dell’Orbo, a s u c c e s s f u l I t a l i a n p a i n t e r a n d grandfather of one of our pupils His l y r i c a l a n d j o y f u l f i g u
n t i n g enriched our lives for several weeks
The third exhibition saw the welcome return of the Great Atlantic Gallery from St Just in Cornwall They exhibited work by their regular artists who included Terry and Anthony Frost, Robert Jones, Kurt Jackson, Gill Watkiss, Jeremy Le Grice and Mary Stork
The last exhibition was by our Autumn term artist-in-residence, James Adams
J a m e s s h o w e d l a r g e , c o l o u r f u l a n d s e n s i t i v e
commission We are grateful to James; pupils enjoyed his company and he p r o m o t
i n f i g u r e painting James led the after school
S m a r t A r t C l u b a n d o r g a n i s e d a weekend workshop for Fourth Formers at the Eastnor Pottery James has now
Department
Our annual November exhibition of highlights from the previous year ’s A l e v e l w o r k i n t h e D e a n ’s C h a p e l received much favourable comment from the many visitors to the Cathedral Those who wrote in the Visitors’ Book frequently commented that the work, w h i c h c o n s i s t e d o f l a r g e p a i n t i n g s , drawings, printed textiles and three dimensional textiles, was of a very high standard and had more in common with art school degree work than that more usually found in schools
The Art Department was extremely pleased to be invited to take part in the C o m e n i u s p r o j e c t w h i c h b r o u g h t together the thinking and work of pupils in a number of schools in England, Holland and Poland Working on one of the set themes of the local environment, pupils produced a series of collotype prints from architectural details found in Worcester Cathedral The work was produced during a Saturday workshop which was lead by visiting artist, Adrian Higgins Two pupils from each year throughout the school were invited to work together It turned out to be an i n t e n s e b u t t h o r o u g h l y e n j o y a b l e experience It was marvellous to see t h e d i ff e r e n t a g e g r o u p s w o r k i n g collaboratively and with such positive enthusiasm The work produced has n o w t r a v e l l e d a b r o a d a n d w i l l b e exhibited in the participating schools
T h e s c h o o l y e a r e n d e d w i t h t h e mounting of our GCSE exhibition in the Worcester Cathedral, and the AS and A2 exhibitions in our Porcelain studios.
E R H
This biennial event took place in March and involved all the pupils from t h e F o u r t h F o r m s E s t a b l i s h e d t o promote participation and interest in the arts, the day began with a concert performance by an Indian dancer and h e r a c c o m p a n y i n g m u s i c i a n s T h e pupils watched attentively whilst the diminutive female dancer explained, and them performed her intricate dance patterns The instruments were largely unfamiliar to the pupils and included a s i t a r a n d v a r i o u s t y p e s o f I n d i a n p e r c u s s i o n T h e p e r f o r m a n c e w a s followed by a slide presentation by members of the school’s Himalayan expedition which had visited Delhi the previous summer Two members of the Upper Sixth captured the bustle of the crowded city and showed the pupils various sites of scenic, social, historical and religious significance
For the remainder of the day, each pupil worked in two workshops chosen f r o m a l o n g l i s t o f o p t i o n s T h e w o r k s h o p s w e r e l e d b y v i s i t i n g professional artists and performers and reflected world themes. The choices i n c l u d e d T h a i c o o k i n g , A f r i c a n a n d
I n d i a n d a n c i n g , I n d i a n p e r c u s s i o n , A f r i c a n d r u m m i n g , J a p a n e s e p a p e r making, ceramics, travel poetry, stage
f i g h t i n g , b o o k i l l u s t r a t i o n , c o m p u t e r aided design, art history, story telling,
The proud looks on the faces of the pupils who grasp the opportunity to display the culmination of their year ’s work is something to see We are very l u c k y t o h a v e a t o u r d i s p o s a l t h e Chappel Memorial room for the purpose of our end of year show
T
number of visitors (parents, governors and proud students hoping to overhear p e o p l e ’s c
about their work!)
The project work has again pushed the boundaries and there is a genuine
t e x t i l e p r i n t i n g , m i r r o r m a k i n g a n d circus skills.
All the workshops were extremely successful, as was evidenced by the pupils’ enthusiastic performances when everyone came together in the theatre at the end of the day The opportunity to share what had been learned gave pupils both pride and confidence
This day relies upon the cooperation of the music, art, dance and drama teachers and many others who helped with the administration and supervision of pupils The enormous effort was extremely worthwhile, since the pupils were thoroughly immersed in a myriad o f a r t i s t i c e x p e r i e n c e s , t r y i n g n e w activities and gaining insights into other cultures. The energy and excitement generated by the pupils at the final concert was palpable
E.R.H.
students and staff Quality of finish is of real importance and students take an enormous amount of care over assuring that this is evident in all their work
A notable achievement was that of B e n C o w l
n innovative electric guitar with integral stand His project saw him through to t h e r
A
d i Foundation Young Designer of the year George Jillard produced an excellent l a n d b u g g y a n d M a t t h e w H a t e l e y designed and made a two-wheeled kite board The excellent achievements of the GCSE candidates lead us to raise our levels of expectation even further at AS and A2 level
We look forward to seeing you at next year ’s show!
C W S W
ST. ALBAN’S
One lunchtime, shortly after the start of the Spring ter m, a visitor appeared in the reception area of St Alban’s Was it a parent? A prospective parent, possibly? Neither. She was from Environmental Health and wanted to see the kitchens ser ving the St Alban’s Children’s Home! It took a while for her to be persuaded that St Alban’s was in fact a school and had been for the past fifty two years, that the only kitchen on site was part of the Bursar’s house and that no children were housed here
Needless to say she went back to her of fice to update her
d
prominence of our position within the city there are still many people within the locality who know ver y little about us
The year started with a number of staf f changes; Gill Riley covered the long-ter m illness of Angela Walton, Sharon Davies
s
temporarily to replace the departed Fergus McGonigal and Alex Jordan took up a position in Year 4 The measure of a good school is how it copes with significant changes of personnel. The new members slotted in well and soon established themselves as valued members of staf f with a great deal to of fer the school and, more importantly, the pupils both in and out of the classroom David Braithwaite also joined the staf f in the New Year as Director of Studies while Miss Davies moved on
The academic and music awards achieved this year were outstanding and highlighted the benefits of the school policy to increase and maintain the entr y threshold a few years ago Academic scholarships went to Robert Cowbur n, Beatrice Dee, Daniel Flamank, Peter Preston, Rosie Pugh, Kate Shore and S
Lawrence, W illiam Lucas and Jonathan Tye Others were called for scholarship inter views, an achievement in itself
Although they achieved the icing the cher r y just eluded them on this occasion but they will have future opportunities as they progress through the school As a teacher it is ver y rewarding to see our pupils flourish and achieve success and to see that success continue through to GCSEs and A Levels
Hardly a week goes by without children being involved in a sporting fixture of one sort or another These fixtures bring together all the constituent parts of their games lessons and club coaching sessions For the first time in several years the river behaved itself, stayed where it should be and gave us a year of uninter r upted use of our playing fields While success does not always come immediately, the experiences are valuable in developing the team as well as the individual This year pride of place went to the Under 11 soccer team which was undefeated!
For those children who do not achieve ‘school team’ status, we have a full range of inter-house sporting activities that they can enjoy. Competition is strong but whoever the eventual winners are the fact that ever y child in the school can participate and gain a sense of being a part of a team is ver y important
Theatrically we made some changes this year There has been a gradual introduction of Dance into the cur riculum over recent years and in late April we staged a Dance Showcase in the theatre with ever y child in the school taking part A short
play, ‘Three Murders, a Suicide and a Near Miss’, involving Year 6 pupils introduced the evening The Year 6 children also per for med an original dance, created during their lessons to music specially composed for the occasion, using a media artist, a choreographer and a composer from outside the school, as well as Mrs Leach The theme was war, refugees and
asylum seekers It was
a n e x t r e m e l y b r a v e
v e n t u r e , w h i c h w a s
c o n s i d e r e d a h u g e
s u c c e s s b y a u d i e n c e s
a s t o u n d e d b y t h e quality and intensity of the per for mances. Education at St Alban’s is not restricted just to t h e c l a s s r o o m
W h e r e v e r a n d whenever possible we take the opportunity to enhance the classroom teaching with visits to m u s e u m s , f a r m s ,
b o t a n i c a l g a r d e n s , ‘ h a n d s o n ’ s c i e n c e experiences and theatre visits. Youth Hostel weekends in cities of cultural and historical value not only introduce children to places they might not nor mally visit but also give them a taste of an ‘ away from home’ experience In Year 6 this is taken a step further with weeks away at the Old Chapel and in Granville, France This year the sun shone for three weeks in May while we were at the Old Chapel and many of the children slept in their shelters in the woods rather than in their tents. And that, in a nutshell, was the end of summer! Charity is never ver y far from the minds of our children, whether it is for a local cause or relief for a distant disaster At the beginning of the year, Jonathan Tye told the school about his father, in a home following a road accident, and his sister also in a home for disabled children Nobody could avoid being touched by his stor y and a cake sale raised almost £500 for their respective homes The Carol Ser vice collection contributed £400 to the King’s School Worcester Nepal Tr ust b u t p e rh a p s , m o r e i m p o r t a n t l y, a s a r
s becoming more aware of its work, several families from the school now sponsor orphans in Nepal The main thr ust of our fundraising in the Spring centred round the fete. For a few brief hours on the May Day bank holiday the school gardens were full of weird and wonder ful animals as St Alban’s contributed more than £4000 to the day’s total The theme this year was Noah’s Ark, the Noah’s Ark Tr ust, a local charity supporting children through bereavement, and the children and their families rose admirably to the occasion We have a lot to shout about at St Alban’s It is a shame the Environmental Health Department cannot hear us.
Almost 100 pupils from King’s Hawford took part in the Worcester Competitive Arts Festival Josie Mann and Anthony Harding won their classes and Year 2 won their choral class against selective choirs
Harriet Cor nock and Beth Jeavons gained scholarships to King’s and Emelia Lavender and William Dorrell gained scholarships to the Junior School Jack Furber became a Chorister at Worcester Cathedral Cari Miles and Pippa Ratcliffe gained music scholarships to King’s Hawford Arts, science and inter national theme weeks were held once again, introducing new ideas and lear ning experiences Younger pupils particularly enjoyed role play in an igloo
for a very successful seasonand an enjoyable rugby tour to Wales.
Year 4 and Year 6 pupils achieved commendable standards in the Public Speaking competitions, speaking on topics such as The Battle of Britain, Dinosaurs, The Jet Engine, Oliver Cromwell, and the Egyptian Pyramids, to name but a few.
The “Wizard of Oz” was a successful undertaking with four public performances
requiring two casts Six pupils were accepted into the prestigious National Youth Choir: Philippa Thomas, Polly Osbor ne, Martha Hershman, Edward Wood, Joseph Pantling and Lucy Robinson.
The cricket teams enjoyed a particularly strong season with George Burt, Tom Bird, David Brazier and Charley Hartley achieving County status George Burt, Tom Bird and David Brazier averaged over 70 runs per game
The Outdoor Education Programme was full and challenging and included: The Peak District, Dukes Bar n, Year 2 Old Chapel Camp, Year group camps on the school grounds, indoor climbing, beach studies in Tresaith, sailing and water sports at Carsington Water and the Three Peaks Challenge in the Peak District
An important initiative has been the introduction of Peer Mediation as part of an overall approach to managing good relationships. The photograph below shows a mediation in progress.
The Under 11 rugby team won The Elm’s 7’s Rugby Tour nament at the start of the season which set the tone
President: WF (Bill) Jones (44-50)
Chair man: Roy Padden (46-52)
Headmaster: Timothy H Keyes
Vice Presidents: Angela Lloyd-James (77-79) Gareth O’Hara (81-84)
.Nicole Featherstone (84-86)
Hon Sec: Michael Page (60-65)
Hon Treasurer: Michael Stokes (43-53)
Hon Soc Sec: Richard Under wood (68-79)
Asst Soc Sec: Andrew Under wood (77-88)
Hon Auditor: John Wagstaf f (52-61)
Member Emeritus: Alec Mackie (47-56)
OVCC Representative: Richard W ilkes (76-86)
Ordinar y Members: .
. . . . .Caroline Hor rigan (85-87) Julia [Simcock] Annable (85-87) George Blakeway (76-86)
.James Mills (80-87) Philip Mackie (73-84) Elizabeth [Alexander] Char man (88-90) Paul Bassett (76-86)
The Committee remained more or less unchanged as all those retiring were eligible for re-election and prepared to stand again The President is elected for one year; Heather Morgan’s time in of fice ended after she had presided over the 2004 Reunion Dinner on October 2nd. At the 2004 AGM, WF (Bill) Jones was elected President
Friday – OV Golf
The Annual Reunion OV Golf Day 2004 was held at Worcester Golf and Countr y Club, Boughton Park Eighteen members took part in the 18 hole Stableford competition for the OV Golf Trophy which was won by George Blakeway with 39 points Philip Kay was second with 38 points; Nigel W indsor third with 36; and ‘Fred’ Under wood was fourth with 34 points The Trophy prizes w
report is to be found in Connect.
Saturday – Reunion Day T
friendships, and reports of those year reunions are to be found in Connect Saturday – AGM
Twenty seven members gathered in the Chappel Memorial Reading Room for t h e A
1954, celebrating 50 y e a
o n ; a n o t h e r from 1979 - called together by Richard Under wood - and l o o k i n g b a c k 2 5 y e a r s ; a n d a t h i r d g r o u p f r o m 1 9 8 5 , o r g a n i s e d b y
H e a t h e r M o r g a n , there to enjoy one
a n o t h e r ’ s c o m p a n y a n d s u p p o r t Heather at the end of her Presidency
O V s a n d g u e s t s , i n c l u d i n g c h i l d re n ,
s t a r t e d a s s e m b l i n g in the Sever n Room a t m i d - d a y,
socialising over lunch, before tours of the School, led by Ed Reeves and Stewart Davies Choir House, The Hostel and Castle House had changed considerably, in ways that won the approval of their f o r m e r i n h a b i t a n t s , b u t t h e r e w a s enough of the old still recognisable to a r o u s e n o s t
l g i c m e m o r i e s . S c h o o l House had, like the others, ceased to be a boarding house, and had been the home of the Music Department until the re-opening of Castle House. It was still a m a j o r t e
c h i n g a n d
c o m m o d a t i o n facility, but its chief use in the future would be as the School Librar y - the next m
Development Plan
A
’ g a
n g s , organised by School or Club, some OVs make their own ar rangements to meet up at other times over the OV Reunion Weekend - in ways that enable them to enjoy one another’s company to the maximum. This year was no exception,
organised by Mick Stokes and Hugh S
Heather Morgan, pursued their own agendas alongside the main Reunion A
Secretar y read the names of seventeen OVs whose deaths had been reported during the year and the President asked all to stand for a moment in silent respect. There were five apologies for absence
The Minutes of the 2003 AGM, circulated to all present, were accepted
The Hon Treasurer’s Report showed the
Club’s financial situation to be much
undertaken the annual review of the subscription, in accordance with the proposal approved at the 2003 AGM,
necessar y. The 2003 Accounts were adopted; Mick Stokes of fered his thanks to the Development Of fice, Penny Hope at the Bursar y, and John Wagstaf f for their assistance during the year.
WF (Bill) Jones (Cl 44-50) was elected President to succeed Heather Morgan, who retired to receive Guests in the Common Room. Gareth O’Hara (8184) was elected to ser ve a second ter m as a Vice-President; George Blakeway (7686) and Phil Mackie (73-84) were both e
Committee
The Committee had been aware for some time that the restriction in Rule 3(b) of one categor y of Honorar y Life Membership to ‘ any member of the School staf f who had ser ved the School with distinction’ was denying honorar y membership to a few individuals who had not been members of staf f, but never theless had contributed a great
deal to the well being of King’s and the OV Club A Proposal to alter Rule 3(b) by widening the categor y of honorar y membership to ‘ any member of the School staf f, or member of the wider King’s Community, who has ser ved the School with distinction’ was approved unanimously.
The President closed the Meeting at 7 02, and thanked the Headmaster for the use of the Reading Room Saturday – Reunion Dinner
O v e r 1 7 0
Heather Morgan presiding - the last and most important duty of her ter m of of fice Guests in the Hall were: Mike Morgan (Heather’s husband); Ms Jane Gar vey (Guest Speaker); Tim Keyes and Mrs Mar y Anne Keyes;
M
P a u l i n e W i l l i a m s ; Ti m Hickson and Mrs Sheanagh
H i c k s o n ; J o h n R o s l i n g t o n and Mrs Cara Roslington; Stuart Neil and Mrs Caroline
N e i l ; C a r o l B a w d e n a n d
Round tables of 8 or 10, introduced successfully last year, were used again, a llow in g grou p s to sit tog e the r a n d making it easier for individuals to move around and talk with old friends sitting elsewhere Individual members came from as far away as
A u s t r a l
a s near as Worcester
C
w
Hall three reunion
g r o u p s f r o m t h e years 54, 79 and 85, a
above their tables
As always, we were
V i r g i n i a I l e s f r o m t h e F o u n d a t i o n Development Of fice; and representing the School, Sophie James and Guy Corbett
Heather Morgan started by welcoming e v e r y o n e ; s h e t h e n c o n t i n u e d b y saying that Guest Speaker Jane Gar vey had asked us to suppor t her own favoured charity, Sunfield Children’s Home near Bromsgrove: Sunfield
c a t e r e d f o r c h i l d r e n w h o
w o u l d n e v e r e n j o y t h e freedom and privilege we had a l l e n j o y e d a t K i n g ’ s ; infor mation about Sunfield was available on all tables and on display boards inside the H a l l . H e a t h e r i n v i t e d members to contribute via the e n v e l o p e s o n t h e t a b l e s ,
w h i c h w o u l d b e c o l l e c t e d
d u r i n g t h e e v e n i n g a n d entered into a draw for raf fle prizes later; the proceeds to be divided between the Club
a n d S u n f i e l d . S h e a n d
continues to come back each year to enjoy the company of old friends in l
Richard Hume (S 53-54) from San F
friends of five decades ago with whom h
K
year. And also the S
R
G i o r g i o ,
the Class of 79 and Class of 85 reunions respectively
The for mal evening b
said by OV Chair man Roy Padden
T h e To a
o f t h e School was proposed
b
Bill Jones, and Tim
successful year in nearly all respects: academically, in sport, and in a wide range of extra-cur ricular activities, the S c h o o l h a
d T
Headmaster noted that girls rowing had been successful - up to the ver y highest standard - and the School’s new Head of Rowing was a New Zealand w o m a
h u s b a n d M i k e h a d o f f e r e d a f u l l y catered break in their hotel as a first prize
pleased to see Nor man Hackwood (Ca 31-37) ), whose association with King’s
a coach of inter national standing Her appointment, and that of OV Kate [Annable] Brooks (Co 7981) to be the first female OV on the Board of Gover nors, were perhaps the last milestones on the road to full sexual integration at all levels within the School The year had been touched by sadness with the death of David Annett, a towering figure in the d e v e l o p m e n t o f t h e m o d e r n School, and the instigator of much of what King’s was today
Replying to the Toast of the Guests,
J a n e G a r v e y t h a n k e d t h e C l u b f o r a g r e e i n g t o h e l p s u p p o r t S u n f i e l d House and the ver y important work it was doing to help children with a range of disabilities which bar red them from c o n v e n t i o n a l u p b r i n g i n g a n d education She was now established as one of the anchors of BBC Radio 5 Live, and had progressed that far up the ladder of the broadcasting industr y by a l o n g a n d i n t e r e s t i n g r o u t e H e r account of that - her experiences, and the people she had met on the wayk e p t t h e a u d i e n c e i n t e r e s t e d a n d
amused, ear ning her the approval and loud applause of the Hall
The winner of the first prize drawn in the raf fle by the President was OV Kate Brooks W inding up the for mal part of the evening Heather thanked Richard Under wood and all those who had helped in organising the Dinner She encouraged those who had not done so already to look over the lar ge and c o m p r e h e n s i v e c o l l e c t i o n o f photographic and other material on the p l a t f o r m d i s p l a y b o a r d s , o r g a n i s e d specially for the Reunion by Caroline R o s l i n g t o n w i t h m a t e r i a l f r o m t h e
Archive
OVs and partners joined the regular c o n g r e g a t i o n f o r t h e 1 0 . 3 0 a m Cathedral Eucharist The main theme of the Ser vice was har vest, and many of the congregation had brought along g i f t s o f f o o d , o r m o n e y f o r t h e collection, to be used for the purchase of goats in Bur undi: the goats would be d i s t r i b u t e d t o s u b s i s t e n c e f a r m i n g families there as one important way of helping to ‘kick start’ self support, to replace foreign aid on which so many in that countr y relied President Bill Jones gave the readings; and The Reverend C a n o n D o c t o r A l v y n P e t e r s e n , a residentiar y canon of the Cathedral, picked up on the themes of the day in his ser mon: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for life; you cannot love someone and do nothing, you have to help if they are in need.
Following the Ser vice OVs and guests crossed the Green to the Headmaster’s ‘At Home’, held in the Common Room It was a last chance for many of us to enjoy one another’s company before retur ning home, but with the promise to retur n another year
The year of 2003-2004 will be forever marked as the year of the Club’s first woman President Heather certainly brought a dif ferent ‘feel’ and style to the Presidency In a letter to the Hon Sec she asked me to report to the Committee how much she had enjoyed her year of of fice She has expanded on that in a wider report to all members which is to be seen in Connect M J P
Ashley Fox (K 80-87): My wife Julia and I have had a daughter, Olivia Grace, bor n 22 August 2004, sister to W illiam who is now 3 years old
(Haynes) Salter (E 88-90): Sherian gave birthto a baby girl, Katharine Emily, on 17th October 2003. Katie is bouncing along now and is beautiful and ver y proud of her teeth She was 55cm long when she was bor n so she
(unfortunately)! She is a baby niece to Allister Haynes (W 78-85)
Jon Henderson (H 88-92): Daisy Marie Henderson (picture below) was bor n on 31 August 2003 to Hannah and Jon Daisy was christened at Christ Church, Portsmouth on 25 July 2
Matthew Speirs (H 86-91) and Peter Suggitt (H 87-92)
Elizabeth Mar y Ker ton (Cr 91-93) to
25th October 2003 Of ficiating at the ser vice was Monsignor Phelim Rowland VG, Principal Roman Catholic Chaplain (
photographer at the wedding was Angela Lloyd-James (OV) Reception was at
Mauritius
Philip Har ris (K 78-88) to Etel Regis on 5th June 2004 at St Mar y ’ s Church, Burghill, on the outskirts of Hereford
P
s e i n Hereford, where they relax and a house in London where Philip works
Richard Hill (B 86-91): On a beautiful sunny August after noon in The Chapel,
Castle Kozel, Stahlavice close to the Bohemian woods in the Czech Republic, Richard Hill mar ried Lenka He was ably assisted by Tim Havard (OV) as best man and witness Their honeymoon took them to the Bohemian Forest close to Kr umlov
D a v e B u t c h e r ( B 8 7 - 9 2 ) t o E m m a
W illiams on 7th Febr uar y 2004 at St Stephen’s Church, Worcester Har r y Hughes (OV) was an usher
T h e f o l l o w i n g d e a t h s h a v e b e e n reported to the Club in the last year:
AR Davies (S 18-22)
AHS Powell (S 21-29)
RAH Davies (DB 30-33)
BS Eckersley, MBE (Ca 30-37)
RHK Goss (S 38-42)
SM Moore (DB 38-42)
EV Burchard (DB 39-42)
PW Hughes (DB 42-46)
GG Bulman (Cl 40-47)
D Rose (S 44-46)
W F Jones (Cl 44-50)
AN George (Cl 45-50)
MS West (DB 47-58)
CM Eastmead (Cr 54-61)
ECD Dar wall (S 58-63)
R Milsom (Cl 67-74)
DA Hershman, QC (Cl 68-77)
CM Covins (W 72-79)
SA Bashford (O 86-91)
MJ Parks (W 96-01)
DM Annett (HM 59-79)
David Annett
Donald Howell has given us his per mission to reproduce his address at the Memorial Ser vice f o r D a v i d M a u r i c e A n n e t t a t Wo rc e s t e r Cathedral on Thursday 24th June 2004
O n e o f t h e e a r l i e s t t h i n g s I c a n remember about David is a lesson in pronouncing his sur name from Romey, his wife; “It’s Annett – rhymes with gannet!” she said.
I find it dif ficult to speak of David without talking about Romey – they were a great team David wrote to me when I got engaged in 1981 (both of us had taken this step rather later in life than is the nor m); and, in his typically war m and thoughtful letter, he told me that asking Romey to mar r y him had been the best decision he’d ever made David was a surprisingly shy person and I can r e m e m b e r w o n d e r i n g a t t h e t i m e whether he’d told her this. I did hope so
David Annett was bor n in 1917 near Ipswich His mother had retur ned to
England for the birth, while his father remained working as an engineer in the Indian Ar my Five years later, David’s brother John was bor n John and his wife Ednie are here with us today; and, indeed, four generations of the family are represented at this ser vice In due course David won a scholarship to Haileybur y College where he had a ver y successful school career, finishing a
College Cambridge He gained a first in P
nar rowly missed a first in Part II He must have been an impressive graduate, as Oundle School of fered him a job as H
straight from University in 1939, the year that war broke out In March 1940 he joined the Royal Ar my Medical Corps
Artiller y, seeing ser vice in India and Bur ma, where he ended up as a Captain He was demobilised in Januar y 1946 and retur ned to his post at Oundle that autumn He gained a reputation there as a ver y good and stimulating teacher, who made lear ning interesting and his pupils think for themselves He became a housemaster in 1949
In April 1953, David mar ried Romey; she was an Oundle housemaster’s widow with three children, Susan, Joss and W
o m e y h a d e a r l i e r b e e n appointed headmistress of Bredenbur y Court, the Cheltenham Ladies College prep school, and in September 1953 David became headmaster of Marling School, Stroud, a widely respected boys’ voluntar y aided grammar school. Their daughter Rosamund was bor n in 1955 After six happy years at Marling, David took up the post of headmaster of The King’s School Worcester in September 1959, the start of a twenty year “reign” It also happened to be the start of my penultimate year at the School
In addition to being a highly intelligent man with a ver y quick brain, David had a phenomenal memor y Our cur rent headmaster, Tim Keyes, has reflected on his ability to recall the names and faces of his pupils more than 20 years after he re t i re d F r
n k Wo o l l e y, o
e o f m y f r i e n
n d c o n t e m p
r a r i e s f r o m School House, has reminded me that, shortly after his ar rival, he visited each of the boarding houses (one a night) and he appeared to know each of our names We thought he must have been through t
preparation!
David took over a school of 627 boys, including some 200 boarders. The only new building was the W inslow Science Block which had been completed in 1958; there was an old wooden gym and there were prefabs and wooden huts w h i c h a u
m e n t e d t h e
teaching facilities
During his 20 years as headmaster he moder nised the place in ever y sense, overcoming numerous challenges on t h e w
swimming pool, the Wolfson Art and Technology Building, the new dining h
unimaginatively named New Block This b
refurbished as a maths centre; David himself came to reopen it in 2001, and it now bears his name
The Edgar Tower was converted into a school librar y and the Old Chapel, near Crickhowell in Wales, was bought as an outdoor centre The first four sixth for m girls entered the School in 1971 and, following the announcement by the Gover nment in 1974 of the end of the Direct Grant system, David guided the School from being part of the state sector to full independence It was in 1972 that the school historian, Michael C
“tenacity, vision and persuasiveness”. Throughout his tenure the School was academically strong, with pupils winning healthy numbers of scholarships and exhibitions to Oxford and Cambridge in a wide range of subjects The series of
pleasure. When David left in 1979 the
nearly a quarter to 771, and this total included 39 sixth for m girls
Tim Keyes has described David Annett as “ a towering figure in the past 50 years of the School’s development”, and there is no doubt in my mind that he will be regarded as one of the most outstanding and progressive headmasters The King’s S c h
unlucky he could have moved on to head one of the more famous public schools But, like so many other people, I suppose he and Romey fell in love with the place – and they stayed.
For a somewhat shy man he certainly had a confident way with his gover nors A few years ago, in checking some facts for him, I had reason to consult the
minutes of the first gover nors ’ meetings I attended in 1973 I mentioned to him that the proceedings of each of those meetings were recorded on two sides of fo o l s c a p p a p e r, wh e re a s c u r re n t gover nors ’ minutes regularly stretched to a dozen or more sides of A4 “Oh,” he said, “that was because, in those days, I really ran the place I used to tell gover nors the minimum that I thought I could get away with!”
I think the tongue was only slightly in the cheek
As at Marling, David gained a reputation at King’s for fostering high standards in every aspect of school life, for supporting his staff and for going to g reat lengths to help and support his pupils However, Tim Hickson, one of David’s earlier appointments who taught at King’s for 40 years, has said “Those of us who served on his staff soon lear nt that we were not as important to him as the pupils – an invaluable lesson!”
I can give an example. In my last year at King’s, David ag reed with the Dean to hold one mor ning assembly a week in the Cathedral At the first of these, David asked me as Head of School to ensure that roll call was taken in College Hall b e fo re m ov i n g t h e 6 0 0 , o r s o, b oy s through the cloisters within 10 minutes, so that they were seated peacefully in the Cathedral awaiting his entrance To help
m e e t t h i s c o n s i d e r a bl e l o g i s t i c a l a n d disciplinary challenge, I asked the staff to take their seats early while the monitors were conducting roll call in College Hall
The boys did everything asked of them –but one member of staff, I shall call him Mr C, did not
After the assembly, while I was quietly
c o n g r at u l at i n g my s e l f, t h e n o r m a l l y friendly and placid Mr C descended on me in a huge red-faced rage saying, “Howell, I was besieged by boys in the cloisters this mor ning; I am going to complain strongly to the headmaster!”
Next mor ning, Mr C came up to me ag ain, still red-faced but with a very different manner “Donald” he said, “I’ve come to apologise The headmaster told me off in no uncertain manner for not doing as you asked; it was my own fault!”
Well, how could I forget the loyalty of a b o s s l i k e t h at , at a ny a g e l e t a l o n e seventeen?
In David’s last winter at King’s, 1978, he played Eeyore in the staff pantomime
Wi n n i e - t h e - Po o h S t e w a r t D av i e s, playing Pooh, had to give Eeyore a cue
and, because he got the words wrong, saying “Hello, Eeyore” instead of “Good mor ning, Eeyore”, David refused to act on the cue Stewart tried again, and still got it wrong Then David looked up and, with that renowned twinkle in his eye, s t a g e - wh i s p e re d wh at S t e w a r t should have said Only when Stewart got it exactly right did David eventually respond!
T h i s at t e n t i o n t o d e t a i l , a n d t h e requirement for the correct words, was repeated years later, well after David’s retirement, when he appeared in the popular television prog ramme Treasure Hunt At the time, David exercised one of his favourite hobbies by looking after the National Trust’s garden at Lower Brockhampton House Annabel Croft (who, I think by then, had replaced
Anneka Rice as the star of the show) arrived there looking for a trug Clearly she did not know what a trug was; but eventually, and with time running out, she found David kneeling beside a f lower bed with his trug alongside I remember Annabel’s cry of “Ah, the gardener!” and the wicked g rin of the for mer head of The King’s School coming into shot I knew we were in for some fun! Rather than putting her, the contestants in the studio and the viewer s out of their misery, he subjected her to good-natured but schoolmasterly leading questioning –until she realised the clue she sought was in the basket on the g rass between them As Tim Hickson has said, “Those of us who knew him hugged ourselves with delight at the sight of someone else receiving “the treatment”!”
After David retired in 1979, he and
Ro m ey l i ve d at T h e O l d S h o p, Whitbour ne, just across the county border in Herefordshire. Many Old Vigor nians are amongst those who will remember re c e i
hospitality in that char ming home David continued to teach from time to time, and served as a gover nor of several schools including Malver n College
D
re, particularly that of churches, and the history of Worcester He was chair man of Worcester Civic Society for a number of ye
Conservation Areas Advisory Committee
He was an expert on the churches of Herefordshire and Worcestershire; he was o
Committee for the Care of Churches and was, for many years, membership and g rants secretary of The Herefordshire Historic Churches Trust
After Romey died, he moved to his little house, St Christopher, in the Beauchamp Community at Newland, near Malver n He always expressed g ratitude to the Community for having him there in the first place and for all the good friends he found there And, right up to his last illness, he continued to entertain at St Christopher with enjoyment, as many of us can testify It was always a wonderfully happy and exhilarating experience to be with him I have lost one of my g reatest friends and I shall miss him, and the twinkle in his eye, more than I can say But David would not have wanted us to be too sad today We are here to give thanks for the life of a remarkable man to whom many of us owe a huge debt. His friend of many years, Bishop Eric Kemp, who was Dean of this Cathedral and chair man of The King’s School gover nors from 1969 to 1974, recently wrote of him as “the best kind of lay Christian”, an epitaph of which David would have been quietly proud He had many talents and many qualities, but I shall remember him particularly for his war mth, his g reat kindness and – above all – that wicked sense of humour!
DTH 21/6/04
David Annett had already established himself in the post of Headmaster when I arrived in the Lower Remove in 1960, but for the first four years of my time at King’s I had very little direct contact with h i m . H e w a s a s o m e wh at d i s t a n t f i g u re h e a d wh o c u l t i vat e d a n a i r o f
‘ H e a d m a s t e rl y a u t h o r i t y ’ , a n d wh o expected us all to live up to certain basic standards of appearance, behaviour and discipline As one OV remarked to me: “When you saw DMA approaching you c o u l d n’t h e l p g l a n c i n g d ow n sur re ptitiously to see if your tie was straight, your shoes polished, and hoping your hair was combed ” I came into regular direct contact with him in my final Sixth For m year, when I found myself in his Use of English class Within the comparative privacy of a class room, and in the company of senior boys I found him very different, and with a re l a xe d t e a ch i n g s t y l e, o n e t h at encouraged us all to read around the subject and challenge our own minds It was also in those lessons we saw that he had a well developed sense of humour: he enjoyed a joke, and used humour as an important element of his teaching style. His teaching must have been effective, because he did get at least one rather mediocre English student through that exam!
I do have one other abiding memory of his sense of humour We were about to fill i n o u r U C A S Fo r m s a n d a p p l y t o university; DMA called us all into the Winslow Block Lecture Theatre to give us a talk on the mechanics of university entrance “First impressions are very i m p o r t a n t , a n d t h e U n i ve r s i t y ’ s f i r s t impression of you will be when you enter t h e i n t e r v i e w ro o m at yo u r ch o s e n Department; there is a right and a wrong way to enter that room ” DMA said he would demonstrate, and walked out into the corridor, closing the door behind him He then re-entered, demonstrating both ways of entering, but he did it slap-stick style, and brought the whole house down with laughter But his pur pose was serious, and he had driven the point home I imagine all of us remembered that lesson when we went for interview When he arrived at King’s DMA was charged with moving a school, deeply rooted in the old-fashioned ways of a traditional boys’ public school into the new liberal order that was starting to emerge in the late 50s, and by the 60s was proceeding at full pace There were those of us who thought at the time he did not move things along fast enough, but with hindsight that was more a case of us being arrogant enough as teenagers to think we knew better than the appointed Headmaster how to run the School Many will remember his famous ‘Thank
God the Foundations Are Sound’ speech in 1964 in College Hall, and still feel that particular time he did get it wrong; but undoubtedly history will record that on balance he got it right, and his time at King’s will stand comparison alongside that of any of his predecessors [MJ Page (Cr 60-65)]
And if I might end with quotes from two private letters sent to me shortly before the Memorial Service: “He was an important man in our lives, for six or more of our for mative years He certainly seemed to notice o n e
, a n d always had time to pass the day with me And I do remember his lessonsthey were thought provoking and always stimulating - important for the developing adolescent mind ” – John Malcomson (W 55-65)
“I t is wo nderfu l re ad in g pe op le ’ s memories of my father – as his daughter I often missed the wider v
ow, j u s t h ow many people feel g rateful to him ” Rosamund Par nell
Stephen Powell
Stephen was one of three brothers in School House, and the son of a vicar who had at one time been a teacher of Mathematics at King’s He had careers in engineering, ag riculture and teaching, as well as wartime s e r v i c e i n t h e A r my H i s m a i n occupati o n w a s tea chi ng, a n d he taught in countries as far afield as Australia, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia, as well as England He was very proud to have been an Old Vigor nian and remained in touch with the Club until the end; he died at the age of 92 in For nham St Martin, Suffolk A few years ago he enjoyed trying to find out, through the pages of the Vigor nian, who was the oldest living OV, a contest that filled the Hon Sec’s in-tray with many claims, providing Stephen and other older members with some light hearted fun [MJP]
Basil Eckersley, MBE
Basil attended King’s from the age of 11 as a King’s Scholar, falling under the inf luence of Alec McDonald in t h e S i x t h Fo r m , a m a s t e r wh o instilled in him ‘ an appreciation of
what life was all about’ On his own admission he was no sportsman, but he contributed to school life outside the classroom in a number of other ways, including being a respected actor and Editor of the Vigor nian He went to H e r t fo rd C o l l e g e, O x fo rd t o re a d Moder n History His university career was inter rupted by the War; he was commissioned and moved to India with t h e M a n ch e s t e r Re g i m e n t T h e re followed nearly two year s of relative inactivity until the entire British Second Division was despatched to Assam to counter an expected Japanese invasion He became Administrative Staff Officer of the Fifth Infantry Brigade, a huge and important task of administration in a theatre of war, but one which he carried through with g reat efficiency (Basil, in
his own inimitable and humorous way referred to his official title as, “The most extravagant I have ever held” - Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quarter master
G e n e r a l ) H i s c o n t r i bu t i o n t o t h e confrontation and battle with Japanese forces was pivotal, and their repulsion at Kohima was to set in motion a general retreat General Cameron Nicholson noted Basil as being, “The best staff officer I ever met.” Basil himself, in typically modest fashion, described the t wo m o n t h p e r i o d o f t h e b at t l e o f Kohima as, “The most chaotic yet in some ways the most exhilarating of my life ” He remained on the Divisional
Staf f, seeing ser vice in Bur ma until the Japanese sur render He ended the war as a Lieutenant Colonel and was awarded the MBE.
Basil retur ned to Hertford College after the War, but this time to read Law, and took a First His specialty was contract law, in which he was to become an acknowledged expert It was also at Oxford that he met his wife to be, Margaret Banks, known to friends and family as Margie or Margot He was called to the Bar in 1949; in his own practice he rose to b e H e a d o f C h a m b e r s u n t i l h e resigned in 1971, feeling it was the honourable thing to do after he had made what he held to be a wrong decision that made his tenure of the p o s t ‘ u n c o m f o r t a b l e ’ H e a n d Margot lived most of their mar ried
l i f e i n C l a y g a t e , u n t i l s h e d i e d suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 62, leaving Basil a widower for the remaining twenty years of his life
Basil had a brilliant and clear legal mind, with the capacity to identify the real points in a case, and to concentrate on them He was also a master of detail in complex cases, and many of his colleagues at the Bar sought his opinion on their own c a s e s , w h i c h h e a l w a y s g a v e unstintingly. His achievements in Law were towering: he was not a natural advocate, but nevertheless some of his cases, particularly in shipping law, have become standard precedents in law However, he was never to become a QC, and the reasons behind that are dif ficult to understand. Certainly he was worthy of being awarded silk on merit, but on a technical matter he was tur ned down when he first applied, and never applied again. Gradually he moved from full time practice at the B a r t o f u l l t i m e p r a c t i c e a s a maritime arbitrator; to that role he b r o u g h t a l l t h e d e s i r e d j u d i c i a l q u a l i t i e s a n d h e w a s g r e a t l y respected – few of his decisions were e v e r a p p e a l e d , s t i l l f e w e r o v e r t u r n e d . H e a c q u i r e d a n enviable reputation as an Arbitrator and was one of the moving forces behind the drafting of the 1996 A r b i t r a t i o n A c t ; n e v e r t h e l e s s h e managed to retain his reputation for b e i n g a p p r o a c h a b l e , f r i e n d l y, helpful and generous to all comers
One colleague described him as being ‘almost saintly’ – it was only his smoking that resulted in the use of the word ‘almost’ One client, who had travelled some distance to London to consult with Basil was advised ‘he had not got a leg to stand on ’ ; the financial implications of that advice were considerable, but the c
spend an hour in the presence of the Almighty ”
Basil Eckersley was an active member of K
cur ricular life whilst a pupil His interest and involvement continued, as an Old Vigor nian, after he had left, as it did likewise as a member of the Hertford Society He contributed a great deal to the work of the KSW Archive, and came t o b
Roslington, to whom he held out an ever helpful and friendly hand, and who described him as “ a rare gem of a person ” And his generosity to both King’s and Her tford continued even after his death, with both establishments receiving substantial bequests in his will “I know this reflects the fondness he felt for King’s and the important influence his time there had on the rest of his life ”
– Patrick Eckersley
He enjoyed the company of friends and family, and pursued an active social life, regularly visiting family in his beloved Worcestershire; he was delighted when his three great nieces, Fleur, Lucy and Sophie went to King’s. Basil died on
dismissing the problem with the wicked sense of humour for which he was well
Tomlinson said of him at the Memorial Ser vice, “He was a wonder ful person to know, and one of my abiding memories of him, apar t from his many other attributes, will be his over whelming and
interests of others before his own ” [Dr Patrick Eckersley – nephew & The Hon Sir Stephen Tomlinson (OV)– friend]
RHK Goss
Randle Henr y Kingston Goss died on 23rd Febr uar y 2004 He ser ved in the R A F a n d w a s f
d
h Westinghouse Brake. [Raymond Goss
(OV) – brother]
Strafford Moor
Died on 21st June 2004 Straf ford was at King’s from 1938-42, he was a King’s Scholar, and became Head of Chappel House and a School Monitor. He was a p u p i l a t t h e t i m e o f t h e C r i c c
evacuation and temporarily a member of Castle House for the duration of the stay in Wales. He was a newspaper reporter for a short time after school and then joined the Royal Navy; he was commissioned and finished the War ashore in Japan.
His interest in Old Silver was to develop into a career as a dealer to the trade a
emphasis changed to diamonds and
acknowledged expert in this field He
eventually settled at Blockley in the Cotswolds, where he was still living and enjoying his huge garden when he died He is sur vived by Jean and their three
[Walter Cullis (OV) – friend]
Valentine Burchard
Valentine died in early 2004, having spent his retirement years in Wells, Somerset He always spoke affectionately of his time at King’s and continued his interest in the School throughout his life, subscribing to the Vigor nian, keeping in touch with t
publication and the Archives. [Hugh Burchard – son]
Paul Hughes
Paul died on 25th Febr uar y in Swindon, aged 75 He went straight from King’s into National Ser vice His aptitude for mechanical engineering proved useful, but came into its own when he left the Ar my and took an apprenticeship with Morgan Motors in Malver n He worked on both the production and the sales and distribution sides of the company
His later working life was in the supply and sale of motor vehicle components
He rallied Morgans as a member of the Wo
some success, winning trophies
His other interests included films, and a w
k l y v i s
h e N o
w i c k a s a schoolboy developed into a part-time job as a projectionist at the Odeon Another interest was scale modelling of planes, ships and steam locomotives. Some of the larger working models he
drove at fairs and charity events for many years
Paul lost contact with the OV Club for m a n y y e a r s , b u t r e - e s t a b l i s h e d h i s membership in 1998 and was able to renew his friendship with one or two contemporaries, including best friend
J o h n C Tu r n e r H e e n j o y e d t h e renewed contact and reliving the old
m e m o r i e s o f s c h o o l d a y s H e h a d intended to come to a Reunion, but was prevented from doing so by the cancer against which he battled for many years and which eventually claimed his life [Sheila Hughes – widow; Iain Hughes –son; Basil Parsons (OV) - cousin]
David Rose
David died suddenly on 26th June 2004
He left King’s quite early to pursue his interest in acting at RADA. He then enjoyed a long and successful career as an actor in various productions across
t h e c o u n t r y, i n c l u d i n g f i l m s a n d
t e l e v i s i o n . H e w a s a l w a y s f o n d o f playing at the Swan in Worcester as it allowed him to r un down to the WCCC Ground and take in a few overs between rehearsals. He was an ardent fan of Worcestershire and had agreed, before his untimely death, to meet up with f e l l o w f a n a n d o l d f r i e n d P e t e r Raderecht (S 44-50) to watch a game during the 2004 season David was the younger brother of fellow actor Clif ford Rose He is sur vived by his wife Pam and son Andrew [Peter Raderecht (OV) – friend]
Bill (W F ) Jones
We are sad to report that Bill died unexpectedly on November 14 after a s h o r t i l l n e s s H e h a d b e e n e l e c t e d President of the OV Club only six weeks before Many of you will remember Bill as Secretar y of the OVCC for many years for the huge contribution he made to OV cricket and the administration of club cricket in Worcestershire over the years On behalf of all OVs, the Club's c o m m i t t e e h a s e x p r e s s e d t h e i r condolences to his wife Sheila and the family A full obituar y will be published in next year ’ s magazine
Tony George
To n y d i e d u n e x p e c t e d l y o n 1 1 t h
Febr uar y after being taken ill a week be fore Afte r Natio nal Ser vic e, his professional life was in the building society world, starting in 1954 with the Co-op Per manent in Bir mingham, and
later in Worcester In 1964 he became manager of the newly-opened Worcester b r a n c h o f t h e B r i s t o l & We s t a n d continued to work for that Society for 27 years
Outside his professional life he was known for his humour and his sporting prowess He had been awarded Colours at Cricket and Rugby at King’s and he continued with both sports after leaving He played for Worcester Rugby Club 1st XV, mainly at fly-half, where his speed, safe hands and kicking ability were invaluable He played cricket, for the Old Vigor nians and for Whittington, where he had moved to live He became a stalwart of the village side, becoming both Captain and later President, and playing regularly until the age of 59.
[Brian W ilkes – OV & friend]
Michael West
Michael West was at King’s from 1947 to 1958, in Creighton House Mike, as he was always known, was a quiet fellow who thought for himself an unusual trait in a schoolboy Like so many others of his time, Mike went into the sciences - the pure sciences: maths, additional maths and physics I used to meet him not through these scholastic pursuits but because he could r un ver y well In his case, his speed came with his long legs and later in life he used his legs for basketball Mike went of f to Battersea College of Technology, and there he
became his supportive wife of thirty-
become a minister in that church going so far as to master New Testament Greek. After a few years in London, he was of fered a position teaching physics at Prince Henr y ’ s Grammar School in Evesham, and he and Margaret made their home in Cropthor ne.
Teaching physics by day, coaching the school’s basketball team at night and assisting the work of his Church at the
d husband and father, gave Mike a ver y full life He lived up to the teachings of Bert Balance who would often remark:
” T h i s h e somehow did - even founding a self-help organisation for unemployed youth in Cheltenham in his non-existent spare time, because he could see the need.
After leaving teaching, Mike went on to s p e n d m o r e t i m e i
churches as a lay preacher, often acting in loco sacerdotis He did this for many years over a wide area covering all of Worcestershire and much of norther n Gloucestershire In his retirement from teaching, he built his own computer and later a ser ver to cope with e-mails, which of course he found handy - and I did too when the Wests came along to the 2001 Reunion at King’s!
Tr a g e d y s t r u c k o n Wa t e r s i d e , a t Evesham They were in collision with a speeding car; Margaret received only minor injuries, and the driver of the other vehicle was unhurt, but Mike was airlifted away with serious injuries; he died in Selly Oak Hospital on the 28th of November 2003 as a result of those i n
h
parents He left behind Margaret and his children Andrew and Stephen He also leaves many a chapel which mour ns his passing. [Brian Ger rard (OV) –friend]
Edward Dar wall
King’s left its mark on Ted in many ways. Dan McTurk’s fishing expeditions and fly-tying lessons hooked him for life He rowed in the 1st VIII at Henley and later with some success at university. School expeditions to the Welsh mountains f u e l l
nature Academically he got by, and hard graft in the Sixth For m ear ned him a place at Edinburgh University There he found his forte, getting a First in Chemical Physics and a Ph D in the field of molecular beams, interspersed w i t h s k i i n g , m
u n t a i n e e
g , h i l l walking and catching salmon But in the second year of his Ph D fate dealt him the cr uel blow of the sudden onset of i n
T
e remaining 35 years of his life were a c o n s t a n
h i s deter mination to live life as he wished and the constraints of a defective metabolism Pursuing a career in semiconductor development, he began with Plessey in Northamptonshire The wider spaces of Canada beckoned in 1979, and shortly after he took up a post with the newly formed Mitel Corporation in Bromont, Quebec. Taking Canadian citizenship he continued there until early retirement in 2000 Ted’s idea of a summer holiday was to tie his canoe to a float plane and be taken to some inaccessible lake in Norther n Canada, whence he would spend weeks p a d d l i n g b a c k , e n c o u n t e r i n g t h e
occasional Inuit at most. Those intrepid
e n o u g h t o j o i n h i m r e l i e d o n h i s experience and found the going decidedly tough, without any medical handicap In winter it was cross country skiing or trekking in snowshoes, dragging a sledge with his tent and supplies He had a deep respect for minorities whose cultures or languages w e r e t h r e a t e n e d , a n d i n t e g r a t e d completely into the local community that adopted him He made high quality fur niture - and brewed maple syr up!f r o m h i s o w n t r e e s . A s a v o l u n t e e r working in the local hospital or nature reser ve, his bicycle, smile and above all his accent were legendar y Whether he ever mastered the obscure tenses of written O Level French is doubtful and immaterial; but he could r un evening c l a s s e s o n f l y - t y i n g i n Q u e b e c o i s ! He remained single all his life and his many friends became progressively more concer ned at his solo expeditions as his m e d i c a l c o n d i t i o n d e t e r i o r a t e d H e proved them wrong by retur ning ever y time and remaining active to the end On 2nd November 2003 a neighbour found him in his ar mchair, the CD of Corelli still playing. He leaves a father, brother and family in England [George Dar wall (OV) – brother]
Rober t Milsom
Bob Milsom was one of the first students
t o s t u d y c o m p u t i n g a t K i n g ’ s w h e n
c o m p u t e r s o t h e r t h a n m a i n f r a m e machines in company HQs were rare indeed; that interest led him on to a career in IT and computing He left King’s to read Engineering at Queens’ C o l l e g e , C a m b r i d g e , w h e r e h e w a s sponsored by the Post Of fice (now BT) He star ted work for the PO in and around London, which is where he met and mar ried an ex-pat Australian, Julie. They moved to Australia for a time in the late 80s - early 90s, then back to the UK and Bob worked at Malver n He enjoyed a range of interests outside his work as diverse as amateur radio and motorcycling They had only recently retur ned to Australia, where Bob had taken a position with Saab Aerospace, when he net his untimely death as a r e s u l t o f a m o t o rc y c l e a c c i d e n t i n November 2003; he leaves his wife Julie, and children Elaine and David [Derek Putley (OV) - friend]
David Hershman
David left King’s to take up Law, reading for a degree at King’s College, London,
and in that field he enjoyed spectacular success. He was called to the Bar in 1981, and the Vigor nian of 2002 records his being appointed a QC in that year His interest was in children’s law, and he was a junior bar rister in Chambers in Bir mingham in 1989 when, with his colleague Andrew McFarlane, he set about writing a text book on that subject to complement the passing of the new C h i l d r e n A c t ; t h e o n l y o t h e r comprehensive text at the time had originated in 1933 The task took two years, squeezed into what little spare time was available to the two men, both with full time court commitments The book, Children Law And Practice, became a standard work of reference, known s
Having been accepted as an author he was then in demand as a lecturer and established himself in that field with his easy going style of lecturing designed to make even the most potentially boring of subject matter interesting But that side of his career always took second p l a c e t o h i s w o r k a s a b a r r i s t e r ; universally respected, his ser vices were sought in the more challenging cases At the time of his death, 4th September 2004, from a heart attack, he had been appointed a Recorder and par t-time Chair of the Care Standards Tribunal, and had moved from Bir mingham to Chambers at One King’s Bench Walk, London specialising in Family Law D a v i d ’
m o r e important to him than his legal work, and no matter what his work load might be, it was fitted around his wife, Abigail and family David and Abi had four children, all daughters and all of whom they sent to King’s Physically a big m a n , h e w a s a l w a y s g e n t l e a n d compassionate but with dynamism and humour and had a ver y large number of f r i e n d s [ A n d r e w M c F a r l a n e –colleague and friend]
He was gentle but with the Hershman intelligence and steel - and a credit both to King’s and the Direct Grant system [John Tur ner (Hon OV) – Housemaster of Chappel and friend].
Stephen Bashford
Steve left King’s to go to UW College Newport, where he gained a HND in Business & Finance followed by a degree in Histor y & European Studies in 1996 He then started a career in IT, but soon decided he wanted to teach Histor y and was about to start teacher training when
he was diagnosed with the cancer that was to cut his life so short He died on 17th October 2003 at the age of 30 after a brave and courageous battle against the disease
He enjoyed a range of interests, hockey a n d f o o t b a l l i n p a r t i c u l a r, a n d t h e company of friends. He touched the
hearts of all those he met and will be greatly missed by many He leaves behind wife Amy and parents Geof f and Frances. [Frances Bashford – mother].
Michael Parks
Michael was a pupil at King's for five years during which time he contributed greatly to the musical life of the school and was also an enthusiastic member of the sub aqua club He was a highly intelligent student and in my UCAS report at the time I wrote ' he possesses intellectual initiative and independence in abundance and will invariably be the one to have approached a problem in an original fashion' He spent a year at War wick University but unfortunately did not continue with his course Our thoughts are with his family at this distressing time
Nigel Alexander (Ca 70-79): Mar ried to Brenda, an American, for some two years now They were both over in the UK in 2004 (accompanied by their ver y young daughter) to join in the Class of 79 reunion at the Annual Reunion As always, there is an open invitation to OVs passing through his home town of Denver Colorado is a centre for skiing in the US, and cur rently a relatively
cheap destination for ski holidays; Nigel would be pleased to join anyone visiting on the slopes!
TCJ Amies (O 77-85): Toby has tur ned his hand to many things, including being a DJ in the US, for ming a band in New York, working for Radio 4 and work in the film industr y More recently he has b e e n s e e n o n B r i t i s h t e l e v i s i o n presenting a series called Six Degrees of Freedom The series is based on the idea that ever y person in the World can be linked to any other by only six moves. Exploring this theor y, and moving from one acquaintance to the next, Toby moves around the World visiting people as far apart as Sydney, New York and Havana “It goes much further than the usual travel programme, looking deeper u n d e r t h e s u r f a c e a t p e o p l e ’ s r e a l experiences of life,” he said. Toby lives in Brighton
AJ Bentall (Cr 53-64): Angus retired f r o m h i s p o s t a s S e c o n d M a s t e r o f Guildford Grammar Junior School this y e a r a n d i s l o o k i n g f o r w a r d t o retirement He came back to Worcester for David Annett’s Memorial Ser vice and enjoyed meeting up with several old friends and looking round his old haunts in School The OV Club helped put Angus back in touch with Ror y McTurk (son of DBJM) earlier in the year; he had not seen Ror y in over 40 years
Professor Nicholas Boyle (Cr 54-63):
“I’m not sure when I last sent in my news I p r o b a b l y t o l d y o u a b o u t t h e publication of volume 2 of my biography of Goethe in 2000, paperback 2003 Volume 3 is still under way and likely to be a long haul. 2000 also saw the award of the Goethe Medal by the GoetheI n s t i
P
elected a Fellow of the British Academy
English-Speaking World’ and in 2002-3 was the third Erasmus Lecturer at the University of Notre Dame, in succession to Shirley W illiams. My lectures are due to be published this November under the title ‘Sacred and Secular Scriptures: A Catholic Approach to Literature’ I took my LittD this year. Rosemar y and I a
n Cambridge, and I am in occasional touch still with Geoffrey Harper and Michael Pyeand of course with Michael Butler, who taught me my first words of German at King’s in 1958 I was ver y sorr y that Cambridge commitments prevented me from coming to the Memorial Ser vice for David Annett. I still remember Kittermaster’s handwritten note posted on the School notice board announcing his appointment - Stroud seemed a ver y long way away. A n d re w B ro o k e r C a re y ( C h 6 5 - 7 5 ) : Continues to r un his specialist interior design shop ‘Star Yard’, based in an Elizabethan merchant’s house in the Hi gh Stre e t of D roit w ich, whic h he restored himself Tel & fax: 01905 772276
David Butcher (B 87-92): Dave got mar ried in 2004 (see Mar riages) and completed his MBA in the summer He has recently been both President & Captain of the St Dunstan’s Bowls Club, and enjoys particularly exercising the power that gives him over ordinar y members, amongst whom are Robin Thurlby, Mike Rudge and Marc Roberts! Mar tin Car twright (O 78-87): CNH was for med by the alliance of some of the bigger manufacturers in the world of a g r i c u l t u r a l a n d c o n s t r u c t i o n equipment to become a company valued a t $ 1 0 b i l l i o n a n d e m p l o y i n g 2 7 , 0 0 0 workers worldwide It i s s u p p o r t e d b y a n e t w o r k o f s o m e 12,000 dealers in 160 c o u n t r i e s I n a n article in the Financial Ti m e s o f 8 t h
expertise, and a ‘pool’ of solutions and ‘know-how’ This ver y sophisticated ser vice is known as Asist, and Martin has b e e n m a d e A s i s t I m p l e m e n t a t i o n s M a n a g e r w i t h t h e c
y. T h e benefits to the customer are that they will be able to access the best available ser vice support possible, on more or l e s s a 2 4 h o u r b a s i s . M a r t i n i s deter mined that should give CNH a m
after-sales market
Dan Cowton (O 82-89): Is living in Monmouth Dan left the world of commercial property in London and now teaches ICT at a secondar y school in Wales He continues to involve himself in rowing, coaching not only members of his own school boat club but also the Welsh Junior Men’s team
Edward Cumming (B 90-01 ): “I’ve been awarded a Thouron Fellowship to study at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia for a year, where I headed of f within weeks of graduating from Cambridge this summer I have been accepted into a special certificate programme at the Wharton Business School and will also gain an LLM from t h e L a w S c h o o l N e x t s u m m e r I ’ m coming back to the UK to take up the M i d d l e Te m p l e ’ s Q u e e n M o t h e r Scholarship at Bar School in London before I take up my pupilage at XXIV Old Buildings As well as continuing post-Cambridge Union debating I am s t i l l p l a y
f o o t b
S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 4 , r e v i e w i n g t h e company ’ s use of IT, Martin explained how t h e C o m p a n y w a s using the Web to make available to all dealers, o n a n e a r instantaneous basis, a
n d h a v e e
e n , s o m e w h a t surprisingly, taken up the American v e r s i o n ! I f a n y o n e i s i n o r n e a r Philadelphia do get in touch as it would be great to meet up on this side of the pond ” ecumming@law.upenn.edu
Abigail Dancyger (K 96-00): “Quite a lot has happened since I left King’s even though it was only 4 years ago: I now r u n a r u r a l p u b i n t h e m i d d l e o f Car mar thenshire, Wales I have two lovely children and another on the way Recently, (15th May) I got mar ried to my husband, Dan.”
a d a n c y g e r @ t o w y b r i d g e i n n freeser ve co uk
Michael Davenpor t (Ca 65-75): Has worked for the Halifax in Bromsgrove and Bir mingham for the last 30 years
H e c o n t i n u e s t o e n j o y m u s i c a n d i n v o l v e s h i m s e l f w i t h s i n g i n g f o r pleasure.
Nigel Dibben (S 63-68): After Chemical
Engineering at Bir mingham University and an MBA at Manchester a few years later, I worked for some 22 years for a p r i v a t e c o m p a n y h a n d l i n g c h e m i c a l waste Change of ownership meant that I left there at short notice so I repainted the house and did a few other jobs before starting work as a health, safety and environmental consultant for a USbased company I have been mar ried now for 12 years and live in Cheshire. I p i c k e d u p a n i n t e r e s t i n c a v i n g a t u n i v e r s i t y a n d s t i l l g o u n d e r g r o u n d regularly, as often now in old mines as natural caves.
R i c h a rd D a v i d s o n ( S 8 1 - 8 6 ) : A s reported last year, Richard was quite deter mined he would like to have an OV Club blazer, something he could wear with pride at OVCC matches and other occasions, but something not produced, and only rarely seen, in several decades His deter mination was to result in the OV blazer being stocked once again by the School Shop, and OV colours are now to be seen wor n in blazer for m A n y o n e i n t e r e s t e d i n a n O V b l a z e r might like to contact Mrs Jane Honan at the School Shop, tel 01905 23695 Crispin Ellisdon (Cr 83-89): Having lost touch with many friends, I thought that posting a brief update on my life in the Vigor nian may prompt some to get in t o u c h ; I l e f t i n 8 9 b u t I a m a contemporar y of the Class of 91. I am still a ser ving Captain in the Royal E n g i n e e r s c u r r e n t l y s e r v i n g w i t h
M i l i t a r y Wo r k s F o r c e , b a s e d i n Nottingham, although I will be spending Spring and Summer ‘04 in Iraq I got mar ried to Katie in 1999 and our first child, Har riet, was bor n in 2001 In addition to being a Militar y Engineer, I p a s s e d t h e r e v i e w t o b e c o m e a Chartered Civil Engineer in 2002 In my spare time I can usually be found tinkering with my motorcycle (summer) o r t r a i n i n g / r a c i n g m y t w o S i b e r i a n Huskies (winter) Although I move regularly, I can be contacted via my
email address crispin@ellisdon co uk
KE Ellson (S 46-53): After National ser vice, Ken lived in Belgium for 4? years w o r k i n g f o r a l a r g e E n v i r o n m e n t a l Pollution Control company, looking into pollution problems arising from power stations, steel works and the like He progressed to working for the same
c o m p a n y o n a w
r l d w i d e b a s i s , employed by them in some 37 dif ferent countries over a total time of 45 years, till retirement in 2002 For the last 20 years he was Sales & Marketing Director, working outside the UK Reckons he has used up more than a few of his nine lives in accidents and incidents over his career; but is still alive to tell the tale – and
c
circa 54 to do just that!
K e n l i v e s i n Wolverhampton.
A P F o x ( K 8 0 - 8 7 ) : Cont inu es to live in B r i s t o l w i t h h i s w i f e
J u l i a a n d g r o w i n g
f a m i l y ( s e e B i r t h s ) Ashley was elected a
C i t y c o u n c i l l o r i n 2002.
C P F re e m a n ( H 6 572): The years have n o t d i m m e d P a u l ’ s enthusiasm for rowing: he and for mer KSWBC VIII crew member and friend Peter Knowles were competing in the H e n l e y Ve t e r a n s R e g a t t a t h i s y e a r, a s m e m b e r s o f a quadr uple scull; their
c r e w p u t u p a
c r e d i t a b l e d i s p l a y, l o s i n g n a r r o w l y i n
t h e i r h e a t t o t h e eventual winners It
2003 for his work on European Defence
His achievements and his standing have been yet further recognised with the award of a Life Peerage. On June 3rd 2004 he was confir med by the Queen as Baron Garden of Hampstead, and is entitled to sit in the House of Lords: “This is a rather dif ferent honour, as it’s actually a job I’m ver y much looking for ward to the new challenge ” [See full article in this Vigor nian]
Tim is of fered the congratulations of the Club and School on this recognition of his lifetime’s work
TN Gazard (Cr 63-70): Trevor and Pauline have moved to France and live in
w a s t h e f i r s t t i m e t h e y h a d r o w e d together in competition for 32 years! Apart from a significant migration of hair from scalp to chin, Paul would c l a i m t o h a v e n o
cpaulf@hotmail com
The Lord Garden, KCB (Cr 52-62): C on te m pora ri es of Ti m G ard e n w i l l have followed in these columns over the years his steady rise to the top of his profession, becoming an acknowledged i n t e r n a t i o n a l e x p e r t o n d e f e n c e matters He was knighted in 1994, and was also awarded a title by France in
Saint Genis Pouilly His e-mail contacts are: trevor n gazard@che dupont com & trevor@gazard.com
Rebecca Green (Co 86-88): Rebecca read Veterinar y Science at Liverpool, and since 2003 has been a partner in the Stocks Veterinar y Centre at Upton-uponS
opened a new branch at Lower W ick She is mar ried and is now Mrs Maund Matthew Guest (B 82-89): He is teaching in Portugal, but “it may be a transient e
advised the Club to mail it to his parents’ home in Abberley for the time being Anyone wanting to catch up with Matthew can do so at Guestymatt@yahoo com
PA Harris (K 78-88): “It being some time since I left King’s I thought I should update you on my movements. I was mar ried to Etel on 5th June (see Mar riages) and we divide our time between Hereford, and London where I work I am Head of Investment for the Small Cap Focus Fund of Her mes Asset Management My
e - m a i l a d d r e s s i s p har ris2@her mes co uk ”
Jon Henderson (H 88-92): Jon continues to work as a Chartered Tax Adviser at D e l o i t t e , s p e c i a l i s i n g i n E m p l o y m e n t
Taxes He is an avid supporter of, and
s e a s o n t i c k e t h o l d e r a t , P o r t s m o u t h Football Club and is happy to say that the birth of his daughter (see Births) at the start of Pompey’s first ever Premiership season didn’t hinder his attendance at e v e r y h o m e m a t c h , a n d e v e r y a w a y match he was lucky enough to get tickets for! He hopes his “Premiership Baby” will be old enough to attend with him, b e f o r e P o m p e y p l u m m e t i n t o l o w e r league obscurity again
DCHewitt (Cr 57-66): In an e-mail in May Dave brought the Hon Sec (an old friend) up to date with his news: “The big event was two weeks ago when our daughter Rebecca got mar ried in Leeds I am pleased to say that ever ything went brilliantly and a great time was had by all You will be proud to hear that Tony (AV Cook- OV) and I did a passable duet in the bar at around 1 am! Dar ren, our son was there, with his wife Lizzie and two sons Billy and Oscar aged two and six months Judy works part time for friends of ours and is ver y busy; I’m working as Finance Director at Three Valleys Water, which is not bad but there is a lot of commuting!”
Richard Hill (O 86-91): Richard is cur rently working for the MOD at Strike Command, HighWycombe and he and his wife Lenka (see Mar riages) live in B i c e s t e r T i m H a v a rd ( O 8 6 - 9 1 ) , Richard’s best man is pursuing his c a r e e r i n a rc h a e o l o g y a n d l i v e s i n Cirencester
NH Holden (B 50-58): Nor man (‘Sam’) visited Canada in 2003 and based in Vancouver he explored much of the glor y that is to be found in that part of Canada As well as being impressed by the natural sur roundings he also found t h e Va n c o u v e r d r i v e r l e s s S k y r a i l ‘ awesome ’ . The trip included a visit to
Seattle in the US, only some 150 miles south He flew into Canada via Los Angeles from his home in Masterton, New Zealand.
JG Hor ton (Cl 60-66): John is a member o f ‘ T h e W i l d l i f e A r t S o c i e t y Inter national’ and as such shows his paintings at their annual Exhibition as well as elsewhere Last year he won the prestigious Christopher Parsons Award for his work, but this year had to settle f o r t h i r d p l a c e ( “ A b i t l i k e b e i n g nominated for the Oscar and missing out!” - JGH) A lifelong passion for natural histor y underlies all his work. John works to his own brief or on c o m m i s s i o n ; m o s t l y i n w a t e r c o l o u r, sometimes pen and wash, and recently acr ylic& oil. At a recent exhibition in Malver n he put some of his original paintings up for sale for charity, and raised £1300 for St Richard’s Hospice Just after he had left the Malver n galler y one day Brian Dixon (Hon OV) went in “I was sor r y to have missed him - always thought a lot of BJD ” johnhorton47@thestudio57.fsnet.co.uk Dr Peter Hughes (O 76-85): “I am studying Medicine at the University of Manitoba in W innipeg, Canada, and hoping to specialise in Paediatrics. This follows ten fabulous years working as a jour nalist in London, most recently as editor of ‘Sur veyor ’ The saucepan lids, Sam and Robert, are now aged 8 and 4. C a n a 1 9 8 5 r e u n i o n b e f a r a w a y ? ” peterhughes@shaw ca RR Jones (Ca 47-49): Robin lives in Vaucluse, NSW, Australia. He attended his last Reunion in 1955 but his plans to combine the 2004 Reunion with a trip back to the UK were thwarted by the c h a n g e o f R e u n i o n d a t e f r o m l a t e September to early October He will tr y to look in on the School when back, to see all the changes that have happened to his old House. Robin reckons that Philip Sheppy’s recollections in the 2002 Vigor nian, of Castle House in the late 40s (under ‘Boge’ & ‘Ma B’ Bentley),
were spot on In 2003 he was visited by old friend Brian W ilkes: “Brian and I replayed the 1948 & 1949 Rugby matches late into the night!”
Elizabeth Ker ton (Cr 91-93): Elizabeth is now Mrs Summons: she mar ried S p e n c e r S u m m o n s ( e x W R G S ) i n October 2003 (see Mar riages). He was an ar my of ficer in Bomb disposal but w o r k s n o w i n t h e H o m e O f f i c e i n London in Risk Management; she is a jeweller y buyer at Costco.
Rowan Kitt (Ch 77-87): Some news for the Vigornian if you would like to include it: “I teach Histor y at Charterhouse and referee rugby for the RFU National Panel I always enjoy refereeing OVs including Luke Nar raway (Gloucester), Leigh Hinton ( O r r e l l & B e d f o r d ) , a n d D u n c a n Hughes (Stourbridge) They can do little wrong!
D r B e r n a rd L e e m a n ( C a 5 9 - 6 4 ) :
Ber nard’s plans to move to China last year were to be unsuccessful and he continues to live in London, teaching on a part-time basis But he has made progress with his Afghan Medical School project
DR Leonard (Ca 47-52): “Hullo Mike Well, we finally made it - we now live in France ! I’ve just received my copy of “Connect” via the redirection facility of the UK Post Of fice I’ve updated my info on the OV web site but here are my details to ensure that I’m not lost from the records! Donaldleonard61@aol com Kate North (Co 81-83) Kate and husband Rick Phillips (Cr 75-83) are well settled in Malaysia and plan to stay there for another couple of years at least Rick will be r unning a Venture Capital Fund, investing in South-East Asia Kate is unable to practise Medicine there, so has taken up W ildlife Photography (to make the most of all our travels), and does the odd bit of acting Their three children, Anna (9yrs), Joe (7yrs) and Sam (5yrs) are kept busy in their spare time with an ever-expanding menagerie - an Iguana being the latest addition.
Rober t O’Neill (Cl 82-89): I have been living in Brighton for the last 6 years working for American Express as an IT Application Architect. Away from the of fice I am one of the growing number of ‘nutters’ who take part in triathlons : Swim / Bike / Run Having completed one for fun and immediately hooked I have competed in numerous races over the last few years including the London Tr i a t h l o n B u t m y g r e a t e s t
achievements have been to represent Great Britain (in my age group) in the Wo r l d L o n g C o u r s e Tr i a t h l o n Championships (2003 & 2004) and to h a v e c o m p l e t e d t h e u l t i m a t e u l t r a -
e n d u r a n c e r a c e o f t h e m a l l – a n
Ironman Triathlon (2 4 mile Swim / 112 mile Bike / 26 2 mile Run) in Ger many
I a m p l a n n i n g t o r a c e i n t h e N e w Zealand Ironman Triathlon next year combining this with a sabbatical from work to allow me to train properly for
the event who knows,if I can do well I might even qualify for the big one in Hawaii Email : rob oneill1@btinter net com
J Painter (Ca 38-42): John made contact with the Club early in 2004 after a long absence In a letter he describes his early years at King’s - r un as a ‘tight ship’ as he recalls, but his older brother Peter (also Castle House) was able to show him the ropes and steer him clear of most trouble! John was one of those evacuated to Criccieth, and a keen allround sportsman On leaving King’s he joined his father and brother on a far m
i n D e v o n , b u t t h e l a n d w a s commandeered by the MOD for D-Day training by the Ame ricans , and the f a m i l y e v e n t u a l l y r e t u r n e d t o Wo r c e s t e r s h i r e P e t e r c o n t i n u e d
f a r m i n g i n Wo r c e s t e r s h i r e a n d
H e r e f o r d s h i r e t i l l 1 9 6 2 , a n d t h e n retur ned to Devon to be Area Manager
f o r J B i b b y A g r i c u l t u r e L t d , t i l l
r e t i r e m e n t i n 1 9 8 9 H e l i v e s i n Abbotskerswell with his wife, Kathleen; they have three children and seven grandchildren Contact re-established,
he is looking for ward to a Reunion Lara Parsons (Cr 95-04): In a change to her plans, Lara will be taking Paediatric Nursing at Cardif f University, starting S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 5 , n o t S w a n s e a a s intended originally
J A H M i t c h e l l ( S 4 3 - 4 7 ) : To n y w a s prompted after his last visit to the School in 2003 to of fer this summation of his life, as an encouragement to boys (or girls) who ‘cannot make their mind up as to a career. ’
“I left School at age 17 in 1947 having gained School Cert & Matric in Latin & Greek, Histor y, English (Language & L
Maths Spent one year on a far m near P e r s h o r e , b u t w i t h n o p r o s p e c t o f far ming on my own account I joined the Roy al Navy in 1949 as an Ordina r y Seaman Selected for of ficer training in ‘52 and commissioned in 1954 as SubL
I resigned my commission as a Senior Lieutenant in 1963 after navigating my last destroyer around the World My travels allowed me to indulge my passion for r ugby, and I have played in ever y continent in the World! I took up a post i n s a l e
n t i n B e
m u d a , followed by a similar job in Los Angeles in ‘65 and then joined CR Bard (Medical Supplies) in ‘69 After the test I had to take before being hired I was told that although I had no degree, my level of e d u c a t i o n s h o w e d t h e e q u i v a l e n t o f somewhere between a MA and a PhDAnd all that from King’s (and a little help from Dartmouth)!! After selling hospital supplies for 17 years in San Diego my wife and I moved to the Olympic peninsular in Washington State; there we ran a ‘white goods’ store for 10 years before retirement in 1996 I mar ried an Alice Ottley girl in 1957 in Wo rc e s t e r C a t h e d r a l ; w e h a v e t w o daughters, both bor n in the UK, but l i v i n g i n t h e U S , a n d t h r e e grandchildren, the oldest in college I am now retired, and feel I have had a ver y interesting and enjoyable working life - no great riches in money, but enor mous wealth in ter ms of experience, friends and family ” Paul Prouse (O 89-99): “I’m teaching in the North-East so that I can continue with my MA part-time at Durham I am on the same course as Edward Under wood-Webb (OV) ” JJH Richardson (H 82-91): J-J has moved h o u s e a n d n o w l i v e i n Te e t o n , Northants “I am still working for Aldi
Stores Ltd as a Buying Director in their Corporate Head Office in Atherstone My wife and I are expecting a baby boy in October, our first Still in regular contact with a number of OV’s. My email address is JJHRichardson@aol com for those wishing to get in touch ”
John G Roe (H 47-57): “Received King’s Connect No 9 with pleasure and looked up the Hostel festivities on the Web with equal joy - contemporaries g a l o r e W h i l e t h e y w e r e r e c o v e r i n g from hangovers (?) I was in an Italian h
Other wise ”
“As I clocked 65 years last Sunday, I decided to treat myself to a new silk OV tie - and cuf flinks! Have sent order (and cheque) via post c/o The King’s School ”
“I am now the longest ser ving English l a n g u a g e t e a c h e r f o r t h e S h e n k e r Institute of English of Novara - teaching our sacred tongue to individuals and factor y classes - having just completed 11 years ’ ser vice! After 6 years in UK jour nalism and 24 years in London PR consultancy before moving to Italy, I r e c k o n I ’ v e s p e n t m y l i f e i n t h e ‘communications’ industr y!”
JC Rose (S 43-48): Clif ford continues with the RSC, playing the Duke of Venice in their 2004 production of Othello with Sello Maake Ncube in the lead part This production transfer red to Japan for five weeks before retur ning to the UK to continue at the West End Clif ford played this same role in a production for the National Theatre that toured Japan some six years ago: a large section of the Japanese theatre going public is now convinced that he is the only English actor allowed to play this part!
RFJ Spier (S 45-55) Robert responded to Cara Roslington’s request for some p r i v a t e m e m o r i e s o f K i n g ’ s , t o complement the of ficial records held in the Archives And his account of his time at King’s is peppered with all the sorts of memories that don’t make it into the of ficial record! Some of those memories: “I wonder still what I did there except for carpentr y, ger unds, histor y and peeling spuds for Charlie the cook. I won some School Prizes but I suppose in my teens I became a fifties v e r s i o n o f H a r r y E n f i e l d ’ s ‘ I t ’ s s o unfair’ Kevin I remember the Sixth F o r m L i b r a r y h a v i n g a v e r y i d i o s y n c r a t i c s e l e c t i o n o f b o o k s , including ‘The Specialist – Secrets of a
S o u t h e r n U S P r i v y B u i l d e r ’ [ T h a t volume was still there, and a ‘must read’ book 10 years later in the Hon Sec’s time – MJP] I was made a referee at r ugby and that was my first introduction in the exercise of power, but ar med with only a Punch book of cartoons for the r ules!
The Headmaster Ronald Kitter master’s maxim, ‘If you are going to do nothing, don’t do it here,’ has ser ved me well ” Rober t graduated from Bir mingham, qualified as a Chartered Accountant and was posted at various times to London, Sudan, South Yemen, and Zambia; he followed with work in the oil industr y, real estate and venture capital Since retirement in 1998 he has immersed himself in charity work, helping with accounting, investment and proper ty matters, and a know-how scheme in Central Europe He is President of CABA – The Char tered Accountants Benevolent Association, founded to help m e m b e r s o f t h e i n d u s t r y, o r t h e i r f a m i l i e s , a f f e c t e d b y b e r e a v e m e n t , accident, illness or other circumstances
r e s u l t i n g i n f i n a n c i a l a n d r e l a t e d dif ficulties outside their control
“I think that when you are a Chartered Accountant and have acquired all that expertise after years of agonising over audits, continuously developing one ’ s k n o w l e d g e b y g o i n g t o t r a i n i n g seminars, and sweating it out in dif ferent places, it is a mistake just to abandon it Charities need people with financial exper tise ” CABA can be found by visiting www.caba.org.uk
Michael Steed (H 54-61): Took early retirement from Alliance and Leicester in 1996 and after doing ver y little for a
couple of years, took on a new career as a j o u r n a l i s t a n d n o w w o r k f u l l t i m e f
r L i n c o l n s h i
a cottage in a village in the Lincolnshire Wolds with my 13 year old son. Have three children and three grandchildren
Romano Subiotto(Ca 74-79): The August edition of American Lawyer, a US magazine read by almost all legal people in the US, car ried the front cover shown on the left PM Tansell (DB 41-44): We lost contact with Phil for a while recently, but he is back in contact with the Club again from his home near Brisbane, Queensland, eager to know what is going on with the Club and School these days Contact details are: philtansell@bigpond.com
IC Woodcock (O 90-00): Ian gained a 2 1 BA (Hons) from Leeds in July 2004
Alison V Wright (Co 85-87): Alison has s
brother and father as well, all OVs
C J Wright (K 80-89)
D G Wright (Cr 54-61)
We’ve all had a momentous year in 2004 as far as our careers are concer ned: Alison has been promoted to a new position at the University of Bir mingham and is now School Manager for the School of Computer Science She is presently working towards a Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Practice (Higher Education Administration), which she hopes to complete in late 2005.
Christopher became a Corporate Partner at Bracher Rawlins Solicitors in London on 1 May 2004 He specialises in corporate and commerc ial law, including mer gers and acquisitions and private equity financing
D a v i d r e t
Solicitors after 34 years on 31 March 2004
He works now on a self-employed basis for The Worcester Family Law Practice, where he specialises in child care and adoption In his spare time (!), he is busy decorating his new house in Bevere, into which he moves with wife Gill on 29 October 2004
Revd John Wright (Cr 57-65): Brother to David above has moved from Backwell to Tetbur y He and wife Liz live now at The V i c a r a g e ,
U RY, Gloucestershire, GL8 8DN The e-mail remains
Tim Garden
Retur ning to Worcester for David Annett’s memorial ser vice reminded me how lucky my generation has been I spent ten years as a pupil at King’s When I started at St Alban’s in 1952, on a free place scholarship, it was like entering a strange new world The
rigid discipline would seem alien to any eight year old today Passing the Eleven Plus ensured that I could
school with the costs now covered by the local authority Those days of the D
opportunities to those of us from families of modest means. If pupils divide into achievers either
feature. The excitement of discover y i
matter We were fortunate to have (as I suspect ever y generation at King’s does) a galaxy of teaching talent. Richard Knight, Alex Nathan, Dan McTurk, James Cash, Michael Shayer, John Frisby and Peter Bar nett shaped my future in ways that I came only slowly to understand
St Alban’s 1953
The educational experience of King’s w a s a b o u t m o r e t h a n c l a s s r o o m teaching On Saturday mor nings, the C o m b i n e d C a d e
decorated from their ser vice in World War 2, would tr y to educate us in m a t t e r s m i l i t a r y. I w a s a b o u t a s enthusiastic for ar my manoeuvres as I was for cross countr y r uns It was t h e r e f o r e a b l e s s e d r e l i e f w h e n Arthur Aldridge for med a new Royal Air Force section for the CCF As a founder member, I was in a privileged
position. We would do trips on field days in a variety of now historic aircraft I undertook a gliding course with solo f l i g h t A f l y i n g s c h o l a r s h i p a t Wolverhampton meant that I had my p r i v a t e p i l o t ’ s l i c e n c e b e f o r e I h a d passed my driving test Finally, I took
p a r t i n a n I n t e r n a t i o n a l A i r C a d e t
Exchange in my last ter m, and retur ned h a v i n g s h a k e n h a n d s w i t h P re s i d e n t
John F Kennedy After such excitements, there could be only one career for me: a pilot in the RAF.
David Annett was strong in his advice that I should go to University rather than directly to the RAF College at Cranwell He was, as always, right. Physics at St C a t h e r i n e ’ s C o l l e g e O x f o r d w a s stimulating, and the flying continued at the University Air Squadron Sue and I met at Oxford, and we were mar ried as I finished my of ficer training Our first t o u r w a s i n G e r m a n y, w h e r e I f l e w C a n b e r r a s w h i c h w e r e p a r t o f o u r nuclear forces Both our daughters were bor n while we were in Ger many From there, I became a flying instr uctor in Yorkshire, and was sent in 1976 to a year at the Ar my Staf f College My first of many tours at the Ministr y of Defence followed I was the Personal Staf f Of ficer to the senior of ficer responsible for all personnel matters in the RAF This was an early introduction to the workings at the top of Whitehall
A t o u r a s c o m m a n d e r o f a Vu l c a n n u c l e a r b o m b e r s q u a d r o n i n Lincolnshire followed I was somewhat disappointed to see my squadron used in the Falkands Conflict, after I had moved on to Magdalene College, Cambridge f o r a n I n t e r n a t i o n a l R e l a
T h e
followed three years as the roaming a c a d e m i c f o r t h e R A F M y r o l e a s Director of Defence Studies was to travel the world generating new thinking in defence matters In 1985, I was posted to command a helicopter station This was a dramatic change in aircraft as I had not been trained in the peculiarities of flying helicopters before During this tour, I came on to the Board of Gover nors at King’s, and managed to combine some flying with my retur ns to Worcester. The CCF cadets (and even the headmaster, John Moore) seemed pleased to be able to do Puma trips round the Cathedral from the playing fields. Flying Puma and Chinook helicopters as a group captain was the last operational flying which I undertook As I moved back to the Ministr y of Defence, senior posts gave only occasional chances to be at the controls of a Tor nado or Har rier The world was changing with the end of the Cold War, and we were transfor ming all three Ser vices From 1987 to 1994, I h a d f o u
u d i n g assistant chief of the air staf f, and then the assistant chief of the defence staf f responsible for the future size and shape of all three ser vices As we reduced the size of our forces in an unpredictable world, the challenge was for midable. I was ver y pleased when this work was recognised by my knighthood in 1994 On promotion to air marshal, I then became the head of the senior staf f college for the militar y, diplomats and public ser vants – the Royal College of
At 52, I decided it was time to look for new challenges. Now a civilian, I was selected to be the Director of the Royal I n s t i t
Chatham House in 1996. Working in this world famous foreign policy think tank confir med my view that if you want to change the world, you must be prepared to be political. After a lifetime of being a n o n - p
, I immersed myself in Liberal Democrat
party politics I was also fortunate that the media increasingly looked to me for
proved to be as exciting as low level flying at 500 mph.
The last two years has been a dif ficult time in inter national relations Iraq has d
inter national radio and television, gave me the opportunity to war n about the p
s i b l
y inter vention In the end politicians make these life and death decisions on our behalf I was therefore delighted when Charles Kennedy invited me to be one of the eight new peers which he
security policy ever y week
It is over 50 years since a somewhat bewildered 8 year old entered St Alban’s for the first time Introduction to the House of Lords was not so ver y dif ferent You even get your own coat hook and locker I have no doubt that the King’s School made this somewhat strange yet rewarding life possible
Air Marshal Professor The Lord Garden KCB
Pictures from left to right: Creighton 1956, Creighton House Photo 1958, Introduction to House of Lords 2004
Are you looking for a challenging, varied and well-paid job which gives job satisfaction and excellent training throughout your career?
Are you interested in obtaining financial sponsorship,
■ At school - through the Army Scolarship?
■ During your Gap Year - through the Gap year Commission?
■ At University - through a Cadetship or Bursary?
Did you know that the Army has vacancies for around 700 young officers every year?
If you are interested and feel you measure up to the high standards required, make an appointment through your Careers Staff to see Brigadier Hedley on one of his termly visits. Or contact him directly:
Brigadier (Retired) A A Hedley OBE
Army Careers Adviser (Officer), Army Forces Careers Office, 2 Floor, Princess House, The Square, Shrewsbury SY1 1JZ
Telephone: 01743 352905
The Army is committed to being an Equal Opportunities Employer
(St A 52-54, Cr 54-62)
The season was our most successful to date both on and of f the pitch The Old Vigor nians finished third in Division Four of the Worcestershire League, just one place shy of automatic promotion, but with a chance of playing in Division Three next season if planned changes to the league str ucture are approved in the Autumn In fact the only reason we failed to finish second was that we were far less lucky with the weather than the side immediately above us, who only lost one match to rain compared to our four The Second XI was less consistent and finished in a respectable sixth place It w a s n
better when captain Tim Whitehouse was available The Sunday side won far more games than it lost, to complete the
The three main social events of the year were blessed with good weather, and g
spectators In May we staged a six-a-side competition followed by a Ball at the County Ground. The day raised over £1,000 of much needed funds for the club, and well over one hundred people came along during the day and night Richard W ilkes, David Mendham, Nic Sproson and James Under wood are to be thanked for organising ever ything so
including Nick and Richard Major, Steve Ott, Charles Daniell and Dan Har ris, beat Dave Mendham’s side in a close r un final On King’s Day in July the Firsts and Seconds defeated their King’s School counterparts, and on the August Bank
H
King’s First XI of 1994 to victor y over the O.Vs. Arti Fiaz and Charlie Lowe both
tur ned in ter rific per for mances with bat and ball. Ever yone tucked into the pig roast after the match
There were a few significant personal l
maiden centuries for the club Dan Wheeler, Steve Ott and Arti Fiaz, all passed three figures during the season
Nick Major was the club’s leading r un scorer, with 488 r uns, just ahead of Wheeler, Ott, JJ Richardson and James Gommersall Phil Mackie took the most wickets, 31, with James Bader, Tim Race, Adam Nicholls, Dan Har ris and Dave
M
Amblecote and Wollaston was the best individual per for mance of the season
W ill Smith and W ill Hardy both bowled ter rifically well too
It was an enjoyable season, and we’d be delighted to hear from schoolboys and girls and OVs retur ning to the area who’d like to join us
Phil Mackie - Club Captain
Student Institution Subject
Rammy Arafa
Christopher Astles
Cameron Baldr y
University of Wales Institute, Cardif f Sports Coaching
University of Manchester Criminology and Social Policy
University of Hull War Security Studies
Timothy Bar nby ........................................................University of Hull .......................................................................................Marketing
Oliver Bendall
Lidia Benvie-Fer reiros
Katharine Brecknell
Leeds Metropolitan University Retail Marketing Management
University of Nottingham Management Studies
University of Liverpool Histor y Ellen Brigden ............................................................University of Gloucestershire ...........................................................Art Foundation
Thomas Car r
Michael Chaf fey
Stuart Chandler
Kingston University Business Management
University of Nottingham Computer Science/Management Studies
University of Durham Economics
Michael Cook ............................................................De Montfort University ................................................................Computer Science
Rachel Cowbur n
Benjamin Cowles
Joanna Dalton
St Catharine's College, Cambridge Geography
Aston University Industrial Product Design
University of Manchester English and Spanish
James Davis ................................................................University of Reading ..................................................................Land Management
Rachael Dawson
James Delin
Thomas Denlegh-Maxwell
University of Durham Moder n Foreign Languages
University of Kent Philosophy
Oxford Brookes University Inter national Business
Huw Dimond ............................................................University of Wales Institute, Cardif f ..........................Sport and Exercise Sciences
Lisa Downes
Rachael Doxford
Ror y Ewers
Henr y Fellows
Judith Foley
Gavin Forbes
Christopher Fulton
Ava Goodman
James Greenfield
Emily Grif fiths
Anna Guy
Rebecca Gwilliam
Peter Hale
Thomas Hand
University of Plymouth Psychology with Criminal Justice
University College, Worcester Psychology
London School of Economics Mathematics and Economics
University of Reading Land Management
University of St Andrews Psychology
Peninsula Medical School Medicine
Balliol College, Oxford Physics and Philosophy
University of Durham Sport in the Community
University of Shef field Moder n Languages
Cardif f University Psychology
University of Newcastle Fine Art
Trinity College, Cambridge Geography
University of Exeter
Business and Management
University of Durham Histor y
Kate Her riot ..............................................................University College London .........................................................................Medicine
Rebecca Hewson
Jessica Higgs
Felicity Hill
Nottingham Trent University
Fashion and Textile Management
Peninsula Medical School Medicine
University of Liverpool Zoology
Steven Holloway ........................................................University of Newcastle .........................................................Electrical Engineering
Tamara Hopkins
Alexander Humpage
Benjamin Humphrey
University of Shef field
Business and Infor mation Management
University of Shef field Social and Political Studies
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School Acting
Paul Humphries ........................................................University of the West of England, Bristol ........................Drama and Film Studies
Charles Jef ferson-Loveday
Catherine Jeynes
George Jillard
University of Southampton Medicine
University of Plymouth Psychology
Aston University Automotive Product Design
Matthew Johnson ......................................................Oxford Brookes University ....................................................................Architecture
Richard Jones
W illiam Jones
Samantha Jones
University of Manchester Biology
University of Liverpool Law
University of the West of England, Bristol Drama and English
Richard Joyce ............................................................University of Nottingham ...............................................................................Biology
Laura Kingshott
Rachel Lawrence
Jodie Layton
University of Nottingham
Chemistr y and Process Engineering
University of Bristol Histor y
University of Reading Art
Rupert Lewis .............................................................University of Plymouth ..........................................................................Architecture
Elizabeth Lewis
Kate Long
Har riet Lynas
University of Wales Institute, Cardif f Sports Coaching
University of Leeds Geography/Management
Queen Mar y College, London Business Management
Timothy Mackenzie ..................................................Oxford Brookes University ............................................Business and Management
Toni Marshall
Gemma Martyn Smith
Oliver Mathew
University of Bath Business Administration
University of Durham Natural Sciences
Cardif f University Histor y
James McCreath ........................................................Balliol College, Oxford ..................................Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Lyndsay Miller
Claire Moseley
Brett Nealon
Peninsula Medical School Medicine
Cardif f University Biology
University of Liverpool French and Hispanic Studies
David Newsholme .....................................................New College, Oxford .......................................................................................Music
Mark Nichols
Katie Oakley
Richard Painter
University of York Philosophy
University of the West of England, Bristol Fine Arts
University of Leeds Geography/Management
Rose Palmer ..............................................................King's College, Cambridge ............................................................Medical Sciences
Lara Parsons
David Payne
Edward Pearce
University of Wales College of Medicine Nursing (Child Health)
University College Chester Media
University of Nottingham Architecture
Alexander Phillips- Broadhurst ...............................University of Leeds ...........................................................................Graphic Design
Thomas Pickrell
Helen Pitts-Tucker
Matthew Porter
University of Wales Institute, Cardif f Biomedical Sciences
University of Bath Moder n Languages
Harper Adams University College Rural Enterprise/Land Management
Guy Potter .................................................................University of Durham ...............................................Moder n European Languages
Simon Potter
Nadine Preedy
Har riet Priddey
University of Nottingham Medicine
Cardif f University English Literature
University of Bristol Veterinar y Science
Laura Ranson ............................................................Royal Veterinar y College ............................................................Veterinar y Sciences
Scott Rennie
David Richardson
Naomi Roberts
London School of Economics Management Sciences
University of Bristol Philosophy
University of Bristol Veterinar y Science
Catharine Robertson ................................................University of Bristol ........................................................................................English
James Rushforth
Elizabeth Rushton
Georgina Rutter
University of Durham Geography
University of Southampton Geography
Oxford Brookes University Business/Geography
Rebecca Seales ..........................................................St Catharine's College, Cambridge ..............................................................English
Lor na Shaddick
Thomas Smith
W illiam Smith
Exeter College, Oxford Moder n Histor y and English
University of Leeds Mathematics
Wadham College, Oxford Chemistr y
Henr y Smith .............................................................University of Durham ...............................................................................Geography
Lucy Smith
Christian Snoad
Claire Southam
University of Manchester English and American Literature
University of Leeds Civil and Str uctural Engineering
University of Leeds Geography
Thomas Spears ..........................................................University of Southampton .........................................................................Medicine
Emma Steed
Katie Stokes
Adam Taylor
University of Portsmouth Financial Ser vices
Oxford Brookes University Interior Architecture
University of Bath Chemical Engineering
Stephanie Taylor .......................................................Merton College, Oxford ................................................................................Physics
Victoria Taylor
Joseph Timson
Sophie Tomlin
Nottingham Trent University Psychology with Sociology
Nottingham Trent University Audio Visual Technology
University of Wales College of Medicine Medicine
Har r y Travers ............................................................University of Nottingham .........................................................................Economics
Luke Weaver
Thomas Weston
W illiam Westwood
University of Wales Institute, Cardif f Leisure and Sports Management
War wickshire College Racing Management
University of Wales, Swansea Psychology
Rebecca Whear .........................................................University of Wales, Aber ystwyth .........................................................................Law
Eleanor White
Peter W ilby
Simon W illmore
Newman College of Higher Education Primar y Teaching
University of Liverpool Business Economics
Imperial College London Civil Engineering
Natalie Wof ford ........................................................University of Wales, Swansea ...............................................................................Law
Amy Wright
Alastair Young
University of Nottingham Ger man
Nottingham Trent University Building Sur veying
