Solid Castle newsletter | Issue 15 | May 2024

SOLID CASTLE

esero-uk CanSat Launch Day

Before the Easter Holidays, two CanSat teams attended the Regional launch at Strathaven Airfield. After working on their satellites, designed to fit inside a small soda can, for a number of months. Both teams successfully managed to build and programme their satellites to carry out a secondary mission.

For Team MerchiCan, they were creating an adaptable compartment designed to carry essential humanitarian aid. This compartment will serve as a vessel for items such as vaccines, painkillers, and other critical medical supplies.

As for Team Clash of Clans, their plan was to establish whether there is a relationship between altitude and radiation, taking into consideration how the atmosphere blocks out solar radiation.

Thanks are due to Rohan Raj, Richard Zhang and Geoff Sin who supported the teams throughout the project.

Well done to both teams for completing their CanSat Report, as well as building two successful, fully functional satellites. In addition to completing esero-UK’s CanSat programme, each pupil has also earned an Engineering Development Trust Silver Industrial Cadet Award.

Play your way to

Wimbledon

Slice Pizza Party!

Over the first weekend back at school the TA boys supported another of our community initiatives in the tennis dome with their mentoring and leadership skills at our SLICE PIZZA PARTY!

Over 40 families attended and our boys were fantastic at leading activities, supporting the young players that attended and helping the coaches with the games on display

During the course of a very long day (10am – 8pm) the event raised on the day £700 pounds for the Edinburgh Food Project Charity which was a great effort. Thank you also to Civerinos for supplying the pizzas!

Boys you were amazing and a huge thank you and well done to Louis W., Severijus S, Juan D., Cameron B., Callum A., Francisco D-G., and

Merchiston take over New York City

The Close Harmony Group and Pipe BandTour to NewYorkTartan week was a second attempt, fatefully the first was in 2020 and so it had been some time, 6 years in fact, since a musical group had conducted an InternationalTour.

With 47 seven students, 33 Pipers (and drummers) 13 Singers and one Singer/Piper the trip was an exciting prospect for everyone involved - with a staff team of Mr Dennis, Mr Warren, Mrs Maclennan, Mr Glover, Mr Lawson and Mr Lallement.

The trip began at 4pm onTuesday 2ndApril in Merchiston with 2 dress rehearsals and an overnight stay in Laidlaw for almost all members of the tour, before 4am coach trip to Manchester the next morning.The popular podcast - Diary of a CEO says “if you wanna find out who you really are? See how you are at 4am”.And for almost all the students, the answer would be - really tired.

After an uneventful coach trip, we arrived in Manchester airport to be greeted by a wonderful team, led by Phil, and escorted by James through the process of check-in and security.This was thanks to Simon Rankin, a parent of one of our Snare drummers and our pilot for both flights - the usually painful experience of transferring 50 tired travellers and a host of drums and bagpipes was a breeze with several of the pupils playing at various points in the airport, much to the delight of fellow passengers and staff.

7 hours later we arrived in the big apple, with its jaw dropping skyscrapers and boarded a coach that bought back so many images from hollywood films. Despite the pupils' fatigue, their mood was high.After checking into the hotel, we ate an evening meal at Bubba Gumps, probably the best meal of the tour with some time to gaze at the colours ofTimes Square.

Thursday 4th - the Close Harmony Group had their first performance in the Cathedral of St John the Divine - which was one of the most impressive buildings I have been in, with many chapels, a mixture of gothic and modernist art and ceiling of prayers.The close Harmony group - who had been performing in the Memorial Hall and Care homes in preparation marvelled at the acoustic space they found themselves in.

At the same time the Pipe Band made noise for the first time in NewYork with a practice at Central Park. Celebrities were Pipe Band spotting with none other than legendary jockey Frankie Detorie spotted taking the pipers and drummers hard at work.

After a quick lunch - the group headed to the Natural history Museum, a vast labyrinth of every conceivable exhibition - we gave ourselves a couple of hours, but could have easily spent a day happily exploring. But in New York, with so much to see, the group walked through Central park before a quick dinner atApplebees and on to the evenings entertainment -Aladdin the Musical, a colourful exhibition of vocal and acrobatic talent enjoyed by all.

Friday 5th - Breakfast, the NewYork Metro, some photos in NewYorks Financial district before boarding the Staten Island Cruise (accompanied by an earthquake) the boys enjoyed the sights of the Statue of Liberty before a quick lunch - and on to the afternoons sightseeing.The Empire State building. With some incredible views, and a museum detailing the history of the building, the Empire state building showcases just how vast the NewYork Skyline is.

The Pipe Band returned to the hotel to prepare uniform and instruments ahead of parade day - whilst the Close Harmony Group went on to their second and final performance of the tour - at the second Presbyterian Church - just next to Central Park.This was a wonderful evening of music making and the culmination of a years hard work from the pupils, who should be proud of their efforts. Dinner that evening was at Ellen’s stardust Diner, a restaurant where aspiring west end performers wait on the tables and sing songs from the musicals - they boys loved the experience and between mouthfuls - sang along.

Saturday 6th - Parade day arrived and it was the warmest of some rather cold days which helped the instruments.Aperformance in the beautiful Bryant Park with Carnegie Library the backdrop was a great way to settle performance nerves before the Pipe Band took to 6thAvenue and marched with swagger as the biggest Pipe Band on parade in their new MerchistonTartan kilts.The band finished the parade playing Highland Cathedral marching past Emmy and Bafta-winning actor Dougray Scott, theTartan Week Grand Marshall before stopping to huge applause from our very supportive entourage of parents, families and friends.An emotionally happy moment, the realisation of 18 months hard work from the Pipe Band coming to fruition on the global stage.

For many - the highlight of the tour outwith our musician performances was the opportunity to see an American Sports fixture, at the Barclay centre in Brooklyn - the Detroit Pistons vs the Brooklyn Nets, this as a final experience was incredibly exciting with a close finish with all the tour on their feet screaming for the home team.

My congratulations must go to the pupils, their behaviour was outstanding and they truly represented the Merchiston Values, my thanks must go to the staff, for their hard work.The group walked approximately 26 miles or marathon in just four days, and definitely took a sizeable bite from the BigApple. Let's hope there are many more opportunities for music and Piping to tour in the not too distant future.

Merchiston Metal Detecting Club

On Wednesday the 17th April the very first ever Metal Detecting Club at Merchiston took place. 6 intrepid treasure hunters under the guidance of Rev Blair set out (having been suitably educated on the practical and legal dos and don’ts) to see what they could dig up. As happens SO many times the “metal detecting gods” decided to hook the first time detectorists by allowing them some nice finds.

Freddie found a lovely and relatively rare George V 1919 Penny.

Calum found a 1958 Elizabeth II Two Shilling coin…again a rarity this site.

All in all, out of 7 digs 5 coins were found; a very good ratio. In addition, Ollie found an old brass alloy bullet casing dating from the time when the Cadet Force used blank rounds in the School grounds, circa 1940s/50s. A very

good beginning, a fun afternoon and lots of incidental learning going on; (Did you know for example that on a British coin the current monarch faces the opposite direction from their predecessor). And remember “ The real treasure is the hunt”

( We didn’t find the car!)

followed, where Oliver came out as Plate winner with a 15-5 victory over William. This meant the boys finished as 9th and 10th in the UK at U18 Singles. A great achievement.

Ruaidhrí V. won the “Best 14-year-old boy” award over the three weekends of the East District Age Group Championships, which finished the weekend before Rosslyn Park 7s. Securing 9 golds, 4 silvers, and a bronze over 17 events .

Over the Easter Holidays, Ruaidhrí took part in the Scottish National Age Group Championships in Aberdeen - a 5-day event!

His achievements at the meet, in the 14-year-old age group, were;

Scottish National Age Group Champion in the 100m Breaststroke.

Scottish National Age Group Champion in the 200m Breaststroke.

Bronze medals in the following events: 100m freestyle; 200m freestyle; 400m freestyle; 200m Individual Medley; and 400m Individual Medley.

WOW!!!

Easter appetite for winning

The Easter holiday is often about relaxing and indulging in chocolate or anything else you might have denied yourself over lent.

But for numerous residents of the Castle, committed to their sports, went out and had an appetite for winning.

Pictured on the left is Tom B. who was part of the Inverleith HC team.

Who over the holidays that won the Scottish U16 Cup through at the GNHC.

Congratulations Tom.

Music to our ears

The Lent term is an exciting term for music, with an outreach program, a host of teatime concerts, the Edinburgh Competition festival and 3 internal music Competitions

The Ogilvie Bowl is a relatively new competition in the school's history, a chance for popular musicians to compete as soloists.This took place onThursday 7th March with a record 21 performers performing over 14 styles of music, the standard of music which was commented on by Mr Beales, who adjudicated the evening. 3rd Prize went to Hamish Haggerty for his Jazz Piano Performance, 2nd Place was won byYaremaYakobchuk who performed Wind Cries Mary on the Electric Guitar and the cup was won by Jad Bsaibes - who performedToxicity by System of a Down on the Drum Kit.

The Forbes Bowl and McLeod Cup were contested onTuesday 12th March in the Memorial Hall.The McLeod Cup is for classical musicians in FIV and Shell. Quinton Wong was victorious this evening with his performance of the Mozart Horn Concerto - Movement 2 on the French Horn with Sikai Cao in second place and Gonzalo Sanchez in 3rd.The Forbes Bowl was a hotly contested affair, every performance was of the highest quality.The adjudicator Mr Redfern awarded Erik Shang 3rd place for his performance of the Pathetique Sonata by Beethoven, Ryan Woo second place - with his performance of the Ballade no.1 by Chopin and Adrian Wong first place, who performed the third movement from Reinecke's Concerto for Flute.

This term, there are two more school competitions,The Junior Music Cup and the Piping and drumming competitions.

on road, then onto single track to take them to the other side, the boys coped well with the varied surfaces and terrain.

Finally they meandered towards Bonaly where we stopped for a well deserved ice cream. Then a nice simple run back into the front gates of the school.

Thanks again to Ernie for the seamless organisation, the boys enjoyed it and had great satisfaction of their achievement at the end.

Write your headline here

Squeeze every drop

With the Pentlands on our doorstep, why wouldn’t we make more use it!

Over last term some of the boys did exactly that. Learning their craft on the mountain bikes culminating in a 15 mile cycle over the Pentlands back to the Castle!

Our first match was against a strong RGS Guildford side, who had enjoyed a good amount of success throughout their 7s season, so this posed to be a good test of the team. Due to the ruthless knockout nature of Rosslyn Park, the boys knew how important a good start would be against what was supposed to be the strongest team in our group, as one loss or draw could have spelled the end of our tournament. Luckily, the pitches were in great condition allowing us to play our brand of sevens,

Putting two early tries past RGS Guildford gave us the lead going into half time and we proceeded to build on this with two more scores in quick succession after the break. The match finished with a well-earned win of 38-17 despite a spirited RGS fightback.

We then looked to capitalise on the early momentum in our two other group matches against Sutton Valence School and Scarborough College.

Scoring early was the key to our success, as we were able to score three tries at the start of both matches whilst keeping the opposition out. I cannot stress enough how important the strength and depth of the substitutes was in allowing us to achieve the success we enjoyed throughout this tournament.

ITo finish off Day 1, we faced a strong Queen Ethelburga’s side in the play off match.They had also gone unbeaten in their group. We had limited knowledge of what sort of challenge they would pose to us, but we had a lot of trust in our own ability and the system that we had used throughout the 7s season.

Almost a recurring theme, scoring early once again gave us the upper hand in this match with a fourteen point lead at half time. Queen Ethelburga’s showed a high level of fitness as they pushed us right to the end of the match, but our early lead proved insurmountable and we finished with a 33-22 victory.

Day 2 began on the main pitch, excited by the opportunity of appearing on the NextGen livestream. We faced a fast and skilful Magdalen College side who had come out of day one unbeaten with an impressive set of results.

Learning and gaining confidence from day one, on possession is king, meant we kept the ball for the first 2 and a half minutes of the match until a break from Myles Mc down the left hand side gave us the lead. Magdalen then struck back but some excellent sweeping and defensive work fromTeoT prevented them from scoring more than one try.

Our superior fitness and work rate showed in this match, with us going on to record a 24-7 victory, which set the tone for the rest of Day 2.

We then suffered our first loss of the tournament to Strathallan, who capitalised on our errors.Although this was a loss, it did not mean the end of our tournament and we learned a valuable lesson on the importance of discipline and keeping the referee on our side.The boys then bounced back from this admirably, with a close win against a very strong Kingswood School side, who were one of the favourites in the competition. We took our opportunities and fought hard to the end of the match, with the substitutes once again playing an important role in our success. We managed to score in the final minutes of the game to take the score to 19-17, showing the vital importance of making our kicks, credit for which goes to Henry W.

To finish our tournament, we faced two very strong sides in Cheltenham College and Millfield School, once again having the opportunity to play on the NextGen livestream. Both matches were fiercely contested but ultimately a bridge too far.

Ahuge thank you must go to both Mr Deans and Mr Noble for allowing us to take part in this tournament and enjoy the success that we achieved.

C team finish season in

style

The U14 RP7s tournament provided an exciting opportunity for the C1s to test their skills against some of the top schools from south of the border. The team made an impressive start on the first day, dominating their pool matches with victories over Llangatwg Community School, Queen Mary's Grammar School, Oundle School, and Kirkham Grammar School in the elimination match, showcasing their talent and determination on the field.

Progressing to day 2, the team faced tougher competition in the cup competition, being placed in another pool against formidable opponents such as King's College School, Wimbledon, and The King's School, Macclesfield, the National 15s Champions. Despite a valiant effort, the pool concluded with each team winning one game. Unfortunately, the team narrowly missed out on progression to the next round, with The King's School, Macclesfield advancing based on try count and conceding fewer tries.

Although it was disappointing to exit the competition in such a manner, the boys demonstrated exceptional skill and resilience throughout both days of the tournament.

The trip to London provided memorable experiences for the boys, fostering camaraderie among the team members. Special thanks were extended to Mr. Raikes for his invaluable contribution to coaching the team, further enhancing their performance and development.

Chasing Highlights

The end of the season also saw a mini-tour to Rosslyn Park 7s followed by the Castle’s first involvement in Caldicott 10s. 15 boys took the train down with Mr De Luca and were met by Mr Gaddie, who heroically had driven 12 hours in the minibus to meet us there.

The sun was shining, the pitches were firm and the boys put on a show at Rosslyn park. A tough group saw each match only finish within a score or two, with Merchi coming out top on some, and not on others. With one day down and fully loaded in Rosslyn Park ‘Merch’ we headed for an inspirational tour of Twickenham and then off to Caldicott 10s.

With teams from Kenya, Dubai, Wales, England and Scotland, it was wonderful for Merchiston to be there representing and playing in this global tournament. Every match was live streamed and the boys had the opportunity and freedom to chase highlights. Playing to their strengths and wowing the crowd. Special mention has to go to Jack D., who led the team well and performed with flair and precision at Caldicott and to Will G., the one man wrecking ball, who smashed, danced and glided his way to double figure tries over the few days. They also combined for one highlight that reached over 350,000 views on RugbyDump!!

Often it is more difficult to hunt out the not so flash highlights, but without doubt, one of the coaches was watching the 2nd form step up, Henry D, Harry. L, Barney G, Logan D, Cadell W. and Jack W. sything and smashing boys double their size!!

It was an incredible way to finish what has been a memorable season for the U13s. It is only the beginning of the journey for these boys and we are excited to see what comes.

Lance N. put to the test

Congratulations to Lance who played in the LTA u18 Great Britain National Championships inLondon.

Playing in both the singles and thedoubleseventsoverEaster.

The Tennis Academy continue to be the epitome of ensuring the boys are challenge in and out of school. Helping them stretch and strivetobethebesttheycanbe.

CongratulationtoSeverijusS.who wontheu14RegionalTourSingles and the Doubles in Cheshire over theEasterbreak.

Double Trouble

Another congratulations to Alasdair L. who won the U16 Regional Tour Doubles in Edinburgh!

Golf, golf, golf

This past week the Middle/Seniors also competed in a scratch match vs the Golf Academy at Loretto. Although a ‘friendly’, this head to head match play was fiercely contested between the best players from either side, played over Longniddry in East Lothian.

Captained by LVI pupil Archie Cook, the boys fought out a well earned halved match, 2-2, with a lot of excellent golf on show. It was also the first outing for the Golf Academy’s new bags, complimenting this year's FJ clothing and helping the boys looklikeaTEAM!

Last week the Golf Academy had the opportunity of an away day stroke play at the World Class Dumbarnie Links, in Fife. Opened in 2020, DumbarniewasvotedtheWorldsBestNewCourse in2021andhasheldtopleveltournaments. This was a real treat and a great experience for the boystoplayachampionshiplinks,learninghowto quickly adapt to more challenging variables commensurate to those faced by Tour Professionals.