Cubitt-Newsletter-Summer-2011

Cubitt Newsletter Summer 2011 Housemaster’s Comments Cubitt has had another extremely successful year in

virtually all respects and most importantly there has continued to be a fine sense of camaraderie and support for one another. In many ways this comes from the leadership that is offered and I would like to thank the U6 for all they have done to promote this but it is particularly pertinent this year to show our gratitude to the outstanding Cubitt tutor team as well.

I have always counted myself extremely fortunate to have a tutor team that is quite simply second to none and the dedication, care and loyalty they have shown is a key reason for Cubitt being such a supportive, fun and happy community. Sadly there is a significant turnover of tutors this year (6 leaving in all) and although there is not time here to do justice to the magnificent service they have given Cubitt and the boys, we were able to properly mark their time in Cubitt, show our sincere gratitude and bid them a fond farewell at House Prayers. In full, our leavers are: Mr Felix Hill who leaves to study for his Phd after his two very successful terms with us.

Mrs Clair Neill who we have been lucky enough to have tutoring for a year before becoming Housemistress of West House.

Mr Fergus Wilson who after three splendid years as Day Warden is leaving to take up his post as Housemaster at Milton Abbey, Dr Simon Young who after 18 years of superb tutoring in Cubitt is transferring to West House.

Mr Neill Bennett who is retiring after 20 years of magnificent service as a tutor in Cubitt.

Mr Gordon Neill who is also transferring to West after 8 years as a legendary Deputy Housemaster and tutor.

Simon Young and Gordon Neill are moving to West as part of a positive school-wide policy to make tutoring more in keeping with the co-ed ethos of the school and I am pleased to say that Mrs Sarah Roberts and Mrs Olivia Ravilious will be moving in the opposite direction to join Cubitt. As I have previously made known Mr Sam Cooke will be taking over from Gordon as Deputy and, more recently, I am very pleased to announce that Mr Tim Fearn has agreed to take over as Day Warden from Fergus Wilson. In addition, I am delighted that Mr James Copp will be joining from East and we have two new members of Common Room joining as tutors, Mr Richard Gale and Mr Tom Marriott. Overall, if you are able to follow the changes, we will gain an additional tutor and the new tutor that the boys have will be announced at the start of next term.

I very much hope that you enjoy reading Gordon’s summary of the term in his last ever newsletter and all that remains for me to do is to wish you all a relaxing and enjoyable summer.

CHDB

If, as Shakespeare rather pithily suggests in Twelfth Night, the whirligig of time does indeed bring about its revenges, I should probably take some responsibility for the almost barren wasteland that is the Cubitt trophy cabinet after the summer term of 2011. After all my vainglorious boasts about our hockey and cross-country successes last term, this term saw us give a sustained and impressive clinic in “How to Play the Gallant Loser”. The perceptive reader – of which I know, in as intellectually ambitious a house as Cubitt, there will be many –may have had his / her hopes raised a little by the use of the word “almost” in the opening sentence and their perspicacity would be far from groundless. The soil may have been arid – even pebbly – but two small green shoots sprouted where once there had seemed to be only ash. Their names? Junior Croquet and Senior Croquet. Read on and don’t give up…

haughty rebels who refused to adhere to house tradition and I trust that they will take a long, hard look at themselves over the course of the summer.

Cricket For the seniors, a semi-final against a Loveday side boasting over half the 1st XI always looked, if you will excuse the cliché, like a bridge too far. We had at least one foot on the bridge when Ben Wilson dismissed the Cranleigh and Surrey run machine, Jack Scriven, for a golden duck but then the bridge collapsed and we all fell off. We did, however, beat North in the 3rd / 4th place play off. The juniors clearly felt that to outdo their senior counterparts would be bad form and duly came last, in spite of a swashbuckling half century from Will Calnan in the 3rd / 4th place playoff.

Golf I am aware that this narrative is starting to sound like one of those dreary Russian novels which only conclude when Grandpapa is found hanged in the barn but, unfortunately, this was another unmitigated disaster. The Senior side only managed to field four of the stipulated five golfers in their semi-final due to the wanderlust of J.Pullar and, as such, performed heroically to lose only by 3 matches to 2. The Juniors, with the honourable exception of Jake Storey, may as well have hacked their way round with leeks and broomsticks, going down to a 4-1 defeat.

Raquet Sports Cubittians are known for their humanitarian instincts. They would not harm a fly and nor, apparently, would they hurt a shuttlecock. Our badminton racquets were flapped with vigour but, alas, to little, if any, effect.

The tennis teams were considerably more competitive, coming second in both the junior and senior competitions.

Clearly the spherical predictability of the tennis ball was more to our taste than the geometrical chaos of the shuttlecock but, nonetheless, silverware proved elusive and our quest for glory would have to be continued elsewhere….

Swimming ….but not, of course, here. In terms of natural habitat, a swimming pool is to a Cubittian what an Arctic tundra is to an elephant and our seniors maintained Cubitt’s standards famously this term, coming last in event after event. They approached the task in different ways - some thrashed forlornly, some were disqualified, some got cramp and some simply sank – but the important thing was that they all came fourth out of a field of four. The same, alas, cannot be said for our juniors and, loath though I am to name and shame, the fact remains that five Cubitt boys swam rather well. Josh Horwood, Conor McCormack, Chris Linford, Matt Foster and Theo Bowden are the

Athletics “At last!” I hear you cry. “Some light at the end of this singularly dank and gloomy tunnel!” But no. Somehow – and I know not how – we managed not to win the House Athletics this year in spite of a) winning the Junior competition, b) coming second in the Intermediates and c) coming joint first in the Seniors.

The harsh realities of the scoring system saw us come second to Loveday by a frustratingly narrow margin, in spite of a stream of excellent performances, including the 4 x 400 Senior relay team breaking the school record.

Croquet It is often said that the darkest hour comes just before the dawn and, for Cubitt this year, the rosy fingers of Aurora found human form in the victorious junior and senior croquet teams. Not only did these young men wield an unerringly accurate mallet, they also attained standards of sartorial elegance to which other houses could only wistfully aspire. No matter that virtually all of these garments belonged to the Wodehousian figure of Hugo Moxey – that is a mere trifle. What needs to be recorded is the zest and flair with which balls were propelled through hoops, the cold-eyed viciousness with which opponents’ balls were smote aside (a procedure known, I believe, as the roquet) and the single-minded determination with which Tom Howard caddied. It is also worth noting that, when the book about Cubitt croquet is finally – and deservedly written, Oliver Pike’s trophy-winning final shot will deserve a chapter all to itself. It was the stuff of legend. In homage to W.B.Yeats’ ‘Easter 1916’, let me offer this final tribute to the mallet-bearing heroes of 2011 who have made the words Cubitt and croquet so synonymous:-

I write it out in a verse Campbell and Lord And Hayden and Richards And Parker and Ward And Pullar and Pike And Reeve and Thomas Now and in time to be, Wherever green is worn, Are changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.

Performing Arts

Concluding Thoughts

The high spirits that our success on the croquet lawn had engendered undoubtedly carried over to the House Music Evening and barbecue, a really splendid event, inimitably compered by Barnaby Findlay and Hugo Moxey, in which the cream of Cubitt’s thespians and musicians put on a thoroughly enjoyable show. We were able to bask in some splendid summer weather, the Pimms was drained with quite remarkable rapidity and a great deal of money was raised for the CHASE hospice – all in all, one of those really memorable house evenings.

It only remains me to congratulate in writing James Thompson on his appointment as Senior Prefect (only the second Cubittian in fifteen years to rise to such high office!), Henry Thomas on his appointment as House Captain and Jon Oldfield and Barnaby Findlay, on being appointed to share the deputy house captaincy. The Fourth Form Prefects will be Alex Curtis, Jack Hall and Oscar Reeve, whilst the Games Prefect responsibility will be shared between A.J.Justin and Jonny Pullar, the Academic Prefect will be Peter Westcott and the Charities Prefect will be Jack Pearson. Many congratulations to them all.

Congratulations also go to Luke Chitty for winning the Darbishire Cup for outstanding all-round sporting excellence and to Chris Linford and Oscar Reeve for winning the House Fellowship Awards, given to the boys who most embody the qualities of encouragement, positivity, support and enthusiasm that we value so highly in Cubitt.

I hope that all Cubittians and their families have an excellent summer break and, asthis is my last newsletter as deputy housemaster of Cubitt, I would just like to conclude by thanking you all – parents and boys alike – for your good humour and support over the last eight years. It has been enormous fun being part of the Cubitt community and I wish you all nothing but the best for the future.

Elsewhere, the dramatic highlight of the Summer Term was the junior school play, the Odyssey. This was a highly enjoyable evening’s entertainment and it was particularly pleasing to see so many Cubittians prominent on stage: Wes Lord, Ollie Parker, Dalvyn Hayden, Fin Johnston, George Collecott and Ben Castle-Gibb all performed with distinction. Particular acclaim, though, goes to Ollie Clarke, whose performance as Odysseus was extraordinarily powerful. It was also a delight to see Ben Cox, Barnaby Findlay, Tommy Lyster and Jon Oldfield appear in the inaugural Spanish play at Cranleigh, ‘La Casa de Bernarda Alba: La Continuacion’; although I didn’t see it myself due to an absurd knee injury, it was by all accounts an enormously entertaining and enjoyable performance.

Addendum Ollie Pike’s hockey shirt from the victorious Under 18 Nationals tournament went missing at the end of the summer term – a white hockey shirt with the Cranleigh crest and the number 18 on the back. If anyone has seen it, could they please let me or Mr Boddington know as soon as possible – it is, of course, of enormous sentimental value to Ollie and his family.

GJNN