North-Newsletter-Michaelmas-2012

North House Michaelmas 2012

EMB’s Notes

This is my ninth term as a Housemaster and I have never known the House so happy and cohesive. It has not always been an easy term but the year groups have come together fol‐ lowing personal up‐ heavals and disap‐ pointments and this reflects really well on them and their determina on to make the most of the opportuni es.

This is always an exci ng term with the arrival of a new group of bustling and excited fourth formers com‐ plemented with a smaller but no less posi ve group joining in the L6th. The fourth form soon put down their marker with a hugely impressive dance in the House Performance winning first place in their compe on. At the same me, the new L6th formers have helped to draw this year group together with their desire to make the best of this fantas c school.

However, the key reason for this ‘feel good factor’ is the lead‐ ership provided by the Upper Sixth. They were tremendous from day one with the success of the ‘Big Brother BBQ’ se ng the tone for the term. During this hilarious event some of the LVth were heard to mu er ‘ours was nothing like this last year’. The U6th are a terrific group of role models who have that priceless ability to include everyone in their daily lives. This has been helped by our extension in Matrons’ room and it is lovely to spend me with all the year groups in this area. The addi on of an oven has made a big difference – a belly full of food is a good way to keep teenage boys on side! The natural ease in which everyone socializes has been

the key theme throughout the term. When Luke Boyd, Will Se erfield and Tom Taylor took on the role of leadership they said that their aim was to foster a more meaningful house spirit throughout all the year groups. To have achieved this in fourteen weeks speaks volumes for them: management con‐ sultants spend millions trying to work out how to ‘change manage’ in such a short period of me….!!

Special Thanks to: 

Sean Osborne and Joe Hardy who have put a huge amount of me and energy into making this wonder‐ ful publica on come to life.



A wonderful and suppor ve tutor team in which our new ‘addi ons’, Tom Leeke, Mar n Johnson, Heli Mallory and Andy Robinson, have been brilliant.



James Witcombe and Mike Brookes who support me and the boys superbly on a day to day basis.



Above all, Marion and Karen, who are stunning in their job and manage to support all of us: Housemas‐ ter, Depu es, Tutors and, of course, the boys.

Michaelmas House Awards House Ties Cufflinks Colours Half Colours

Socks Academic Awards Tutor Awards (Lower School) Housemaster Awards (Sixth Form)

Luke Boyd, Harry McCagherty, Hugo Murphy, Toby Savill, Will Setterfield, Tom Taylor, Paddy Wilson.

Will Stocks, Dave Forster, Julian Browning, Max Haycock, Mike Linford, Jonny Paddle, Gio DeNardi Sean Osborne, Callum Kent, Joe Quinn, Robbie Matthews, Joe Hardy, Rory Weyman Christian McCagherty, Daniel Pienaar, Ben Yakas, Jon Stocks, Will Palmer, Tom St Johnston, Will Inkster, Alfie Dudman-Jones, Aidan O’Donnell, George Page, Jake Harvey, Elliott Rickwood, Ben Strickland, Ollie Pearman, Tom O’Flanagan, Giacomo Gray, Will Boddington, Sacha Brown Sacha Brown, Ben Browning, Charlie Clarke, Angus Dahl, Alfie Dennis, Sam Dickson, Theo Gloyens, Milo Goldsmith, Charlie Hardy, Tom Parker, Alex Parson, Ed Tristem Mike Linford, Jonathan Stocks and Theo Gloyens Chris Paton, Alex Robertson, Sam Scutt, Ben Strickland, Jake Harvey, C.McCagherty, D.Pienaar, Rupert Wilson-Harris, Tom Chesterman, Angus Dahl Sean Osborne, Will Stocks

North House Michaelmas 2012 Monday night football With the en re team comprised of non‐footballers (anyone who fancied a game), our North team this year was somewhat overlooked by others. However, our performance against East to kick off the campaign suggested otherwise. With some bril‐ liant flowing football we shut the East boys out of the game, with Charlie Cu ng scoring a gutsy header at the far post and Gio De Nardi finishing them off in the final play with a dra‐ ma c one on one finish, to put North at the top of the table a er round 1. Sadly, this performance could not be replicated in the second round against a strong Cubi team. Having tak‐ en the lead just before half me, with a Mr Witcombe 30 yard screamer, the win looked as if it was in the bag. However, fa gue began to set in and Cubi slowly wormed their way back into the game, only to be finished off in the dying se‐ conds of the game by a horror mishap between a certain cen‐ tral defender and our valiant captain and keeper, to see the cubit striker teed up a yard away from an open goal. To the anguish of the North team and supporters we ended up losing 2 ‐1. A er the match a formal apology was presented by Mr Se erfield for his appalling a empt to clear the ball and con‐ sequently gi ing Cubi the win, announcing his re rement from Monday night football and making it clear that he’ll s ck to different shaped balls in the future. The final match was one to forget for the North boys. With Loveday running away in the early stages and never looking back, we sadly lost the game 3 ‐0, leaving us placed 3rd place in the table. Looking back it was an outstanding effort from all the North boys in‐ volved, and the support and spirit shown by the lads was ter‐ rific.

The North team turned up unprepared but full of hope, for this strange sport. But nevertheless you couldn’t cri cise the a tude and atmosphere that the maroon army brought to the concrete courts. Dave Forster and Boydie competed as the first pair, they fought valiantly but it wasn’t enough and lost 15‐11 to East. The first round didn’t go the North boy’s way for second pair Paddle and Se s or the third pair Charlie Cu ng and Callum Kent all losing to East. To the delight of the East supporters they beat us in a “sport” but will see who’s cheer‐ ing at the house rugby in the future (a proper sport). Things looked up against Loveday with the first pair of Dave and Pad‐ dle bea ng Loveday 15‐2. However, the rest of the teams un‐ fortunately lost. All in all, the fives was a success because alt‐ hough we knew we were never going to get far it brought the community together.

By Aidan O’Donnell

By Johnny Paddle Senior House fives

Junior Squash There was tough compe on for entry into this year’s North house squash team, however a er much delibera on the team was finalised as Ben Strickland, Charlie Clark, Freddie Ricks, Will Boddington and Milo Goldsmith. We had a tough draw playing a strong Loveday side first, despite winning per‐ formances from Charlie and Freddie we lost a close 3‐2 and were therefore entered into the 3rd and 4th play off, there was then a gap giving us me to reflect and prepare for the next match where we came up against East who had put up a good struggle to Cubi who when on to win the compe on, we had a shaky start losing the first match, however we managed to pull it back in the upper order winning 4‐1 with wins from Will, Freddie, Charlie and Ben, and therefore finishing 3rd.

Overall this was a good effort and had it not been for an un‐ lucky ini al draw we could have finished even higher up the order.

By Ben Strickland

North House Michaelmas 2012

House Challenge

The house challenge was always going to be a difficult encounter, not only had we lost Pete Thompson and George Colgan, the 5 mes out of 5 champions, but we were up against the favourites Loveday. Our team of Sam Dickson, Ben Yakas, Julian Browning and Patrick Wilson were outclassed on the day, but we at least managed to

score 190 points, 190 more than ini ally expected. We were knocked out unfortunately but there was great sup‐ port from the all the house, and special men on should go to Sam Dickson, our fourth former, for his excellent

performance in this epic duel of intellect.

By Patrick Wilson

Partsong

The house partsong compe on is always a much enjoyed event. This year was no excep on. We started off with a very large propor on of the house wan ng to join in, as with most years, however we had not been told of the rule change meaning that houses are only allowed to have 40 people in the part song. This was a problem as it meant we had to cut out about 20 people. This was unfortunate as everyone there really wanted to be in‐ volved. Eventually we did manage to cut down the numbers to 40. A er having only 3 and a half weeks to re‐ hearse, we finished learning our piece (a mash up between ‘Seven Na on Army’ by The White Stripes, and ‘Sweet Dreams’ by Eurythmics). On the day of the performance everyone sung excellently. We also improved on out second performance of the night. In the end we were placed 2nd. A very impressive result overall. Special thanks to Izzie Simpkin for organising the whole event with me.

By Harry McCagherty

North House Michaelmas 2012 Fourth form dance As the new fourth form, expecta ons were high from the whole house. The fourth form dance is one of the biggest nights of the year and we did not want to let them down. At first, with some pre y hopeless danc‐ ers, we weren’t sure if we were to the standard need‐ ed. But endless rehearsals and hours of training un‐ der the great guidance and wisdom of Toby Saville, Hugo Murphy and some girl power from West we had it sorted. Wai ng for our me to shine, hands were shaking and the whole of North were stamping their feet. We knew we were ready to take on the fourth form dance. The song started off with a comedic en‐ trance from Alfie Dennis dressed as the annoying Go Compare man...but he was soon sorted out...we shot him. Then we ‘Let It Rock’ with the en re North crew showing off their swag. Then ‘Shake Your Pom‐Poms’

by Missy Elliot got the West girls going, much to the boys’ entertainment. Then out of this excitement Tom Chesterman felt the need to the whip out the craziest dance moves Cranleigh School has ever wit‐ nessed. No show would be the same without a bit of Gangnam Style and we saw it as our duty to whip out the big guns. Clearly, the judges felt the same way as we led North to victory. Overall, the show had lots of variety, from Amelia of West being thrown into a mosh pit to a slow roman c tune by Rihanna and it was clearly an overwhelming success.

By Tom Chesterman

5th Form Basketball Going into this tournament as underdogs, we didn’t have high hopes of doing very well. Our first match was against East and, to the great surprise of Mr Bur‐ ne , we showed some skills we didn’t know we had and led by our captain and centre forward, Dom Coy, we dominated the game. Dom, Olly Rod, Alex Gook, and Jack Horsey (our American representa ve) scored the total of our baskets while in midfield and defence Rory Kennedy, Jake Harvey, F.Ricks and M.Boyd did what was necessary, occasionally illegal‐ ly, and kept East’s tally low. The final score was 26‐8, an easy victory. In the final we played Cubi who were a very skilled side and seemed to have some form of tac cs, rather too technical for us. Unfortu‐ nately, due to Rory Kennedy becoming injured early on, we were one squad player down for the rest of the game. Also with TIMW reffing and opera ng a policy of a limit of 5 fouls in the match per player, our tac cs were severely hindered and we lost even more players due to sending off’s (Dom Coy). This severly tested the team’s fitness to the limit. We started well and it was fairly even, but as the match wore on Cubi took their chances while North red and struggled to match their shoo ng. Overall it was a very gutsy performance and we exceeded every‐ one’s expecta ons with a well deserved second place.

By Rory Kennedy

North House Michaelmas 2012 Junior Public Speaking

sheer comedy. The result? Possibly one of the largest cast lists a House play has ever seen with 12 North boys When Paddy Wilson informed me that I was to be the chair‐ person for the junior house public speaking I was thrilled and and 11 West girls all making up the couples who under‐ very much looking forward to the job. It was split up into went ugly breakups. With sketches involving undercov‐ three main parts: the chairperson, main speaker and the pro‐ er spies, to an unfortunate ta oo, including breakups poser of thanks which was myself, Dan Pienaar and Tom over not being allowed to watch the highlights of the Chesterman. football game, this was certainly one of the most di‐ We prepared our speeches with Dan doing his on whether or verse and funny plays this thespian/cri c has ever been not Britain should give back the Falkland’s to Argen na. It involved in. was fascina ng to listen to but despite our best efforts we came second narrowly missing out on 1st place to Cubi . I West, I salute you... thoroughly enjoyed my me as the chairperson and hope to do the same next year. Also I just wanted to express my Tommy Taylor thanks and praises to Paddy Wilson, Dan and Tom. Well done North!

By Ben Yakas

West House Play A er the undoubted triumph of the North House Play last year (superbly directed by North’s very own Will Se erfield, Luke Boyd and Tommy Taylor) there was much expecta on and excitement for the most recent bout of the epidemic known as ac ng. This me, it was West’s turn to stand up against the delicate job of di‐ rec ng a play that was both beau fully simple, but also hilariously wi y. Needleless to say, the directors (Millie Black and Sophia Ambrose) did an outstanding job of cas ng and direc ng the hilarious one act play. The tle of this masterpiece, It’s Not You, It’s Me. The genre,

Junior Fives The semi‐finals of the junior house fives matches took place on Tuesday 18th October. The team consisted of 6 people; these were Charlie Clarke, Sam Dixon, Ben Strick‐ land, Daniel Pienaar, Milo Goldsmith and Charlie Hardy, our team had been dras cally changed as several of our players were injured or unable to a end. We played Cubi in the first round, unfortunately all three of our pairs lost with our 1st pair suffering par cular humilia on, struggling to score even a single point.Our next match; the 3rd and 4th playoff took place on Thursday 15th of November against Loveday. In our team were Charlie Clarke, Ben Stricktland,

North House Michaelmas 2012 William Boddington, Daniel Pienaar, Milo Goldsmith and Giacomo Gray. Once again some of our players were una‐ ble to a end. We had slightly more luck and our 1st pair very almost won their game (13‐15 to them), however due to complica ons a few of our players were inexperienced or hadn’t played for at least a year. All in all junior fives this year was enjoyable, if unsuccessful.

training session we were ready to go. We started off by play‐ ing Cubi . We played well but unfortunately Cubi had some cheeky tricks up their sleeve. We then went on to play East.

Our self‐esteem was down but we had a feeling we could beat them. We started off with a basket in the first few seconds and from then on we owned it. The end score was something like 28‐0! Overall we came third, but had the draw been differ‐ ent this compe on could have been ours for the win.

By Milo Goldsmith

By Daniel Peinaar

Senior Public Speaking

Whilst we didn’t come away with any prizes this year’s North team s ll performed spectacularly. We decided to present an argument concerning whether the Government has the right to clamp down on social media. Jon Stocks’ opening chairman’s speech was filled with humor (and many insults towards me) and opened the argument ex‐ cellently; he managed to convey the importance of looking into the issue and stressed its relevance to our genera on.

Sean Osborne’s main speech was par cularly impressive due to him managing to memorize the en rety of his argu‐ ment whilst s ll being able to present his point clearly without faltering. Whilst the ques on that was posed to Sean by the judges was challenging, he did not loose his ‘cool’ and answered it to the utmost of his ability. I believe that I presented the Vote of Thanks rather well; I gave a final conclusion to our argument and alluded to possible future changes of policy for social media that the govern‐ ment is currently looking into. Whilst Mr. Burne did give the typical ‘we was robbed’ approach to the circumstances surrounding our defeat, the judges decision is always final, and we s ll performed impressively well considering the short me we had to prepare in.

By William Stocks

Senior Basketball On a sunny a ernoon, the guys were dragged from their sun beds and iced la es to be poked with sharp s cks into the gladiatorial arena that is the Trevor Abbot Sports Cen‐ tre (TASC).

House basketball is not a North House speciality. In previ‐ ous years, ge ng the ball into the net has been an endless struggle, like a man trying to guide a Satsuma into a bucket from 10,000 feet above. However this year we succeeded!

Unfortunately, this was not always a good thing...

It was nearing half me against Loveday. The game had been a spectacle, with a “swoosh” 3‐pointer coming from Se erfield in the opening seconds of the game, and the dogged defence of Boyd combined with the cat‐like agility of Paddle causing real trouble for the Loveday louts. A er another failed siege of the fortress that was Loveday’s net, the ball deflected into the hands of Dave Forster outside Loveday’s “D”. Now whether it was the pressure, the ex‐ citement or just a sheer moment of panic, we will never know, but what happened next was to go down in the his‐ tory books...

North House Basketball Report

The team consisted of 7 people, myself Milo Goldsmith, Char‐ Dave turned, away from the Loveday net, and ran towards lie Clarke, Charlie Hardy, Ed Tristem, Angus Dahl, Callum Hors‐ the North net. He was unstoppable. He bounced the ball ey and Theo Gloyens. The team were pumped, and with half a

Dave – that was awesome buddy…. What a shot!

You are a living legend....

Setts, why are you smiling?

I can’t believe I just did that…. If I stare at the floor it will go away....

Because I can’t wait to tell everyone …. Dave ran the wrong way and scored an own basket... !!! Priceless

Just keep smiling.... It may have been a bad dream....

Did Dave really do that?

Nathan—what are we doing at this school? Is this an asylum? I can’t believe someone just did that

this way and that, going round air par cles like they were melted chocolate statues. And then it was his chance. His chance for glory, his first “net” of the game! And it was in!... But in our net. Dave roared and screamed in celebra‐ on, believing he’d just put us in the lead before the hal ime break. To his dismay, he turned round to dead ants, lying on their backs, laughing. They had just wit‐ nessed one of the funniest moments of their lives.

Overall despite Angus’ success North didn’t exactly come first but really at the end of the day we tried our hardest and we came out with a moral victory.

By Daniel Murphy

For this moment of joy, we must thank House Basketball. It never ceases to amaze us with its arsenal of tricks and ha‐ bitual moments of surprise. All in all the North boys put down a really good performance actually! We were close in both are games, and with some of the talent coming through (Will Inkster scoring a net by throwing the ball over his head!) the future looks bright for North Basketball.

I say bright. More like a candle in Wembley, but you can Senior Squash s ll see a bit at night anyway.

By Will Se erfield 4th form cross country On the of 8th October the Forth Form took part in the dreaded cross country which has annually broken the men‐ tality of almost all who have par cipated. In prepara on for our run, the North boys had a li le team talk from some of the Sixth form and some of the keener runners decided to warm up by listening to their music to get rid of the nerves.

For the Senior House Squash match, Marcus Kim, Max Hay‐ cock, Gio De Nardi, Charlie Ricks, Callum Kent and Sam Scu all took part with lots of support from the House. Everyone enjoyed their matches and it was a good experience for all despite North coming 4th overall. In the semi‐finals, North had to play Cubi who had 4 1st team players out of 5 but North fought well. Then in the 3rd and 4th playoff, North played East where we narrowly lost to a strong side, 3‐2.

Marcus Kim being the seed one of North, made some good challenges against the 1st team players in East and Cubi ; winning one and losing the other. Also Sam Scu played ex‐ tremely well against the year above winning both of his games. Max Haycock also played well only losing by a few points in both of the games. Everyone was very enthusias c and was pu ng all their efforts represen ng the North House. Even though the results were not too encouraging the House Squash matches were a memorable experience.

Once the girls had le the line the North lads had to put their nerves aside and focus on the task ahead. The 2.2 miles run only took, at most, 30 minutes but felt like hours.

Now obviously Angus Dahl and Charlie Clark did very well and showed their athle c ability and this was probably due to their use of their ipods. However, Angus’ music turned off half way and ‘apparently’ this affected his running and By Marcus KIm meant he got out of ‘rhythm’, but this did not stop his tri‐

umph of 2nd place.

North House Michaelmas 2012 North House Heavies A Rugby The North Heavies A’s team entered the compe on feeling confident in their ability to take home victory and prevailed in this op mism to beat Loveday 22‐0 in the final on Blue s. The team played good consistent rugby that suited the treacherous and cold condi ons; four tries were scored, one by Dom Coy, another by Sam Scu and two by Ben Gasson. In the preliminary stages the team beat East 7‐5, Cubi 17‐0 and then we faced Loveday, and lost 12‐7. However,l we scored a second try that was miraculously not seen despite minimal disrup on to the referees view of the ac on. The team consisted of Ben Gasson, Sam Scu , Fin Chesterman, Tim Ayling, Dom Coy, Sam Lenselink (L5th), Jake Harvey (L5th), Rory Kenedy, Ollie Rodriguez, Mylo Boyd, and Alex Gook (L5th). In the final we kicked off and persistently wore down the opposi on defence resul ng in two tries in the first half. By now in the second the Loveday team realising our full poten al were unable to handle the strain of the powerful North onslaught that resulted in two more tries making the score 22‐0. In the Lites A’s House Rugby final play a drop goal a empt that unfortunately did not fly between the posts ended the game with North fulfilling their poten al and the Loveday Before we had even begun we knew that the Lites were the weakest part team quaking as they limped off the pitch in awe of North’s might. of North’s a ack. Our first match was up against East, one that we had really counted on winning, but despite a good start going 5‐0 up with a

By Ben Gasson strong try from Charlie Clarke we conceded two sloppy tries in the second half and ended up losing 10‐5, a disappoin ng start. The next match was Editor: well done to the B team who also won their final against Cubi .

Cubi where we peaked with great commitment and tackling, scoring two The team, captained by Chris Paton, stormed through the group stages well worked tries going down the hill in the first half and then defending and then dismantled a startled Cubi team running in 5 tries. well to only let in one going the other way and therefore winning 12‐7.

Finally the toughest opposi on in the lights, Loveday. We conceded early on but managed to bring it back to being 7‐5 up at half me, however against the slope we let passed three tries but not through lack of commit‐ ment. On Thursday we took on Cubi in the 3rd and 4th playoff knowing that we had we had to win to give North a good chance of winning overall, it was bi erly cold and the ground was frozen hard, we went 7‐0 down ini ally due to an unseen overlap but managed to get one back before half me, a er half me it began to snow but we pulled through with another well worked try from Ed Tristem and then kept up a solid defence to keep them out for the rest of the match winning 10‐7. On the whole, a great performance, which when coupled with a great Lights B team led the North Lights Team to come second overall.

By Ben Strickland

Senior A’s House Rugby North as a house is renowned for the sport of rugby, and this event took place in the last week of term. Our first game was against East who was our main compe on. With us lacking a few key players because of injury we went into the compe on as underdogs. We dominated the first half and had felt aggrieved not be leading at the break. However through some miscommunica on in the final play of the game, an unfortunate charge down gi ed them the game. In the next two matches we played Cubi and Loveday who proved weak opposi on; this set up a final encounter with East on the final Thursday of term. Under cloudy, slee ng skies we took to the field against East. The game started poorly, we conceding ten points in the first half that went unanswered. However, we picked up our game, hit some rucks and proceeded to rack up ten points in reply. Unfortunately, a lack of communica on again enabled East to create an opportunity which they took. The final score was 15‐10, a rather sour end to a good compe ‐ on. By Dave Forster Editor: well done to the Senior B team who were also in the final, this me against Loveday. An early score by Kenty was then cancelled out—7‐7 at half me. A dogged display in the 2nd half le both teams exhausted and level. Well done to Rory Weyman for leading his troops so well.

Editor: well done to the Lites B who fought valiantly to get into the B final against Loveday. Another gutsy display saw them lose narrowly 10‐0. Well done to Sacha Brown for his expert captaincy.

North House Michaelmas 2012