Lent term 2016

LOVEDAY HOUSE LENT TERM 2016

Housemaster’s Comments This newsletter gives you a taste of what a busy term this has been but three events stand out to me and make me particularly proud. Firstly the Loveday House play, produced and directed by Ben Claxton (LVI) and Max de Young (UVI), played to a full house each night and saw plenty of boys taking part (and girls from our sister house West) who had never been involved in a drama production before. This is exactly what house plays (and Cranleigh) is all about – giving students an opportunity to try something new and plenty having the confidence to try it.

Secondly, the Loveday Charity Day saw us raise nearly £10,000 for four wonderful charities, all of which are close to Loveday’s heart. As I said on the day, we are all very lucky to either attend or work at Cranleigh and so to do something for others less fortunate is important for all of us. However, we were simply overwhelmed by the response and the total raised has broken our own record of funds raised for a house charity day.

My final highlight was in fact a school event: the ‘Les Miserables’ production. This may seem odd but there were sixteen Loveday boys involved either front or backstage and I was not only stunned by the quality of the production (the best I have seen in ten years at Cranleigh – not praise I give lightly), but seeing these boys daily in the boarding house I was well aware of the time and energy they had given. Amazing stuff.

As ever, I am merely a figurehead representing the team of twenty or so matrons, tutors, cleaners and others who really make Loveday tick. My huge thanks to them all for (as ever) making my job pretty simple, but particular thanks go to Stuart Welch and Tom Goddin without whom I simply couldn’t do my job.

Andy Logan

Loveday House Play The Loveday House play, as the name suggests, was a compilation of sketch shows from famous television sketches such as Spitting Image and The Two Ronnies to name but a few. The performance was framed expertly by the directors Max de Young and Ben Claxton with an audition for a play, one where the sketches comprised the play’s audition pieces. An ingenious solution that then lead to various intermissions by the director (played by Mikey Nolan)- “You were great! You, not so much”. This device meant a seemingly unconnected set of stories linked together to bring a strong coherency to the performance, a rare achievement. The opening sketch, conveniently about the theatre, saw the director and Julian (Jamie Reed) clashing, and it lead into the framing device seamlessly.

A brilliantly awkward sketch followed between “Bruce”, played by a flamboyant Will Mundy, and “Prudence”, played with appropriate bewilderment by Ellie Black. The long, awkward pauses provided perfect backdrop to the scene and the achievement of both was impressive. A complicated and difficult sketch followed that was brilliantly pulled off by Pierce and Mrs Pierce (Alex Hadden-Wight and Toni Taor), the ‘upper class’ ones and Martin and Polly, the ‘less sophisticated ones’, played by Alexine White and Will Warner. This clever scene was masterminded by the waiter, Hector Berry, who ferried on and off various plates of food whilst trying to keep order.

“A talk in the park” followed, another complicated scene but the humour was clear as each member of the park complains of the other’s conversation. The astoundingly creepy “Arthur” was effectively played by Robin Masters, and was backed up by the confused Ernest, played by Ally Smith. A very Welsh scene followed, enforced by the appropriately strong-accented No-ah Hathaway and B-en Gill. A very French but very funny Charlie Serjeant accompanied this bonkers scene (stereotypical accents galore, what’s not to love?).

One of the audience’s favourite scenes included another creepy caricature, Henry Mould’s “Harry” who desperately tried courting “Paula” (played with pizazz by Amelia Holden). Charlie Rickwood’s “Bernice” provided sense to the situation and stopped the “drinking companions” (and there was a lot of it) in their tracks.

This play was an eclectic mix of comedy sketches that somehow held together brilliantly through the director’s framing device. The ‘theatre managers’ (Alex Brown, Henri Martin, Ed Brounger, Ed Cooper, Freddie Hamilton, Eddie Farrow and Matt Jay) expertly managed scene changes and the whole play held together brilliantly. Max and Ben’s management of such a large cast was a testament to what can be achieved with house drama. It was inclusive, well-rehearsed and, best of all, good fun to watch!

Cameron Scheijde

‘

Loveday Charity Biathlon For this year’s charity day, Loveday decided to raise money by doing a sponsored Biathlon which included a 600m swim followed by a 5km run. We were raising money for four charities: Beyond Ourselves, Cancer Research UK, Macmillan Trust and Finlay’s Fighters. Whilst the sun was not shining on the day, everyone really threw themselves into both events and did so with big smiles on their faces. There were excellent individual times, especially from Giorgio Bounous who won the overall event and from Max St John who came second. The overall team event was won by Welchy’s Wonders. The barbecue at the end of the run really brought the house together with a real sense of community, which is what Loveday is all about. I would just like to say thank you to all the students for giving it their all on the day, to the tutors and the charity committee that made the day possible, Mr Welch for spear heading it all and last but not least to all those who donated. We managed to raise an incredible £9700. One of the highest sums of money ever raised by a single house at Cranleigh, an absolutely fantastic achievement!

Ben Sackey – Charity Prefect

Junior House Challenge We had high hopes of victory playing in the semi-final of the Junior House Challenge, a competition in which we have had success in the past. Loveday's team consisted of myself, Joe Mellor, Matthew Cavanna and Henry Mould. We came up against a North side who could have caused an upset but at every question Loveday looked like running out victors, and so we did by about 500-250. The final will be played next term against a strong Cubitt side and hopefully we can be successful.

Callum Job

House Bouldering The House Bouldering this year was a great event, both for the boys involved and for all those who came down to support. Our team consisted of Henry De Villiers as team captain, Hugo Fortescue, Cameron Stather and Harry Manning, competing strongly, beating North by about 20 points; claiming the overall title back for another year, a great result given that half our squad hadn't climbed in over a year. Especially well done to Harry Manning who got the 2nd highest overall score, beaten only by Ben Strickland in North..

Hugo Fortescue

4th Form Hockey On the 22nd - 23rd of March Loveday 4th form took part in a very exciting house hockey tournament. Everyone who took part played extremely well putting lots of effort in. Ethan Stiles played amazingly in goal and was a rock at the back. The six D team players in our team all played exceptionally well by holding off some top class A team attackers and threatening the top A team defenders. The captain George Ealham lead the team very well and also played to an extremely high standard. Although our team wasn't the most talented of hockey teams we put in good performances and did not let any team beat us easily. Our first match was against East which we drew 0-0 but we should have really won. Our second match was against a very strong team of Cubitt who had all A and B players. On paper they were the favourites but we put up a good fight losing 1-0. Our third and final match was against North where we sadly lost 2-0 taking us to 3rd overall. However, our team was full of potential and we gave all the teams a run for their money.

Ed Brounger

Stonesett Report On Monday 21st March Loveday were defending our title in the Stonesett Hockey. This year’s teams included ‘Russell’s Rioters’ (Christian Russell, Max St John, Benji Carr and Oliver Cregeen), ‘Kittow’s Kats’ (Toby Kittow, Harry Manning, Cameron Stather, Matt Moore, and Ed Brounger), ‘Polly’s Powerangers’ (Kyrylo Polyvoda, Charlie Philips, Oliver Heyes, George Rock and James Hennessy) and ‘Smith’s Supermen’ (Ally Smith, Freddie Hamilton, Hector Berry, Oliver Jenner and Tom Hills), as well as the substitutes (Joseph Shou ,Louis Burden and Henry Mould). A great effort from all involved in all four teams lead to Loveday winning 9 of our 12 matches, and drawing two, leaving only one loss, needless to say, an amazing result, and an overall victory again for Loveday.

Ally Smith

6th Form Hockey We started our campaign against East, in a thrilling encounter where we were victorious 3-1. Special mention goes to the excellent link up play of Austin and Cooper for our second goal. Our next match was against North, a match where we dominated possession and chances but were unable to find that winning goal. Our final match was against Cubitt, where we held our own against what was a very strong side. Despite going down 3-0, we never gave in and fought back to 3-2. Unfortunately time was against us and we were unable to secure the victory we needed. Despite not having played hockey in some time, Turner, Heyes and Hathaway were able to hold their own against many 1st team players. Loveday’s stand-out player was Will Warner, who dominated midfield with his accurate passing, dribbling and creativity. Well done to everyone involved for putting lots of hard work and effort into this years house hockey.

Giorgio Bounous

Lower 5th Form Hockey We started off by playing Cubitt where we were 1-0 down at half time but luckily we won two short corners later on in the second half and scored both of them giving us a 2-1 win. After a long wait we were back on the pitch, but this time playing East. The game started off promisingly as we were in their half for quite a while, pushing their defence to the absolute limit! However as we got towards the end of the first half they somehow managed to win two short corners and slipped the ball into our net both times. This did not hold us back though, as we seemed to be the only side who were actually enjoying the hockey. We did manage to stop them from scoring anymore goals in the second half and even gave ourselves a couple of chances which could have easily evened things up. So the final score ended up being 2-0, which was a pretty good effort from Loveday considering that our team was not expected to even come close against East. It was a very strong effort from everybody so next year I think that we could go one better. Ollie Clift