South West Dinner

L-R: Sam Chadwick, Ed Goode, Gabriella Timanti, Maxim Asher, Ed Holland, Tacita Shah, Micah Lazarus

Anita Wakeham, Denise Boon, Richard Llewellen John Gallagher, Robert Priestley

As a student you realise that one must take advantage of any opportunity that looks civilised and can offer superior cuisine to spaghetti hoops and Birdseye potato waffles, an invitation to the OMs South West Lunch was exactly that.

A number of like-minded students piled into a taxi from Exeter that soon pulled into the drive of the Deer Park Country Hotel. Our wonderful host Robert Priestley (School 69-74) who has been running the dinner for many years showed us Nigel Wray’s stunning classic car collection and after a short automotive lecture from fellow YOM Micah Lazarus we decided to head on in.

The atmosphere inside was like all OM events, friendly and welcoming, united over our school, stories were quickly being swapped between young and slightly less young, it appears that it’s hard to find an OM these days who has not been taught by the legendary David Woodrow.

Lubricated with Gin, we took our places in the Gatsby esque dining room, it was the perfect opportunity to catch up with faces I had seen regularly for five years but suddenly they become strangers, that is the joy of events like this. As hoped, the food was superb, as was the speech given by Richard Llewellen. Post gastronomy a sobering walk around the grounds was needed which gave us time to appreciate how brilliant the event had been, an opportunity to escape the hectic university regime and meet fellow OMs, we parted ways, eagerly anticipating the next event.

Ed Holland (McClure 12-17)