Never Second Best

Editor-in-Chief: Tyra Litten Contributors: Lauren Askew Leila Baker Alex ButterďŹ eld Owen Dewson Felix Frostick Issie Greensmith

Spring 2020

Lucy Harris

While the Spring Term was cut short—there is still plenty to read about!

Henry Helm

Thomas Harris Matty Oxtoby Peter Rochford Amika Sanun

Edie Whittam

Languages Anagrams ADDFFILO EHINNSSU GHORTW ILPTU ADEGNR ABELLMRU ADINOPRR ACEJKT MSOSBOL RWAM RBISD OWSEFRL LTEM NPTLA HCAHT IPNCIC DDELPU

German Onatti Play A German Hotel came to school On the morning of Wednesday 5th February Onatti Productions visited our school and treated those of us taking German in years one to four to a production of the German play ‘Das Schlimmste Hotel’ (The Worst Hotel). Many of us had seen an interesting French play by Onatti Productions earlier in the term, so our expectations were high.

The play began and told us the story of a hotel that was being run by two rather dispirited hoteliers: Herr and Frau Schröder. It had not seen any guests in a long time, so when one day a lone visitor finally arrived, they got very excited. However, this excitement was rather short-lived when they discovered that this guest might be a gangster who has just escaped from the local prison! They called the police and the Schröder's behaviour became more and more strange as they tried to protect themselves from him.

Overall, it was a fast-paced play that was funny (if at times a little bizarre) and certainly very entertaining, with a plot that was perhaps not too dissimilar to an episode of Fawlty Towers!

The play was performed entirely in German by just two actors (complete with traditional German dress) who did a great job of playing all the characters. Even though the pupils had a varied level of understanding of German, the combination of exciting onstage action and enough German knowledge made the plot clear to everyone in the room. Audience participation was required at times and those called up on stage all played their roles with enthusiasm. As the Germans would say, ‘es war eine großartige Show!’

By Matty Oxtoby

French Onatti Play The First and Second years who study French were lucky enough to be able to watch the French Play. It was a funny and interactive play about a girl who is babysitting when her boyfriend comes along. He causes a lot of mayhem and their relationship becomes unstable, where the boyfriend feels stuck between his girlfriend and the baby. It was a very enjoyable play and even though it was in French it was easy enough to understand.

By Leila Baker

Second Form

Drama

Billy Radford Henry Helm Seb Hulme Sofia Hennessy Sofiya Davies Elizabeth Sears Josh Walker Maebh Gibbs Edie Whi�am Bailey Parsons Ellie Brown Polly Anderson

Les Misérables For the Christmas show this year, the Drama Department staged an incredible performance of Les Misérables.

It was a twist on the original production as they set it in modern day France instead of during the French revolution. The seventy three actors, of which fourteen were from the Second Form were accompanied by a twenty eight-piece orchestra.

I was lucky enough to take part in the production and it was an incredible experience. Once the many rehearsals had finished it was finally time for show week. We put on seven shows in total, and they all went smoothly, although there was a bit of excitement when the fire alarm went off in the middle of one of the shows!

The show was performed ‘in the round’ - this meant that audience sat on all sides of the stage, which added to the atmosphere. The reviews were outstanding, and we were all so grateful to the hard work everyone put into it, especially Miss Branston!

By Henry Helm

Music Informal Concert Every month, in the Recital Room, there is an informal concert where students of all ages and all levels can come to perform a piece of music which they have already practised. Anyone can perform and anyone can come to listen. It is a great way to build up your confidence and practise performing in front of a friendly audience (the snacks and drinks are nice too!). There is always such a wide range of instruments from pianos to singers, and violins to saxophones. It is great to come along and listen to the lovely music being played, whilst enjoying a slice of cake and a cup of tea. Of recent note Matty Oxtoby accompanied Ellie Brown's singing which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.

By Peter Rochford

Strings Showcase Concert The lights went down. The audience held their breath. And a beautiful, heartfelt sound echoed around the hall. The source of this music was a violin, and a violinist. The strings showcase concert is an annual celebration of some of Reigate Grammar School’s finest musicians. Funnily enough, only string instruments were played, with violins, cellos, a harp and guitars forming beautiful songs, melodies and pieces, whether it be a solo or an ensemble. The audience listened to an excellent concert. I was lucky enough to be picked, and played my own piece, to a resounding applause at the end. But enough about me. I’d like to say thanks to the wonderful music department, for making these concerts and opportunities possible, and to all the other musicians who played, for the brilliant show I witnessed. I’d also like to say thank you to whoever organised the interval food. I enjoyed eating it, and I hope I’m not alone in saying that.

By Owen Dewson

Choral recital 2020 review On the 3rd of March, all choirs from RGS and related singing groups came together for an outstanding evening of music in St. Mary’s church. The concert opened with the Senior Girls’ Choir singing a beautiful piece, named “All of Me”, by Seymour Simmons and Gerald Marks. The piece featured many talented soloists from the choir.

During the evening, the audience listened to some Disney classics performed by Junior Girls’ Voices and an impressive Boys’ Choir and an octet formed of boys from varying age groups, singing a more traditional church choir piece entitled,” If Ye Love Me”. Towards the end of the recital, Polyphony (the senior scholarship choir) gave a moving performance of a Nunc Dimittis - a piece in a set evensong and a beautifully harmonised song “Underneath the Stars”. To finish, the Godfrey Searle choir performed a few of their traditional favourites and finally Polyphony and Godfrey Searle came together to perform the final number of the evening, aptly named “Evening Hymn”. It was a great way to end such a fabulous recital of extremely good quality and I look forward to the same next year.

By Edie Whittam

MUN MUN is a fun and exciting debating club. It is concentrated on big world problems of which we debate about. For example recently we talked about the covid-19 crisis in which we debated who was at fault and what would be the best plan of action. It is a club which is good to go to and will broaden your ability to be able to speak in public and react on the spot

By Dominic Uphill

Science Week Bloodhound “So what’s that?,” the teacher said. We were all crammed into the sports hall, squinting at the projector screen. On the screen, we could see a black dot on a desert. Behind it was a vast trail of kicked-up sand, dust and stones. The black dot, it turned out, was Thrust SSC, on its record breaking run. Then, the teacher in charge announced that her team, her company were going to steal the title of “world’s fast car,” with their own black dot. We were going to all make mini black dots too, and race them. Unfortunately, they weren’t black dots, they were cars, which added some difficulty to the whole thing. Faced with this new daunting task of building cars, not dots, we set to work at once, designing and polishing our polystyrene blocks into cars, and cutting and sticking go-faster stripes in neon colours. Lining our cars (once finished) next to each other in the playground, the teachers grabbed mini rockets to power our mini-cars. I was overjoyed to find that my car had reached 42 mph. Sadly, this didn’t break the record, which was only a little faster, at 763mph. Well, there’s always room for improvement! (1716% in fact)

By Owen Dewson

Sport Manchester Netball Tour The Manchester netball tour was a really fun and enjoyable experience. We had many intense training sessions, including one that was coached by the one and only Tracy Neville! We also had two matches against Oldham Hulme, who we sadly lost against, and Stockport Grammar where we had better results. All of us took part in a hard run, which people had mixed emotions about, and a fitness session run by Miss Travis. The trip wasn't all net-

Girl’s Swimming This swimming term we have done lots of different galas and competitions, we have had lots and lots of wins and only one or two loses. In the A&B swim team there is Gabi, Lauren, Emily, Ines, Bronwen, Connie, Edie, Clara and Amika. During the term we have competed in the Surrey Relay Champion-

ball though and we took part in many entertaining activities including Ice-Skating, going to Total Ninja, a fun range of inflatable and tougher, non-inflatable obstacle courses. We all also enjoyed a trip to the Trafford Centre and enjoyed many tasty meals. Thanks to all the staff for making it happen!

By Leila Baker

ships which was a gala to qualify for the National Relay Championships. To qualify you had to come in the top 30 in the country however we came 31st by 0.03 this team was Lauren, Emily, Gabi and Ines. This year we have been getting quicker and quicker all through the term in are different events from lots of training.

By Lauren Askew

Sport Girls Indoor Cricket This term in girls indoor cricket we have played a match and a tournament. In January we played two games against Dunottar and won both of them, which meant that we qualified for the Surrey Cup. Our team includes: Lucy Harris (captain), Rosie Foster, Martha Cobb, Amika Sanun, Issie Greensmith, Maebh Gibbs, Ellen Hutchinson, Erinn Curnow-Baker and Tilly Palmer-Denning.

On Monday 2nd of March, we got in the minibus and drove down to Ashcombe School to compete in the Surrey Finals.

There were four other teams: Surbiton High, St John the Baptist, Sutton High and Abbot School. Our first match was against Surbiton who we lost to, after only three overs! However we held our heads high and won our next match, which put us in the semi- final against George Abbot School. Whilst bowling, Rosie hit the stumps three times,

Taunton hockey tour I would really recommend the Taunton hockey tour to any boy hoping to get better at hockey or just looking to get away from family and do your passion with your pals. I think this year’s trip was a huge success for the u13 A team as we played well, had fun and learnt lots. Apart from one loss the boys played really well and if we can keep it up we might do well in the South Surrey finals. Our first match was sadly cancelled as the weather had held us up on the way down to Taunton. The teachers were quick thinking and set up a training session in the park and we did some running. The u13 A team were the first back to the pavilion. We got our rooms and a roommate and unpacked our stuff before we left for dinner in town. We got back very late and we were all tired from the long day. The next day was match day. We played Wellington school first then Taunton school. We beat Wellington in an enjoyable game, we spent time chatting to them and they said Taunton school

while Issie and Amika caught two people out. As a result we won, which secured our place in the Final.

The last match was against Surbiton High (the team we lost to in our first game) and it was clear that our team had progressed massively, as this match was extremely close. Martha, Lucy

and

Ellen

bowled

really

well,

with

Maebh

and Erinn making a brilliant catch each. In the end Surbiton, needed to get three runs off the last two balls and unfortunately for us they did. This meant we finished as the runners up in Surrey!

We had a fantastic day and everyone played very well. The tournament was a great experience which gave us more confidence as we hadn’t played much indoor cricket before. The team can’t wait to play lots more cricket in the summer term and we look forward to enhancing our skills.

By Amika Sanun, Issie Greensmith and Lucy Harris

were very good and they weren’t wrong. Taunton school played very well and we played badly but keep the score count to one hand thanks to SALMON (Rio Mackrell). Sorry I don’t remember the score but that doesn’t matter a loss is a loss and you get back up and learn from them. After that we went back to the hotel, had a shower and went bowling. The bowling was really fun and we spent ages in the arcade. Lucas and a few others won about 3,000 tickets and got a lot of sweets. They took us back to the hotel and we went swimming in groups for 15 minutes. After that we had free time in our rooms until 7:30 when we went for dinner In Nandos. The next day we played a club that had some of the boys from yesterday’s game in and we also won that game. Overall I think that the tour was a great success and they should carry on taking the boys every year.

By Thomas Harris

Sport U13 A Hockey 2020 Season Report Unfortunately, our hockey season has been called off early, but the Boys U13 A team have done exceptionally well this year, reaching the South Finals, for the second time in a row! We have had several tough and competitive matches to help prepare us this season, with the support of Mr Field and Mr Bowen. Even though the results have not always reflected our games, we have made real progress and scored lots of goals along the way. Leading goal scorer was Felix, closely followed

by Jack. The most competitive match was against Kingston Grammar, an 11-goal thriller! Even though we lost 6-5, it was a great learning experience having to play in front of a crowd of about 100 KGS supporters! We tried our best to keep our cool!

Unfortunately, we couldn’t face the best teams at regional level this year, but we are confident we would have competed well, having had to overcome fierce opposition in the Surrey Tournament. We won all our group stage games, bar drawing

against Caterham, coming top of our qualifying group. The match against Reeds in the semi-final was a nail-biter, despite having had most of the play. Having conceded a goal, we picked each other up and tried to keep going to get back into the game. Thankfully a mistake from their defence led to us scoring, and a place in the final would then be decided by penalty flicks! Felix, Alex and Tom stood up to take the flicks and Rio kept us right in the game by saving the first flick! Miraculously, we braved it out and were through again to the South Finals because both finalists qualify – we aim to get there again next year. Our final match against St George’s School was perhaps one of the best matches we have played all season, only losing 2-0, and having a penalty flick saved! Although the Coronavirus has ended our season early, we will be back stronger next year. Well done to everyone who has played and thank you to Mr Field and Mr Bowen.

By Alex Butterfield & Felix Frostick

Sport Girls U13 Hockey Nationals The Girls U13 A team have been very successful with their hockey this year. Starting with some friendly matches against local schools gradually built up to national finals. We also went on tour to Taunton, winning all our matches and improving massively. Throughout the year, we have improved as a team and as individuals, and even when the games were tough, we pushed through together and played our best which placed us fourth in the UK.

Finals Day So when the National’s Finals day finally came the team were nervous but equally excited for the upcoming day of match

play. We first came up against local rivals Kingston Grammar, who started strongly, but after their first goal we showed our determination and came right back at them and scored from the restart. It was an end to end match and very close but at the final whistle, they just got the win, which meant we were into the playoff for third and fourth. After rehydrating and taking on board some energy snacks, and a good team talk the team came out, ready to go. The team were re-energised and after starting strongly the opposition unfortunately equalized the score and ended up winning a very close match. Both sides played brilliantly and it was an unlucky day for us. But even though we didn’t leave with a victory, the team played amazingly well for coming fourth in the United Kingdom.