The Albanian 2015

The Albanian December 2015

Vol. 28 No. 19 December 2015

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ALBANS

SCHOOL

Contents ST

ALBANS

SCHOOL

3 Editorial Successful scrutiny by the Inspectors

4 Ins & Outs Welcomes and farewells

12 Prizegiving Academic and other prizes

18 Creative Art GCSE and A Level art from the end of year exhibition

23 Drama Improvised and scripted performances of real calibre The cover for this edition of The Albanian was created by Sam Machell. Sam is a former editor of the magazine and provided illustrations for last years’ edition. He is now reading Film Studies at the University of Southampton.

31 Creative Writing Prose, poetry and history re-imagined

38 Music The Armed Man and a range of concerts

48 Features The restoration of the War Memorial

50 Creative Design Electronics, architecture, drones and other design

54 Creative Photo Albanian Editorial Team Editor Noel Cassidy Deputy Editor Julia Grieveson Editorial Assistant Claire Thrift Student Editors Emily Childs

Alex Jennings

Tomás Hill López Menchero

Alec McQuarrie

Freddie Walters Assistants Anna Charlesworth

Michael Davies

Alexandra Keaney

Louis Rabinowitz

Hugo Stephens

Playing with light

56 Trips USA skiing

58 Enrichment Furthering education beyond the classroom

63 Dukes Silver and Gold – expeditions and beyond

69 Community Working in partnership with our neighbours

71 Houses Final results table

St Albans School Abbey Gateway St Albans AL3 4HB

72 CCF

Tel: 01727 855521 Fax: 01727 843447

79 Sport

AGI, bashas and ambushes

All the news from the pitches, courts and tracks Publications email: publics@st-albans.herts.sch.uk School Website: www.st-albans.herts.sch.uk

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Contents

St Albans School is a company limited by guarantee.

Registered in England No. 4400125 Charity No. 1092932 Registered Office: Abbey Gateway, St Albans, Herts. AL3 4HB

The Albanian 2015

Editorial Who could forget that this academic year began with an earlier-thanexpected ISI Inspection? We knew it was due at some point, of course, but not within the first half term of a new Headship. The School was ready anyway, and the week passed as it normally does, but with a few extra people looking at work, talking to staff, parents, pupils, governors, and popping into lessons.

The outcome, as we know, was very pleasing. ‘Exceptional’ was the judgement the ISI inspectors made of our pupils’ experience and learning. This is the highest grading possible, only available in this one area. The report further commented that the ‘achievement of pupils across all ages is exceptional’ and that our pupils have ‘exemplary attitudes to learning.’

In praising the achievement of pupils, the report paid tribute to excellent teaching, providing our pupils with ‘intellectual challenge and rigour’. It also noted that pupils’ personal development is excellent, with careful pastoral care and guidance to ensure that they become ‘mature, caring and self-disciplined adults.’

This magazine pays tribute to the academic achievements of pupils in the Prizegiving section and in the list of destinations of post-A Level leavers.

But the rest of the pages show how much else goes on, how many opportunities pupils are able to grasp; it is a demonstration of the wealth of enriching opportunities involving so many pupils which impressed the inspectors. Turn the pages and read for yourself.

The Albanian 2015

Editorial

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New Pupils September 2015 1st Form AFE, Toba ANGUS, Christopher E ANSELL, Christopher AZZURI, Oscar S BACKHAUS, Alexander F BADDON, Jonathan H BALACHCHANDREN, Rathip BEELUT, Aqeel BOCHEL, Hugo M BRICE, Oscar BURNS, Louie N CIRKEL, Adam M COX, Matthew A CULLEN, Jack P DAWE, Oliver DELANEY, Robert J DENTON, Callum M EDWARDS, Daniel D FEATHER, Thomas J GARNAI-DAVIES, Ashley J GATES, Thomas A GRAY, Edward C GUY, Robert HAIDER, Faris HEANEY, Robert J HILMI, Dervish M JACK, Kimani JANI, Praneel JASKO, Edgar G JUDE, Paul KULKARNI, Anish KUMAR, Akshay KURR, Matthew E LAKE, Jack R LINES, Harry J MACDOUGALL, Harry F MALTERE, Lukas J MOSAHEBI, Arya J MUKASA, Nathan NADAR, Adian J NAGLE, Thomas J NAVEENDRA, Nidhesh NICHOLSON, Luke J OBIKWU, Justin P OLAYOMI, Nathaniel RANDHAWA, Cameron S RAWLINSON, Thomas O REID, Finley RENDELL, James A RIDOUT, William J ROBERTS, Arthur J ROBERTS, Luke SANTOSH, Reuben SELWYN, Liam R SHAH, Kian D SHAH, Syan F SHAHIDULLAH, Gabriel SHRIVASTAVA, Aan SKEELS, Thomas D SMITH, Oliver J SPAREY, Oscar H

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Ins & Outs

STEWART-HARRIS, Zev F STUBBS, Luca TANNER, Aidan F TANSLEY, Oscar I TAVACKOLLI FARD, Bobak THOMPSON, Joshua M TUDOR, Alexander R VERNALL, Evan D WANSELL, Joshua WEGENEK, Aleksander L WERTER, Ben WHITEHURST, Toby A

2nd Form SHAH, Apoorv

3rd Form ANDERTON, Marcus R APPLEYARD, Cameron O ASPROU, George C BERRINGTON, Thomas R BINDRA, Rohit CARTER, Zachary W CHAPMAN, Thomas A CLEWER, James J COHEN, Max J CRAIG, Hugh J CRIDLAND, Jacob CUTLER, Lawrence D DE CAIRES, Joshua M DRAKE, Maximilian J DURKAN-MILLS, Finn M ENGLISH, Robert P FORSTER, Thomas A FURAEV, Andrey GARNETT, William G GIWA-MCNEIL, Cameron H GLANVILLE, George W GREENE, Noah GRIGGS, Benjamin M HALAI, Aryan HARGROVE, Sam D HART, Gabriel F HICKS, Eamon HOLMES, William A IRANI, Matthew C JENKINS, Charles H KAURA, Kyle KELSEY, William J KOTA, Rahul LIDDIARD, Jude T LUCAS, Bruno B MANGAN, George J MCCURLEY, Daniel F MEHTA, Akhil MULCARE, Tyler J MULHOLLAND, Thomas M NAYAR, Rohin NYGATE, Jasper W OGUNNAIKE, Joshua PERERA, Daniel REDDY, Sebastian A RIPPER, Michael

ROBERTSON, Ciaran ROBERTSON, Finlay J ROBERTSON, Max SALEHIAN, Zane J SANDHU, Samrahn SCHIFF, Philip J SEECHURN, Jake SHAW, Leo J SOLOMONS, Benjamin A STEIN, Benjamin A TAYLOR, Sebastien W TUDOR, James R UNWIN, James P WHITTAKER, Christopher R WILSON-WHITMAN, Jayden WING, Rowley F

Lower Sixth BROOMHEAD, Stephanie G BURDEN, Leonie H CHARLESWORTH, Anna COOPER, Sophie H EDWARDS, Lydia M ELLIS,Victoria E FRIEND, Eleanor P GANNON, Grace C GARDNER, Lucy F GAY, Sophie E GREENSTEIN, Oliver GRIGGS, Amy J HESELWOOD, Scarlett E HOLDEN, Charles W HURST, Oliver JONES, Isabelle G KEANEY, Alexandra M KENNY, Darcey LOUGHREY, Catherine V LUCAS, Darcey A MACKENZIE, Thea S MADDEN, Alexandra MILLER-ROSENTHAL, Lara R MORAN, Maria A MORGAN-ADEFARAKAN, Adelle MORRISON, Emily S NICHOLAS, Joshua F NUDD, Alexandra S PINTO, Sabrina PRINGLE, Olivia S QUINTON, Eleanor M RAVICHANDRAN, Mithila N ROBERTS, Bethan L ROSS, Daniel S SCOTT, Natasha F SEMARK, Alice K SOUS, Ann-Marie G SPENCER, Lucas S TURBERVILLE, Lucy R WARREN, Kirstyn WILKINSON, Phoebe E WILLIAMS, Zoe G WRIGHT, Eleanor WRIGLEY, Jessica C ZAFARANI, Tannaz

The Albanian 2015

New Staff Arrivals in the Common Room

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The Albanian 2015

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Ins & Outs

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Destinations of Leavers Higher Education Destinations of Old Albanians 2015 Oluwaseun Adekoya Osawese Aimiuwu Aadam Akbar Daniel Angel Mobolaji Anifalaje Benedict Anthoney Jemma Attar Jordan Bartlam John Barton Sebastian Barton Rosalind Bennett Christian Boothby Joseph Brennan Maximilian Cadman Nadine Carasco Zack Charalambous Ganesh Chauhan Benjamin Chrisp Olivia Clarke Sarena Clarke David Clegg Aiden Collins James Conlon Sarah Coop Adam Craig-Thompson Sophie Devlin Magdalene Dorling Stavros Drakou Henry Dyer Poppy Edwards Philippa English Marissa Epstein Raphaella Evagora Charlotte Evans Matthew Feast Natasha Ferguson Harry Fleet Miles Fryer Oliver Gaeton Patrick Gaeton Thomas Galliford Jack Gannon Hannah Girdlestone Rachel Glass Sluckin Riken Gohil James Govey Hasnat Hakim Abigail Hall Ben Harley Sean Harris Nicholas Harvey Rosie Hobster Camilla Hoffman Rachel Hoffman Guy Holden Elizabeth Horton Max Houghton Declan Houten Matilda Hulse Miraj Hussain Tomas Jennings Pius Jude

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Ins & Outs

University of Cambridge Law University of Nottingham Economics University of Bristol Physics University of Exeter English and French University of Sussex Economics University of Bristol Law University of Durham Biomedical Sciences University of Durham Economics University of Warwick History Brunel University London Mechanical Engineering University of Birmingham International Relations with Political Science University of Edinburgh Chemistry Gap Year University of Oxford History Working for Gerald Edelman whilst training with ICAEW University of Nottingham Philosophy Loughborough University Product Design Engineering University of Leicester Medicine University of Nottingham English with Creative Writing University of Warwick History University of Bath Politics with Economics (with placement) Gap Year University of Birmingham KPMG School Leavers Audit Programme University of Exeter English University of Sheffield Civil and Structural Engineering University of Southampton Population and Geography University of Nottingham Ancient History Queen Mary University of London Science & Engineering Foundation Programme Brighton and Sussex Medical School Medicine University of Nottingham Art History University of Durham Geography University of Nottingham Management University of Bristol Ancient History University of Nottingham Environmental Biology University of Southampton Philosophy and Mathematics Gap Year University of Nottingham Mechanical Engineering University of Oxford Engineering University of Leeds Business Analytics University of Leeds Physics University of Nottingham Mechanical Engineering University College London Physics University of Birmingham Medicine (5 years) Birkbeck, University of London Politics, Philosophy and History University of Warwick Computer Science University of Leeds Geography University of Birmingham Biomedical Science University of Southampton Ship Science / Naval Architecture University of Bath Management University of Nottingham Ancient History and History University of Nottingham English Gap Year University of Durham Chemistry University of Durham Chemistry University of Durham Economics University of Sheffield Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology University of Leeds Mechatronics and Robotics University of Durham English Literature University of Leeds International Relations University of Nottingham Industrial Economics University of Sheffield Aerospace Engineering (Private Pilot Instruction) University College London Computer Science

The Albanian 2015

Adnaan Karim Molly Keenan Thomas Kirby Milo Knights Michael Kossifos Matthew Lavelle Timothy Le Couilliard Alexander Lee Ronan Lee Claire Leith Robert Lightowler Noah Lipschitz George MacGregor Samuel Machell Caroline Maggs Jaymee Malkan Nicole Marroquin Edward Marsh Jaques McDermott Ellie Mckay Louis Meadows Jonathan Midgen Kirsty Mitchell Patrick Montgomery Naveen Morris Kyriacos Mouzouris Jonathan Muir Aisha Mukhtar Daniel Myers Thomas Naccarato Lauren Nash Thomas Nawas William Norris Damilola Omotoso Akshay Padki Maximilian Palmer Jack Perrin William Pickworth Ellen Piercy Andrew Quigley Joel Rabinowitz Shivam Raja Tim Richards Lauren Rowe Christopher Russell Matthew Russell Harry Sampson Patrick Scott Freddie Scutt Rahul Sehgal Patrick Semark Sahil Shah Matthew Sherriff Eleanor Shreeves Tara Sinnott David Sous Joshua Southworth David Stojanovski Lara Superfine Hannah Sweeney Subodh Tailor James Thompson

The Albanian 2015

University of Manchester Gap Year University of Nottingham University of Durham Gap Year University of Exeter University of Exeter University of Lancaster University of Nottingham Royal Holloway, University of London University of Leeds University of Durham University of Durham University of Southampton University of Nottingham University of Nottingham Cornell University University of Nottingham Gap Year University of Bristol University of Leeds Imperial College, University of London University of Oxford University of Newcastle University of York University of Sheffield University of Durham University of Southampton University of Exeter University of Sussex University of Aberdeen University of Bristol University of Bath University of Kent University of Sheffield University of Birmingham University of Bristol University of Leeds University of Durham University of Lancaster University of Oxford University of Nottingham University of Exeter University of Durham University of Lancaster University of Sheffield University of Oxford University of Nottingham Imperial College, University of London LSEPS, University of London University of Bath University of Bath University of Nottingham King’s College London University of Nottingham University College London University of Oxford King’s College London University of Southampton University of Nottingham University of Edinburgh University of Leeds

Economics and Finance Mechanical Engineering including an Industrial Year Philosophy, Politics and Economics Conservation Biology and Ecology Politics and International Relations Physics Medical Physiology and Therapeutics Drama and Theatre Studies Management Geography Economics Film Studies Biology Architecture Biological Sciences Management with French Politics and International Relations Chinese and International Business Electrical and Electronic Engineering Philosophy, Politics and Economics Economics and Business Management English Architecture General Engineering Management Sciences and Spanish Law Biosciences with a Foundation Year Biological Sciences Economics and Econometrics Mech. Engineering with Adv. Design and Innovation Politics and Int. Relations with Year in North America Aerospace Engineering with a Year in Industry Ancient History Electrical and Electronic Engineering Politics and Parliamentary Studies Biosciences Business Studies Geography Law PPE with Study Abroad History Ecology and Conservation Physics French and Spanish Ancient History and History Biology Philosophy and Economics Mathematics Management (with Placement) Physics Film Studies Law Economics Chemistry Biomedical Engineering Medicine BMBS and BMedSc English Politics Geophysical Sciences (International)

Ins & Outs

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Adam Thorpe Richard Thrale Robert Tominey-Nevado Leonidas Tsakalotos Harry Turner Bertram Veres James Wilkins James Wilkinson Keagan Witts Tim Xuereb Louis Yianni Alcan Zekia Vivien Zhu

University of Nottingham University of Newcastle University of Durham University of Manchester University of Leeds University of Oxford University of Oxford University of Durham Gap Year University of Birmingham University of Sheffield University of Bath University of Oxford

Mechanical Engineering including an Industrial Year Business Management Classics Architecture International History and Politics Classics I Law Chemistry Business Management International Relations and Politics Architecture (with placement) History

Graduation 2015

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Ins & Outs

The Albanian 2015

Staff Farewells David Stone After ten years at St Albans School Dave has left us to take up a well merited Senior Management role as Head of Sixth Form at Stockport Grammar School.

Dave joined the School in 2005 having completed his degree at Southampton and PGCE at Exeter University. He came with a strong academic background and a wide range of interests and skills which were fully utilised over the years. To the History and Politics departments he brought intelligence, organisation and a willingness to turn his hand to anything.

His classroom teaching was always well planned and at times displayed a pleasing willingness to experiment with drama or role play. His mastery of the eccentric Powerpoint achieved legendary status. In later years, when he took on the role of Head of the History Department, he continued in this manner, breathing new life into the History and Politics Society as well as introducing innovations such as the Gateway Chronicle student magazine and Upper Sixth residential trips to Munich and Berlin. Moreover, he managed a hugely successful stint as Head of General Studies for good measure.

Outside the classroom, Dave made a significant contribution to the wider school community. His passion for outdoor activity never waned and he was always involved in running either rugby teams or corps training as well as being a regular at the weekends for various Old Albanian Rugby XVs. His main sporting passion was rugby and he coached various year groups successfully, but most especially the older age groups. One of his prized possessions, holding pride of place on his desk, was a signed rugby ball from his unbeaten U16 tourists to France from 2008.

Alongside all this was his extensive involvement in the Combined Cadet Force where Captain Stone led from the front. He committed significant time to CCF camps both in this country and abroad as well as taking a leading role in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. At the same time this afforded him opportunities for personal and professional development in acquiring both qualifications and significant experience in outdoor leadership. When Dave came to the School he promised commitment to its broader life and he was true to his word. His contributions have been greatly appreciated by many.

Dave and his young family now open a new chapter in their lives and we wish them well in all their future endeavours. St Albans’ loss will prove to be Stockport’s gain.

TJM

Julia Grieveson Julia Grieveson retired this year after having devoted 22 years to St Albans School. Julia has made a huge contribution to the School and she will be sadly missed.

First and foremost Julia is a very gifted linguist and teacher of German and French, and was for a time Acting Head of German. She was equally effective in the Lower School as she was in the Sixth Form, where she passed on her love of theatre by teaching Brecht plays to the Sixth Form over the years. Her knowledge and passion enthused many of our top linguists in the Sixth Form, who greatly appreciated her sense of humour. Grammatical accuracy has always been at the centre of her teaching and this solid foundation has meant that her pupils were well prepared for the demands of the GCSE and A-level examinations.

Julia was an outstanding Sixth Form tutor for many years and she offered great support to our pupils. Her experience and sensitivity was greatly appreciated and valued; former pupils remember her fondly.

Amongst other responsibilities, Julia has spent 18 years in the Publications Department, a period which has seen the rapid growth and development of the department’s role in the School, starting with the magazine and now handling all the School’s public communications.

In that time she has helped with The Albanian, with an eagle eye for proof reading, and has written numerous reviews of concerts and plays for the magazine and the website. She was responsible for running the department single handed for a term and in recent years has taken particular responsibility for the termly Highlights newsletter. We wish her every happiness in her retirement.

JRR

The Albanian 2015

Ins & Outs

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Valentin Pappert

Pat McGrath Pat McGrath joined the school in September 1999 as an Art teacher, working in the Art Department for fifteen years, teaching across the age range of the school. With a very good knowledge of art, and a deep understanding of modern art in particular, he was able to inspire pupils as they prepared their own forays into creativity. He also accompanied the Art Department on numerous trips abroad. It was on these trips abroad that Pat’s local knowledge came to the fore: not only did he have a very good knowledge of art and artists, but he also seemed to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of any given locale.

His ability to search out the ideal tapas bar for a lunchtime stop was not to be underestimated.

As Housemaster of Marsh, Pat enjoyed organising the many different sporting and cultural activities of the House year. He also initiated the annual House art competition, which raised interesting questions about competitive creativity; it continues to this day, offering students of all abilities to demonstrate their talents to the wider school.

We wish him well as he leaves us to further his career in teaching.

PWT

After five years at St Albans School Valentin leaves this year in order to take up a teaching post in the International School of Lausanne.

Valentin is an extremely witty and intelligent teacher who has been involved in a range of activities in the School. He has primarily taught German at all levels, although he has also taught Latin and French to Lower and Middle School classes.

He has run the annual trip to the Cologne Christmas markets over the last four years and countless pupils have loved and greatly benefited from the experience. His organisational skills have also been employed in the running of internal examinations.

Ben Scott

Ben Scott joined us as a fresh faced NQT in 2011 from a PGCE at Newcastle University. From the very start he took an active role in the life of the School, founding and running the Second Form Science Club; the Thorpe Park trip became a landmark on the School calendar.

In his second year he took over the running of the Stephen Hawking Society, bringing in speakers from a diverse range of disciplines, from a Nobel Prize winning biologist to a hypnotist. An active sportsman himself, students have benefited from his coaching of basketball and hockey. For the last two years he has also been a Sixth Form tutor with a superb relationship with Valentin has been a popular Lower his students. Amongst all of these School tutor in all of his years at St other commitments Ben has found Albans School and I have no doubt the time to be an exceptional that his enthusiasm and passion for teacher who the department will German is one of the reasons why miss greatly. With Harsha Zaver, he German has grown in popularity in redeveloped the GCSE syllabus and the First and Second Form. he has contributed many new ideas to the department. Outside School Valentin is an extremely accomBen is a connoisseur of real ale and plished tennis player and also a live comedy and makes an annual premier league tennis referee in (and thoroughly planned out) Germany. He has contributed to pilgrimage to the Edinburgh Festival sport in the school as a Tennis Fringe. He leaves us to become a coach as well as helping with Lower fresh faced PhD student investigatSchool games teaching. ing the biosynthetic enzymes of I would like to thank Valentin for vitamin B12 synthesis at Queen all that he has done over the last Mary University. five years and wish him well for the DSR future.

JRR

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Ins & Outs

The Albanian 2015

Elizabeth Aquilina Elizabeth Aquilina joined the Physics department two years ago and proved herself to be both a highly effective teacher and an expert physicist with an impressive depth of knowledge, including geophysics. She has modelled the curiosity for the world around her that we all seek to inspire in our pupils and is also a strong mathematician with an eye for detail.

Coming from Malta, she brought fresh ideas on teaching and learning and developed a number of new resources for the department. Beyond the classroom she contributed to the life of the school as a Sixth Form tutor and was an active member of the Partnership team, leading a series of masterclasses for children from local primary schools.

She leaves us to take up a position at City of London School for Girls, a move that will allow her to make the most of all the capital has to offer and be closer to family and friends.

We wish her all the best at her new school, who will be gaining a gifted teacher, excellent physicist, and generous, likeable colleague.

MJG

Melanie Rennie Mel joined St Albans School in September 2014 as a teacher of French and Spanish. We all quickly warmed to her and we have very much enjoyed working with her. She has boundless energy and enthusiasm and genuinely cares about her pupils and the teachers that she works with. She is keen to try out new ideas in class and is an excellent team player. Mel joined the teaching profession after having pursued a successful career at AstraZeneca and she has passed on her knowledge of industry to our pupils in events such as the Sixth Form Business conference. Mel is an accomplished sportswoman and she has contributed to the sporting life of the School by teaching swimming in the Middle School. She has also been spotted by pupils travelling to school on an adult sized scooter. Mel leaves us to take up a part-time teaching post at Beaumont School that will allow her to spend more time with her young family. We wish her every success for the future.

JRR

Paul Newman When looking for maternity cover for Dr Brereton, the School was surprised to receive a CV from Paul Newman, who we assumed was dead. But with Kenny Everett and Dr Dre already on the staff, these things start to seem less odd. Paul made an immediate impression, the first post-interview comment being that he had ‘very yellow socks’. Those yellow socks, though, were a sign of things to come; quirky, lively, a little bit different. We appreciated these things, and so did his pupils. He has kept all his pupils focused and engaged. His methods of achieving this were slightly unorthodox, including Andy Murray impressions and bribery.

One senior colleague offered this august summary of Paul: ‘He has lots of suits’. So, a man of many suits; teacher, musician, actor, businessman, family man, New-man. We have thoroughly enjoyed his contributions and wish him well.

JDH

Sue Jex The end of the Spring term marked the end of Sue Jex’s thirty-five years as librarian at St Albans. As well as fulfilling her role in a highly professional way, Sue has always been willing to take immense pains to help anyone needing her assistance, regardless of their status, from a time long before the School motto was changed. Sue was meticulously organised and ensured the Library was too. Libraries, even school libraries tend to be quiet undramatic places but over the course of a long career there have been moments of drama, like when the Library roof caught fire when the roofers were using a blow torch. Water used to quench the flames came through the roof and drenched Sue, much to the amusement of Andrew Grant. We will miss Sue, for that and other happy memories.

AKJ

The Albanian 2015

Ins & Outs

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Prizegiving

Prizegiving 2015

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Prizegiving

The Headmaster’s Address The new academic year is well underway but there remains the task, and a very pleasant one it is, of presiding over the last rites of the previous one, to which end we are gathered this evening. The availability of Abbey means that we are doing so at a later date than we would wish and after the start of Freshers’ Weeks at several universities, so regrettably a number of the prizewinners from last year’s Upper Sixth have had to send their apologies and will therefore be lauded in absentia.

The need to deliver my second Prizegiving address is perhaps a sign that the honeymoon period, if the start of a headship can ever be described as such, is drawing to an end. It does, however, provide me with a final opportunity to thank the very many of you who helped me to settle in so quickly and to make my first year here such a pleasure.

To return to the wedding metaphor briefly, I must confess to sympathising during the preparation of this speech with the sentiment of one of Elizabeth Taylor’s later husbands who was overheard to say on their wedding day: “I know what is expected of me, but how to make it different?”

One Speech Day story tells of a Headmaster who stood up to give his address at which point an angel suddenly appeared and told him that, as a result of his unselfish and exemplary behaviour, he would be rewarded with his choice of infinite wealth, wisdom or beauty. The Headmaster – being blessed with more handsome looks than me – selected, without hesitation, infinite wisdom. “Done” said the angel and disappeared in a bolt of lightning.

Everyone looked at the Headmaster, who was now surrounded by a faint halo of light, and, after what seemed an extremely long pause, the Chairman of Governors tugged the sleeve of his gown and said “come on man, say something!” The Headmaster looked around at all present, beaming wisely (a natural skill for Headmasters, of course) and eventually declared: “I should have taken the money”.

The second half of August brought much happy news in terms of indi-

The address given

by Headmaster, Jonathan Gillespie, at the Prizegiving Ceremony on 21 September 2015

vidual pupils’ examination results and the School’s results overall.

45% of our A Level cohort received at least one A* grade, 35 candidates (more than one quarter of our cohort) achieved at least 2 A*s, and one in ten achieved three or more A*s. The overall results saw notable improvements compared to 2014 in our A* % (up by almost one percentage point to over 25%) and the A*A% which increased by 2.5 percentage points to over 67%, which is more than 40 percentage points above the national A*A rate and all the more encouraging in the context of a slight national decrease in these grades.

The vast majority of last year’s Upper Sixth were successful in securing a place at a Russell Group university with Nottingham, Durham, Leeds and Oxford being the most popular destinations this year, but I am pleased to report, Sir Malcolm, that both York and UCL are represented in our list.

At GCSE we are celebrating an A* grade record for the second year running. Our A* % increased by 2.5 percentage points this year to 59% whereas the national percentage decreased slightly to 6.6%, so our A* rate has increased its lead over the national rate to well in excess of 50 percentage points and almost 25 % points above the A* rate in the independent sector as a whole.

87% of GCSE grades were A*A, an increase of more than 1% on 2014.

The Albanian 2015

More than two thirds of our GCSE candidates achieved at least 5 A*s, over 60% gained at least 6 A*s, almost half the cohort achieved at least 7 A*s, 40% achieved at least 8 A*s, well over a quarter of our candidates achieved at least 9 A*s and 20 boys (just under 20% of the cohort) achieved at least 10 A*s, an outstanding achievement marked this evening by their receipt of a Governors’ Award.

This is one of the several rounds of the game of ‘bash the independent sector’ to which we have been subject during the last year, in particular in the build up to the general election. In one bout we were accused of restricting social mobility, which I found rather ironic given the history of this School in facilitating such mobility, especially through the Assisted Places and Direct Grant schemes, and the fact that it was politicians who put an These excellent GCSE results will end to these arrangements. I have guarantee our continued position been struck by the number of OAs at the foot of government league whom I have met during the last tables, where we sit proudly with year who remember very warmly a number of the country’s top the opportunities made available to academic schools. This is due to them through this provision. I know the Department for Education’s that the governors are absolutely continued policy of excluding the committed to developing our proInternational GCSE, which our vision of needs-blind places over pupils now take in the majority of the years to come, and raising funds subjects, from their performance to meet this aim will continue to league tables, so by those critebe a central part of the work of the ria o% of St Albans School pupils St Albans School Foundation.Yet it achieve 5 more GCSEs including seems to me that if politicians are English and Mathematics at grades serious about increasing social moA*-C. We offer the IGCSE qualificability, there is an obvious solution tion for several reasons, the most which is to introduce a scheme of important of which are that it education vouchers for parents to provides a greater intellectual chalspend as they wish in the state or lenge and a better preparation for independent sectors.

A Level study.

Another attack on the independent I will leave you to decide which is sector came from the then Shadow the more meaningful statistic from Secretary of State for Education, the following two options: either Tristram Hunt, whose political that our boys achieved 83% A* point scoring in the heat of the grades in early-entry IGCSE Mathelection campaign saw him accuse ematics and, coincidentally 83% A our sector of being reluctant to grades in the Free Standing Mathenter into partnerships with stateematics Qualification; or that, by maintained schools. I feel that the the DfE’s criteria, 0% of our pupils poorly informed comments made achieving 5 A*-C grades at GCSE

by Mr Hunt, or to give him his including English and Mathematics. correct title, the Honourable Dr I will accept answers on a postcard Hunt,- no hint of privilege there handed to me at the reception then! - do require a response afterwards, but there is, I’m afraid, further to the public lambasting he no prize for the correct answer! received from the Headmaster of More sinisterly in recent months his old school, University College the DfE has been putting its spin School in Hampstead. doctors to work briefing the press So, for the record: the Partnership that the IGCSE is an easier qualifischeme run by St Albans School cation. Let’s be absolutely clear, that along with local Infant and Primary is absolutely not true of the IGCSE Schools has expanded in many specifications undertaken here. The ways since its inception some 15 track record of serious academic years ago. 12 local state schools schools is a much more trustworand the Cathedral Education thy yardstick of intellectual rigour service now participate, thirteen than that of politicians or their spin St Albans School staff are involved doctors. and between sixty and seventy

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Lower Sixth Form pupils assist with Partnership activities on Friday afternoons. Monday and Friday afternoons see pupils from four local Primary Schools using our pool for their swimming lessons.

Our Head of Partnership organises the employment of local qualified coaches to run these sessions, and Sixth Formers and a member of staff act as lifeguards.

Masterclasses in ICT, D&T and Science are run at St Albans School.

Every Friday afternoon enthusiastic Primary school pupils come to the School and get involved in a variety of practical activities. They enjoy the opportunity to use facilities not normally available to them in their school and benefit from the expertise and guidance of St Albans School staff. Our specialist staff help to cover topics in the Primary School curriculum, such as programming in ICT, and in the process provide training for the accompanying teachers. In so doing we are definitely helping to get expert Maths and Science teaching into Primary Schools which has been identified as a need by the Government. Furthermore staff from the Drama, Music, Art, Maths and French departments go out each week to local schools where they run classes and share their specialist skills with the children and staff.

Lower Sixth students are vital to the running of these masterclasses; they assist the teachers, run sessions themselves and share their passion for the subject with the younger children who look up to them as role models. A number of our Sixth Formers also travel to local schools where they assist with a variety of tasks in the classroom and on the sports field. Their help is highly valued by the staff in the schools that they visit and it enables the students to develop those soft-skills highlighted as vital by future employers.

In addition to the Partnership Scheme St Albans School makes many other contributions to the community. Our Head of Sixth Form works with several State Schools, sharing knowledge and good practice, as well as practical support to students with the UCAS

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application process, particularly to Russell Group universities, including Oxbridge.We have recently received a request from another state school for such support to which we have, of course, responded positively. Our CCF now has a formal Ministry of Defence partnership with Marlborough Science Academy, training both cadets and adult staff, with the aim of helping them establish their own self-sufficient unit in the future. As part of our Community Link programme, a number of Lower Sixth students also volunteer in schools for children with special educational needs. Finally, and certainly not the least of this School’s commitment to partnership work, is the fact that several members of staff are pleased to serve as governors of statesector schools.

As Mr Hunt is now re-focusing his political efforts on serving his Stoke-on-Trent constituents from the backbenches, we may not hear from him again on this topic, but I believe it is important to record our good practice in this regard with our partnership arrangements bringing benefits to hundreds of local schoolchildren and to their teachers.

I predict that the next bout will see politicians focusing on access to independent schools’ facilities and in particular to playing fields. I venture to suggest that this will be in order to assuage their guilt for having allowed the selling off of thousands of acres of playing fields. So I am happy to take this opportunity to record that our Woollam Playing Fields are, and will continue to be, offered for the hosting of county and regional training, matches and finals in football, rugby and cricket as well as being used by local football, rugby, cricket and netball clubs.

In my Prizegiving address this time last year I anticipated the imminent independence referendum in Scotland and the General Election.

At that stage we were blissfully unaware of the Independent Schools Inspectorate’s plans to visit much earlier than had been expected. Appropriate preparations were nevertheless already in hand, so when we received the call in early October we were not unduly per-

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turbed, even though the prospect of an even-more-frenetic-than-usual final week of the first half of term was not received with unalloyed joy in the Common Room.

The pupils’ personal development is excellent. Pupils are highly appreciative of the excellent individual pastoral care and guidance they receive which helps them to grow into mature, caring and self-disciplined adults.The The eagerly-awaited outcome was many opportunities provided for them highly pleasing, in particular the to make valuable contributions to rare distinction of the quality of their school, the local community and our pupils’ achievements being charity work allows them to develop rated as exceptional. The ‘exceptionstrong social, moral and cultural al’ grade is reserved for the highest awareness and an understanding of echelons of the ‘excellent’ category the value of service to others. and therefore an accolade received by very few schools. We were also And finally: As pupils progress through very pleased to receive the top the school they grow into confident and grade of excellent for curricular and independent people who demonstrate extra-curricular provision; contria high standard of personal developbution of teaching; spiritual, moral, ment ready to contribute to society by social and cultural development of the time they leave.They are mature pupils; pastoral care; and welfare, and responsible citizens well prepared health and safety. for the next stage of their education or working life.The school fulfils its aim There is much in the inspectors’ to develop the pupils’ character and report of which we are proud. personality so as to become caring and A few highlights, therefore, firstly self-disciplined adults. about our pupils’ engagement with their academic work: Much excellent music was enjoyed last year under the baton of Mr The achievement of pupils across Stout and his colleagues, and Miss all ages is exceptional.The school Bruton’s production of Much Ado fully meets its aims to enable pupils About Nothing was the highlight of a to achieve the highest standard of busy drama calendar. The collaboacademic success according to ability ration of these two outstanding and similarly in their extra-curricular departments on this term’s producinterests ……. Motivated by a tion of Into the Woods is eagerly broad-based curriculum, high quality anticipated. Another successful speakers and challenging extension sporting year concluded with the work, pupils have excellent attitudes to st 1 XI returning unbeaten from learning.They demonstrate resilience their tour to Sri Lanka in July, albeit and perseverance. with due acknowledgement of the The report continues: Pupils across heavy rain that saved them on at least one occasion. all ages demonstrate exemplary attitudes to learning.They are eager It was the prelude to a splendid to learn and respond confidently to Ashes summer during which the intellectual challenge and rigour.The excitement proved too much for pupils’ excellent behaviour in lessons one senior member of the MCC allows them to develop high levels whose dicky heart finally gave way. of concentration and perseverance He passed through the corridor when work is particularly challenging. of uncertainty and approached Motivated and ambitious for their the great final wicket in the sky. future success, they are co-operative On arriving at the pearly gates learners.They show resilience and are he was delighted to see a cricket prepared to take risks in their learning match taking place. “I didn’t dare and deal well with any failure which dream that there would be cricket occurs.They strive for excellence in all in heaven” he told St Peter. “Well, aspects of their school life. it’s kind of ironic really,” replied St Peter, “God believes that he is Secondly two extracts which Geoffrey Boycott”. underline the strength of the St Albans School ethos which sees Communications with pupils and academic and intellectual progress parents have been significantly at the heart of a holistic, value-rich developed over the last year. The education:

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reformed and reinvigorated Pupil Council has brought forward a number of ideas from Year Group representatives that have been implemented, and the parental questionnaire undertaken in the Summer Term provided a wealth of important insights and feedback that have already produced tangible benefits for our pupils, the change to our catering arrangements being one of them. We also have a St Albans School App, providing a portal for key website information and contact details as well as our Twitter feeds.

Mention of Twitter reminds me of the man who walked into his doctor’s consulting room in some distress: “Help me doctor, he said, I’m addicted to Twitter!” After a short delay the doctor replied: “I’m sorry, I don’t follow you!”

concurred by rating the contribution of teaching rating as excellent, citing as evidence, and I quote, our teachers’ inspirational force both in and beyond the classroom. I take this opportunity to salute my colleagues, and I commend the many pupils who have achieved excellent things as a result of their inspirational teaching this year.

It is a timely reminder that we should never underestimate the importance of teachers in the forming of young people. In an article which caught my eye some time ago the then Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, argued that we don’t honour teachers enough. He wrote:

Teachers open our eyes to the world.

They give us curiosity and confidence.

They teach us to ask questions.They connect us to our past and future.

They’re the guardians of our social On the subject of communicaheritage.We have lots of heroes today tions the advent of a new senior – sportsmen, supermodels, media post, that of Director of Marketing, personalities.They come, they have Admissions and Communications, their 15 minutes of fame, and they indicates our strategic intention to go. But the influence of good teachers develop further in this important stays with us.They are the people who area. This development is a part of really shape our lives. the introduction of revised leaderA few years ago I came across ship arrangements in several key the text of a letter ascribed to areas. With a new title of Deputy Abraham Lincoln and said to Head Academic Mr Davies now have been sent originally to the heads an academic leadership team Headmaster of the school which which includes two important new Abraham Lincoln’s son attended. positions: the roles of Assistant Some of the language and ideas Head Teaching & Learning (Mr show it as a product of its age, Smyth) and Data & Curriculum but in many regards it refers to Manager (Dr Saunders) emphasise timeless challenges of education toour commitment never to rest on gether with some elements which our laurels but rather to embrace resonate in the context of some of new ideas, to develop further good today’s topical issues. practice and to identify and implement incremental gains across our Lincoln wrote: He will have to learn, provision for the benefit of our I know, that all men are not just; all pupils. That aim is not just limited men are not true. But teach him also to the academic curriculum as we that for every scoundrel there is a now also have an Assistant Head, hero; that for every selfish politician, Mr Burger, responsible for the there is a dedicated leader.

Co-curriculum which of course has Teach him that for every enemy there a fundamental importance to this is a friend. It will take time, I know, School’s ethos and values. but teach him, if you can, that a dollar The delivery of our ethos and earned is of far more value than five values is a process which depends found.Teach him to learn to lose and fundamentally on the quality of our also to enjoy winning. Steer him away staff. Unsurprisingly the parental from envy, if you can.Teach him the surveys identified this as a key secret of quiet laughter. Let him learn factor for parents in their apprecia- early that the bullies are the easiest to tion and expectations of the School, lick.Teach him, if you can, the wonder and the ISI inspectors pleasingly of books, but also give him quiet time

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to ponder over the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun, and flowers on a green hill-side.

In school teach him that it is far more honourable to fail than to cheat.Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him they are wrong.Teach him to be gentle with gentle people and tough with the tough.Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone is getting on the bandwagon.Teach him to listen to all men but teach him also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth and take only the good that comes through.

Teach him, if you can, how to laugh when he is sad.Teach him there is no shame in tears.Teach him to scoff at cynics and to beware of too much sweetness.Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to the highest bidders; but never to put a price tag on his heart and soul.Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob, and to stand and fight if he thinks he is right.

Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him because only the test of fire makes fine steel. Let him have the courage to be impatient; let him have the patience to be brave.Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will always have sublime faith in mankind.

This is a big order; but see what you can do.

By the standards of some 21st Century parents Lincoln appears to be rather modest in his expectations of his son’s school, but to conclude my address this evening we should be very pleased with how St Albans School is faring in 2015 and with how our pupils are responding to my colleagues’ inspirational force. My congratulations go to all the prizewinners on their achievements, and those for whom this occasion is definitively their final appearance on the St Albans School stage as well as all our 2015 leavers have my very best wishes for the start of their university courses. I know that having benefited from everything that this great school has had to offer them over the last few years, they could not be better prepared for the next leg of life’s journey.

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Prizewinners 2015 Fourth Form Subject Prizes

First Form Prizes Achievement Awards

Progress Prizes

Sebastian Bennett Francis Harden Frederick Hubbard Thomas Hughes Tharun Manivannan Steven Perrin

Aidan MacGovern Nathaniel Fuell Oluwatamilore Ogunseye

Second Form Prizes Achievement Awards

Progress Prizes

Scott Brice Steven Furlong Robert Moye Ronak Parikh Harry Parker Matthew Rayner

Benjamin Cooper Shahrouz Farhadi Dylan Deb

Achievement Awards

Progress Prizes

Dimitri Chamay Thomas Hillman Charles Le Couilliard William Payne Alasdair Taylor Owen Tyley

Noah Arthur-Tinworth Aaron Graft Kamal Oyebola Adebowale Onanuga Matthew Kaltsoyannis Lorenzo Rossi

Progress Prizes Shivam Kohli Joe Pattison James Scragg Shay Mehta Carsten Backhaus Felix Trimmer

Fifth Form Prizes Progress Prizes

William Foxton Oliver Barratt-Johnson Morgan Wynne Harry Hemsi Oliver Barratt-Johnson Benjamin Craig Oliver Branley Shivam Kohli Khaled Shahidullah Edward Moye William Foxton Oliver Barratt-Johnson Timothy Bagnall Conor Norman Harry Hemsi Joe Pattison Edward Moye Stephen Heaney Oliver Barratt-Johnson Harry Hemsi Rhys Appleyard

Fifth Form Subject Prizes

Third Form Prizes

Fourth Form Prizes

English Mathematics Art Biology Economics Chemistry Drama DT - Electronic Products DT - Graphic Products DT - Resistant Materials French Geography German Greek History Latin Music Physical Education Physics Religious Studies Spanish

English Language English Literature Mathematics Art Biology Business Studies Chemistry Drama DT - Electronic Products DT - Graphic Products DT - Resistant Materials French Geography German Greek History Latin Music Physical Education Physics Religious Studies Spanish

*Governors’ Award

Jonathan Ascot Euan Wallace* Leon Sui Thomas M’Caw Jordan Sweeny* Darsh Shah Veer Shah Joshua Refson Leon Sui Jonathan Ascot Darsh Shah Joshua Oliver* Amit Wangoo Lars Tuinema Oliver Neusten* Anthony Henein* Luke Hopper* Thomas Dilley Jonathan Cattermole Joshua Oliver* Leon Sui James Freeman*

Dominic Ball Sean Kelleher Danya Bavetta Edward Bartholomeusz James Nutt

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Fifth Form Governors’ Awards

Upper Sixth Subject Prizes

Michael Davies Ross Ferreira Alexander Gilbert Thomas Goldstone Samuel Goymer Andrew Henein Jack Larsson Louis Rabinowitz Theo Reback Luke Vaghela Jacob Vialou-Clark James Yurkwich

English Literature Daniel Angel Mathematics Oluwaseun Adekoya*

George Macgregor*

Rachel Hoffman* Mathematics (John Godfrey Prize) Ganesh Chauhan* Further Mathematics Guy Holden*

Thomas Kirby* Ancient History Matthew Lavelle* Biology Lara Superfine* Chemistry (George Wishart Prize) Rachel Hoffman* DT - Electronics Joshua Southworth* DT - Graphic Products Ganesh Chauhan* DT - Resistant Materials Adam Craig-Thompson Drama Clare Leith Drama - Performance (OA Masonic Prize) Louis Yianni Economics Jordan Bartlam* French Harry Sampson* Geography Joel Rabinowitz Government and Politics Milo Knights* Greek Bertram Veres* History (Archibald John Eastcott Prize) Nicholas Harvey Languages (SGF Scase Prize) Oliver Gaeton Latin Robert Tominey-Nevado* Physical Education Michael Kossifos Physics William Norris* Religious Studies Benedict Anthoney Spanish Harry Sampson* Extended Project Prize Olivia Clarke Extended Project Prize Thomas Nawas*

Lower Sixth Subject Prizes English Literature Mathematics

Further Mathematics

Ancient History Art Biology Chemistry DT - Electronics DT - Graphic Products DT - Resistant Materials Drama Economics French Geography Greek History Latin Physical Education Physics Politics Religious Studies Spanish

Cem Balci William Pavey Toby Barnes Alexander Cook Benjamin Hemsi Anthony Georgiou Oliver Barlow Imogen Robertson Maya Mendoza Alexander Cook Thomas Abrey Jack Dobson Simon Brooks Rosie Hudson Georgia Kelsey Georgia Kelsey Oliver Barlow Alec McQuarrie Maya Mendoza Alec McQuarrie Elizabeth Georgiou Benjamin Hemsi Edward Hunt Edward Hunt Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero

*Governors’ Awards

Special Awards Contribution to Partnership Prize Kaya Tveito-Duncan Community Link Prize Elena Pritchard Josh Handel (Charities) Cup Charlotte Evans Swinson Prize for Tech. Drama Elizabeth Horton Highstead Cup Philippa English (left) Powell-Davies Service Prize William Norris

Robert Lightowler Prefects’ Leaving Prize Freddie Scutt Head Prefect’s Prize Milo Knights

Upper Sixth Governors’ Awards Maximillian Cadman Benjamin Chrisp James Conlon Miles Fryer Jack Gannon Hannah Girdlestone Ben Harley Camilla Hoffman Declan Houten Pius Jude Kirsty Mitchell Jonny Muir Matthew Sheriff James Thompson James Wilkins James Wilkinson Vivien Zhu

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A2 Art by Molly Keenan Opposite: 2nd Form work after Matisse

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Creative Art

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Creative Art

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This page: Kyri Mouzouris (A2) Darren Lai (GCSE) Matthew Edwards (AS, House Art) Opposite page: Portraits by Sean Kelleher (GCSE) Matthew Edwards (AS) Omeiza Haruna (AS) Kyri Mouzouris (A2)

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Creative Art

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Creative Art

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Art work by: Leo Tzakolotos (A2) Amelia Cook (AS) Imogen Robertson (AS)

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WW1 Twist Works Well Much Ado About Nothing James Hughes, Head of English, argues for the value of Shakespeare productions in his review of this year’s main play.

Much Ado About Nothing has been, since it was first staged in 1598, amongst the most regularly performed of all Shakespeare’s plays. In the last 50 years, it has become a staple of secondary school English Literature, especially at GCSE and O Level. There are good reasons for these two trends: the play has a clear and strong narrative drive, well-defined and memorable characters, and a great deal of clever wordplay. It is also perhaps the most obviously ‘modern’ of Shakespeare’s comedies. There is also that godsend to the beleaguered teacher – a relatively recent and largely well-done film. Beyond the schoolroom, the play has also been a fruitful hunting ground for profes-

Shakespeare… at the centre of the School’s cultural calendar

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sional academics: feminist, Freudian and historicist interpretations have weighed down shelves in university libraries since the early 1970s, and continue to do so. At the other end of the spectrum, it is not an unusual play to be chosen in primary schools for a first encounter with Shakespeare. All in all, there is a sense that the play comes close to being all things to all men.

Mary Bruton’s production successfully balanced the light and the dark.

The decision to set the play in the immediate aftermath of World War One had a pointed echo in the centenary year of 2014, and struck an appropriately bittersweet note.

Dramatically, too, this worked well; the necessary stage business of the opening scene was particularly neatly exploited, as the messenger bringing news of the men returnWith that in mind, then, Much Ado is ing home from war took on the a sensible choice for a main school form of a telegram delivery. This production. But it also comes with swiftly segued into the ‘merry war’ a distinct set of challenges. How of words between Beatrice and can such a well-known play and Benedict, played by Jemma Attar popular play be made new? What (if and Louis Yianni respectively. Period any) critical interpretation should music punctuated the performance, be favoured? Is it best to play the from an instrumental version of text as a brisk farce, exploiting its ‘Colonel Bogey’ to Katie Shreeves’ many opportunities for laughter, robust rendition of ‘Pack up your or to spend more time explortroubles in your old kit bag’. The ing some of its problematic sides? set, too, all suffrage banners and These – and more – are circles any Kitchener images, recalled faded director needs to square.

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cinereel images of late 1918, while catching the play’s textual mood.

While the sight of a nurse and a man on crutches were an apt reminder that not all returned home unscathed, there was nonetheless a moving suggestion of a new start after conflict.

The performance benefited most from Yianni’s excellent Benedick: pure swagger and wit, yet speaking the verse with precision and verve.

There were some nice improvised moments as well. He also managed to bring out something of his character’s dilemma in being asked to leave a bluff, clubbable and (above all) male world in which he feels comfortable but unfulfilled; it is a shallow life but one he knows, and this was rendered well.

Attar’s Beatrice brought a quietly A play of deceit, thoughtful dimension to a traditioneavesdropping and ally proto-feminist (and sometimes misunderstanding: rather shrill) role: her protagonist’s Hero and the Duke quandary is whether to retain (left), Benedick self-determination in solitude, or (above), Leonato and gain a partner through submission, Dogberry (below) and this is too often glossed over.

The actress’s conception of this difficulty was as welcome as it was unexpected.

As a duo, Attar and Yianni made the expected verbal sparks fly, ably assisted by a range of supporting actors. Don John, played by Max Cadman, was drawn straight from the pantomime villain textbook (in the best possible sense), Alec McQuarrie’s Claudio brought some life and passion to amongst the straightest of Shakespeare’s straight-men, while Peter Gosling cut a fittingly absurd figure as Dogberry. Also worthy of comment was Ronan Lee, who did well to bring a quiet menace to the figure of Antonio (barely an afterthought in most productions). In the play’s most famous scene, Josie Price’s Hero convinced in her transition from demure, blushing bride to falsely slandered ‘rotten orange’, and Seun Adekoya palpably grew into his part as Don Pedro, demonstrating the authority required for the primary ‘legislative’ role in the play. Last but not least, the ensemble moments added some memorable colour, particularly the fox-trot and street party scenes.

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An evidently committed and efficient lighting team also deserve praise, as do the assistant director (Rebecca Baxter) and the technical supervisor (Guy Lewis) – the unsung heroes of any production.

It is always worth remembering, too, the enormous time commitment needed to stage a major production – time given by a wide range of staff during arguably the busiest time of the School year.

Most credit, however, must go to the cast, the Drama Department

and the director, Mary Bruton, who successfully conceived an intelligent and topical take on a well-known play, then executed it with skill and assurance. As a School, we should be profoundly grateful for their industry, and their rightful insistence that drama, and Shakespeare, are worth both the effort and their place at the centre of the School’s cultural calendar. Without these values, such admirable and important spectacles as Much Ado would be, well, nothing.

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Challenging Material for A2 Drama Devised piece treads sensitive ground Bookended by movement sequences, the six performers in Agender gave the audience a brave, frank exploration of problems faced by transgender people. The Upper Sixth students devised and wrote the production, based on news stories, internet sources and interviews with their own peers. The result was often painful, frequently comic, sometimes brutally honest and occasionally shocking.

On a virtually bare stage, just backed by four suspended mannequins, two female and two male, and fronted by a line of toys, items of clothing and make-up, the piece was carefully choreographed. The ensemble, wearing white t-shirts and grey jogging bottoms, maintained a continuum of movement while individuals emerged to take on different characters and parts of the narrative. There were moments of stillness too, allowing hushed focus at key moments.

The varied scenes were skilfully chosen and developed, so that the audience heard the authentic voices of young people’s attitudes to gender and sexual relationships.

There was much humour here, and some shock, while the frank expression allowed the views to be confronted. Interesting too was the scenes’ juxtaposition of such views with an exploration of stereotypes promulgated in the media and a range of statistics relating to gender – the audience

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was implicitly invited to make the link between popular attitudes and media misrepresentation, at a distance from actualities.

Two narratives pinned this range of material together, again drawn from real cases, exploring the cases of a young boy and a young girl dealing with the realisation of their transgender nature, the responses and their friends and families and their own progress. That one of these narratives focused on a suicide note illustrated the potential tragic consequences of confusion and rejection. The other story was more hopeful, emerging from seemingly impassable challenges to find a route to a more optimistic future.

Jemma Attar, Ronan Lee, Claire Leith, Ellie Shreeves, Hannah Sweeney and Louis Yianni showed maturity in their handling of this material, as well as a deft understanding of dramatic presentation.

Simply and effectively staged with a blend of individual performances and seamless ensemble work, Agender was a compelling, compact piece of theatre.

All exam performances are filmed for assessment purposes; the film of this performance should become essential viewing as part of the PHSE programme, though a recordSimply and ing could not catch the viscerality effectively staged of the group’s stage performance. with strong

NJC ensemble work

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Shattering Physical Theatre AS Drama

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The New Place audience was left stunned by the AS drama students’ vibrant performance of an extract from Mark Ravenhill’s play Pool (no water). Performed in Berkoff-style physical theatre, it was challenging and confrontational, and gripped the audience from start to finish.

their bodies to create everything from an aeroplane to the pool itself. The way that the cast worked together was mesmerising, and had the audience following events in a trance-like state. These scenes were made even eerier thanks to James Smillie’s atmospheric lighting.

The play examines the fragility of friendship, and dramatises the story of a famous artist who was once part of a group of closelyknit friends but who abandoned the others after achieving greater success. She invites them to her lavish new house to reunite the group for one night only and to see her new pool, but celebrations are cut short when she experiences a horrific accident.

Each cast member was impressive, creating distinct personalities for each of the various characters they played, and switching between roles with ease. The audience members’ eyes darted from character to character as they became increasingly absorbed. As one critic of the original production put it, this is not a play where the audience sits and watches – instead, it is implicated in the drama.

Undoubtedly the most impressive aspect of the performance was the non-stop ensemble movement. It takes a great deal of effort to sustain such a relentless performance, but the cast was highly energetic, barely pausing for breath. The actors worked as a chorus to full effect, creating a number of innovative, and indeed disturbing, scenes, using

Perhaps the most striking scene of the entire performance was its conclusion, which, though inevitable, still managed to stun the audience.

As soon as the drunken group of friends decide to go skinny-dipping in a mad frenzy, for old times’ sake, there is as an inescapable sense that something terrible is about to happen – which it does. The shocked silence in the room after the protagonist jumped into the empty pool spoke volumes.

It was a fitting end to an intense performance which had been leading up to the climax. The actors succeeded in holding the audience under their spell, and by the end of the performance, it was not just the cast that were out of breath.

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A scene from the AS production of Pool (no water)

Tense Relationships GCSE Drama performances Yet again the Fifth Form produced some fantastic pieces of drama in an evening of performances that shocked, moved and entertained a tense New Place audience.

then switched almost instantly as his anger and horror overcame him.

The second play on show was Mudlarks, by Vickie Donoghue, which is about three teenage boys The first play they were treated to was The Pillowman, stranded on the bank of the Thames for a night, after written by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. The play causing mischief in their town. Caught between the focuses on a writer (Katurian) in a fictitious totalitar- rising tide and the police, their friendship is tested and ian state who is questioned over the brutal content of as dawn approaches they are forced to make some his short stories which have worrying similarities to very important decisions. several child killings that have happened in his town.

Getting the right chemistry for the three characters is Having studied it myself last year I know how chalkey to success here and the humour is brought out by lenging it is to bring out the subtle character nuances, contrasting their very different personalities. There’s while at the same time keeping the black comedy. This also a fair amount of stage fighting which, of course, play is designed to place the audience in an uncomis always difficult to carry out convincingly, without fortable limbo, somewhere between feeling horrified forgetting about health and safety. I’m pleased to say at the gruesome narrative, and wanting to laugh at the the five performances took up the gauntlet that The witty humour. Despite this, the performers gave us Pillowman threw down and left the audience wanting five thrilling 15 minute extracts, giving a taste of what more.

The Pillowman is all about.

Once again it’s tough to name standout performances It’s incredibly difficult to pick out any particular perbut I felt both Dom Ball and Josh Hume expertly formances due to such a high standard on show but captured the essence of Charlie, a rash and dominant Michael Davies and Patrick Rondel played the perfect trouble-maker. They also managed to portray his ‘good-cop, bad-cop’ duo, with a twist. Whilst Davies insecurities well, bringing out an anxious side that isn’t seemed almost uninterested in the potential psycho usually allowed to show through his tough exterior. child killer in front of him, Rondel took every chance Matthew Davies also gave a truly convincing performto brutally abuse the suspect. But once Ariel (Rondel) ance as Jake, who in most aspects is the complete had left the room, Tupolski (Davies) showed his true opposite of Charlie. Davies managed to depict an colours, leaving the audience wondering which detecambitious young man who is clearly well in over his tive was the more sadistic. head. However, he also adeptly presented his ability to Josh Refson also deserves a mention for his powermake rational decisions in the face of calamity, which ful portrayal of Katurian’s mentally disabled brother, in this instance was Wayne, a bumbling and happyMichal. He cleverly exploited the dramatic irony in the go-lucky character, who acts as the main peacemaker Death becomes him: script and superbly delivered the major turning point between Jake and Charlie. In the final performance of Kalechi Alozi gives a in the play while subtly bringing out the humour in the the evening, Adam Annis delivered some much needed sterling performance in Mort (right) dialogue. Meanwhile Danya Bavetta struck an excellent comic relief after a night of high tensions and raw balance between a sensitive and caring brother and emotion.

Alec McQuarrie

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Bringing Death to Life Lower School Production of Terry Pratchett’s Mort On a wonderful, balmy summer’s evening in June, an excited cast of 22 First and Second Formers produced a witty and refreshing performance of Mort, a play adapted by Stephen Briggs from Terry Pratchett’s novel.

Pratchett’s series of Discworld novels are irreverent and in places just plain silly, as they poke fun at the fantasy genre by undercutting the serious issue of a big quest with the mundane and the everyday – think Life of Brian meets Lord of the Rings.

In this tale, Mortimer, known as Mort, is the last to be selected at an apprentice fair and the only willing taker is Death, a man with a penchant for a full breakfast who will train his apprentice up to be there at the last moments when the old, murdered and plain unlucky throw off their mortal coil. Mort, however, is just too damn nice and messes with the order of things with potentially disastrous consequences.

The large and expectant audience of parents, peers and staff were not left waiting long before they realised that they were in highly capable hands. Excellent ensemble work in the opening section brought the apprentice fair gloriously to life with each individual performer committed

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to their character and role. Conor Robinson was excellent as Mort’s frustrated father and Nathan Jones gave a memorable turn as the village idiot who is chosen over Mort as an apprentice by the smelly Cyrus, played with brilliant comic timing by Torin Felton. Kelechi Alozie was superb as Death; with a reverberating microphone he knew just when to scare and when to underplay. His relationship with Mort was well built and at times genuinely touching, as the mentoring process brought out the kindness in a man hardened by death’s experiences. George Penny gave a subtle and confident performance, with the audience warming to this normal boy in his extraordinary role. Both Joshua Walkey-Morais and James Moore were astonishingly convincing as Princess Keli and Death’s daughter Ysabel (despite boiling under their wigs on such a hot day). Also particularly notable were Stratford Ryan as the grumpy wizard turned butler, Albert, and Jacob Hougie, who played the excitable and cowardly wizard Cutwell.

In the second half there were explosions galore (Mr Lewis will never let a show go by without a chance to set off a few pyros...) as the Wizards were forced into col-

laboration by the threat of reality catching up with time. Wafa Dajani gave a powerful and comic performance as the High Priest whose prayers to the unending list of gods were cut short by yet another explosion, and the whole cast came together brilliantly to support the final expertly choreographed battle sequence between Mort and Death.

Mr Blaxill directed the play very well, despite the obvious difficulties of having plenty of the cast in the Brecon Beacons for three weeks prior to the production. The audience really would not have known, such was the polish and confidence of both the big crowd sections and the individual characterisations. It really was a joy to watch so much outstanding acting from the Lower School, with each performer grabbing their opportunity to shine and then putting a shift in for the good of the company. Ollie Branley must also be congratulation for running the sound with his usual panache and professionalism. The sheer enjoyment that the cast were having was highly infectious and the audience left with a spring in its step – a perfect summer evening’s Disgruntled wizard entertainment and an apt tribute to Stratford Ryan turns a great writer. butler in Mort DS and RJB

The Albanian 2015

Hope

Freddie Houlahan

T

he perplexed man stepped into the moonlit forest and frowned. He felt tension in the air, as if something was watching him that very moment, preparing to pounce, to quench its thirst for blood…

There was a rustle in the bushes. The man walked faster.

When the mystic persuaded him to go to ‘The Faith-bound Forest’, the man had thought he was crazy. But here it was. Mist swirled around the weather-beaten man’s scuffed boots like oil. His stormy grey eyes were darting around the moonlight-dappled forest, scanning for one of those things he sensed. That was, if he had not already been detected.

The forest was a sea of trees that had been growing long before the lone wolf was born. It was one of the few places not flattened to make motorways or cities. Something rustled in the shadowy bushes in front of him. Like lightning, his loaded gun pointed at the foliage. With a farewell apology a shot rang out. Dark black avian blood dripped from the bush and pooled at his feet, dissipating the swirling fog. Suddenly something else caught his attention: the smell of rotting fish and tar, and then footsteps.

So he ran.

Gasping for breath, the man came to a glistening steel fence that bordered the forest. Surveying his dark, sparse surroundings, he decided his best bet for a speedy exit was a tree that overhung the fence. He clambered on to one of the tree’s lowest branches and proceeded to climb.

There was a growl, then a strangled gurgle. Peering down, he saw a dozen or more of those things, just standing and staring up at him. The creatures had a mangled, contorted form but their eyes… they looked almost human.

Surely that was impossible? The pack snarled up at the terrified human.

He’d nearly reached the overhanging branch when the tree began to sway.

He glanced down and gasped. With superhuman strength, they were trying to fell the tree!

With a crack and a snap the tree decided his fate and began its agonisingly slow journey to the forest floor. Like a startled wolf, the frightened man leapt off the branch, missing the fence by a hair’s breadth, and landed painfully on the other side. The creatures turned as one towards him. One ran at the fence and the hopeless man shuddered, fearing they would soon knock it down. As the beast came into contact with the fence, zzzaaaapppp, a surge of electricity flowed out of the fence and the charred body of the creature flew backwards, not even recognisable as a corpse. His hope returned.

The creatures let out a series of angry hisses, but there was no way out. The relieved man smiled in victory as he walked away, leaving the memories – and terrors – behind. It was the first time he’d smiled in a long, long time. He hoped he’d be smiling much more often in the foreseeable future. He had discovered hope.

The Albanian 2015

Creative Writing

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The Birth of a Storyteller Ciaran Cook

A

lfred Smith did not expect to see his grandson outside his bookshop at seven o’clock on a Sunday morning. The twelveyear-old was standing under his bedroom window, hands wrapped around a smartphone of some kind. Alfred’s daughter was standing behind him. A handbag was on her shoulder, and she looked keen to get away to whatever she had to do.

Letting out a long, wheezing sigh, Alfred pulled up his window and leaned out. His daughter looked up as she heard the clatter of the latch being set in place. When the old man appeared, she smiled.

“I’ll be down in a few minutes!” he called.

She adjusted the strap of her handbag and took the device from her son, while Alfred rapidly pulled a clean shirt on.

There were several obnoxious bangs on the door as he rushed downstairs, presumably from his grandson.

As the boy was raising his hand to continue knocking, the door was flung open, and a rather disheveled old man wearing a crumpled shirt stood in the hall.

“Hello,” said Alfred, slightly confused by the situation. “What can I do for you?”

The boy stuffed his hands into his pockets and scowled as his mother stepped forwards, a pained look on her face.

“Will you be able to look after Ben today? I have some really important work to catch up on and no one else is around to look after him… so –” “Of course!” cried Alfred, oblivious to the fact that he had interrupted his daughter’s sentence.

At this, the boy rolled his eyes and murmured a few inaudible words.

“Thanks.” His mother steered him into the house. “I’d better get going.”

“Can’t you stay just for a cup of tea?”

“Sorry… I really need to leave now.”

“Of course, of course – Goodbye!”

The second that he had stopped speaking, his daughter ran off down the garden path and into a waiting taxi. As it receded into the distance, he closed the door, and turned to see his grandson leaning against the wall, sneering. This did not please Alfred.

“Please… Ben. Would you be able to take yourself into my parlour; it’s just round the back of the shop, while I sort a few things out and make a cup of tea?”

The boy frowned and clumped off down the hall. When Alfred got back his grandson muttered a few phrases. It was obvious that he thought that his grandfather had not heard anything.

“Pardon? I’m sorry, my hearing’s not as it used to be so you’ll have to speak with more volume.”

Grimacing, Ben repeated his mutters, revealing a short set of sentences that Alfred thought very obnoxious indeed.

“I don’t know why mum brought me here for the day; it’s just books!

You can’t do anything with books! I wish I was still at home!”

The old man led his grandson to a table that was tucked away in the corner of the room. He held out a chair, and gestured to Ben to sit down.

When Ben was sitting, his grandfather took a seat at the opposite end of the table.

Stacks of books surrounded them; leather-bound editions with their titles sewn in gold silk; run-of-the-mill paperbacks, both modern and

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classic. Alfred took two sheets of lined paper from a box on the floor. He slid one across to Ben. “Write,” he said, passing a pencil to his grandson.

“But what about?” cried the child, his voice a mixture of confusion and contempt.

“Anything!” was the reply, as Alfred took his own writing tool, a slim gold pen, and began to write.

There was silence for a while, until it was shattered by another enquiry.

“But why should I write? I don’t even like reading, let alone writing!

And I can’t think of how to start my story!”

Without looking up from his work, Alfred gave some words of advice.

“I am getting you to write because it will show you that the authors of the famous, published books I love, must work a lot harder than you think to end up with a final story. If you are so stuck, take one of the books from around you and read a few lines; then, perhaps you will be able to express your ideas.”

Sighing, Ben took up a dusty paperback from one of the countless piles next to him.

In large, glossy print, the title was written: THE SWORD of DARKNESS He flicked through to the first page: A pallid moon hung in the sky. Branches reached across the horizon, long dark fingers. Cesraungl stood upon the earthen track beneath these sights. In his hand was a sword that shone so brightly, even though it was made of a dull, black metal. This was the Sword of Darkness. And Cesraungl was on a mission.

Suddenly inspired, Ben put the book down on the table and lowered his pencil to the paper. After much time spent pencil biting and writing, he felt his grandfather’s hand on his shoulder.

“I told you it would come,” he said softly; “I knew it would.”

There was a loud knock on the door, and Alfred straightened.

“I suppose your mother is waiting for you.”

Ben smiled weakly, and walked down the hallway with his grandfather, pencil and paper clutched in one hand.

But when the door was opened, Alfred rushed back down the hall. He returned with a rectangular item that was wrapped up in brown paper, along with another, thinner package.

“Just a little present,” he said as he pressed them into Ben’s hands, “because you worked so hard.”

30 Years Later…

Even after Ben wrote his first real book some years later, and his books became bestsellers and writing awards littered his shelves and walls, he still kept a faded photograph of him and his grandfather, alongside a story.

The story was written in pencil on a sheet of lined paper, and was titled: The Deathly Dancing Skeletons But even more precious to him were the edition of The Sword of Darkness and his grandfather’s special writing pen that his grandfather had given him that day in the bookshop.

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Creative Writing

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The Jutland Cup

John Motson’s Match Report Lorenzo Razzano

H

ello and welcome to the Jutland Cup Final 1916. We are here today to find out who has the better navy, Britain or Germany. If Britain is victorious today, they will be able to choke Germany into submission through the implementation of a blockade of Germany’s narrow coastline. However, if the Germans are led to victory today, we will see the British blockade get a bit looser for a few months.

Previous encounters of these two sides took place in 1914/15 in the group stages.

It was Britain who came out on top as they dominated, with high numbers of German soldiers killed and German ships destroyed.

Germany, however, were lucky to be allowed a goal as officials were unable to see that the German playmaker, the German High Seas Fleet, was in fact in an offside position and scored in Yorkshire’s goal. This conceded 137 fatalities but boosted the morale of the British players and they responded a few months later, the result of intercepting German radio messages. At the Dogger Bank Stadium, they scored 954 fatalities and the German captain, Armoured Cruiser, was unlucky enough to be a part of the humiliation. As kick off approaches, I would like to remind everyone at home that the bookies at William World War 1 have put Britain as

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favourites at 5/1 whereas a German victory is at 10/1.

This reflects the strength of the British Navy.

We have kicked off, and we hope for a thrilling Battle… After twenty minutes, the action has begun and it looks like the British skipper, Jellicoe, is looking for an interception against his opponents. The Grand Fleet raises steam for full speed and prepares to give chase after goalkeeper Rosyth’s long ball forward.

At this juncture the Battle Cruiser fleet’s striker Beatty holds the ball up, waiting for the inevitable counter attack that will come from the opposition. After a quiet first half of tactical jiggerypokery, it’s half time here and would you look at that! Britain appears to be dominating possession but it is Germany who is proving to be more clinical. At the half way mark, Germany has scored 4,127 goals compared to Britain’s 1,459.

The bookies are still backing a British victory as they can afford to concede many goals as they have a lot of substitutes. Germany have to be careful as they are treading on thin ice at the moment; they cannot afford to concede any more.

As the second half commences, let’s hope we are able to enjoy some more goals. We are at the hour mark and HMS Indefatigable has suffered a nasty injury. It looks like it’s game over for him! News just keeps going from bad to worse for the British fans. Britain’s number 10, HMS Queen Mary, has also been injured. These two fatal injuries have led to Britain conceding 2,868 goals! Surely there is no hope for Britain now! The British navy is not giving up and you can tell this from their performance over the last one and a half days. The huge British guns have caused the manager of the German Navy, Scheer, to decide that the best option is to sail back to the dressing room.

Both teams made it into the dressing room successfully, but an argument developed in the tunnel.

Both teams have claimed to have won. The WW1 officials have discussed the outcome of the Battle and decided that… Britain remains undefeated against Germany in the Jutland Cup. Although Germany scored more goals, it was Britain who took advantage of the number of substitutes they had on offer.

Great Britain was able to soak up the number of goals they conceded and 24 large ships entered the field on the British side. This victory has enabled Great Britain to maintain its control of the North Sea and is now able to sustain its blockade of the north German coast.

The Albanian 2015

Sed ad Rem, Non Potest Memoria Fallat Louis Dee

Softly, shaking, silently the trees moaned and croaked, Their branches touching, overhanging as if they were shaking hands.

But this peace is never to last. Not in our world, We are blind to the realities of war.

Rat-a-tat-tat; The TV screen illuminating your inanimate face, Like a scarecrow still and emotionless, So naïve yet with no morals to bear.

Another falls, plummeting to the earth.

So what? That’s just another addition to your score.

You have killed hundreds but never batted an eyelid.

Surely this is not the education you should obtain, You should…

No. You should never have to remember these graphic nightmares, Like an elephant’s excellent, eccentric memory.

These images never fade; Sed ad rem, non potest memoria fallat.

You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories.

Second Form Poetry exploring Conflict

I Entered the Gunfight Barbarity

Taylor Burdett Screams erupt from the silence That can only be brought by terror.

Pain is the only thing they know and the only thing that they feel.

The cries of innocent children, Screaming, burning, dying, Fear and pain consume them, Yet the soldiers behind feel none.

Running, fleeing, trying to cease the burning, some half-naked, some crying, even though it is in vain.

Their skin ablaze, devouring their bodies, the one thing in their minds – “When will it end?”

Napalm, the name for the torture, that now maims sinless citizens.

Why commit such barbarity?

The Albanian 2015

Oliver Harris

I was normal; I liked football, and wildlife and sunlight.

But that all changed – When I entered the gunfight.

I killed a man.

It was me, my shadow; The old me is gone, And a new me is drawn.

I have met another me, Familiar with Atrocity.

I look at my reflection And that stranger is me; The face of a boy Who can only destroy.

My shadow self, A killer, a monster, Empty and blank; Soulless.

Who is this?

I am normal; I like football, and wildlife and sunlight.

But that was before – I entered the gunfight.

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A Child Witness Eleanor Sinfield

T

here are certain kinds of darkness. There’s dark where the shadows are, evening dark where you can still see, and the really dark. The really dark is rare. There are always street lights at night, or a gap under a door. It’s only when you just turn the light off and run into your bed, then there’s a flash of the really dark before your eyes adjust. But I know a place where your eyes don’t adjust. Where you can sit and it’s more than really dark. It’s more than a colour; darkness has a smell too, and a sound. Darkness smells of wood, and sounds of creaks and breaths.

No matter how hard I try to sit still, or if I hold in my breath, the wood around me creaks and breathes all by itself. Hiding here used to scare me: eyes open and eyes closed you can’t tell the difference, you almost think you’re blind. But mummy said blind people hear better, and if I lean against the side and press my ear against it, I can hear better too. I hear when the seeker patters in and opens the groaning wardrobe and when they thump their knees on the ground to look under the bed. They never find that I’m hiding in here, but even in the darkness I know where they are.

I can hear the seeker now. It’s James, my older brother. First he goes to the wardrobe, then checks under the bed. He pauses. He gets up. He pauses. He steps towards my place. Like going underwater, I take a deep breath. And hold. And hold. And hold. And hold. And my chest begins to hurt. And hold, And hold. And… The door shuts. My brother has now gone. The darkness pants around me. It too was scared, it seemed. It didn’t want the lid opened, and light to be brought on. I never thought of it before, but light is the death of darkness.

I will wait here a little longer. Listen for the sounds of people being found in other rooms, then sneak out and appear somewhere else and tell them that I’ve won again.

The door purrs. Did James hear the darkness breathing? Has the darkness finally betrayed me, after being my friend for so long?

Click. Click. Click. Click. James’s feet don’t sound like that. Something else squeaks and slides behind it. The door purrs shut. The lock pounces on. “Are you sure one of the rats isn’t in here?” a female voice asks.

It sounds familiar. “Don’t worry darling, I know all their hiding places,” says my father.

An Ending Owain Cooke

F

inally the great day dawned. He was dead! The loss of my father, that sweet hearted oaf, meant my acquisition of his entire estate. I knew those long winter walks, under the pretence of father-son bonding, would take their toll, and finally after a solid six weeks of nothing but “I love you, son” and “You’ll make me proud”, I finally tipped him into an early grave.

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The Kopje

Adlestrop Again

The kopje crest still marks the place Where Hodge, uncoffined, lies, And through the berg wind’s rasping breath His dusty spirit sighs

Interminably of exile, A craving thirst for rain, For coolness from oppressive heat, To douse the scorching pain

Within his homely northern breast, Whose shattered bones still house A yearning for a time long gone When horses pulled the ploughs.

The meaning of the broad karoo Remains a mystery still, As screeching hadedahs, not larks, Wail round his granite hill.

Above veld and escarpment as They drum their wings on high, Below in lingering limbo, Hodge Lies broken in goodbye.

Two tracks stretch to a bend, then disappear.

A haphazard fence of post and wire lurches between the banked-up ballast and a scrub of larches Before being cut from view by bluff arch Of overbridge. Barely visible beneath bramble, willow and willowherb, soft sodden bricks crumble, last vestige of the bare platform Edward Thomas saw that distant day of heat. Who now will make the link between lines of shimmering steel and a long-dead poet’s sure-handed feel for words and moods? Who now will catch our time, and distil it into sixteen perfect lines?

Greg Hacksley

Pat Taylor

In 1954, archaeologists excavating a Viking settlement in Sweden found a Buddha statuette from India. The 6th Century statuette was found along with an Irish crosier and an Egyptian Coptic christening ladle, illustrating the vast distances that the Vikings traded over, and the many different cultures and religions they encountered in doing so.

Tears: to a Terrorist Pat Taylor

‘It seems I have no tears left’ ‘Tears’, Edward Thomas

Do not think that you know what these tears are.

Do not think that you know their enzymes, or the spark across the synapses that causes them to fall.

Because these are my tears and not yours, after all.

The one thing you know is whether we are after all, or just in between, you, who have so many questions, and so few answers.

Do not think these are crocodile tears or tears of cold-eyed revenge: do not see a gentleness in their falling.

Do not think that a tear is a tiny thing,

For you do not know the salt of their resolve.

Do not think them a sign of weakness, for these are tears of rage: fear them.

Do not think I have no tears left.

The Albanian 2015

Buddha in Sweden Greg Hacksley

You’re far from home, here in the needling north and yet you smile still benevolence on all, wishing no harm on those whose lethal, lusting fists snatched you from your supplicant’s dismembered body.

Namaste. Gentle as lotus petals, tranquil as evening, seems unequal to the guttural God dag which, steely as plunderer’s scything sword, muscles through the syllables of peace.

Knowingly smiling, you understand what those who worship Thor cannot comprehend that to bow is to cure. Love, wisdom, peace fashion the ploughshares for the future of our humanity.

Creative Writing

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Music

The Albanian 2015

Playing the Full Range Steinway Concert This year’s annual Steinway Piano Concert was performed to a full hall, featuring performances from students, staff and OAs. Since the first concert a few years ago, created to mark the arrival of the Steinway pianos, this has become an occasion to show the skills of the finest pianists in the school and the achievement of being an All-Steinway School. The standard of The Steinway pianos this year’s concert was arguably the highest to date, have reinvigorated and with music ranging from Chopin to Zappa, it was piano playing at the a recital enjoyable to any ear.

School

Starting the evening was Max Houghton playing Prelude from Suite Bergamsque by Debussy, a very beautiful piece played with an impressively light touch.

Director of Music Mick Stout then gave an incredible performance of his own composition, Étude in B flat minor. Originally a piece for two separate pianos, it proved a perfectly balanced contrast to the Debussy piece, with loud singing melodies as well as intriguing harmonic dissonance.Yet another notable performance came from Sean Bracebridge, who played the very famous Prelude in C major, No.1 by JS Bach. A staple in most concert pianists’ repertoire and one of Bach’s most loved compositions, this was a calming performance that was successful in bringing out the melodic lines that the piece is so well known for.

Music teacher Tom Young continued the evening with his striking performance of Béla Bartók’s Romanian Dance No. 1, Op. 8a. Combining folk-inflected melodies with ferocious rhythms of driving intensity, this greatly theatrical piece was played flawlessly, no doubt providing inspiration for the pupils watching and listening. This was followed by a St Albans School first, as William Drake played his own piece New Beginnings, compiled from video game music from over the last few decades. Featuring themes from games such as Tomb Raider, William entertained the audience as he had transformed the music into a very impressive pianistic style.

After a remarkable first half, the second half maintained the standard. New Third Former Thomas Hillman, playing Waltz in D Flat Major & Waltz in C Sharp Minor, stunned the audience with the maturity and skill of his performance. Thomas Dilley perfectly captured the lyrical melodies of Schubert’s Impromptu in G flat, Op.90, No.3. The concert was closed with two pieces from Rachmaninoff’s Cinq Morceaux de fantaisie. Firstly Prelude in C sharp minor, which at times is notated across four staves and is one of Rachmaninoff’s most famed pieces, was rousingly played

by Joe Griffith and was a real treat for the audience.

Then to end the concert Peter Gosling played the Polichinelle (meaning ‘Clown’). Depicting the Punch and Judy-esqe character, this piece uses the whole range the piano, showing off sprawling arpeggios and Rachmaninoff’s classic Romantic melodies. The concert demonstrated an extremely high level of piano playing from all involved and was yet another success for the music department.

Peter Gosling

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Music

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and arranged by Christensen (as featured in the Walt Disney film Fantasia). The Clarinet Ensemble managed to convey the full narrative behind this piece, enthralling the audience.

It was then time for the Barbershop led by Dr Saunders, who provided some light relief from the heavier pieces. First they sang Little Road to Bethlehem by Michael Head, and their annual rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas, arranged by Richard Gregory, was as humorous as ever, interspersed with other well-known Christmas tunes.

Something for Everyone Autumn Concert There was something for everybody in the annual Autumn Concert, as students demonstrated their fine musical talents in the run up to the Carol Service. The variety of pieces and genres was hugely impressive, demonstrating the breadth of talent on show.

bouncy in equal measure. The constant plucking of the strings kept the audience on tenterhooks and gave the piece its liveliness.

The Senior Brass group performed an impressive version of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, followed by the Sax Group’s jazzy performance Fittingly, the concert started with of Moondance by Van Morrison. a lively piece composed by pupil Switching back to classical music, Matthew McClafferty called A Modal the Third Form Brass group played Moment, performed by the Percus- the regal March from Scipio by sion Ensemble. After a subtle intro- Handel, which channeled the spirit duction, the piece burst into life, and of the composer. this got the evening off to a dynamic Continuing with songs from the start. It also provided a hint of what screen, the Concert Band played was to come later in the concert.

Bond… James Bond and the Theme Much of the concert consisted from The A Team, both strong pieces that stirred the audience. The of instantly recognisable popular tunes, some from film and TV. The orchestra’s booming performance of the Medley from Man of Steel Sinfonietta played a rendition of Apache arranged by Jerry Lordon, was equally epic, and though it was and there was a tuneful version of perhaps one of the least wellthe March from Star Wars from the known pieces of the night, proved to be one of the highlights of the Flute Group, followed by a hauntconcert. ing performance of Skyfall, which mesmerised the audience.

The concert again took on a more Next the String Ensemble delighted lively tone as the Clarinet Ensemthe audience with Playful Pizzicato ble played the exotic Tico Tico by

by Benjamin Britten, which, as the Zequinha Abreu and The Sorcerer’s title implies, was animated and Apprentice composed by Paul Dukas

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Matthew McClafferty performed his own piece with the Percussion Ensemble

The evening wound down with a soothing performance of The Blue Bird by Charles Villiers Stanford from the Concert Choir, featuring a fine solo from Thomas Hillman.

This was followed by the hugely popular piece The Lion Sleeps Tonight

by Coral Julio Dominguez, with a solo by Rachel Glass-Sluckin.While it may have been one of the more untraditional pieces of the night, the choir gave a rousing performance.

The Jazz Band was the most eagerly awaited act of the night, and did not disappoint. A deafening version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow arranged by Dave Wolpe featured two brilliant solos from Jemma Attar and Caroline Maggs, while Peter Gunn by Henry Mancini and arranged by Paul Jennings was just as impressive, with solos from brass players Louis Clayden, Joe Griffith, Michael Roche and Sean Bracebridge. Sweet Home Chicago

by Robert Johnson and arranged

by Andy Clark provided a slick climax to the night, with each soloist adding their own touch to the piece. Finally the evening ended with a brassy Santa Claus is Coming to Town sung by James Lear, getting the audience in the mood for Christmas.

As always, the concert was a huge success and will live long in the memory. The audience went home extremely satisfied, and it was the perfect taster for the Carol Concert, and indeed the Christmas season itself.

Tomás Hill López-Menchero

The Albanian 2015

Songs on an Autumn Evening Professional Concert Fresh from his success with the English National Opera as Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, baritone David Stout performed a programme of song with the theme ‘Love, Hope and Desperation’ to a bustling audience in November.

David Stout has performed at many prestigious venues throughout the UK, as well as performing on BBC Radio 3. He was accompanied on piano by répétiteur Susannah Wapshott, who has a busy career which includes coaching at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

written by the poet Joseph Freiherr, was a personal favourite, due to the energetic performance given by both musicians. Three French pieces by Maurice Ravel followed.

The rousing, light-hearted last song of the first half, ‘Chanson à Boire’, which translates as ‘Drinking Song’, provided an appropriate end before the interval and refreshments.

Two song cycles delighted members of the audience once they returned to their seats. The first was a collection of Gerald Finzi pieces, with famous works of Shakespeare set to music, bringing The concert opened with three together the finest of English literacontrasting songs by Franz Schubert. Of particular note was ture and music. The second, written ‘Der Doppelgänger’, the final lied

by Vaughan Williams, was based on five poems by George Herbert and from Schwanengesang, which was impressive with both its menacing was entitled Five Mystical Songs. It certainly was as the title suggests, and sinister qualities. David Stout sang such complicated melodies with the school’s Chamber Choir, with ease, with Susannah Wapshott conducted by Mr Stout, adding an accompanying effortlessly at the enchanting backdrop to the music. piano. The programme then moved Possibly the most famous of these pieces was ‘The Call’, a piece often on to music by Hugo Wolf, with a trio of songs from Eichendorff-Lieder. heard in church.

‘Der Glücksritter’, with words

The Albanian 2015

The concert received a well-deserved standing ovation. Susannah Wapshott made a hard job look easy, fulfilling the parts of a whole orchestra with just one piano. She played lyrically throughout the concert, whilst David Stout’s rich tone, extensive range and superb stage presence made this evening an event to remember.

William Drake

David Stout has rapidly established himself as one of the UK’s most versatile baritones. His repertoire ranges widely, encompassing early music with period instruments, Mozart,Verdi, Puccini, Britten, the bel canto repertoire and contemporary and twentiethcentury works. He has earned a formidable reputation for his stage charisma, refined acting and presence on stage, as well as for being a great colleague whom other singers, conductors and directors are keen to work with again and again.

Source: http://www.intermusica.co.uk/stout

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Amazing Technicolour Music Music Award Holders Concert On one of the coldest nights of the year, an extensive feast of music was performed by Music Award Holders at their annual concert.

There were twenty-seven separate performances, which reflected the breadth and scope of musical talent in the School. The variety of genre, both instrumental and vocal, was most impressive, and the performances were all recorded in preparation for the Herts Young Musicians of the Year Competition.

Cellist Ian Davidson opened the concert with a vigorous, moving performance of the ‘Prayer’ from Jewish Life by Ernest Bloch, an appropriate piece for Holocaust Memorial Week. In lively contrast, clarinettist William Drake played the molto allegro from the SaintSaëns sonata, followed by Dan Angel, who sang a Gluck aria, ‘O del mio dolce ardour,’ with real confidence and verve. Oboe player Liam Babwah performed the pert, sprightly Italian Dance by Madeleine Dring, followed by the resonant tones of the horn, as George Adshead played the Mendelssohn ‘Nocturne’ from his incidental music to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Max Houghton played with delicate precision the ‘Prelude’ from Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque, a beautifully romantic piece, with the composer, even in this early piece, exploiting the full range of the piano’s sonorities. In contrast, violinist Ben Craig performed a stately eighteenth century Giga by Francesco Veracini.

Tom and Freddie Pazzi-Axworthy together sang the prayer Day by Day by Martin How with great expression, their voices melding and then contrasting. Henry Avery on trumpet gave a lively, bouncy performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Rondo for Lifey, exploiting the full range of his instrument. Recorder player Edward Moye performed a sonata from Hortus Musicus 209

by William Croft, a bright, cheerful piece. First Former Albert Martin-Flaven sang ‘Any Dream Will Do’ from Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat by Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice (OA) with bright confidence and trumpeter Harry Sampson, in colourful

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braces, delivered a solid, melodious performance of ‘Aria’ from the Trumpet Sonata by Flor Peters.

Alex Binnington gave a confident piano performance of a Beethoven slow movement. He was followed

by Will Maynard, who sang Schumann’s stalwartly romantic declaration, ‘Widmung’ from Myrthen.

Cellist Matt O’Connor took us Truckin’Through the South by Aaron Minsky, while clarinettist Brendan Warren exploited the full range of his instrument in the sprightly second movement of the Donizetti Concertino. Thomas Hillman played with grace Prokoviev’s twinkling ‘Prelude’ from Ten Pieces for Piano, with William Foxton closing the first half of the concert in an expressive performance of ‘On the Street Where You Live’ from My Fair Lady.

George Adshead, Sean Bracebridge and Matt O’Connor were performers at the Award Holders’ Concert

Trumpeter Jordan Collingwood opened the second half with a stylish performance of the jazzy Red,White and Blues by Leonard Bernstein.Violinist Theo Gill performed Korngold’s lively Mummenschanz with real panache and James Lear played and sang his own composition Women with real maturity. Clarinettist James Mackie gave a delightful, sensitive performance of the minuet and trio from a Mozart Divertimento and pianist Joe Griffith most expressively played the evergreen Rachmaninoff C# minor Prelude. The deeply resonant tones of the euphonium, played by Will Stewart, did full justice to a Marcello Sonata and pianist Peter Gosling gave a delicately nuanced and liquid performance of the first movement of the Beethoven Opus 10 no 2. Horn player Thomas Dilley delivered a rich and vibrant performance of Theme and Variations by Franz Strauss, the first horn in the 1865 Munich premier of Tristan und Isolde and father of Richard Strauss.

Pianist Sean Bracebridge closed the concert with a performance of his own composition, The Drums.

Both music and lyrics provided a dramatic end to this exceptional evening of music making.

JMG/AKJ

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Rhythm and Few Blues Getting into the swing at the Jazz Evening This year’s Jazz Evening was a highoctane night of driven rhythm and varied vocals. The twenty-strong full band opened with a blast of brass, appropriately with Strommen’s The Opener, followed by classics Night Train and C Jam Blues. The playful balance between horns and trombones in Night Train was very effective, with plenty of solo breaks to allow a display of instrumental expertise – Louis Clayden and Sean Bracebridge’s trumpets and Michael Roche’s trombone particularly to the fore. In C Jam Blues, drummer Jeremiah Joshua Wallace finally got his break, facially impassive above a whirlwind of sticks.

A range of vocal numbers took the audience through a variety of styles, with Sean Bracebridge’s tender rendering of My Funny Valentine followed by James Lear’s own composition Women, his accompanying staff band augmented by Joely Koos, contributing a haunting cello line and all underpinned by Phil Craig’s brushes on the drums. Will Foxton gained more confidence and swing through his version of Happy Days Are Here Again before the Barbershop Group stepped forth. Michael Roche took the narrative of Satin Doll above the doo-wops from his colleagues, while the story was shared among the singers in Have Some Madeira M’Dear, above the variety of accompanying rhythms and silly noises. This group of songster staff was clearly entertaining itself as much as the audience.

James Lear’s performance of Misty showed real sensitivity on the keys, but strikingly impressive here too was drummer JJ Wallace. We had heard him driving hard rhythms earlier in the evening; here, he brushed the skins with delicate feeling and timing, just tantalisingly audible at the end.

cally treating the audience to fancy footwork as well as singing skills in I Won’t Dance, before James Lear stepped up to power through Come

By Me, while Peter Gosling kept control at the piano – a proper blowout to leave the audience exhausted before the interval.

The second half unleashed the staff band, taut and skilful, featuring Network Support on bass.

Supported by Tom Young’s gentle piano, Phil Craig’s control on drums and Jon Saunders’ distant muted trumpet, Mick Stout, red wine in hand – as a stage property only, you understand – gave a suitably smooth but world-weary performance of One For My Baby. The trumpets of Saunders and Martin took the theme in an inventive version of Norwegian Wood, with artful improvising from all, including Joely Koos using her striking voice as well as her cello.

Rachel Lee took over for three numbers, her voice at times sultry, at times vivacious. Her mic volume could have done with being raised a notch or two in The Girl from Ipanema as the band’s strident salsa was a little too dominant, but the instrumentation of Young and Foolish allowed her an even greater chance to shine. The audience appreciated her tone and emotional modulations, neatly balanced with Jon Saunders’ trumpet. Twisted demanded deft vocal articulation and Rachel Lee got her mouth around the rapid flow of words and scat with aplomb, with a real sense of character and fun shared with the band.

Bringing everything to a rousing end, the band drove and improvised through a version of James Brown’s Pass the Peas – ‘an extended jam’ as Mick Stout called it. Call it what he may, it was skilled and exhilarating.

A very different mood was created These are teachers who teach and when the full band returned to can certainly do. support Jemma Attar and Lizzie Horton with swagger and bravado With musical mastery from in belting out Big Spender. Nadine performers both young and more Carasco and Matthew McClafexperienced, this was a terrific ferty were also impressive, ironinight’s entertainment.

NJC

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War and Peace Joint Schools’ Concert Back in its traditional venue, the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban, this year’s concert was an ambitious and varied programme.

It was performed by pupils and parents from St Albans High School for Girls and St Albans School with invited soloists, under the firm but inspired baton of Mick Stout, Director of Music at St Albans School.

Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, followed. The strings quivered and the soloists, Georgia Davies playing the violin and the soprano Joanna Nolan, delighted the audience with their strong performances. William Walton’s Spitfire Prelude & Fugue, composed in 1942 for part of the film score for The First of the Few, opened with trumpets sounding a vigorous march, quickly followed The concert opened with two beauby swooping and soaring strings, tiful, majestic anthems composed by mimicking the plane’s movements in William H Harris. The first, Bring Us, the air. A poignant, lyrical violin solo O Lord God, from a prayer by John beautifully played by Thomas Hillman Donne, was performed with gentle provided an interlude within the sensitivity by the unaccompanied composition, before a return to the massed choir. The second, Faire is rousing pace of the opening. the Heaven, a setting of Edmund Spenser’s ‘An Hymne of Heavenly A performance of Karl Jenkins’ Beauty’, was marked by a dazzling thirteen part The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace formed the second crescendo of voices, rising and half of the concert. The Armed then falling. Ralph Vaughan Williams’ uplifting, ravishing Serenade to Man was commissioned for the Music, a setting of words taken from transition from one millennium to

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another, reflecting on the war torn nature of the past century and looking forward to a more peaceful future. Receiving its first performance in 2000, it was also specifically dedicated to the victims of the Kosovo conflict. The performance of this work holds additional poignancy in the light of the centenary of the Great War and the continuing strife in the Middle East.

The Catholic Mass provides a framework for this composition, whilst the music and lyrics are drawn from several religions and cultures as it unfolds. In this performance, the dynamic opening drumbeat, heralding impending martial conflict, gathered to a stormy pace with the advent of ‘L’homme armé’ (‘The Armed Man’). This was followed by the traditional unaccompanied Muslim Call to Prayer, ‘Adhaan’, announced in striking fashion by Al-Hajj Sheik Ahmud Fareed Aumeer, his voice resounding through the great nave.

Soloist Nina Vinther then delicately led the choir into the deeply

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moving ‘Kyrie’, after a solemn orchestral introduction.

Striking contrasts in tone and pace contribute to the impact of this work, as exemplified by what followed the Kyrie. A strong, unaccompanied group of tenors and basses from the choir chanted the words from Psalms 56 and 59, ‘Save Me from Bloody Men’.

The calm of this was abruptly and dramatically ended by the sound of a sudden threatening drumbeat. The celebratory, optimistic words of the ‘Sanctus’, beautifully sung by the choir, were then to be undermined by ominous, militaristic music, featuring especially percussion and brass sections of the orchestra.

The dark, fateful words of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Hymn Before Action’, with its notion of sacrifice on the battlefield, were strongly delivered by choir and orchestra. Trumpets and drums then dramatically sounded the ‘Charge!’ A stirring crescendo of music and song, the latter based on a stanza taken from John Dryden’s ‘Ode for St Cecilia’s Day’, itself derived from Horace’s

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‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria The Joint Schools’ Concert in rehearsal mori’, was rendered with vigour by choir and orchestra, culminating in and performance

moving rendition of ‘Now the Guns have Stopped’, in which a survivor mourns the death of a friend in screams as battle commenced. The battle. The introduction to the section closed dramatically with ‘Benedictus’, a beautiful cello solo silence and then the plaintive sound from Joe Davies OA, was serenely of the Last Post, the sonic effects reflected in the words from the augmented by trumpets playing Latin mass sung by the choir, which from separate spaces around the incorporated a sumptuous and abbey. explosive Hosanna. The final movement, ‘Better is Peace’, taken from The effects of war were first given a sentiment expressed by Thomas voice by a setting of the words of Malory, took us back to the the Japanese poet Toge Sankichi, opening music from ‘Armed Man’, ‘Angry Flames’, written after the but adjusted to convey a different atom bomb was dropped on Hirofeeling. A celebratory millennial shima in 1945. Introduced by the interlude from the orchestra was striking of a gong, a mournful tolling followed by a final moving hymn, characterised this lacrimoso with sung unaccompanied, in words the choir movingly led by four solotaken from the Book of Revelation. ists, Emma Huggett, Nina Vinther, Tom Robinson and Jon Saunders.

This closed an evening of immense‘Torches’, a setting of part of the ly impressive and very moving Hindu epic The Mahabharata, which choral and orchestral music, illustrates the suffering of animals performed with enthusiasm and caught up in warfare, was delivered style. This enjoyable and successful with strong emotive force. concert also reflected, of course, the musical talent, strong teamwork The ‘Agnus Dei’, conveying a hope and dynamic leadership, which such for peace, sung calmly and sootha venture necessitates. ingly, provided a further strong contrast, reinforced by Nina Vinthner’s JMG

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Challenging Musical Expectations Spring Concert It was Mr Stout who pointed out that while other schools have their summer performances around this time, St Albans School sensibly chooses to hold its spring concert at the end of April, as summer often takes its time to arrive.

dous performance of his mellow composition for the Sinfonietta, aptly entitled Reggae Jam. A laid back rhythm and several soulful solos came together to create a trench town worthy groove enjoyed by all. Our four-strong percussion ensemble picked up the tempo with tight rasps and paradiddles and a perfectly synchronised and extremely talented Saxophone Ensemble transported the audience to the streets of Manhattan with a jazz infused conclusion to the concert’s first half.

And so, with a nod to the greenfingered members of the audience, the Spring Concert commenced with a quirky rendition of the theme from Ground Force played cheerily by the Senior Brass Ensemble. Their rousing theme from The Great Escape stirred the Steve McQueen in many of the audience We were welcomed aboard the members, who toe-tapped on invis- second half of the concert with ible accelerator pedals throughout. the familiar naval drum snares of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. A There were countless highlights hearty crescendo complete with throughout the evening, the first thunderclaps preceded an even being the perfect pairing of the louder applause from a wired audithree senior pianists who perence and it was up to the string formed Mozart’s Piano Concerto ensemble to bring pulses back from No.12 in A Major with the small racing to a steadier pace, which and perfectly formed chamber they achieved beautifully through orchestra. The ‘Allegro’ played by Britten’s Simple Symphony in three Peter Gosling was peppered with parts. The playful pizzicato was a light-fingered frivolity, while Thomas delight to experience and the many Dilley’s purposeful ‘Andante’ layers of the ‘Sentimental Saraband’, showed great control and Joe Grifsombre fith’s ‘Allegretto’ playfully conversed and with the strings throughout. serene.

Second Former Robert Moye A trio of received a well-deserved exceptional handshake and a talents came hearty applause together to perform after a tre‘Allegro’ from Opus 1, No men2 in E flat major. Thomas Hillman on piano, Theo Gill on violin and Ian Davidson on

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cello complemented each other with perfect tone and timing, giving a magnificent performance. And in a challenging but delightful version of Danse Macabre for brass, Phil Bainbridge demonstrated how important it is to challenge expectations in music.

It was apparent that the concert band who completed the evening’s performances were enjoying their medley of movie themes and their rendition of the Back to the Future provided an epic ending to the piece before a patriotic march in the form of Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance brought the evening to a triumphant close.

Congratulations to Mr Stout, Mr Young, Mr Craig and all others involved in the organisation and performance of this highly enjoyable performance.

CNT

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Songs of Loss and Farewell Leavers’ Concert There was a time when Leavers’ Concerts were all about rock bands, and we have had farewell recitals full of cellos, violins and clarinets. The last couple of years have been very much about singers, as each one plays to the strengths of the musicianship which is about to take its leave from the School. If this concert is anything to go by, we’ve just said goodbye to a fine group of vocalists.

That’s not to say there weren’t a few instrumentalists thrown in. We opened with a fanfare, Bertie Veres hoisting his trumpet to play Ravel’s ‘Pièce en forme de habanera’, controlling the rapid runs and high notes with real finesse. Max Houghton also put the library’s Steinway through its paces in the second movement of Beethoven’s 8th Sonata, the ‘Pathétique’. He particularly enjoyed the movement’s rapid sections, with plenty of weight in the left hand, contrasting with the delicate outer passages. Matt Russell played a less familiar piece, Jun Maeda’s ‘Nagisa: Farewell at the Foot of the Hill’. This was confidently approached without a score, Matt fully involved with the piece and its shifting tones.

The rest of the evening belonged to the singers, though one of them did front a rock duo, with Max Cadman’s classic rock posturing (‘I’ve always wanted to do this in the library,’ he announced) in front of Nick Harvey’s crashing drums and Josh Southworth’s pounding bass. Full of swagger, Max belted out the vocals of ‘Come on Over’ as the library shelves bounced.

Other songs were gentler, ranging from 50s classics to the latest indie pop, while another departure from tradition was that a number of singers entertained the audience several times. Nadine Carasco made three appearances, each a little more controlled than her AC/DC tour de force at House Music. On this evening she was able to show greater subtlety, moving from power to gentle tenderness in a version of Adele’s ‘Make You Feel My Love’ and swooping easily between the lower and higher registers in Jennifer Hudson’s ‘One Night Only’ before she unleashed her power towards the end of the evening in Alicia Keys’ ‘If I Ain’t Got You’, Phil Craig’s delicate drums providing a jazzy counterpoint. Caroline Maggs, on the other hand, accompanied herself charmingly on ukulele, providing the rhythm to the winsome ‘Little Talks’, while Max Houghton grabbed the acoustic guitar to provide the picked accompaniment to Ben Howard’s ‘Old Pine’. Here Caroline’s folky style and catches in the voice were reminiscent of Joni Mitchell.

Just before the interval we were treated to a dose of Ronan Lee’s lovely light tenor, exploited very well on Keaton Henson’s ‘Small Hands’. He showed real delicacy with the higher notes, the vocals neatly poised over Nick Harvey’s guitar accompaniment. There was just the one number from Ronan, but another singer who made several appearances was Jemma Attar, another vocalist with real range. This was clearly demonstrated in her version of Birdy’s ‘Skinny Love’.

Here she gave the emotional lyrics a lighter, breathy articulation, shaped, to these ears, more successfully than the thin-voiced original. It was a different Jemma who launched into the 50s American torch song ‘Cry Me A River’, layering the vocals with little shivers and syncopations and really filling out for the big phrases with power.

It was Jemma too who closed the evening, in duet with Patrick Gaeton, singing Ed Sheeran’s ‘I See Fire’. They developed and built the piece, Patrick gaining in confidence and poise as they went on and the two of them blending very effectively, taking contrasting lines towards the end of the song.

As ever, whatever the varieties in programming, this was a delightful evening of shared music-making, tinged with sadness, but overwhelmingly one of gratitude for the music the students have given us over the years.

NJC

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Remembrance Service 2014

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A Memorial of War The restoration of the War Memorial prompts historical research In time for the Remembrance Service and as part of the commemoration of World War 1, the School’s War Memorial in the Upper Yard has undergone careful restoration. The expert team first used a low pressure high steam wash to remove the algae and lichens from the stone surface, as high pressure can damage old stone edgings.

One of the capstones below the cross had to be removed in order to eradicate vegetation which had rooted itself in the joints. The stone was cleaned and replaced, while other damaged stonework was repaired and pointing replaced with a special mix suitable for Portland stone. Another specialist part of the job was the application of an ammonium clay poultice to the area around the plaque, in order to remove the copper staining from the stones. The memorial is now clean and in excellent condition, though the distressed stone means it still wears a patina of age.

Another key task for the restorers was not only redefining the names on the memorial, but also adding new names. The names of George Scott, Frank Wilks and Leslie Shrewsbury had been missing from the memorial because of the difficulties in obtaining accurate information at the time. The School’s archives department and Gareth Hughes, father of an OA, carried out detailed research, using the School’s admission registers, the census and information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. They discovered the missing names, which have now been carefully added to the memorial in the same style as the existing lists.

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However, this is not the first time that names have had to be added onto the School’s War Memorial. At the unveiling on 16 February 1925, Major-General Duncan is reported twice as referring to the names of 85 OA soldiers – a shortfall of two, who must have been added later.

The Albanian of September 1934 provides a solution, in the form of a statement from the Headmaster of the time for the OAs Club: ‘The Headmaster stated that he had received the names of several Old Albanians omitted from the War Memorial, and it was resolved that they be added in an appropriate place.’ Unfortunately we do not know to whom this related.

threw them overboard. They then got into the lifeboats, took what they wanted and tossed the rest into the sea, removed the corks and further damaged them with Along with the missing names from axes to be sure they would sink. the War Memorial, Gareth Hughes The submarine sailed about two has also uncovered other interestmiles from the wreck and then subing stories as a part of his research. merged, throwing the sailors into Three personal anecdotes of OA the water. Three survived to tell the soldiers provide further detailed tale. Sharp was not one of them, illustration of young men’s involveand the incident was regarded as ment in the Great War. another German atrocity.

Philip Edward Kingham

James Dawbarn Young

Philip enlisted in the Hertfordshire Regiment and won the Military Medal on the Somme, but was badly wounded and invalided home.

He was very keen to get back to the firing line, but the doctors would not pass him fit, despite many requests. Posted to ‘sedentary duty’ at Folkestone, he shot himself in a fit of depression on 19th May 1918. He was given a full military funeral and is buried in the Hatfield Road cemetery.

James qualified as a barrister, and enjoyed yachting as a hobby, so when war broke out he enlisted in the RN Volunteer Reserve. He was given command of a motor launch attached to the Dover Patrol, and on St George’s Day, 23rd April 1918, as a Lt Commander, was in command of ML110 on the Zebbrugge Raid – an operation to block the seaward end of the Zeebrugge canal and prevent U-boats entering the English Channel.

Young volunteered to precede the Edward Baden Sharp blockships and light the entrance of the harbour and canal with calcium Aged 16, Edward was an apprenbuoys. Whilst approaching the entice on the SS Belgian Prince. The trance, ML110 was struck by three ship was carrying blue clay from shells, which killed and wounded Liverpool to Newport News, half the crew and wrecked the Virginia, when on 31st July 1917 engines. Lieutenant-Commander it was torpedoed by U-55. The 42 Young, hit in three places, was morcrewmen were able to escape into tally wounded, but stuck to his post lifeboats. The U-boat surfaced and and gave orders to abandon ship, the British sailors were ordered until he collapsed. This very gallant onto the hull of the submarine. The officer died before reaching Dover. crew of the U-55, under orders from their captain, took the lifebelts Gareth Hughes, NJC, Emily Childs from most of the survivors and

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AS work in Electronics (opposite) Plan and manufacture of a drone (below)

by Akshay Padki (A2)

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Creative Design

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Creative Design

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Speakers by Maurice Lai (GCSE) Barber’s Chair by Richard Thrale (A2) Climbing Dome by Ganesh Chauhan (A2) Red Bull point of sale display by Toby Palmer (GCSE)

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Architectural models: Bird hide for nature reserve by Hugo Stephens (GCSE) Cricket pavilion by Jaymee Malkan (A2) Garden home office design by Sam Machell (A2)

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Creative Design

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Optic Photographic Society Photographs on the theme of Light: NJC, Keagan Witts, Hugo Stephens Opposite: St Albans Cathedral by Hugo Stephens

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Creative Photo

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Colorado Bound Skiing USA

With a cruel April fools’ rendezvous at 6 am there was a subdued atmosphere before the trip to Colorado. There was, though, a definite sense of anticipation, not dispelled by 26 hours of travelling to Denver en route to Winter Park.

Shopping was the first activity, with a trip to a large retail centre in the outskirts of Denver and the opportunity to exploit the cheaper prices to be found in the US. After this we had another coach journey before we would get our first sight of Winter Park, where we were to hire our equipment and get a much

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needed night’s rest before the five days of skiing ahead of us.

After being divided into our groups for the week, the instructors took no time at all to get us on the slopes. The skiing would prove technically and physically challenging, with warm temperatures causing some melt towards the end of the day. However, this did not detract from the enjoyment of the trip.

As part of the advanced group, the varying snow gave me an added challenge to the tough terrain we were presented with, skiing through

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tight trees and down steep mogul runs. As well as this we were also shown some tricks for when the slopes are just not enough: 180s, 360s and jumps were all on the list. With blue skies every day, the views over the surrounding mountains were spectacular, particularly from the very highest point of the resort, at 3659m. For everyone there was a steep learning curve which left us exhausted at the end of each day. This, however, did not prevent us from taking part in a wide variety of evening activities, ranging from relaxing in the hotel pool and hot tub, to bowling at a

nearby alley. There was also a group outing to see the newest Fast and Furious movie.

My personal highlights include playing American football on skis as well as skiing as superheroes, where no fewer than ten people requested a photograph with us.

There were also endless laughs as we inevitably pushed a little too hard and ended up with a mask full of snow.

This was a great week from start to finish, with everyone leaving with lasting memories.

James Kirsch

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St Albans Literary Festival Pupils involved in City event On Friday 7 November, all the First Formers were taken off-timetable for the day and were joined by 30 students from Samuel Ryder Academy in order to participate in the Young Adult Day of the 2014 St Albans Literary Festival.

The morning sessions were split up into two: a panel discussion where Martyn Bedford, Keren David, Natasha Ngan and Emma Pass answered questions about the different aspects of their writing careers was followed by a writing workshop with the authors after that. Our form worked with Keren David, the author of several books, including When I was Joe, Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery, and Salvage.

She showed us how easy it could be to create our own fictional characters, and also shared her story of success. Overall, these morning sessions were a great success. We learnt a variety of things about the different authors and also improved our writing skills.

TV for 24 hours, she remembered enjoying creative writing at school and decided to take it up as a hobby. This developed into the writing of her first novel, and she now, at the age of only 19, hopes it will be her future career. We really enjoyed her visit and found her talk inspirational.

Nathan Eastham and Freddie PazziAxworthy Ben East, a journalist and writer came in to talk about his life and what he does for a living.

Firstly, he gave us a small briefing about his job and the cartoon books he writes. He told us how he became a writer, how he publishes books and what kind of things you need to do to make up books and characters.

Then he showed us how easy it is to draw our own characters and write about them, before giving us the opportunity to come up with our own characters and our Ciaran Cook own rhyming sentences related to our character. I found this more First Form pupils met Lucy Saxon, difficult than expected. Some of us who is the writer of the novel Take were given a chance to read out Back To The Skies. This is her first our work and show everyone our title in the six book series she is drawings. writing, based in the fictional universe of Tellus. She was interviewed I think it was a wonderful experiby Natasha Ngan and spoke about ence. I have learnt how to publish her unusual route into writing. At books myself and also how to write the age of 12 she was diagnosed and create my own characters, with chronic fatigue syndrome, which could be very useful when an illness which meant she was writing in the future. spending a lot of time away from Nikhil Dhulashia school. Lucy told us that after she got bored of sitting and watching

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The panel of writers and Sixth Formers at the Literary Festival’s Young Adult Day, hosted by the School

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Scoring Goals with Words Tom Palmer’s visit There was a sense of anticipation around the form room on the day of the visit. We were all eagerly awaiting the author that many of us loved. I was very interested to hear the words that Tom Palmer had to offer.

The minute I saw him I spotted the vivid English red rose that was printed on his England rugby shirt.

This made everybody even more excited about the attraction of sport. There was a hubbub around the room until one of the librarians spoke and we all fell deadly silent. However, it wasn’t the scared kind of silent; it was the silence with broad grins on our faces, intrigued by every word Tom Palmer might speak.

Our first impressions of him were great. The fact that he announced there would be a kicking contest through a pair of rugby posts at the end immediately grabbed our attention. He said whoever answered questions in his quiz correctly would be able to compete. Of course as soon as the first question was asked, a forest of hands shot up eager to answer it.

For the first few questions I answered in my head but didn’t want to be chosen in case I mucked up the kicking. Nevertheless, when the last question was asked I couldn’t resist and my hand shot up as another tree in the forest of hands. He turned to me and suddenly my mind went blank. Typically he had to pick me and I turned my head away in embarrassment because the answer had just gone. Then Tom Palmer asked someone else the question and it suddenly appeared in my head. My hand shot up but of course it was in vain as the question was answered. I was filled with disappointment but at least I had the thrilling kicking contest to watch.

There were only three successful kickers in the first round, but they continued to impress and the contest became more and more enthralling every minute.

When the last kick went over we all cheered and had sore throats from all the shouting. When Tom Palmer ended his talk there was an obvious sadness around the library. We were all thoroughly engaged by the fantastic plots of his books and it was a real shame for the talk to be over. We trudged out of the library filled with fantastic stories and events that had happened in the past hour. We may not have all agreed on what was the best sport question, but there was one thing we all agreed on: it had been an amazing visit.

Tom Palmer’s lively style and engaging questions produced a forest of hands.

His books have proved very popular.

Nick Swan

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Stephen Hawking Society Lectures provide food for the mind and the stomach The Stephen Hawking Society had another busy and fascinating year, beginning with Dr Suze Kundu, Teaching Fellow at Imperial College’s Department of Materials. Describing herself as a ‘nanoscientist, both literally and professionally’, Dr Kundu delivered a talk about Material Science, and the life of a scientist.

Her current research examines the use of materials for capturing solar energy to drive a reaction that splits water, consequently evolving hydrogen and oxygen. Additionally, Dr Kundu explored the varied career that a scientist can enjoy, be it in research, industry or educational outreach as a few examples.

Her lecture gave an inspiring insight into the life and work of a scientist with a particular focus on the possibilities and applications of Material Chemistry.

In contrast, Dr Melanie Windridge explained the science behind the aurora, as well as the effects that it has on weather and communications. She explained that the sun emits energy in the form of photons; these photons travel outwards from the sun, and are attracted to the poles due to the magnetic field of the earth. Then they emit colours as they enter the atmosphere at different speeds.

She further explained that the increased solar activity will mean warmer weather, but the photon activity is likely to cause problems in communication at the poles, affecting areas such as

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aviation and radio.

Her presentation was technical and fascinating.

Consistent with tradition, the final lecture was followed by a celebratory dinner. The guest speaker was Professor Sir John Bertrand Gurdon, FRS, FMedSci, who is highly respected in the field of developmental biology.

In 2012, Sir Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that mature cells can be converted to stem cells.

Professor Gurdon gave an engaging talk entitled ‘Nuclear Reprogramming as a Route to Cell Replacement’, tracing the earliest form of human parts replacement back to the Mayans, who used stone in the place of rotten teeth. Through the use of diagrams and footage of cells, he explained how human skin cells can be reprogrammed to form genetically compatible embryonic stem cells, which do not face the normal problem of rejection. He then built on this to explore how nuclear reprogramming is then transferable to cloning, with a single nucleus transfer.

The Stephen Hawking Society in gladrags before Professor Gurdon’s final lecture of the series

giving students not only more information about the biology of how stem cells are made and used, but also raising questions about the ethics of therapeutic possibilities.

The Society’s dinner was equally successful, with the fine three-course meal enjoyed by all.

The whole event was greatly appreciated by all who attended and proved an excellent way to finish the Society’s activities for another year.

Richard Borlin, Emily Childs and Jemima Pottinger

Professor Gurdon discussed the therapeutic possibilities of stem cells and cell replacement,

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Classical Questions Answered The Hylocomian Society The Hylocomian Society heard four enlightening and varied lectures, with expert speakers talking to the students on a variety of classicsrelated topics. A wide variety of historical periods was covered, with lectures covering Roman, Greek and Persian culture.

Two vastly different talks highlighted the complexity and intricacy of Roman culture. The first, by historical fiction writer Anthony Riches, engagingly covered the life of a Roman soldier, going into great detail about the process of becoming a soldier, the armour, training, pay, discipline and evolution of the Legion in a talk that informatively and accessibly communicated a detailed picture of life in the Roman army to a large audience. The second, by Dr Charlotte Tupman, an epigrapher from King’s College, London covered an entirely different area of Roman culture – inscriptions. Dr Tupman explained the complexities of Latin inscriptions and there was a strong interactive element in the talk, which saw students challenged to attempt to interpret some inscriptions for themselves. Despite facing extreme

difficulties, almost all students overcame the challenge and solved the inscriptions.

Another speech delved into Greek culture, focusing on Aristophanes’ satirical comedy The Frogs written during the last days of the Peloponnesian War. Despite its twothousand year age, this play still possesses relevance to modern day society. Mr Rowland’s talk also explored elements of Greek politics and their links to Athenian strategies, providing a multi-faceted examination of how seemingly separate elements of Greek society often intertwined. This sparked a large amount of lively debate. The fourth and final speech combined the continued study of Ancient Greece with a detailed study of Persia. Dr Angus Bowie from The Queen’s College, Oxford explored the history of Persia with a focus on Persian language, but the main subject of his talk centered on looked at Persia through the eyes of Greek historian Herodotus. Dr Bowie presented an engaging study of Herodotus’ portrayal of Persians in comparison with Greeks. This inspired the students to ask a

Is Herodotus a number of questions about the reliable or biased nature of Herodotus’ reliability as historical source? a historian, and Greek descriptions

in general, which Dr Bowie ably answered.

Freddie Walters

Radio for Europe MFL Symposium A number of Sixth Form linguists participated in the annual Modern Foreign Languages Symposium at North London Collegiate School.

Each student was paired up with a counterpart from NLCS in order to produce a four-minute discussion in the form of a radio broadcast in French or Spanish, on topics ranging from the works of Federico Garcia Lorca to French intellectual opposition to the Algerian war of independence. Other topics included the unsuccessful coup d’état in Spain on 23 February 1981, Baudelaire and an analysis of Waiting for Godot. Despite some technical difficulties, the final product was impressive and the students demonstrated a fine grasp of their languages.

Tomás Hill López-Menchero

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Juggling Numbers – Go Figure Maths matters We are used to mathematicians juggling figures, but actual juggling and maths were the surprise combination explored by Professor Colin Wright. He wowed younger students during the afternoon and presented the Harry Schofield lecture to the senior mathematicians after school, showing that the juggling balls were travelling back in time – or were they?

There were 9 Gold, 21 silver and 18 bronze certificates awarded in the UKMT Senior Mathematics Challenge. In addition, Patrick Semark from the Upper Sixth and Thomas Hillman from the Third Form were selected to take part in the prestigious British Maths Olympiad in December. This is a gruelling 3½ hour paper testing knowledge and skills but also the candidates’ patience, persistence and determination.

Lower Sixth students attended a ‘Maths in Action’ Lecture at the Institute of Education in November, enjoying enlightening talks on how mathematics is used in fighting disease and forecasting the weather as well as how to interpret the statistics often quoted in the news. The day was lively and informative, giving students an invaluable insight into mathematics outside the school curriculum.

JH

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History and Politics Examining democracy, diplomacy and its failures European Union Debate The first meeting of the History and Politics Society staged a clash between two Upper Sixth Formers on the perpetually contested issue of the European Union. David Clegg and Milo Knights argued their cases for and against the UK’s membership of the EU, presenting well-researched cases. Neither held back with their propositions, with cases for a United States of Europe and a total abolition of the Union both argued.

The two took questions from the audience which broadened the talk and enabled the students to scrutinise the current European system and contemplate the future of the UK’s membership. It was an engaging, interactive and interesting debate, which served as an invaluable insight for new students of Government and Politics.

Houses of Parliament Where better to develop a practical understanding of Government and Politics than the very heart of the UK’s democracy itself – the Houses of Parliament? Lower Sixth students made the trip to develop their understanding of the Executive and the Judiciary. Pupils walked through the Lords Chamber, Westminster Hall, witnessing the procession of the Speaker, John Bercow. St Albans’ MP Anne Main spoke to the students ahead of May’s General Election, and fielded questions on a range of issues that were particularly relevant to the students’ studies. Pupils then intently observed the debate between Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, and his Shadow equivalent, Sadiq Khan, from the public gallery of the House of Commons. Finally it was off to Middlesex Guildhall, the home of the Supreme Court, where students discovered some interesting facts concerning foreign countries and the status of the Supreme Court as their highest appellate body.

‘How the EU Works’ Raj Ghataoura, a civil servant who is based in central London but also

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spends time in Brussels, spoke to students to explain ‘How the EU works.’ He explained to us how the four main Institutions of the European Union carry out business and the manner in which they work together to run the EU. Ghataoura spoke in much detail about the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. It was particularly interesting to see how some issues were approached by these bodies in different ways and what the roles of civil servants were. The content of the lecture was highly relevant to the Politics course and it was fascinating to hear how such complex bodies function from someone who actually experiences it.

was lightened by the humour and enthusiasm that many participants injected to the conference, the delegates of St Albans no exception. Despite debating such heavy issues as the UN’s role in dealing with refugees, a balance was struck between the serious nature of the issues covered and a degree of levity, making the weekend an exhausting but enjoyable one.

The three days concluded with the General Assembly, at which all debaters were present, and the final drafts of resolutions underwent their last bit of evaluation before being passed. Finally there was the closing ceremony when individual and delegation winners were announced. St Albans did particularly well in the awards with Tom Model United Nations Alexander, from the Lower Sixth, receiving the ‘Highly Commended’ In March, three delegations from award in Disarmament and Nick St Albans school took part in Clegg, from the Upper Sixth, receivHaberdashers’ Aske’s Model United ing ‘Best Delegate’ in the Security Nations. St Albans represented Council. The latter’s award is the Mauritius, Tonga and Jordan at highest available to any individual the event, enjoying three days of conference participant. impassioned debating along with 420 other delegates from around Professor Gary Sheffield of the the world.

University of Wolverhampton visited the History and Politics At the conference, a broad range of Society in December to give a fasciinternational issues were discussed, nating lecture on the First World similar to those which would War. Professor Sheffield is widely feature at the real United Nations respected within the field of miliconferences, including Ecology, tary history, having written several Human Rights, Disarmament and books on figures of contention, Health, to name but a few. The such as Sir Douglas Haig and the standard of debating was high with Great War as a whole. Professor some consummate public speakSheffield scrutinised and criticised ers and insightful points raised, and the influential role of Germany the Sixth Form representatives of in the road to War (in particuSt Albans found themselves under lar, the brazenness and political intense scrutiny and becoming antagonism of Kaiser Wilhelm) and aware of new perspectives. Under unsurprisingly displayed an in-depth the leadership of Mr Asch, the knowledge of the subject matter, weekend was a learning experience speaking in an engaging manner for all involved, not to mention an that conveyed his sincere interopportunity to make friends whilst est in the topic and debated the coming up with solutions for some inevitability of the outbreak of the of the most pressing issues for our War, and indeed moved onto some generation. wider issues such as the attributes The debating was divided into of Otto von Bismarck. It was an various committees and rooms, illuminating talk from an intelligent overseen by chairs who themand arresting speaker, which will be selves were members of sixth of practical use for all those studyforms, and discussion of some of ing history in the Upper Sixth. the most important issues faced in Editors, Philippa English, Alex Jennings our time began in earnest. But the intellectually stimulating weekend

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Seeking Silver Hugo Stephens explores the challenges of the Silver Award Most boys in the Fifth Form participate in the Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. It is composed of four sections:Volunteering, Skill, Physical and an Expedition with a final presentation at the beginning of Lower Sixth.

For Volunteering, students typically work in charity shops, help out neighbours or work at children’s clubs for at least six months. The Physical section is usually the easiest to complete, as many students already play a sport or qualifying activity for three months. The Skills section can then be fulfilled by hobbies and other non-physical activities, also for six months.

For the Expedition element, a practice trip is required which is normally completed during the Easter holidays. This is followed by the qualifying expedition after GCSEs. The expedition must be at least three days and two nights.

all. This hill led up to our first two Roman landmarks, which were the subject of our aim: ‘To discover and take photographs of Roman structures in the Brecon Beacons’.

Bizarrely, the Roman road was not straight and the Roman fort seemed to be more defined on a 1:25000 map than in real life. This was to happen several times on our expedition.

A highlight for many people was the Usk Reservoir, kindling memories of geography field trips and all that they entail. Unfortunately our group’s opinion of an almost mythical body was soured rather, after trudging around nearly half of the perimeter in baking sun on a forestry track that seemed to go on forever.

For others the top of Fan Brycheiniog was a highlight, from where we were able to see nearly all of our route, and the distance we had covered. This was one of the Training: Brecons busiest stretches of the expedition, and we were frequently greeted by I was a member of the black group, other walkers who shared their exwho ventured into the Brecon periences of what lay ahead. Later Beacons hoping for good weather the mist descended and the views after the shocking news that a DofE closed in and we truly felt as if we volunteer assessor had been struck were in the cloud and could have by lightning and had died only a been anywhere, making navigation couple of weeks previously on the more challenging. top of Pen y Fan. Shortly after the highest point of On arrival in the Brecons, we went our expedition, whilst descendon a brief acclimatisation walk near ing on a stretch of path known the Usk Reservoir to stretch our in School circles as the ‘Ridge legs after the journey, and practise Walk’, we were met by fierce gusts some of our compass work, which of wind. Whilst this would not had slipped into the distal regions normally be a problem, we were all of our brains with GCSE prioriwearing brightly coloured rucksack ties. Our first night was spent at covers to help the assessor distinTalsarn campsite, near the Red Kite guish us from the other ramblers on the fell. The said articles had a feeding station. Unfortunately the only kite we saw was Mr Taylor’s brilliant aptitude for catching the technicolour version. For the most wind and acting like sails, and conpart this was uneventful, although sequently quite a lot of time was the weather excused the difficulties spent chasing them over marshy encountered by some ‘pitchers’ in ground. constructing their tents.

On the last day we passed Penwyllt We woke to a brilliant view over mine which is now abandoned, although its impact on the landscape towards Fan Brycheiniog which we would be walking up later in evaded us in the torrential Welsh the expedition. My group was then rain. The rain finally eased when driven to our start location, a small we had left the mine area and had layby at the bottom of a very steep begun crossing a peaty bog, comhill – the enjoyment couldn’t last plete with a selection of pot holes, too long; we were in Wales after swallow holes and shake holes.

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Ask a Geographer to discover the difference.

The last leg of our expedition was along the River Neath in a wooded vale, where team tensions reached their peak, as wet, tired and sore feet influenced their owner’s views of the beauty of the Welsh countryside.

The journey back provided an opportunity to reconnect with the modern world if you had managed to save some phone battery, and portable chargers demanded a premium. The Leigh Delamere Services provided a welcome change from instant rice and boil in the bag meals.

Qualifying: Peak District When the five DofE groups set out to the Peak District, good weather was forecast – this was not accurate, however, and on the first morning of the expedition proper we woke up to steady drizzle which would last most of the morning. All the groups had stayed at the same campsite for the first night, and after a briefing from the assessor, with whom we discussed our aim, we set off across the High Peaks.

On the first day we walked alongside the Ladybower reservoir over Win Hill. The historical among you may remember that this was the location of the practice flights for the Dambusters Raid. After achieving the summit of Win Hill the paths

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became indistinct and somewhat different from those marked on the map. If only the sheep stuck to the footpaths. This resulted in a number of short detours to verify our position. That night we stayed on what turned out to be the largest campsite of the expedition, with a long walk to the showers and the taps.

The second day saw us utilise one the best kept paths of the expedition in the form of the Pennine Way. This led up the Vale of Edale to Jacobs Ladder, where we met a DofE group from a school in Devon who had just descended and spoke of the toil to come. Nevertheless we pressed on to the tortuous ascent (not that we had any choice of course). From the top we traversed Brown Knoll along a path largely constructed of large stone slabs acting as stepping stones across the boggy ground. At the top of Brown Knoll, leaning against the Trig Point, was Dr Pines, completing a crossword. He optimistically asked for our suggestions. Crossword complete, we set off over the bog once more, where a few discovered the reason for stepping stones.

The end of the day was complicated by a seemingly unnecessary dog-leg which involved a 200m ascent, but of course this is one of the joys of walking a set route with limited local knowledge. The campsite was busy for the time of year but commanded a stunning view over the High Peaks and the Hope Valley.

After some discussion with our assessor, we amended the route for day 3, to include some more interesting countryside. This, though, led to some inaccurate checkpoint estimates, which meant we ended up waiting 60 minutes at our final check after the highest point of the expedition, Lose Hill. From the summit we had rewarding views in all directions as we descended to the coach in Hope where the other groups were waiting.

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Macro photography reveals tiny details – this is a credit card number punched through the hologram

Skills Section Photography has been the focus of my Skills section for the Silver Award, and I am continuing onto Gold, under the supervision of Mr Cassidy. Over that time, I have developed a keen interest in macro photography, which I discovered has many challenges.

Take, for example, depth of field – how much of an image is in focus.

At a high magnification with a field of view comparable to a 325mm optic, the Canon MP-E’s depth of field is reduced to only 0.048mm.

This is because DoF is related to the subject distance from the lens, as well as its focal length, both of which in this instance are at the unfavourable extreme. With the lens at f16, a more respectable 0.269mm can be achieved. Consequently, I use a process known as focus stacking, in which the camera is moved microns between shots. The sequence of images can be stacked digitally, with specialist software. All this sounds relatively simple, but in

practice that is far from the truth.

Some of the problems lie with the degree of precision required.

Moving a 3.5kg setup microns in several axes only 20mm from the subject, balanced delicately on a tripod, is very difficult. Lighting is also challenging with an effective aperture of f96 at 5:1 magnification. Ring flash, mounted at the end of the lens, solves some of these problems, but can lead to bleached results and reduced definition. This means that a balance has to be struck between unrealistically long exposures, and flat lighting typical of a HDR. My time spent experimenting with macro photography has revealed details normally only observed with a microscope, such as subcellular detail in plant stems, irridescent patterns such as on bank cards, and synthetic detail on pen nibs.

Through pursuing this interest for Dukes, I have learned an enormous amount.

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The Lakes Are Wet James Govey makes a startling discovery on the Gold Trip Having completed our practice expedition in the Brecon Beacons following our AS examinations, we were now confronted with the challenge of our qualifying expedition. This time we travelled to the Lake District along with two other groups in the same position, unaware that this would be a far more daunting prospect. Over the four-day-four-night period we were to face persistent torrential rain, visibility as low as 10-20 metres and gale force winds, all this whilst living out of, and carrying, a 70 litre rucksack.

Each day consisted of a seven o’clock wake up time with an hour put aside to assess the day’s route, cook breakfast (usually porridge) and dismantle the tents before departure. We would walk for about an hour at a time and take short breaks for snacks and lunch.

As we had all completed our Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, we were all relatively confident with our navigating, meaning little time was wasted, and we remained on the correct route for nigh on the entirety of the trip. To ensure this we had two people take separate bearings for the direction we should go. As well as this, we had escape routes marked onto the map. Therefore, should we have gone the wrong way, we could trace these back to known reference points and take new bearings from there. Each day we arrived at the campsite with rapidly deteriorating visibility. We first erected the tents and cooked communal meals so as to keep washing up and cooking time to a minimum. With long days of walking up to 24km, we often attempted to sleep as early as possible.

location of our third campsite, was particularly picturesque.

the first day’s walk still exceeded 18km, as well as over 1km of cumulative ascent. This day culminated with reaching the height of 753m at the top of Dale Head before being led back down to the second youth hostel of the trip. It was during this evening that the remnants of Hurricane Gonzalo passed across much of the UK, leading to a particularly turbulent night for all groups.

We woke to find fewer tents upright than had been pitched the night before, the 80mph winds being the primary culprit. Luckily our equipment was relatively unscathed and remained dry, and our group conjured together the requisite morale to brave the conditions for the next few days’ walking.

With relatively improved visibility following the storm, we were able to appreciate the stunning views on offer. Lake Buttermere, close to the

The following and final day was to be the toughest yet with steep uphill gradients and appalling visibility impinging on our excitement to finish the expedition. Nevertheless, we endeavoured never to give up, and completed what was probably the most difficult day’s walking before one o’clock. We were met by our thrilled assessor – Mr Thompson – at the foot of Grassmoor, the final peak that we scaled. He was impressed with our progress across the trip, and commended our ability to work together as a team, an essential indicator for a successful expedition.

Clearly delighting in the landscape and the weather, the group presses on

James Govey

The first day consisted of the transport to the area before pitching the tents for the first time on the already sodden ground. The expedition aims were established, and we settled in for one of the few calm nights of the expedition.

The following day saw a prompt departure at eight o’clock. We were uplifted instantaneously with the news from our assessor that our route had to be shortened due to the inclement weather; however

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Gold New Entrants Training The Brecon Beacons provided the perfect location for seventeen new entrants to test themselves, facing their first challenges as a part of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award Scheme.

A weekend was spent working on micro-navigation of the local area with a map and compass, as well as culinary skills with a trangia. All this was done within the comforts of Pen Arthur, which provided a base for the new entrants after their strenuous expedition in the misty, rainy conditions of the National Park.

Hiking groups then enjoyed better weather for their walking routes around the Usk Reservoir, finishing at the Red Kite campsite and setting themselves up for the night.

The Pen Arthur ridge walk, the infamous route undertaken by all First Formers, was the last obstacle that the new entrants had to face on their final day. However, they rose to the challenge, finishing the hike in plenty of time.

The weekend provided an accurate insight into the reality of Gold Award expeditions, whilst the students fulfil the other sections of their Award until the highly anticipated final expedition.

Emily Childs

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Silver level trainees pass the time with cards (above) while Gold level new entrants prepare a sumptuous meal on a trangia (below)

Brecon Beacons Training Over the course of five days, sixty two students from St Albans School developed and tested their camp craft and navigational skills in the Brecon Beacons. The weather was itself challenging with the hottest day of the year being recorded on the Tuesday, but with willingness from our students the expedition was a great success.

character in all aspects of the expedition.

Six Silver groups similarly undertook a three-day qualifying expedition over tough terrain on the Black Mountain. They continued where they left off in the Peak District and, having completed the Skill section through their military training in the CCF, are now well Four Gold groups worked their placed to complete the DofE Silver way through a challenging four days, Award. starting at the Red Kite Feeding Centre near Pen Arthur and fittingly finishing having scaled Pen-YFan. All the participants impressed both the assessor and supervising staff with their competence and

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A Tour de Force in France Bicycles and baguettes on the Gold Pyrenees trip Students battled extreme weather conditions, mountainous terrain and hoards of Tour de France fanatics.

However, both groups of Upper Sixth students successfully managed to navigate their routes and work as a team to cope with the arduous challenge that is the Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. This expedition included four days of hiking and camping, living off only the provisions carried in their rucksacks. A mere few days into the summer holidays, two groups of Upper Sixth students departed for the French Pyrenees. Once the initial disorientation had worn off, and after having stocked up on baguettes and sticks of saucisson, students set off on an acclimatisation walk.

The beauty of their mountainous surroundings was mesmerising, but the harsh reality of this expedition soon hit them. At altitude the true nature of the Pyrenees manifested itself, by combining the unforgiving landscape with 35-degree temperatures. The circling vultures seemed to support these emerging feelings, creating nervousness at the start of the expedition. The two groups then split up and began their separate routes, with both demonstrating their ability

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to navigate, manage camp and look after themselves.

These challenges were made easier by the quality of the footpaths, which were leagues above those which students had experienced in Snowdonia. Not only did students have to complete the physical aspect of their expedition, but they also had to come up with an academic aim. Consequently, both groups brought extra equipment to help with their recording of wind speeds and flora and fauna respectively. Despite the challenges, there were many highlights, ranging from surprisingly great food to watching the Tour de France.

Both aspects contributed to a memorable and enriching experience. Any student involved will tell you that the celebratory meal was the highlight of their trip, as everyone was treated to classic French delicacies with the backdrop of a mountain range mid-thunderstorm. Both groups departed from the Pyrenees having completed an impressive achievement, and with enough memories to occupy the return journey.

Luckily no passports were lost, and everyone returned to England safely.

Emily Childs

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Care Home Diary Community Link I joined the Community Link Scheme in the hope of experiencing something new and working in the Lyndon Care Home as my Friday afternoon activity has been an opportunity like no other. It has enabled me to interact with people outside my own age as well as care for the elderly in a way that one would not expect.

the exact same thing every Friday otherwise the residents would find it very monotonous.

The crossword puzzle was always my favourite type of activity to do with the residents. George Every Friday afternoon, a taxi and I would take would pick up my partner, George, it in turns to and me from Aquis Court and drive read out some us to the care home. Our first of the clues and Friday at the voluntary placement fill in the word was very different from what we when a resident answered corassumed it would be like because rectly. We had we did not actually begin in the care home itself. Our supervito be careful to make sure sor, Joan, escorted us to the care home chapel where we met some that everyone of the residents. There was an art could contribexhibition being held and some of ute because some of the residents the pieces had been crafted by the were partially deaf so when one residents themselves. Art pieces of us was not hosting the quiz, the other would go around to the less ranged from paintings to knitted involved residents and perhaps designs, one of which included a repeat the question to them. For representation of the care home the quiz, we functioned in a similar and chapel. fashion and, in both, had to take On our second week at the care extra care in our enunciation and home, Joan introduced us to the articulation of the questions we other nurses and gave us an overasked. Of course, understandview of what we would be doing ably, the residents sometimes got over the next several months, frustrated because they could not which included hosting the routine hear us properly. In such situations, Friday afternoon quiz or crossit was crucial to remain calm and word puzzle. For the crossword be patient with them. puzzle, Joan drew the crossword from a newspaper or book onto a I have learnt a lot from my Comwhite board so it would be easy to munity Link placement and it has involve all the residents. The quiz given me a greater appreciation of questions were taken from several what caring for someone entails. different books and the type of quiz Not only is it a commitment but varied on a weekly basis. We would it is one that you have to be very also be alternating between cross- dedicated to as it is by no means word puzzle and quiz so that every straightforward. At the same time, Friday would be one or the other. however, it is very rewarding On occasion, we would also take a because it encourages one to be small group of residents upstairs to altruistic, resulting in a great deal of the games room where we would satisfaction. I will miss going to the Lyndon Care Home every Friday play scrabble, chess or participate in a painting class. In hindsight, it and I am tremendously grateful for was important that we did not do having the opportunity to do so.

Aditya Joshi

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Community

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Science Masterclasses The Partnership Scheme in action For the duration of our year in Lower Sixth we have been lucky enough to take part in the Partnership Scheme. This happens every Friday afternoon and is a brilliant opportunity for students from our School to contribute to the local primary school community.

St Albans students help out in the classroom in primary schools, act as lifeguards for swimming sessions and assist in masterclasses held at our School. For these sessions, children from local primary schools come to St Albans School every Friday to be given a lesson in a particular subject such as Science, Drama, IT and Design & Technology. It is exciting for them to come to such a different school environment and be given a taste of our School life; the children really enjoy taking part in the huge range of activities we offer within each subject, and get to make full use of the equipment we have.

We helped out in the Science masterclasses this year. We both study Biology and Chemistry at A Level so we share a keen interest in the sciences. It was extremely enjoyable and rewarding to pass on our passion to the children who attend the classes, especially as the children get the chance to use science equipment that they do not have at primary school.

Every week we explored a different scientific topic and carried out an enjoyable and interesting practical activity with the children. For example, we made slime using PVA, constructed earthquake-proof structures out of marshmallows and spaghetti, and investigated optical illusions. In a particularly popular practical the children got to look at pond water using microscopes and watched the interac-

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Overall, assisting with the Science masterclasses was a really rewarding and useful experience for both of us. We thoroughly enjoyed working with the children and it was wonderful to see the appreciaThe children always learn a lot tion they showed for the effort we from the experiments they carry made. They were excited to see out, and it was amazing to see the us every week and told us how enthusiasm for science that they much they enjoyed each practishowed whilst here. Despite the cal experiment. We hope the new primarily academic nature of these Lower Sixth students continue to classes, the experiments are always enjoy taking part in the Partnership great fun for the children; for Scheme; it is incredibly worthwhile example using an exothermic reacand loved by the children that tion in chemistry to make camera come along as well as the students film case rockets fly, which inevitalike us who take part in leading bly caused a lot of excitement for the classes. We have both learnt so everyone in the room. much from our time in the Partnership Scheme and cannot emphasise The experience of assisting with enough what a fulfilling experience Science masterclasses was also it was. particularly rewarding as it put us in a position of responsibility. We Imogen Robertson and Maya had to set a good example for the Mendoza younger children in the lab, and organise getting them to and from the right place every week. On top of this it was a brilliant opportunity to develop our communication skills.

Assisting in these lessons meant having to explain a lot of scientific concepts, and work out the best ways to convey these clearly and simply. We even got the chance to lead some of the lessons, which allowed us to practise speaking in front of, and interacting with, an audience, giving us a valuable teaching and presenting experience. tions between the microorganisms found there – they became even more enthusiastic when the hydra wrapped their tentacles around the water fleas and ate them.

It was a privilege being able to teach the primary school children how to use the scientific equipment, and introduce them to working in a laboratory.

We are lucky enough to have fantastic facilities which makes both the learning and teaching accessible and enjoyable. The whole experience really made us appreciate the roles of teachers in our lessons.

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House Competition 2015 Results Hampson Hawking

Marsh

Renfrew

3

7

10

5

Golf

10

3

7

5

Netball

3

10

5

7

Football

14

20

14

6

Rugby

20

14

6

10

Maths

3

5

10

7

Shooting

3

7

7

10

Cross Country

7

3

10

5

Creative Writing

3

10

5

7

Basketball

10

7

5

5

Chess

7

3

7

10

Hockey

10

14

20

6

Music

20

6

14

10

General Knowledge

7

5

5

10

Debating

10

7

5

3

Cricket

14

6

10

20

Tennis

3

10

7

7

Junior Drama

5

5

10

7

Drama

5

3

10

7

Athletics

20

6

14

10

Swimming

14

6

20

10

Commendations

20

14

6

10

211

171

207

177

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Houses

Art

Houses

71

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OC’s Report CCF in Partnership After our third very successful Tanzania expedition we settled down and prepared ourselves for the year ahead. Although this year would probably be seen as one of our quieter ones, we still managed to pack in a lot of training and Duke of Edinburgh successes.

On the evening after the Inspection the CCF held its annual dinner, where we said farewell to Captain David Stone, who has been with the contingent for the past ten years. We thank him for all his hard work and wish him well in his new school.

Under the excellent guidance of Mr Wilson, the senior cadets produced a well-structured training programme, planned and run by our Upper Sixth cadets, without whom our variety of training would not be possible.

The Summer saw us return to Wathgill for Summer Camp. Here the cadets took part in a range of activities including shooting, canoeing, climbing, team building and archery. On our final exercise we were able to put together all the skills our cadets had learned throughout the year.

I am pleased that we now have archery up and running and it has been a great success with our cadets. I would like to thank SASA for their support in being able to purchase enough archery equipment to run this activity both at school and at the Woollam Playing Fields. The Winter Camp was very successful again this year, even the weather was kind to us. Record numbers qualified in both Silver and Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards.

The shooting team got the year off to a good start with another very successful tour to Jersey.

In May we saw our cadets on parade producing an excellent Annual General Inspection, starting with our traditional parade.

This year the Inspecting Officer was Mr Jonathan Trower, the High Sherriff of Hertfordshire, who was deeply impressed by what he saw, praising ‘the discipline, leadership and courage’ of cadets. They excelled as usual, but this day was particularly important as it was the first Inspection to include cadets from Marlborough Science Academy. Our neighbouring school has joined our CCF in a partnership sponsored by the Cadet Force Association. Fifteen boys and girls from Marlborough train with St Albans School’s Junior Corps every Friday afternoon in a scheme which has been a resounding success. The students are keen and committed, as are the staff who bring them along to work with us every week.

The Marlborough students are fully integrated and participated in all the competitive activities with the St Albans students at the Inspection.

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A group of our senior cadets travelled to the Peak District for adventure training this year, where they were able to take part in advanced climbing, gorge walking, caving and mountain biking.

Finally I would like to thank all the people who have supported me, Mr Wilson, our Officers and Cadets – especially the Cadet Training Teams, the Coldstream Guards, whose support makes such a difference to us, and the Senior Management for allowing us to continue with our challenging and rewarding programme.

KJE

Climbing in the Peak District (right) and sunset at Wathgill (below). Overleaf: images from the AGI

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Winter Camp Working in the dark and damp The Combined Cadet Force travelled to the south-east for the annual winter camp, held in a forested training area at Mereworth Woods. Promptly after arrival, cadets of the Fourth Form and above split into two platoons, each comprising three sections, while the Third Form cadets formed a third platoon. Each platoon headed into the forest under tactical conditions to set up platoon harbours, all cadets in control of an SA80 rifle and holding a bergen rucksack that held sleeping equipment and food rations for 48 hours. The first night required sections to navigate in complete darkness to enemy positions and listen in for intelligence that would be used to plan attacks on the enemy forces. After completing the first activity, the sections

returned to their platoon harbours for some all-important sleep.

Although the first night was rainy, through the effectiveness of the cadets’ bashas, every cadet awoke dry and well rested. The day began with a first aid stand, where the cadets were given a scenario of rescuing a pilot from a downed aircraft behind enemy lines. The first aid was administered diligently yet quickly, while the whole operation was carried out tactically and effectively. Afterwards, the cadets performed consecutive platoon attacks on three enemy positions with great success. This was followed by a full debrief, witnessed by the Headmaster, in which section and platoon commanders were commended

for their organisation during the exercise. That night, the Third Form platoon planned and practised an ambush on an enemy convoy, which involved night navigation to the ambush site together with stealth and battlefield discipline. Whilst this was happening, the other platoons took part in a night orienteering exercise around the area, trying to complete the course as quickly as possible. Thankfully the second night was dry, a great improvement on the night before. The cadets awoke, cooked their breakfasts and packed up their equipment, and moved out of the training area to the coach park, where the cadets could finally relax after their tough 48 hour exercise, and begin their Christmas holidays.

Thomas Halling

Summer Camp Action, thought and farewell to Mr Stone The Army Section of the CCF embarked on its annual Summer Camp in high spirits as usual, travelling to Wathgill Camp in North Yorkshire.

As a very junior contingent of two platoons, many of the cadets were Third and Fourth Formers, for most of whom this would be their first camp. All the cadets were raring to go, putting into practice their weapon handling skills on the Dismounted Close Combat Trainer, where they were able to use stateTaking up defensive of-the-art equipment to practise positions at Summer effective use of marksmanship Camp principles. This was in preparation for the ranges stand the following day, where cadets were able to fire Scorpion Air Rifles, Light Support Weapons, GP rifles and try their hand at clay pigeon shooting. This proved to be a very exciting and informative day for the cadets, with some learning the correct way to fire in the prone position, and others learning that the clay pigeons do actually hurt if they land on your head. On the next day, the cadets took part in water and land sports, including kayaking, canoeing, raft building, volleyball, archery and climbing. This was pivotal in developing a sense of teamwork

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The end of the week saw both platoons deploy on a 24 hour exercise in a military training area, where ambushes and platoon attacks were conducted. Cadets were able to fire blank rounds and develop their campcraft skills, sleeping out overnight. The end of the exercise was marked with the hand over of the senior command positions as well as promotions for the worthy Section 2ic’s as well as awards for those who excelled over the course of and achievement amongst the the camp. The cadets would like to younger years, a quality the CCF thank CUO Robbie Lightowler and promotes through the activities RSM Will Norris, who ably led the both back in school, and on camps. contingent for the year, and were This was clearly shown when the in charge of the ‘enemy’ platoon cadets eased through the Leaderon Winter Camp, assisted by CSM ship day, with one group setting the David Clegg and Sgt Tim Richards. A orienteering course record, and all more emotional farewell was made the others completing the various to Captain DJ Stone, who having command task stands in fast been part of the contingent for times. The interesting stand called many years, has done an incredible ‘Operation Reflect’, which focused job in leading the Fifth Form cadets on remembering the events of through their Duke of Edinburgh’s World War I on its centenary, awards. As always, special thanks go proved captivating for the cadets to Major Everitt and RSM Wilson, who were able to handle some of as well as all of the other officers, the weapons used during various who willingly gave up their summer battles, and read letters sent from holidays to allow the cadets to go those on the front line. on this camp.

Rob Williams

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A Year in the Range The Shooting Report The start of the year is always a busy one for the shooting team.

The House competition sees an influx of novices flooding the range on a Monday evening. However, with the depth of experience within the squad remaining strong, the older shooters did an excellent job of coaching the newbies through the experience. It was a very close run competition with the standard rising yet again. 11 points separated the Houses in the team competition and 11 students this year hit the 100 mark. The lead changed several times over the course of the term but in the end Renfrew and Hampson shared the bragging rights. The standard was equally high in the individual competition. It was Hawking who came to the fore at this point and Kyriacos Mouzouris stole the show with a very impressive double 96 which also won him the Captain’s Cup. In the end it was Renfrew House who took the title owing to their breadth and depth of skill.

to be a big ask of the Junior A team to compete in the first division, and despite some excellent shooting they finished in 6th place. Matt Crossley shot two 100s and averaged 97.8, placing him 14th overall.

Jacob Viallou-Clark also hit 100 but was unable to finish his cards owing to injury. The Junior B team was looking at a top 3 finish until a disappointing final round that saw them slip to 4th place. However, Piers Dorward’s 98.6 average saw him take 2nd place in the division overall.

The final act of the autumn term is competing for the Hertfordshire Schools’ Trophy, The Emsall. Last year we entered five teams and the A Team set the record with a score of 390. In comparison, six teams were entered this year and the A Team recorded a score of 394 (after handicapping). Indeed combined, the team only dropped 2 shots. The B Team also won their competition with a score of 387 (one higher than last year). Aidan Joe Pattison won the very grateful to Vauxhall Shooting During this period, a core group of Collins, Kyriacos Mouzouris and Junior Herts Winter Club in Luton who lent us the use eight students jetted off to Jersey Matt Crossley need special mention Handicap of their range, allowing the Senior on our annual tour. The first stop for each hitting a ton.

A Team to complete their cards was at Victoria College to take on (with each member of the team St Albans School ‘A’ Team St Albans School ‘B’ Team their school team at smallbore. It shooting 6 times in one afterName Score Name Score was another win for the Vic senior noon). Thankfully, the closure was team. In the junior competition Aidan Collins 100 Matt Crossley 100 short-lived and the remaining squad St Albans ran away with the win, members completed their BSSRA Kyriacos Mouzouris 100 Piers Dorward 98 including an impressive 196/200 cards before the end of term. It Hamish Tyler 99 Simon Brooks 98

by Joe Pattison. The next day saw seems that those who shot on the team at the Jersey Pistol Club.

Ben Chrisp 99 Stan Kudryashov 95 home soil fared far better than the Apart from this being a discipline Total gunscore 398 Total gunscore 391 A Team who finished 6th in their unavailable in the UK, it provides an division. In contrast the B and D H/C for target rifles -4 H/C for target rifles -4 excellent opportunity for the stuTeams finished 1st and 2nd in their dents to develop their understand- Final Score 394 Final Score 387 respective divisions. ing of the marksmanship principles.

This term also saw the culminaThe final day was spent with the Spring: Club, County tion of the County competitions Jersey Rifle Association, shooting in which several squad members and Country fullbore at 300 yards. Once again were involved. Aidan Collins won the experienced students stepped the Middlesex Junior Smallbore up to the mark coaching their less The spring term is the time when competition and helped his county new talent discovered through the experienced peers through the to fourth place in the Home CounHouse competition is nurtured morning’s shoot. Ollie Thwaites ties competition. However, Ben and developed. This year was no stood out in particular with a 46 Chrisp went one better, helping different, with a large crop of Third with 1 v-bull in his first shoot. the Hertfordshire team to first Formers opting to pursue shooting In the British School’s Smallbore place in the same competition. as a hobby. However, we were set Rifle Association league competiEight students were selected for a new challenge by the MOD who tions, the Senior A team shot conthe Hertfordshire County Squad shut the range for several weeks sistently throughout the term but for the National Smallbore Rifle as part of a national rewriting of finished the division in 4th place.

Association Winter Leagues. This paperwork. As we were unsure Aidan Collins was the top shot for consists of 10 rounds, with each about how long the range was the team, finishing 6th overall with team going head to head with going to be shut, alternative ara 94.4 average. It was always going another in each round. rangements were made. We were

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A first for the School’s current shooting incarnation, Aidan Collins was also selected for the BSSRA UK squad. Shooting for the D team he produced scores of 99 and 92 over the two card competition.

Summer: Reunion, Clocks and Coles We were inundated in the summer with old boys returning to put the current squad through their paces. This began at Bisley when the Clock competition was reborn.

Unfortunately for the School team, first blood went to the Old Albanians who won decisively. Later in the term, to mark their Golden Jubilee graduation year, Andrew Wilkie, Alun Lewis and Alfie Coles visited the range for a trip down memory lane. Alfie’s family dedicated the Coles’ Trophy which is still shot between the School and OAs. We were pleased to welcome these three OAs as well as many more a few weeks later to shoot the competition. This time it was the School who triumphed, pulling one win ahead of the OAs. Jess Goldie won the OA Trophy for achieving the highest handicapped score in the competition.

The BSSRA leagues continued throughout the term, although owing to extracurricular events all cards were required to be shot before half term. Five teams entered, three seniors and two juniors. This was achieved by several of the Third Formers stepping into Junior Teams and allowing the more able Juniors to take part in Senior Competitions. The Senior A squad finished second in Division 2, just one point behind Greshams.

School

Handicap Score

OAs

Handicap Score

Jess Goldie

100.146

Owen Simons

100.180

Simon Brooks

100.082

John Simmons

100.000

Joe Pattison

100.063

Alessandro Rossi

99.846

Ollie Thwaites

99.832

Martin Warr

99.675

Tessa Coudert

99.824

Alun Lewis

99.667

Richard Lu

99.580

Andrew Wilkie

99.553

Piers Dorward

99.036

Tom Chapman

99.538

Roger Cluff

99.500

Derek Cole

99.350

Total

400.123

Total

399.701

Simon Brooks impressed with an average of 95.5, the second best average in the league. The Senior B and C teams finished 3rd and 5th respectively in Division 3. The Team Results

to guide them through the day to day routine produced an efficient squad. I was very impressed with their organisation and willingness to help each other. More and more names started appearing on the boards as the week progressed, most notably Aidan Collins and Matt Crossley (fresh from his heroic plotting efforts last year).

When Ashburton Day arrived, feelings were happy if somewhat muted. The intention was to enjoy the experience and see what happened. Once again the team worked as a very effective unit, completing all shoots well within the time limit. We were unsure if we had done enough but the result was far better than anticipated as we came in in 16th place. As is the departing captain’s prerogative, Aidan also shot the Spencer-Mellish.

This is a self-coached shoot of two sighters and ten shots to count. He finished in a very respectable 11th place with a score of 44.3.

Individual Results

Ashburton Eights

16th

300 Aggregate

Aidan Collins

64th

The CCF Bisley Shield (South)

2nd

Cadet Monday Aggregate

Matt Crossley

59th

The Babcock Trophy

32nd and 37th

Cadet Wednesday Aggregate

Aidan Collins

52nd

The Devon

22nd

School Staff Shoot

David Russell

14th

Simon Hughes

16th

Owen Simmons

20th

The Meltis Cup

3rd

The Spencer Mellish

Aidan Collins

11th

The Victoria College Trophy

20th and 36th

The Silenta Trophy

Piers Dorward

55th

Matt Crossley

97th

Schools Veterans 1st Team

29th

The Wellington

Aidan Collins

22nd

Matt Crossley

31st

Junior A team were once again in the First Division and this time finished 4th and the Junior B team finished 5th in Division 2.

Thanks

The shooting club could not function without the support of a wide The final act of the year is the range of people. I would like to Ashburton. This year, due to a last thank Mr Everitt, Mr Wilson, Owen minute rule change, we entered the Simmons, Mr Lockhart, Dr Hughes, full Eight. With a squad of nine, half The Old Albanian Rifle Club and St of whom were competing for the Albans School Foundation. The final first time, and only three practice word of thanks has to go to the sessions before the competition, students who put in hours of effort the aim was a top 20 finish. It was a and who support each other so well. steep learning curve for many, but DSR having several experienced coaches

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Adventure Training Cadets hope to gorge themselves on climbs and scrambles Three days after the end of the summer camp, four members of the outgoing Upper Sixth and six from the Lower Sixth departed from St Albans for Pindale Farm in Hope for some much needed down time amongst the fantastic views that the Peak

the gorge scrambling proved highly entertaining, with both group and individual challenges including a competition to create the largest tidal wave, resulting in some painful belly flops.

The

and bags full of climbing equipment, we headed underground. We were presented with climbs, abseils and tight spaces in the pitch black, with only a head-torch to light the way.

While initially daunting, the abseil down a waterfall was for many our favourite part of the week, being so different from any previous caving experience. Finally all ten cadets made it out of the caves without the aid of our torches, moving by touch to navigate the way.

In the evenings we were treated to barbeques, expertly cooked by Mr Wilson, as well as games of rugby, football and cricket. There was also the chance to eat out in Castleton.

Ultimately the week was a fantastic way to celebrate a successful summer camp with constant humour, allowing everyone to take away some great memories.

James Kirsch

scramble also involved Disclimbing a trict has small wato offer. Over the terfall and course of the six-day trip traversing we would enjoy a wide range of underneath outdoor activities including visits to ledges, Hope, Castleton and Sheffield. testing After the high intensity of the our summer camp, and in some cases nerve. a leadership course as well, the The slower pace and later starts were other a relief. Following a long drive, the highlight was the caving. group settled in to our accomCarrying ropes modation, which was basic but would cater for our needs. With sleeping arrangements sorted and a local takeaway in our stomachs, we walked up the hill to watch the sunset over Hope valley and talk about the week ahead.

The week consisted of four daytime activities: climbing, mountain biking, gorge scrambling and caving, with each activity providing different challenges as well as the chance to laugh at and with each other. Significantly, the highlights of the week were gorge scrabbling and caving. Although it was cold,

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Coping Without the Captain 1st XV Rugby Starting the season against Berkhamsted School is always tough. This time we were without the Captain, Hudson, and the very experienced fly-half, Scott, and by half time we had missed two penalties and conceded two tries. It got worse and we were beaten 0-43.

Against Merchant Taylors’, however, we had a pleasing resurgence of confidence and were 14-0 up at half-time. The second half was similar with determined rucking to occasionally turn-over possession and we won 28-5.

The Herts Cup Match against Verulam proved rather one-sided, but it was a good chance to run opposed plays as we won 65-3. The Old Boys saw an excellent display against Haberdashers’, romping to a 18-0 lead in twenty minutes. We then gave away too many penalties, but dominated the second-half, with Scott scoring 14 points and Russell nipping blind for 5 more to finish 37-0. Hampton School have beaten us for the last five years so it was going to be tough. By half time we had scored a try, converted it and taken a penalty and the score was 10-10. The game was always against us and in the end we competed with credit against 7 Academy players.

Brown started the match against Haileybury by fielding his own kick to score under the posts. Scott converted and then added 3 points for a penalty. Scott then scored two further penalties and converted Russell’s try. Haileybury also scored but the game finished with Okine scoring out wide, completing a 28-7 win.

with five minutes to go Thomson settled the contest with a snipe from short-range which Scott converted to win 28-18. A dogged win followed against QE Barnet, 33-17, with tries from MacGregor, Sayers (2), Southworth and Thrale.

Bedford Modern have perhaps their best side for some years but an excellent start from SAS put the home side under pressure.

However, after this initial phase, Bedford played clear. Several missed tackles saw 0-17 at half-time and Bedford’s final points came from four pick-and-drives. We lost 0-32.

We faced Haileybury in the Herts U18 semi-final. Under lights at Hertford Rugby Club with a very damp evening and dense fog, conditions were poor. MacGregor scored early, followed by a try for the home side after we dropped the ball in mid-field. Brown kicked a penalty for offside to give a narrow half-time lead. After the break we kept trying to play wide, but the Action from the connections just didn’t work; we couldn’t maintain enough pressure victory against QE Barnet and lost 8-12.

Following this effort there were injuries and we were very flat facing Stamford School. In the event, against seven Academy players from Leicester Tigers we competed at first phase, but were out-powered beyond. Anifalaje, back after longterm injury, scored a consolation try as we lost 7-73. The Aylesbury game saw many errors on both sides. Sayers opened the scoring from first-phase only to see an immediate reply. Brown ran in for a try only to see no guard posted and another 7 points conceded.

MacGregor rounded his man and Russell, taking over kicking duties, converted. At half-time it was 20-20. In the second half Russell scored another 3 but Aylesbury scored a try through the centre.

Russell achieved another penalty and then with one minute to go we were awarded another penalty on the 10m line. At 26-28 the kick could win it, but it was very hard.

Russell decided to kick and we all held our breath. Through the middle it went for a rousing 29-28 win.

The last match of a very good season was at home to St George’s.

The opposition played admirably, but without apparent strategy. Our side played with nearly a full team and enjoyed a chance to run wide, scoring several pleasing tries. The season ended with a 32-16 win.

CCH

The next fixture with St Columba’s College was not a full contest as they were very short of players and it was 41-0 at half-time and ended 76-0 against a demoralised opposition.

The second half of term began with Richard Hale at home in the Herts U18 Cup, an evening match under floodlights. It was a strong, competitive game ending 20-5. Watford were spirited opposition. A Sayers try gave a 7-6 lead at half-time; an exchange of tries followed, then a Thomson try and a Scott conversion. The reverse then happened and at 21-18 nerves were obvious, but

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Outstanding Potential U16 XV Rugby The U16s started the season in style with an enjoyable pre-season tour to the Ge Tur Sports Village in Northern Italy. With two superb wins and some tough training sessions in the Italian sunshine, we set a high standard for the rest of the season. On return to the UK, we started the domestic campaign with a solid win against Berkhamsted School. This boded well for the upcoming fixtures, but a lack of focus meant that we lost a few close games which we should have won. Despite mixed fortunes, we did enjoy key victories against two of our strongest rivals, Bedford Modern School and Hampton School, where we played with improved focus and showed what we were really capable of. The highlight of the season was no doubt the penultimate game, away at Stamford School. In a tough, tense contest, two equally strong teams battled it out to the last minute, until the bounce of the ball didn’t go our way (literally) and we lost by the narrowest of margins: 19-18. Despite the loss, we certainly showed that we could compete with the traditional rugby schools and show just what potential we had. In our final game of the season, we were able to round off five great years of rugby together, by gaining an emphatic victory over Aylesbury Grammar School. It was a tremendous victory to finish on and we will all be looking forward to the challenges of senior rugby next year. I‘d like to thank Mr Burger for putting up with us, and giving up his time to help us develop into an impressive group of players.

Learning Curv es

U15

XV Rugb The U15 y season go to Berkha t off to a msted, M to ugh st e was heav ily due to rchant Taylors’ and art with losses Haberdash were key the injur y list of to the A ers’. This 14 men theme th many of roughout team’s success an who d this co the year. N Hampton ntin ex b a well-de ut due to some qu t was a bright perf ued to be a ser ormance estionable ag Sandringh ved victory. Our re first NatW fereeing we were ainst am Schoo l; we won est Cup the back denied m of convincin gly cruisin atch came against strong w excellent team pla in against g to a 61 y by all. T his was th -10 win o Haileybur the trainin en backed n y in very g by an equ tough co St Colum pitch transferring n ally ditions w ba’s in a to the ga ith ideas gru me short losi from ng by a so dge match against . With spirits hig h we tac litary poin Unfortun our bitte kled ately, in th r foes, co t in an en ming up ter e strong Be just dford sid next round of the taining tussle for e losing c all to wa cup we c on the ou tc o n a h. vincingly, me up ag tcome of and again ainst a ve th we were ry injuries to put into th is match. We had been kno ok their e Vase wit stages. Aft cked out toll h er half te of the cu rm, the re the opportunity to Watford p and st paid off progress Grammar to the latt and we h and Bedfo the 5th ro ad co er rd Mode und of th rn, and w nvincing wins ove e Vase wit Owen’s. A r e had pro h wins ov narrow w gresse er St in against George’s a much im George’s and Dam d to saw the e e Ali pro nd against S t Columb of the regular sea ved and determine ce so a d St ’s n to quarter fi leaving ju move into st a matc nal of the Round 6 h NatWest key playe and a po Vase. Unfo rs ag tential rtunately resistance ain played its par injury t in a fie . Key less rce but lo to ons have and with b sing e e n a more p learnt th roactive and hope attitude to is season fully fewe tra r have been injuries the founda ining tions laid for n ext year.

TNR

The U16 tour to Italy was very successful

Gregor Farrell-Binns

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Perfect Progression U14 XV Rugby The U14 teams showed tremendous progress throughout the season, both in terms of results and development of new skills.

The teams started the season with an early flourish of wins, which brought on the “smash top” competition where the player who worked and tackled the hardest won the opportunity to wear a sought-after Olorun Kamikaze Sevens shirt during training. With everyone aiming to be the proud wearer of this our own equivalent of the yellow jersey, the teams maintained high standards and ethics, which were evident in the performances they produced. The ‘A’ XV played 14 games winning 11, striving to work to the best of their ability, whilst learning new skills to be implemented into the game.

The A team returned from a deficit against Aylesbury Grammar School, after conceding two tries, turning the game around to win 19-17. The composition of the team changed considerably over

this season with the arrival of new players and players moving between teams. Progression was high and during each match the boys found themselves pushing towards higher standards. The ‘B’ XV produced the most formidable win ratio of any team, playing 12 games and winning 11, coping very well with the changes between teams and positions. The highlight of many high performances came when they gained a 10-7 victory over Watford Grammar School, working vigorously and demonstrating an outstanding defence. The ‘C’ XV played 6 games and winning 3, highlighting signs of improvement in all categories of their game. Their best performance was against Haileybury, who were beaten 51-0. These boys will have many more opportunities to develop into better players in season.

Ayo-Oluwa Olukotun

Junior boys will need to follow the example of the senior teams (above and below)

Great Defenders U13 XV Rugby The U13A team showed much improvement throughout the season in terms of results and player development. The first game against Haberdashers’ was a well-fought draw finishing 31-31, but the following week the team struggled against a very strong Hampton team and was punished for early mistakes in the game. Several changes to the team including several promotions from a strong B team made instant impact with wins against St Columba’s, Watford, QE and Bedford Modern.

Stamford was the only team to stop this winning streak and the team got to play against several academy players. The boys still did the school justice with excellent defensive play.

Two final wins against Aylesbury and St George’s sealed a very successful season (78% win ratio). Notable mentions in the team are for: Will Murphy (most improved player) for tackling everything on the pitch and playing multiple roles before settling into his role at flanker; J-J Wallace for his flair and pace in his role at centre; Toby Adegembile (player of season) and Alex Lines for their pace and power in the forward pack; Gethin Wynne (Cpt) for his experience and ability on the pitch.

I would like to say a big thank you to all the parental support the team has had from the side-lines, from distant away fixtures to ones at home.

RDD

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Brussels Tour Caps Memorable Season 1st XI Hockey Everyone in the Hockey squad was excited about the prospect of a jam-packed season and a fantastic tour to Brussels, all of which lay ahead over the forthcoming months.

The season started with the annual fixture against Harpenden XI. With a few solid days of pre-season beforehand, the team managed to continue the long tradition of drawing this fixture with a promising 3-3 result.

The Merchant Taylors’ away match has provided a tough challenge over the last few years and this

Our first mid-week game was against Windsor. We struggled to break the deadlock in the first half but a few cheeky deflections by Olly Edmond early in the second half opened up the game and it finished 3-0.

Travelling to Dulwich is a test for any school team and the need to start with some intensity was vital.

Having squandered some chances in the first half, we couldn’t quite find the back of the net and in the last few minutes, with their only shot of the game, they scored and we suffered a 1-0 loss.

both ending in a 2-2 draw. The game against Hitchin saw debutant Joe Sayers score one of the most memorable last minute goals in school hockey with a cracking finish into the bottom corner.

Injury and absence hurt the team when they played the Leys in midMarch. An unorthodox press left the team struggling tactically. A 5-1 loss was the final result. A bounce back fixture four days late against Mill Hill provided less of a challenge and we were able to come away with a 2-0 win with young talent Jonny Cattermole sweeping in the first and Dan Metcalf finishing off a well-executed short corner rattling the top of the net for the second.

A three-way tournament against Harpenden and Framlingham enabled the team to experiment with a newly developed Aussie press and work on specific areas of development. 3-0 and 2-0 wins saw the team perform at a much higher standard, just what they needed after a couple of nervy weeks.

The final match of the domestic season was against Dr Challoner’s.

Starting slowly, the team had to try to find something to spur them on and end the season on a high. The second half saw the team dig in but the opposition proved too strong, winning 5-3.

year was no different. Having gone down 1-2, the team recovered to bring it back to 3-2 and managed to withstand the pressure for the last 10 minutes and earn themselves a great win. This provided a solid platform to build on throughout the season.

Haberdashers’ provided a different challenge, with teams in recent years unable to adapt tactically to their style of play. It was a mental challenge more than anything and although the final result was a 3-3 draw, the team felt they could have done better.

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Author in action Felsted is one of the top teams on the School’s fixture list and the team knew that it was vital to start strong and stay in contention, particularly in the first half. An indepth tactical strategy deployed by Mr Langston before the match contributed to the team’s incredible start going 2-0 within the first 15 minutes. Felsted recovered to draw level but in the final moments, we managed to grab the winner to end on 3-2. The result demonstrated a great team performance and was a real highlight of the season.

Two games followed soon after against Haileybury and Hitchin,

Post-season, the team departed for Brussels on what promised to be a tour that would cap off a great campaign with a final few challenging games against some of Belgium’s top club sides. Three tough games gave all players a new experience into how Hockey and more generally, sport is perceived and played abroad.

Many thanks to Mr Langston for organising the trip as well as managing and developing the team throughout the season and many of us throughout our entire school hockey career. In addition, congratulations to Olly Edmond for being selected to captain next year’s first team. Finally, we must mention Mr Gillespie, whose commitment and encouragement throughout the whole season was fully appreciated.

Tim Richards

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90% Wins

At The Leys School it was a different story as the opposition dominated. We were 0-3 down at half-time and finished with a 1-7 defeat.

2nd XI Hockey In a highly successful season the mighty 2nd XI finished with a superb 90% win ratio. The team started well with a 4-1 win at Merchant Taylor’s, and 7-0 win against Windsor Boys’. Two respectable draws against our historically strong opposition (Dulwich College, 1-1 and Watford Grammar 3-3) hinted at a potential unbeaten season. Wins followed at Aldenham (3-2), Felsted (4-3), The Leys (2-1), Mill Hill (3-0) and a 1-1 draw at Haileybury, leaving a win in the last game against Berkhamsted 1st XI to remain unbeaten. A nail-biting game saw both teams match each other goal for goal. Playing with 10 men after a sending off late in the second half, we let Berkhamsted edge ahead with a lucky goal. This proved too much, and we lost 4-5. The whole team deserve a mention for their individual performances particularly Vinny Sriganesh, Harry Turner (Captain) and Michael Roche who disrupted the opposition attack and distributed the ball wonderfully; Rob Williams, Matthew Halliday and Adam Spooner, for their great goals; Tom Galliford (2nd XI 2015 Most Improved Player) for controlling the game in the middle with excellent distribution and Max Houghton for his excellent saves. It has been a great pleasure to coach this year’s 2nd XI. RDD

Running Hot and Cold U16 XI Hockey We began the season formally with a home match against Merchant Taylors’ School 3rd XI and a newly organised side. It was a good opportunity to organise and evaluate. Despite being one down at half time we were rewarded with two well-worked goals and a pleasing 2-1 win.

Due to frost, January offered just one match per side.

The team played Watford at Oaklands and continuity was lacking against a good opponent, resulting in a 1-3 loss.

Against Felsted School the opposition cut large holes in our defence with good pace and but for a great performance by Sam Alexander in goal, it would certainly have been worse than a final score of 1-4. A disastrous 0-6 loss followed at Hitchin, where we could not find control on a difficult pitch and failed to mark tightly against a good side.

We came away from the re-arranged match against High Wycombe with a fortunate 4-3 win, with the deciding goal coming in the last minute. Haberdashers’ witnessed one of the better games played by the team all season. The home side gave us the space to play our patterns and we took our opportunities with two goals in each half without reply.

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Mill Hill, however, were not strong and a 10-0 win at Oaklands against a make-shift side was enjoyable for the players, yet no real test. The last game was against Dr Challoner’s and it was a very good, competitive match. A fluke first goal saw the opposition slash a shot into the roof of the net. A St Albans goal from a well-worked short corner made it 1-1 at half time, but then an individual piece of high skill and the beating of five tackles made it 1-2. Pressing hard for an equaliser, we were left exposed to concede a third with five minutes to go.

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Late Blossoming U15 XI Hockey The U15 squad looked very promising at pre-season training with some exciting talent. However, the season did not get off to the best of starts with two early losses to Merchant Taylor’s and Dulwich College.

They had many chances to score in these matches but were unable to get a goal, something that would continue to haunt the team for most of the first half of the season. In the third match the team had success against Harrow with a conclusive 7-0 win, but the following match was a 0-0 draw against Aldenham.

The team went into the match confident but were surprised by a much stronger team than in previous years. In retrospect a draw was a good result but really should have been a win. The next match against Hitchin was again very close but they conceded a goal from a short corner and were unable to recover from a 0-1 deficit.

In the second half of the season the U15s performed much better, finally clearing the goal drought and winning four out of five matches. Next was their toughest match of the season against Felsted, where the boys played their best hockey of the season, managing to take the win in the final second of the match with a quick counterattack resulting in a 3-2 victory. Next up were High Wycombe, another strong team, but yet again the boys scored a late goal to win 1-0, followed by Haileybury where they played solidly to take a good 4-0 win. The team faced The Leys towards the end of the season, renowned for being a strong hockey school. However, after a tiring game, the team just lost 2-3 with an unfortunate own goal – though this was a great improvement on last year’s comprehensive loss. Finally the team played Dr Challoner’s, where they initially struggled to deal with the opponent’s tactical formation and were also weakened by the loss of a key player. However they kept working hard and eventually some good play earned them a comfortable 4-2 win.

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Challenging Season U14 XI Hockey The season did not start well, with a 4-0 thrashing by a strong Merchant Taylors’ side. This was followed by a testing match against Dulwich, who have a strong hockey reputation. Strong play ensured we were only a goal down at half time, and in the second half an Ed Vickery cross was picked up by Ashwin Batey, who then slotted home a scorcher with his reverse stick.

The 1-1 draw felt more like a victory.

The next four games were a miserable run of defeats.

A shock 3-0 defeat against Watford, one of the strongest hockey schools, was a huge blow to the team, though there were positive signs. At Aldenham, Cameron Furley returned to the side and instantly provided a goal, but two shocking umpiring decisions later, we found ourselves walking off the pitch with a 2-1 loss. Against Hitchin Grammar we were short of numbers, so had to call upon the services of three B-team players in the last minute before the match. We deserved to lose, especially without star man Ken Adigwe, but the 6-0 score line flattered the opposition. The next defeat was at home to Felsted.

Noah Arthur-Tinworth scored a brilliant goal, George Adshead and Ed Vickery continued to link up well and there was some better defending at the back. Everything else was one-way traffic, however; we were out muscled in the midfield and overpowered in defence.

It is great to report on a remarkable turnaround, then.

Royal Grammar School High Wycombe is one of the most prestigious hockey schools in the country. The result wasn’t a lucky 1-0 victory, but a 4-0 thrashing.

A ‘cool as you like’ penalty flick was put away by our skipper, Ashwin Batey while Cameron Furley, Noah Arthur-Tinworth and Salem Kahn were also scorers.

At Haileybury we dominated the match, though managed to win only 1-0, with a goal from Noah Arthur-Tinworth. Our next triumph was at Harrow, within view of the whole London skyline. The first half was disappointing and the opposition scored on the stroke of half time. Things were put right in the second half, with goals from Cameron Furley and Noah Arthur-Tinworth.

While the season ended with two losses, there were some gains, not least the delicious post-match tea at the Leys School in Cambridge. There we played against the U15 side, a more physically developed team, so it was important to remain defensively astute as well as skilful in possession. Both of these goals were achieved, but the Leys scored a goal in the final seconds to clinch victory.

The final home defeat to Dr Challoner’s was a bitter pill to swallow, but Noah Arthur-Tinworth scored a good goal to cap an excellent season.

Ed Vickery

The 1st XI had three tough but enjoyable matches while on tour to Brussels

Learning the Hard Way U13 XI Hockey The U13 Hockey season started with a difficult trip to Dulwich College having missed the opening games due to snow cancellations. Three mini-teams went and while there was a big loss for the As, the Bs and Cs competed well showing signs of promise for the season. As the season progressed difficult lessons were learnt in losses against Aldenham and Watford, but through these matches the teams built up experience and took this into the County Tournament.

Stronger performances against sides that had beaten us earlier in the season made us competitive and only narrow losses halted progression in the tournament.

Taking confidence from this led to good wins against Haberdashers’ Aske’s, Hitchin and Aldwickbury at the end of the season before a last tough fixture against a very good Dr Challoner’s side. While the score didn’t reflect the game here, the experiences will be able to be taken into next season with the influx of new players.

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Strong Team Performance 1st XI Cricket Excellent weather for pre-season training allowed for plenty of practice, but our first game against Dr Challoner’s caught us very cold and an experimental batting order saw us only amass 134 in the allotted 30 overs. We were always struggling to restrict them, and a four wicket loss was the eventual result.

The first weekend game saw us visit Haileybury College where the early swing caused the opening batsmen some problems. We managed to post a score of 248-6 with Captain Patrick Scott and Alex Cook scoring half centuries. The total was too much for the opposition and the game ended as a tame draw with the score on 183-6, despite a single over that produced two wickets from Jonny Muir.

beautifully between the wickets along with dispatching bad balls to the boundary. We finished up posting 133-8. Wickets fell consistently (Cook 3-18) and eventually the powerhouse team on our circuit was dismissed for just 99.

going along very nicely until one big shot too many saw him depart.

We lost wickets at key times but managed to post 147-6. Reed’s is a very small ground so the total was rather flattering. Earlier in the competition they had chased over 200 with overs to spare. We had them worried though; at three down we were buzzing, believing that an upset could be on the cards.

Their star player, however, showed why he is thought of so highly in Surrey cricket. He can bowl near to mid-80s and is a strong batsman.

He smashed 90 in about 60 balls; his reverse-sweep 6 that never went more than 30 feet off the ground is one I’ll remember for a long time. We lost by 7 wickets but certainly did not disgrace ourselves.

The T20 tournament was held at Woollams with 8 different sides, although St Albans had a second team playing this year. We enjoyed Twenty/20 batting Berkhamsted was probably the strong victories against Hitchin requires both deft best game of the season between Grammar, St Benedict’s and St two very well matched sides. They placement (above) Joseph’s. In the final on the followand the grand hoick had an England ladies player in ing day against a strong Shenfield (below) their side and had she not tried High School we were set to chase the reverse ramp shot off Milo 142. Needing a good start, wickets Knights then she may have won the fell at inopportune times and game for them. Instead a very small scoreboard pressure got to us. We edge through to Tom Goldstone ended 32 shorts after a good knock saw the back of her and probably from stand-in Ben Anthoney.

Berkhamsted’s best chance. A very All in all, it was a good season. tight finish saw St Albans come out Apart from two poor performwinners by just 6 runs after posting ances we were always together as a very good 245-7. a team, we stuck to the task and managed to consistently apply pressure. Some fine individual performances namely from Cook (Player of the Year), Charlie Scott (Batsman of the Year), Will Pickworth (Bowler of the Year), MacGregor (Fielder of the Year) and the side was always well captained by Patrick Scott. A special mention also to Perrin who, after being left out at the start of the season, showed real character fighting his way back in to the side The Regional Final against Merchant and helped the team win on a Taylors’ School was highly anticinumber of occasions. Kyle Douglas pated. Unfortunately, an awesome also made several appearances in piece of wicket-keeping from their In the London Final of the National the 1st XI and got better on each England player saw Patrick Scott T20 we played Reed’s School with occasion; he could certainly strike stumped, first ball again, and once several players on cricket or fear into many opposing batters we had Charlie Scott, Lipschitz sports scholarships. We batted next year if he gets it right.

(42) and Cook removed, a poor first and the first thing for Patrick MCI total seemed likely. However, our Scott to do was score a run. He strength in depth was evident with did this but it was Lipschitz who MacGregor and Pickworth running was playing the aggressor and was The following day saw the Regional draw of the National T20 Competition at Woollams with Aldenham School, Forest School and Haileybury College. We played Forest School in the first game and got off to a dreadful start with Scott out very first ball. Noah Lipschitz got off to a speedy start and with a fine knock from Charlie Scott (71); together with George MacGregor (43) we posted 172-7, which was, in the circumstances, a tremendous score. Forest never looked in the game and a solid all round performance restricted them to just 115-5, seeing us through to the final of the Group Stages against Haileybury.

Unfortunately Patrick Scott made it two consecutive golden ducks, and Charlie Scott was also out cheaply in the next over. Lipschitz soon followed, only for an amazing stand between Jack Perrin (60) and Will Pickworth (36) to salvage the innings and see us post a decent score of 151-5. In response we bowled well and fielded brilliantly, winning by 33 runs.

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Young Players in a Successful Season 2nd XI Cricket This was a relatively successful season for the 2nd XI. With half of last year’s regular players having either left school or been promoted to the 1st XI, a host of new young players were welcomed into the fold.

Facing Dr Challoner’s in the first match of the season, St Albans batted first and amassed 170 runs for the loss of only 4 wickets off their 25 overs. Challoner’s were only able to manage 156 in reply, with Callum Townsend picking up a valuable 4 wickets.

An encouraging 14 run win sent us into the second match with confidence as the 2nd XI continued their form with a commanding 91 run win against Haileybury, helped by a strong batting performance from Tom Goldstone.

Batting first against Bancroft’s School the following week, Jaymee Malkan’s 80 not out off 75 balls provided the spine of the St Albans’ innings of 164. Bancroft’s stuttered to 56 for the loss of 8 wickets in their 25 overs in their run-chase.

In the first away fixture at QE Barnet, St Albans once again batted Patrick Scott (1st first and amassed a formidable total XI) in full flow of 219 in their 35 overs. Oliver Edmond and Alex Thomson shared 2 wickets apiece and Daniel Angel made amends with the ball as he captured 3 wickets, but once again it was Stewart who wrapped up the tail, his 3 wickets for 14 coming off 4 overs.

Going into the home match against Haberdashers’, the 2nd XI hoped to reverse the loss of last year’s fixture, but unfortunately, the

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The following week, the 2nd XI travelled to Berkhamsted. After deciding to bat first, the Seconds got off to a steady start. Thomas Carter and Edmond each gained 3 wickets to their name as the opposition was dismissed for 137 helping the side to record their 4th win of a margin greater than 70 runs, despite fielding with 10 men for the duration of the second innings.

Fortress Woollams was restored as Merchant Taylors’ came and were put to the sword. A brutal 27 off 18 balls from Ben Anthoney got us off to a flying start and Wick continued in a similar vein although regular wickets fell. Our final score of 180 for 9 off 30 overs seemed competitive, and inevitably proved to be just so as Merchant Taylors’ lurched to 169. The hero with the bat, William Stewart also starred with the ball, as the opposition tail was unable to read his slower ball, his 3 for 20 came off 4 overs.

With the Aylesbury fixture washed out, the 2nd XI travelled to Bedford for the final match of the season.

With many of the regular squad absent, due to Duke of Edinburgh winning streak was halted and For- expeditions, this meant we took tress Woollams crumbled against a to the field with a much-weakened very strong unit. After a flying start side. Bowling first, St Albans did from Haberdashers’, who chose to well to restrict their opponents bat first, St Albans needed to get off to 179 for 5 off their 30 overs. to a good start, but the top order Despite the air of inevitability were tied down by some very tight hanging over the result for some time, both played positively. With bowling and when they started the target reduced to less than 50 to force the run-rate, the wickets with 6 overs remaining, was an unstarted to tumble. Most batsmen reached double figures but did not likely upset on the cards? Unfortupass 20 and eventually were all out nately, it was not to be, despite an exciting end to the match. for 141 in the 32nd over.

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Lows and Highs U15 XI Cricket The U15s enjoyed a season of mixed fortunes, starting with a win against Haileybury, with William Thomson scoring an unbeaten 77.

Victory also came against Bancroft’s, thanks to Liam Babwah’s 4-21, Gus Laws-Mather’s 38 and Kyle Douglas’ quickfire 22* at the end.

the opposition took the victory by 2 wickets in the penultimate over.

A magnificent century by Charlie Scott and a half century from LawsMather set up a total of 196 in the County Cup game against Aldenham. Though Douglas’ first over went for 25, Bull took a hat-trick and the team romped to victory It was a different story against by 61 runs. It was a reverse against Queen Elizabeth’s Barnet, however, Merchant Taylors’ as their opener even though the team was only scored a century to which our chasing a target of 99 runs. The batsmen could not respond, leading spinners took six wickets, which to an 80 run defeat. required the batsmen to show This was bad enough, but perhaps steady application to grind out the the lowest point of the season win. Thomson and Benjamin Craig came in the County Cup against hit too hard and were out caught, Watford Grammar. We bowled though Louis Heap and Harry poorly after putting the opposition Wilcox took their singles well. in to bat, allowing a total of 147. In A foolish run out sealed our fate reply, Scott was bowled cheaply and and an unexpected loss. Babwah Laws-Mather and Thomson used took the first three wickets against up too many deliveries, setting back Haberdashers’ as they put on 147 the run rate. Even the Watford and in reply Thomson led the way players were surprised to dismiss with 44*. Unfortunately, too many us for 104. Slow scoring was also forcing but technically indifferent a problem against Dr Challoner’s; shots led to a decline to 102 all out.

122 from 30 overs was not enough The team faced Verulam after half to prevent a loss by 5 wickets. term in the County and District Similarly a lacklustre performance Cup combined. Charlie Scott reagainst Bedford resulted in a loss by joined the team from the 1st XI 8 wickets after setting only 120-8. and scored 59 with Heap 60*, conThough this was a disappointing tributing to a total of 171. In reply way to end the season, it was a Verulam made just 59-8, giving us different matter in the Berkhamthe win by 112 runs. The team did sted 6-a-side competition, where not fare as well against Berkhamstthe team was seeking to retain ed, batting first on a low wicket. Top the trophy. There was a blisterscore was Laws-Mather’s 23 and ing start against High Wycombe as Scott (64*) and Laws-Mather

Celebrating a catch (39*) put on 107 runs without loss at the wicket in five overs; in reply, Wycombe

could only manage 47-4. Merchant Taylors’ was a different proposition, setting 72-1. Though Scott scored 34, we fell short by 15 runs. In the play-offs we faced Haberdashers’ and restricted them to just 48 and though Scott was out first ball, we chased down the runs with ball to spare. The semi-final brought Merchant Taylors’ yet again, but Henry Callender took two wickets in the final over to put the brakes on their scoring. Laws-Mather hit the winning runs with a 6. And so to a final against Dr Challoner’s, where this time Thomson finished the innings with a 6 to take us to 83, but tight bowling, especially Scott’s 1-6, clinched the win and the trophy.

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Resounding District Cup Win U14 XI Cricket The U14 cricket season began with an away fixture against Haileybury. St Albans were put in to field, and with some tight bowling they managed to restrict Haileybury to only 106-8 from their 30 overs, Dillon Jagsi claiming 3 wickets for only 7 runs.

An unbeaten innings of 30 off 27 balls from Ben Yurkwich secured a successful run chase and got the season off to a winning start.

The District Cup campaign began against St George’s. In an unusually low scoring game, St Albans batted first and only managed to reach 92-7 off their 20 overs. Although it was a low score, St Albans managed to pull off a 9 run win, restricting St George’s to 83-8 with some gutsy bowling from Rahil Thapar.

to score 63-9 off 20 overs, with Ben Skinner taking 3 wickets and Lawrence Gallagher taking 2.

St Albans faced Aldenham in a nail-biting County Cup quarterfinal, where Aldenham managed to surpass St Albans’ score of 118 with just one ball to spare. The St Albans players were deeply disappointed to lose so narrowly, but decided to focus on winning the District Cup instead.

Much to the players’ relief, more District Cup success came when St Albans beat Verulam School in the semi-final. A faultless innings of 85 from Thapar helped St Albans post a winning score of 165-3.Verulam put up a fight, but in the end, St Albans pulled off a 60 run win as they progressed through to the Final.

In the next round, Queen Elizabeth’s posted a score of 166-4, and an impressive innings of 74 from The District Cup final was played Thapar couldn’t save St Albans from at Woollams on the 7th of July, and falling 20 runs short.

St Albans elected to bowl first. Sir The following weeks included more John Lawes got off to a racing start, tough fixtures against Haberdashand were 30 for no loss after only ers’ and Berkhamsted. Unfortu3 overs. However, both Brendan nately, St Albans struggled to find Warren and Thapar took 5 wickets success in these games, losing by 8 apiece, with help from Louis Childs, wickets to Haberdashers’ and by 34 taking 2 catches and 2 stumpings runs to Berkhamsted. behind the stumps. In the end,Yurkwich and William Davis reached the The next game was the quarter score of 56 in the 7th over without final of the District Cup, and St any trouble at all, seeing St Albans Albans were up against Beaumont. home with a 10 wicket victory and U13 player Eddie St Albans posted a respectable a great end to the season.

Beal in his delivery score of 134-4 from the 20 overs, stride with a stand out innings of 51* Brendan Warren from Yurkwich. The St Albans performance in the field was even better and Beaumont only managed

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Development Year U13 XI Cricket The U13 season was a season of improvement. The team showed promise but a tough fixture list meant that we were going to have to keep working hard to compete.

We did produce some results to be proud of, for example, the win against Bancroft’s School where the team showed great spirit to close out the game. Joss Lotzof scored 35 with the bat; an excellent contribution in a low scoring game, and Nick Swan took 3-20 from his 4 overs. We were also victorious A batsman prepares against a strong Merchant Taylors’ side with the batting performance of the season from Alex Barlow who scored 55 though eventually injured. We also owed a lot to our spinners George Little (3-23) and Lotzof (4-22). On reaching the final of the District cup we came up against a strong Verulam side.

Sharouz Farhardi bowled well taking 3 wickets for only 5 runs in just 2 overs, and a good batting performance by Captain Jamie Deane, who scored 33, got us close to the target, but unfortunately we fell short and came runners up. Player of the season, Will Shepherd bowled well throughout the season showing consistency of line and length with some strong in-swingers, and finished as top wicket taker with 18, including a best of 4-12. Madhav Krishnan finished as the top run scorer with 171 runs, with 39 not out his top total, and Deane was the top fielder with 7 catches. This Junior players season should be viewed as a buildcelebrate a wicket ing block as we progress to higher levels of cricket as we move up through the school.

Jamie Deane

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Haberdasher’s, Berkhamsted and Merchant Taylor’s. The only game the team would go on to lose on a Saturday would be the Bedford Prep fixture, where we fell short by 20 runs, despite an excellent innings of 46 by Hubbard. Unfortunately, as a result of losing players to the Pen Arthur trip, our County Cup campaign was brought to end when we lost to Haberdashers’.

The success of this year’s team was built around the excellent all round contributions of Freddie Hubbard, Toby Marlow, Thomas Platts and Daniel Eaves, who all performed U12 XI Cricket well with both bat and ball, and The U12 cricket season of 2015 showed a genuine love for the proved to be one of the most suc- game. This, together with the valucessful in recent years. The season able contributions of the rest of started with a tough encounter the squad, meant that we had exagainst Bancroft’s School which saw cellent balance as a team, covering us chasing down 151 in less than 25 all departments. However, without overs, with Steven Perrin making an doubt the best player of the season was Perrin, whose batting was impressive 83 not out. absolutely fantastic and won many games for us. His batting average of 100 which he maintained up to half term was unprecedented and I will be watching his development with great interest.

Love for the Game

This was an excellent team effort which would set the standard for the weeks that followed, as we produced excellent victories against traditional rivals QE Barnet,

I would like to congratulate all the boys who contributed to the U12 team this season; in particular, I would like to thank the unsung heroes who contributed with enthusiasm and selflessly committed to our Saturday fixtures, despite not getting to bat or bowl much.

Without them, such a successful season would not have been possible.

GSB

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A Truly Enjoyable Season 1st XI Football The season started with a bang in the County Cup with an emphatic 6-0 win over John Warner School.

Having the hockey players present as well as Arsenal and England star Tolaji Bola at our disposal meant we were at full strength and we did indeed look very strong. But Bola was not often available and hockey commitments took away the Captain, Robbie Tominey-Nevado, as well as both strikers and several of the midfield too – this meant that we took the field more often than not with several Lower VI players than was planned at the start of the season. However, this was not much of a hindrance…

In the next round we lost a very close game to eventual finalists in Mount Grace but certainly did ourselves proud. 2014 then ended in fine style with a 2-1 victory over Roundwood Park School. Mike Slater had never beaten this school in all his time as an Albanian so this was a very sweet victory – and we deserved it.

The start of 2015 saw a game against the Corinthian Casuals where, had the players had canoes it wouldn’t have looked out of place such was the standing water.

A great game was had, in Corinthian spirit, and a 2-2 draw was the outcome – some ‘backs to the wall’ defending was required, but we came out with a draw nonetheless. A loss followed at Oakham School where we came up against YouTube sensation Tyrese Johnson whose pace was quite outstanding – stand-in captain Jack Swan had his hands full that day!

We then played Berkhamsted School in the LB Cup and yet another loss ensued, 2-1, although a much better performance. We were still losing the tight games, which was frustrating for all involved, but the progress the players were making, especially Swan, Laurie Kelly, Tom Razzell and Tom Carter, was very promising.

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Tolaji Bola in action against Verulam, District Cup semifinal

And then we played Haberdashers’ Aske’s. It was a blustery day and not particularly conducive to good football, leading to an average Habs team coming away victors with a final score of 4-1. This hit the boys hard as we were beginning to look better in training and in those tight matches we were losing against decent opposition. A few more losses followed, then a draw in the County

League against Sir John Lawes with a fine performance. Then, the District Cup was about to start. We had saved our best performance until last. We had a narrow victory on penalties over Beaumont School and then a great game saw us victors over Nicholas Breakspear 3-2 with a truly memorable performance. We were then to play Verulam in the semi-final – with several players who were known to Slater through his scouting role for Norwich City. They were a good side. We eventually lost 2-1, but it was a terrific performance from the team; everyone could hold their heads up high.

The results may tell a story of a poor season but in my eyes it was a truly enjoyable season as my first

in charge and with so many of the Lower VI playing the vast majority of games it can only bode well for 2015/16, especially as many of those players are not Hockey players. The incoming captain, Swan, and midfield dynamo Carter were the stand out players but special mentions to Razzell, Joel Rabinowitz, Kelly and Joe Riant as they showed great promise and effort, as well as training hard all season. It was a pleasure to have Bola on the few occasions he was available – I have rarely seen a game of sport that has been so affected by one player.

MCI

Matthew Feast lines up a free kick (left)

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Goals Aplenty U14 XI Football The 2015 season was a rollercoaster ride for the U14, beginning positively with a resounding 5 -0 win over a 9-man St Edmund’s side. Tommy Caffrey’s hat-trick and Sam Frost’s dominance in central midfield set the attacking tone for the next few games. In the following two matches, a 3-2 win against Kings Langley, followed by a 9-2 hammering of Marlborough, allowed our forward trio of Tommy Caffery, Kwame Ofori and Louis Howard to link together and produce a sparkling attacking performance that became typical of St Albans’ play throughout the season.

Howard was particularly ruthless against Marlborough, scoring practically at will to end the game with a double hat trick. Defensively we were less secure, switching off at times and conceding cheap goals against the run of play.

In the next match, Haileybury exploited our defensive frailties, scoring 4 without reply in a lacklustre first half performance by St Albans. In a stirring second half comeback we pulled 4 goals back but then got a little too gung-ho and conceded a further 3, to end up on the wrong end of a 4-7 score line.

Freddie Scutt of the 1st XI weaves Still hurting from the heavy loss through Oakham’s in the previous match, St Albans responded positively with a 3-1 win defence

over Roundwood. Louis Howard and Ofori were again on the score sheet, but this was followed by their second defeat of the season, going down 2-4 against Dr Challoner’s.

A bye put us directly through to the second round in the District Cup, where we faced Nicholas Breakspear away. A-team hockey players Noah Arthur-Tinworth and James Cooper joined the regular Saturday players in our strongest line-up of the season so far.

Conceding early in the first half, Howard and Arthur-Tinworth pounced on defensive errors to provide a triple blow ten minutes ahead of the break. St Albans were confident of holding onto the advantage, but two unanswered goals in the second half saw the game go into extra time. With the deadlock unbroken at the end of the extended period, the result was decided by a penalty shootout.

After valiant efforts by all penalty takers and goalie Connor McGuigan (who got a hand to 4 out of 5 spot kicks) we were knocked out of the cup 3-5 on penalties after a 3-3 draw.

The following match against Sandringham saw a return to our winning ways, with the 4 -0 score reflecting one of our best performances of the season. Unfortunately

we came up against an organised Beaumont side a week later. The tika-taka football that we had used to unlock opposition defences with ease all season was unable to break down a very physical defensive unit. We were only 1-0 down at half-time, but Beaumont counterattacked and our own defence conceded 4 in the second half.

Going into the final match the team was determined to overturn Sir John Lawes. An early Caffrey goal was cancelled out just before the interval, but he struck again just after the break and added his third between efforts by Adam Barton and Howard. The 5-1 victory was a pleasing way to end the season.

A staggering 42 goals scored in 10 matches indicated what an attacking force this team posed, but the 26 conceded demonstrated the fragility of our defence against stronger sides. This was compounded by not being able to settle on a regular keeper, four being used during the season. Striker Louis Howard ended the season top goal scorer with 12, Caffrey close behind with 11 and Angelo Lazari topped the assists chart with 6.

Ofori played with dazzling footwork and balance throughout the season, and was awarded player of the season. Barton had an intense work rate around the centre of the park and was dogged in his pursuit of winning the ball back; this earned Adam the award of most improved player.

Overall, the season was punctuated by exhilarating highs and disappointing lows, but was a triumphant season nonetheless. The side can look forward with confidence and excitement to next season, for which the impending tour to Spain will no doubt become an experience of a lifetime.

CJE and DS

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Solid Squad Finds Its Stride 1st Team Netball The season started with a friendly pre-season netball session, where the Upper and new Lower Sixth girls were able to get a feel for each other’s playing styles. The squad took a while to settle down, with such a number of brilliant players to choose from. However it was eventually finalised with 9 solid players, consisting of a mixture of Lower and Upper Sixth girls.

Having not played together as a team before, the girls took a few matches to really get into their stride and decide which combinations of positions were the most effective. The initial match was a battle against St Helen’s School in the Invitational League, resulting in a 15-6 loss. Coming back fighting, the squad won an intense 19-17 IL match against Dame Alice Owen’s. Captain Philippa English,

originally from Dame Alice, made the competitive edge on our side even higher.

Alongside matches, the girls also played in several tournaments. They placed 3rd at the Stanborough School Tournament, having some noble box matches including a 17-0 win against Loreto. They also played in the Roundwood School Tournament, winning all their box 19-9 against Sandringham, and 35-3 matches. against Verulam.

Unfortunately, at this point during The girls had tough training sesthe season the team suffered a sions every week throughout the setback. Hannah Girdlestone, one term. With many of the girls having of our shooters and strongest other extra curricular commitplayers, was injured during an out ments, sporting, drama and music, of school match. Being a wellthe team gelled fabulously and did rounded team, the girls stepped up very well to remain consistent to the mark and produced some and come out with some very enwonderful shooting, mainly from couraging results, after only being Jemma Attar, an A team player from together for a few months. last year. The team went on to win VLS

The netball team poses for the last time, with outgoing captain Philippa English(centre)

Novices’ Debut Season 1st Team Lacrosse

The lacrosse season was kicked off by a successful pre-season Christmas tournament, hosted by Abbot’s Hill in November. While the girls only won one match, drawing and losing three each, the result promised much for the season, especially considering that this was the first time the girls had played together as a team. Unfortunately, the first match of season saw a 4-3 loss to St James in very poor weather. We started out strongly, but St James were able to score the winning goal during the last few minutes of the match. Despite this, the team remained positive and won an excellent match against Princess Helena College 10-1. Though the girls were playing on an unfamiliar surface, they played confidently. This encouraging result was followed by another deserved win against St Albans High School, a keen lacrosse school. Even though the score was level coming into the second half, our girls pulled together to take the lead and win 9-6.

The following week saw a triumphant performance during a tournament hosted by North London Collegiate. We were placed 4th, winning three matches against St James and St Helen’s, to whom we had lost at the start of the season, and Pipers Corner. There were some textbook goal set-ups behind goal by Jemma Attar and some victorious fast breaks made straight from the centre draw. The team played its first indoor match against Abbot’s Hill, which was lost by 2 goals. Abby MacGregor seemed to be in her natural element playing indoors, scoring some remarkable goals. This was followed by a great 11-9 win against Oakham. This was a particularly tense match, with the score fluctuating, but with some solid teamwork we pulled ahead to take the win.

Towards the end of the season we played Haileybury twice, and disappointingly lost both matches. Nonetheless, the team’s spirit wasn’t dampened and we ended the season with an 8-4 win against Abbot’s Hill, with the first goal being scored within the first minute of the match after winning the centre draw. This was a very pleasing season for the lacrosse team, gaining wins against schools who have been playing together for years.

VLS

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Lightowler’s Last Laps Senior Cross Country The cross-country season started as usual with the team assembling at Pen Arthur to take on the challenge of mountain trails and sand dunes for Cross Country training week. This challenging week which we have been attending each year for the past 15 years, really does set the team up for what always seems to be a challenging season ahead. Such is the reputation of running at St Albans School, much is always expected from our runners and they never fail to impress us.

The season started off with a visit to Wimbledon Common for the King’s Trophy, a race we were defending for the third time in succession – a very challenging course that can throw up the most surprising results. On this occasion our team was in fine form and ran well to retain the cup. Honours though really have to go to our Captain, Robbie Lightowler, who came first for the third year in a row, a feat only achieved once before since 1979. We now had to focus on our trip to Washington DC and the east coast championships. We had done well in this event before but never managed to win both the Senior and Junior Varsity at the same time. On the day of the race we were expecting a good result but were very aware of the high standard of running that the event attracted. The Varsity Race was first up, and over the 5km course it was very competitive, so no one could be sure about the result until near the end. Eventually, Lightowler took individual honours and with Adam Thorpe (5th), Ben Clarke (7th), Dan Myers (8th) and

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Alex Cook (12th) also performing strongly, we won the race comfortably. The pressure was now on the Junior Varsity team but they also excelled and with Tom Fulton coming 1st, Ben Hemsi 2nd, Oliver Edmond 3rd, Tom Halling 4th and Tom Alexander 9th we swept the board to record a most impressive win. After our most successful tour in Washington it was back to the cold trails of England, and we went to the Haskell Cup as holders.

This is a four-boy relay event where we have a very good track record. Again, the team were able to retain the cup they had won previously. This was followed by our own 6 boy relay at the Woollams playing fields where we were behind all the way until the last lap where Lightowler ran a true captain’s race to turn a full minute’s deficit into a seven second win allowing us to win back our cup. Meanwhile, our Intermediate team were again in the Final of the English Schools Cup. The New Year began with a visit to Sevenoaks and the Knole Run - the most challenging cross-country course a boy could face, over a distance of 6 miles, which winds through the Knole Park. With eight to score it was a big challenge and we finished in second place out of the 50 schools running and a field of 350 runners. The Goater cup at Haberdashers’ Aske’s was next - a race where one runner from each year runs in a team of 6 runners.

We were placed third in this event.

The next race was the King Henry VIIII relay. This was a 6 leg race

which is seen as the premier cross country race in the country, attracting 55 teams from all over the UK. As holders, and as the team with the best track record at this race we knew well what we were up against.

On the day our team ran well and were always in contention but were edged out into second place on the last legs of the race.

In February the team were running in Richmond Park at the Goater Cup, a mob race hosted by Tiffin school. The race was won by Lightowler and the team won the event to get back to winning ways.

The season’s big finale is always the South East Championships at Harrow school and we were ready for the challenge. This was, again, an event that attracts all the top cross country schools and is run over a very challenging course that includes hills, a golf course and a pig farm. This was the final race for our senior boys (Lightowler, Thorpe and Myers) and having given so much to the team over the years, it was a fitting way for them to finish and for the rest of us to say a big thank you to them. The race was again a good win for Robbie and with the others two in 10th and 12th places we were able to win a with a comfortable 40 points to spare.

A very difficult season, but overall, another very successful year for St Albans School Cross Country.

KJE

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Emerging Juniors Make Waves

District Victories

Swimming

Athletics

This year’s swimming calendar has seen the traditional highs and lows of many sporting endeavours.

Overall, the juniors have shown the most consistency with the majority of the team who swam last year as First Formers performing well in all galas. Individual mentions must go to Noah Barnard in the freestyle and Will Murphy in the backstroke who have always challenged for top honours, and the freestyle relay team of Scott Brice, Sam McDonald, Eddie Bourn and Barnard who again have constantly set the pace against all teams. Next year continues to look strong for the Juniors with the emergence of Year 7 swimmers coming to the fore in their own galas, especially Ciaran Cook, Sam McDonald and Benji Refson. This season the Juniors have finished fourth in the Herts League, improving on their points tally of the previous year.

Unfortunately the Intermediates have struggled against strong opposition, but have nevertheless shown personal development with PB’s constantly dropping through the season and good performances in both the medley and freestyle relays.

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For the Seniors it has been a frustrating year; having shown the potential to compete at a National Level, absence and injury depleted the team on a few occasions.

However, when fully fit the team has competed excellently with Captain Matt Sherriff dominating the individual freestyle event and Robbie Lightowler doing the same in the individual backstroke. Our usual control of the freestyle relay was challenged by a very strong Harrow team, with both teams pulling away from the rest of the field in the final gala of the year, but Harrow’s strength showed in the end.

Although it hasn’t been a vintage year, the continued emergence of strong Junior teams bode well for the future, and after having given 7 years of service to the swimming team Lightowler has bowed out on a high in his favoured event. Last of all Captain Sherriff has not only led from the front with his performances in the pool but taken time to coach the other teams and pass on his wisdom.

TNR

A very busy and highly successful athletics season saw District wins by the Seniors and U15s, a county league plate final win by the U14s and several top individual performances.

In the Senior District Championships, a full boys squad and a select girls squad competed at Westminster Lodge. Sarena Clarke won her 100m and 200m and there were wins for Bolaji Anifalage in the 100m, Adam Thorpe in the 400m, Tom Halling in the 1500m, George Grant in the Pole Vault and Omeiza Haruna in the Triple Jump. These efforts helped the team secure victory over St Columba’s and Verulam, meaning St Albans retained the Senior District Championships title.

A select team of Cameron Furley, Seb Adolph, Jeremiah Joshua Wallace and Alex Lines competed at the County Multi events championships in Stevenage, coming 3rd in the team competition. Furley came 5th out of 40 of the county’s best athletes to secure himself a place in the County reserve squad.

Mid-butterfly at A selection of the school’s best the swimming gala individual Junior and Intermedi(below) ate athletes competed at the

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County Championships at Jarman Park. The competition included the County’s best athletes, with winners qualifying for the English School Competitions. Notable personal performances included Scott Brice, who ran a personal best in the 1500m final and Ollie Larsson, who qualified for the final of the 200m and came 5th. Greg Hurley ran an excellent 300m time of 39 seconds, coming 4th, Arty McKee came 2nd in the U15 boys Discus Final and Ben Clarke came 2nd in the U17 1500m final, running a personal best. Tom Fulton ran the race of the day against a very strong field of runners, lying 4th in the final 250mof the 800 metres race. He chased down the 1st place runner’s 15 metre lead, passing the 3rd and 2nd place runners on the bend to win with an outstanding time of 1 minute 59 seconds.

He became the 2015 Herts County Champion and was selected for the English Schools Competition at Gateshead.

competing. Some great performThe Fourth Form relay team of Seb ances include district titles wins for: Larsson, Piers Dorward, Cameron George and Max Swan.

Second Form Alex Lines 300m The Fourth Form team was in 3rd place going into the final relay race Third Form of the day, and winning the relay Greg Hurley 300m changed the final standings to a St Arty Mckee Discus Albans victory by 1 point, taking Cameron Furley Hurdles the U15 District Champion Title.

The 3rd Form relay team of Seb Adolph, Ollie Larsson, Jake Maries RDD and Cameron Furley.

Fourth Form Max Swan 200m Tom Fulton 800m Gus Laws Mather Javelin

Charlotte Jackman at the starting line

A Second, Third and Fourth Form team competed at the all day annual District Athletics competition, with all 16 district schools

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Short but Sweet Season for Seniors Senior Tennis The Senior Tennis team has had a very successful season, starting with the first round of the National Schools Championship where the players enjoyed a very convincing win over Watford Grammar School.

Winning three out of their four singles matches, they easily secured victory when Charlie Broom and Tom Boon won the deciding doubles rubber 6-0, 6-0. In the second round against Barnet and Southgate College all four players in the team – Broom, Boon, James Wilkinson and Tim Richards – won their singles comfortably. The doubles wins were a formality in securing a place in the third round.

Unfortunately, in the third round the early success finally came to a halt against UCS. The UCS players were very experienced and although we fought hard, only Broom managed a win in the singles. He secured victory 10-6 in a championship tiebreak. The doubles were well matched but UCS again triumphed. This was not without a fight, however. Broom and Richards were only narrowly defeated 10-6 in a championship deciding set, while Wilkinson and Boon lost 6-2 6-4. In a friendly match against Merchant Taylors, St Albans won 11 out of 12 matches in both the singles and the doubles. It was a short season, but overall a very successful one for the tennis team.

James Wilkinson

The U15 tennis team was runnerup in the County Championships

Runners-Up

Mixed Fortunes

U15 Tennis

U13 Tennis

Everyone winning their singles in an opening friendly against Merchant Taylors’ was a promising start. The first pair won their doubles, but the second pair lost their doubles even though they were much stronger. After this the team played Berkhamsted and Hitchin. Both teams were beaten comfortably which took us to the semi final.

While we all played relatively well as a team, we needed greater consistency and patience.

The semi, St Edmunds was a big step up with everyone facing an opponent with a much higher rating. Bertie Arbuthnott and Chris Fletcher were swiftly beaten by their one and two in the singles, but Liam Babwah and Alex Scholefield managed to pull off great wins.

In the doubles Liam and Alex lost as their opponents made a strong pairing. Then Bertie and Chris managed to get a largely unexpected win in a tiebreak. The scores were equal after the matches, leading to a deciding tiebreak. Liam and Bertie held their nerve and won 10-7, putting us through to the final.

The UCS match was very difficult for all of us due to the conditions, but some of their players were simply better than us. However, in some cases our players played well and managed to win the matches.

We were up against it in the final county match against Berkhamsted, as we were missing a player. I struggled against a far better player and we came away with no wins from this fixture.

The final tennis meet of the season was the Haberdashers’ tournament, when we all got to play a good few matches. The opposition was good and the matches were tough, and we enjoyed mixed fortunes.

Matt Hoole

The final again was tough with everyone again faced a higher ranked opponent. This time it did not go so well as everyone was quickly beaten with only Liam looking as if he could get a win. In the doubles everyone had lost heart, leading to a 6-0 loss.

Bertie Arbuthnott

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Team Sports Results ST

ALBANS

2014-15

SCHOOL

Rugby Team

Cricket Played

Won

Draw

Lost

Team

Played

Won

Drawn

Lost

1st XV

16

11

0

5

1st XI

10

4

1

5

2nd XV

14

7

0

7

2nd XI

8

6

0

2

3rd XV

8

5

0

3

3rd XI

6

4

0

2

4th XV

1

1

0

0

4th XI

1

1

0

0

U16 XV

10

7

0

3

U15 XI

7

2

0

5

U16 B XV

11

7

0

4

U15 B XI

9

7

0

2

U15 XV

15

6

0

9

U15 C XI

6

6

0

0

U15 B XV

10

3

0

7

U14 XI

8

1

0

7

U15 C XV

7

4

0

3

U14 B XI

8

3

0

5

U14 XV

14

11

0

3

U14 C XI

5

4

0

1

U14 B XV

9

9

0

0

U13 XI

7

2

0

5

U14 C XV

6

2

0

4

U13 B XI

7

1

0

6

U14 D XV

5

4

0

1

U12 XI

8

6

0

2

U13 XV

5

3

1

1

U12 B XI

4

2

0

2

U13 B XV

8

7

0

1

Totals:

94

49

1

44

U12 XV

7

2

0

5

U12 B XV

6

3

0

3

152

92

1

59

Totals: Hockey Team

Played

Won

Draw

Lost

Team

Played

Won

Draw

Lost

1st XI

15

6

4

5

1st VII

9

6

1

2

2nd XI

11

6

3

2

2nd VII

5

2

0

3

3rd XI

7

3

1

3

Totals

14

8

1

5

U16 XI

9

4

0

5

Football

U16 B XI

5

0

1

4

1st XI

15

4

2

9

U15 XI

14

9

1

4

2nd XI

6

3

1

2

U15 B XI

8

5

0

3

U16 XI

9

3

3

3

U14 XI

11

3

1

7

U15 XI

9

5

1

3

U14 B XI

8

3

2

3

U14 XI

10

6

0

4

U13 XI

7

3

0

4

U13 XI

8

1

3

4

U13 B XI

7

2

1

4

Totals:

57

22

10

25

U12 XI

3

3

0

0

U12 B XI

3

1

0

2

108

48

14

46

Totals:

104

Netball

Sport

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