PERSONALIA
Sam Chidley( 00-09) was awarded his hundredth cap for Birkenhead Park RUFC where he plays at scrum-half. The club was promoted to National League Three earlier this year in a‘ winner-takes-all’ clash with Penrith.
Emma Clark( 94-05) completed the London Marathon in April 2017, running to raise funds for Tenovus Cancer Care, a Wales-based cancer charity. She finished the race in 5 hours 2 minutes and raised over a £ 1000 for the charity.
Alexandra Dariescu( 01-02) returned to school in October 2016 to perform Mozart’ s Piano Concerto in D Minor accompanied by an orchestra of students and local musicians. She has also released a new CD; the second volume of complete preludes by Shostakovich and Szymanowski as part of her trilogy project. Her CD: Tchaikovsky’ s Nutcracker Suite with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra received rave reviews and was shortlisted for Disc of Year on Radio România Muzical. She made her debut with the Romanian Radio Orchestra and Cristian Macelaru at Sala Radio in March. Also on debut, she played the live soundtrack of Brief Encounter with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Dirk Brossé at the Southbank Centre in February. As well as a concert tour to Japan, she has performed and given interviews in the UK for BBC Radio Three. For more news and dates of her future concerts, please visit the website: www. alexandradariscu. com.
Ben Dawes( 01-10) is now married( see marriage announcement earlier in the magazine). He met his wife, Lotti, at church in Bath while both were studying at the university. They now live in Cologne in Germany where Ben works for Dyson.
Jilly Dickinson( 05-09) graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2012 with a first class honours BSc in Animal Behaviour. She is now working as an RSPCA Inspector.
Sophie Duncan( 05-12) completed her PGCE and started her first teaching job at a primary school in Skipton, North Yorkshire in September.
Kyle Edmund( 02-06), the South African-born British tennis player and a Davis Cup champion, continues his quest to move up the rankings. He is already a top 50 player and the British number 2 behind Andy Murray. Kyle got through to the second round at this year’ s Wimbledon making his Centre Court debut against 15th seed Gael Monfils. Despite a promising start by Kyle, the match ended in defeat against an ultimately more experienced opponent. Kyle was pleased that he got to play his own game and learnt a lot from the match. He also enjoyed the experience of playing on one of the biggest courts in the world.
Tom Fuller( 08-15) competed in the 125-mile Devizes to Westminster( DW) canoe race in April 2017. The gruelling race took Tom and his team mate 25 hours, 24 minutes and one second exactly of non-stop paddling through the night! The pair finished an impressive 64th out of 200 boats after only six months of training. The race, which starts in Devizes, Wiltshire, and finishes opposite the Houses of Parliament in London, has been held annually over the Easter Weekend since 1948. It is a severe test of skill, physical and mental stamina and planning which produces a memorable sense of achievement for those successfully completing it. Tom is a secondyear Systems Engineering student at Loughborough University. He is also a cadet in the University Officers’ Training Corp( UOTC), which is how he got involved in the DW race. Following his experience, Tom hopes to go on to select and train next year’ s DW team and support them through the challenge.
Rebekah Hesmondhalgh( 12-14) is studying Theatre and Performance Studies at Warwick University. In February 2017, she directed her first professional show, Stephen Sondheim’ s musical Follies, at the Warwick Arts Centre. She has been able to do this and a variety of other theatre projects whilst at university and although she has her sights set on a career in teaching, she would love to return to directing at some point in the future. She credits the setting up of the Musical Theatre Society during her time at Pocklington School for igniting her passion for theatre directing.
Emma Huddlestone( 07-16) has done a Cert TEFL course and has been teaching and travelling in Thailand. She started a university course in hospitality management at Stenden University in The Netherlands in September 2017.
George Hobson( 03-14) continues to perform as a magician at corporate and private events all across the UK. In summer 2016 he was flown to Le Mans in France for a second consecutive year to perform at a prestigious 24-hour Aston Martin Racing event attended by a number of VIPs and celebrities. In 2017 he plans to perform magic on board cruise ships. For more information, see his website www. georgehobson. co. uk.
James Hopwood( 95-04) is the agricultural director of Ibbotson Produce potato growers near
Tadcaster and an agri-business consultant to East- Riding based Wholecrop Marketing.
Amy Jones( 03-08) qualified as a solicitor in September 2015 and has been working as a property lawyer at a global corporate law firm, Pinsent Masons LLP, in Birmingham since. She got married in Polzeath, Cornwall in June 2017 to her partner Josh who works in Sports Marketing.
Adelle Kama( 09-16) took a gap year after completing her A-levels at Pocklington. She volunteered with sustainable development charity Raleigh International and took part in an environmental project in Borneo. The project in Sabah was to build a bridge to improve access around the Danum Valley Conservation Area.
Tom Kay( 97-07) has been offered the role of Stanhope in Journeys End for Mesh Theatre Company who are taking the play to Belgium( Ypres) in October 2017, marking the centenary of the battle that was fought there. It is to be performed in the old gunpowder store.
Amy Laverack( 01-08) is general manager at the family butchers and bakery business A. Laverack and Son of Holme on Spalding Moor, which has been trading for over 150 years. The firm known in the area for its sausage rolls, has been expanding over the last year to meet demand for its products. As well as two retail outlets, the company also has a thriving wholesale business. It employs over 35 local people and sources meat from local farms, butchering everything on site and priding themselves on the quality and provenance of their meat.
Juliet May( 05-12) is going from strength to strength in her chosen sport of Ironman( 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike followed by a 26.2 mile marathon). She participated in the Barcelona Ironman in October 2016 and won her age group( F18-24). She finished in a personal best time of 11 hours and 2 minutes, beating her nearest rival by 20 minutes and qualifying for the World Championships at Kona, Hawaii in October 2017. So far her training for Kona is going really well and she is aiming for a place in the top three at the event( based on her current PB, she would have finished fifth at last year’ s Championships!). As a second year medical student, Juliet is also working hard to raise funds and sponsorship to enable her to take part in the Championships which are entirely self-funded. Team GB does not cover the Ironman distance currently, although she did take part in the British Triathlon December 2016 Campaign‘ Join British Triathlon’, including a promotional video featured on their website. If anyone would like to discuss sponsorship
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