No. 139 The Trusty Servant
Poet Laureate- update Contemporaries of Will Stone( F, 12-17) may remember his shortlived moment of laureate glory in 2016-17, awarded for his ode on Sen. Alas, the wreath of gleaming Perspex bay leaves, promised by David Yeomans( CoRo, 04-22; HoDo G, 07-19) never materialised. Even without this incentive, however, for a full year Tilly Stanley( F, 23-), also a Chawkerite, who is the current Poet Laureate, has been enhancing the school’ s cathedral services with apposite and sometimes powerful verse. Her successor, just announced, will be Arun Sharma( Coll, 21-).
And it wouldn’ t be Wiccamica without a mention of Edward Thomson( Coll, 20), who has now won his second King’ s Medal of the year, this time the Gold Medal for English Prose, for a subtle and ingenious piece on the subject‘ Palimpsest’.
Chapel The attentive reader must have concluded that the departure of both the Chaplain and the Dean of Chapel between July and December of last year left the school woefully deprived of spiritual nourishment- but not so. Enter the Revd. James McKinnel, HoDo of Hopper’ s, reviving the tradition of the ordained housedon, which had lain in abeyance since the departure of Revd. JSD Mansel( CoRo, 39-65; HoDo E, 55-62). He has taken up this cross with alacrity and a characteristic humility, charm and sincerity, ably assisted by the literary and liturgical aid of Shanti Mosher( CoRo, 24-). JSDM ended up as Domestic Chaplain to the Queen, so watch this space!
Ed: JRM is to be Chaplain to the incoming High Sheriff of Hampshire.
Salve To fill the gaps left by James McKinnel’ s elevation, we are delighted to welcome Serenhedd James, who joined Co: Ro in Common Time as an English, Div, and RS don; he will take over the EPQ in Short Half. Away from Flint Court he juggles teaching History at Oxford with working on his next book and editing The Catholic Herald – a usefully informative person to have around at a time of papal upheaval.
Sport
Mark Burley( CoRo, 20-) Director of Sport, gives us some of the highlights of the last six months:
The badminton team continued this term where they had finished last term- in fine form. The team won 6 out of 7 matches and retained the prestigious Charterhouse Invitational. Rackets also continues to flourish: we sent our first girl to Queens, Erica Wettern( A, 24-), and the Senior Colts pairing of Amar Fernando and Oscar O’ Carroll( both I, 22-) lost only two matches all season, and reached the semi-finals at the National Schools’ Doubles tournament. In fives the senior pair, Anthony Cloke Browne( B, 20-) and Jeffrey Chan( C, 20-) won the plate competition in the Adult National Winchester Fives championship, the first Wykehamists to win anything at an Adult tournament whilst still schoolboys.
The keen OW tolling community will be pleased to hear that even though the cross country team is currently quite small, it has performed superbly this term, winning the Bryanston and Clayesmore relays. Golf is also on something of a high: the team beat Rugby and Eton on their way to the school’ s first Micklem Trophy final in 37 years, narrowly losing to Wellington. Captain Ray Sanmathy( E, 20-) has been outstanding, reinforcing the terrific achievement of earning a golf scholarship to Farleigh Dickinson University in the US.
Soccer XI reached the last 16 in the ISFA U18 Cup, losing to eventual semifinalists Aldenham in the final minute of extra time. It was a young squad: at least half the group will be back to play again in next year’ s Cup. The U15s reached the last 8 of the ISFA Trophy.
The girls’ team played 6 matches in their season and despite the small numbers involved they bring great enthusiasm to their matches. The football club has 22 teams in total, so remains the biggest participation sport in the school( see the proposed 6th XI Silver Jubilee celebrations in November) and it is a mark of our progress at 1st XI level that we are now ranked within the top 20 ISFA schools
Stop press: Cricket
In the first week of term Lords bowled Harrow out for 86, and went on to win by 8 wickets. It is suspected that Dan Escott( Coll, 10-15) and Fred Sugarman-Warner( Coll, 03-08), both now beaks at Harrow, enjoyed mixed emotions...
Music
Sarah Baldock( CoRo, 22-) Director of Music writes:
Winchester is described as‘ a singing school’ and the news of five choral scholarships at Oxford and Cambridge in an increasingly competitive academic arena bears this out, especially as two pupils joined in VI Book, the result of hard work from the pupils, inspiring teaching, the rich programme on offer, but also the peer support and encouragement which is found here.
Alex Winnifrith( I, 20-) who has been awarded a choral scholarship at King’ s College Cambridge, also won the senior solo singing competition adjudicated by Roger Vignoles, and Henri Bertheau( F, 21-) won the concerto competition with the Grieg Piano concerto. Last year’ s winner, cellist Austin Lam’ s( G, 21-) outstanding performance of Tchaikovsky’ s Rococo Variations & Nocturne with the chamber orchestra was a highlight of the concert programme. It was all the more remarkable because only the week before he had performed the blindingly difficult Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 at Southampton University, whose reviewer wrote:‘ This substantial first
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