the wellington college year book 2010/2011
also currently county players in a range of
sports. Cameron Farmer notably won the
Duke of York’s scholarship for golf, despite
being pipped to the college championship in
a play-off.
Continuing with the physical aptitude, Field
Gun has become a popular pursuit with Joe
Martin, Tom Smithdale, Ed Dyer and SeanPaul Mackenzie all going to Earl’s Court to be
part of the Royal Military Tournament. Tom
eventually was awarded the Edleston Sword
of Honour for Naval Service after a successful
career in the ccf.
In the summer term, the inaugural Benson
father/son cricket match was held, with the
boys running out victors and Theo Byrd hitting
Mr Hicks into Crowthorne station?! Although
not a fundraising event, this was one of several
occasions planned to raise awareness of the
new Benson Bursary scheme which has been
introduced this year, designed eventually to
allow future pupils the chance to experience
the unique atmosphere and opportunities the
current boys are afforded.
We have welcomed two new tutors into
house this year—Mr Townley and Miss Ifode,
who also sadly leaves us after just one year.
We also say farewell to Mr Fairclough who
was always good for a slice of pizza on a
Friday night! Mr Owen has continued to
run his ‘Food for Thought’ evenings along
with the Lower Sixth. This year we have
welcomed Dr Seldon talking about twentyfirst century politics, Mr Henderson on
‘Driven or Obsessed’, Mr Hicks on humanism
and Old Bensonian Laurence Oliphant on his
own journey from the house to Christianity.
The academic effort grades are an area
which needs to be improved next year, but
we do congratulate all those who won prizes
on Speech Day, as well as Ed Grigg who
debated for the College and won the top
Sixth Form scholarship.
Overall, it has been a typically busy
year with many individual and collective
successes. The house spirit and sense of
mutual respect amongst the boys remains
the fundamental bedrock for the strength of
the Benson. We wish the very best of luck
to all those who are leaving, particularly to
university, and who have set the benchmark
for years to come.
the beresford
This has been a full and
successful year for the Beresford
in a number of facets of College
life. Academically, the boys made positive
movements up the House effort grade tables,
whilst still leaving themselves further room
for improvement next year. The Upper Sixth
led from the front as Tom Roberts, Ollie
Ralph and Kieran Ball successfully received
Oxbridge offers and Nick Hopcroft gained
an unconditional offer from Harvard. Many
other offers from top British universities
have been secured by the rest of the Upper
Sixth demonstrating the academic strength
of this current set of leavers. The Fourth
Form continued to be our best performing
Angus Boobbyer [Pn]
with Nick Hopcroft [Bd]:
winners of the Public Schools
Rackets Doubles
year group in terms of effort relative to other
Houses and additionally, our House Quiz team
(Tom Roberts, Jack McAlister, Sam MillikenSmith, and Zach Topley) lost in the semi-final
of the Inter-dormitory quiz? our strongest
—?
effort for a number of years.
The Beresford continues to remain one of
the strongest sporting Houses, a reputation
that the boys are particularly keen to maintain
and build upon. Our Senior House rugby team
won the sko in emphatic style on Bigside 1,
always the highlight of the sporting calendar
year, whilst our jko team fell at the last hurdle.
However, despite