We may be heading towards the end of the academic year but we are certainly not slowing to a halt.  The boys are as busy as ever with trips and events galore.  Last Friday we were blessed with a rare day of sunshine which set the scene perfectly for our annual swimming gala.  Jamie Benson reports:

‘On Friday 24th of June, both First and Second Years walked to Hampton open air pool at 9.00. It is safe to say that this relaxed morning in the sunshine supporting and cheering classmates is definitely close to everyone’s highlight of the year.  Although it was unfortunate that two of the six Second Year classes (2L and 2P) were unable to attend the gala, due to an RS trip, the event still went smoothly and was very enjoyable for all involved.

There were individual events and relays, both equally exciting and with lots of support around the pool, all boys taking part gave it their best. I am very pleased to say that 2B, my form, were victorious in the gala, so a particular well done to all of the swimmers from 2B, but it goes without saying that all boys who took part at any point during the morning deserve applaud for their sporting but still competitive spirit.’    Jamie Benson – 2B

Later that day some of Second Year’s budding rock stars took to the stage for an evening of musical entertainment.  Many thanks to Josh Bartholomew who has prepared this review:

‘Following on from the ever-present January concert, ‘Rockin’ the Garrick’ proved to be a huge success, despite an interesting photo-shop of David Garrick holding a guitar for the front of the programme provided by Dr. Ward.  ‘TBC’ (Theo Bailey and Ted Buckle, both from 2L) performed brilliantly, despite the rather dark sounding song title of ‘Little Black Submarines.’  Next, Alfie Hannan (2H) gave the Script a run for their money, despite being a ‘Man Who Can’t Be Moved.’ After Alfie, ‘Scroll Break’ performed ‘If I had a Gun’ by Noel Gallagher, which was the first performance of the night for the ubiquitous Cloud Brothers. Then, Tobias Droy (2H) Dj’ed’ ‘Passed Her’, composed by himself!  Josh Bartholomew (2L) then ably performed yet another Ed Sheeran piece, ‘Photograph’, before being joined on stage by virtuosic guitarist Luke Greenall (2P) playing ‘Naïve’ by The Kooks. Next, Luke and Josh could stay on stage, as they were joined by Intermediate Rock Band, who played Nirvana’s ‘Come as You Are’, and ‘Teddy Picker’ by the Arctic Monkeys, perhaps a band who might be more suitably covered at the winter Rock Concert?’  Josh Bartholomew – 2L

On Tuesday a number of boys competed in the Richmond Schools Gold Competition, held at Fulwell Golf Club.  It was an excellent day out by all accounts.  Angus and Hojae share their thoughts:

‘When I first heard about the Richmond Schools golf competition I was very excited as it was my first time to represent the school in golf. I told Mr. Sims that I could do it straight away to make sure that I had a good chance of being selected. It was my first tournament since May and I was ready to start playing competitively again. When it finally got to the day of the tournament, I was extremely eager to get going.

When we arrived at the Golf club, I was amazed at the beauty of the golf course. It was my first time there and I was getting even more excited to get my round started. In this tournament there were two competitions, the 9-hole red tees competition and the 18-hole yellow tees competition. I was in the 18-hole competition. Luckily, we arrived early, meaning that we had lots of time to practise before we all started. After a long wait, the time finally came to tee off. The course was incredible, the best that I had ever played on. It had perfect fairways, lighting quick greens and some very challenging holes. The competition was based on a scoring system named Stableford. This scoring method allocates a certain amount of points to the nett score in relation to par. The winning team would be the one with the highest combined score.

After a long and rather tough round, I finished with 22 points, meaning that I had the most points in my threesome, consisting of myself and two players from two other schools. Once everyone had finished, we all gathered in the bar for some food and the results. The results were split up into junior (Y7-8), Senior (Y9-Y11) and overall the Hampton Junior team, consisting of Robbie Cox (2L), Joshua Van’t Hoff (2P), Angus Webber (Me) and Charlie Sutton (2L), triumphed over the other schools with a very respectable combined score of 125 beating the runners up Greycourt School by a solid 10 points. The Seniors also triumphed over the other schools coming in first place for their group. This meant that we also won the Overall Prize for coming in first in both categories.’  Angus Webber – 2B

‘When I first heard of the golf competition, I wondered if I should enter it. I sometimes play golf with my dad, but will I be good enough for it? It was my first golf competition, and I did not have much knowledge of the course. In the end, I decided to go, as it was a chance for me to experience new things, and besides, I could not think of anything better than a day off school to enjoy golf with my friends. When I first arrived at the Fulwell golf course, I was excited quite a lot as I could see the magnificent golf course at a bright, sunny weather. I was also no longer worried, however was there to have fun with wide-range skilled golfers there at the competition. The golf course was high-quality, with the excellent fairways and the challenging holes. The first nine holes, which I experienced, were superb. It was for anyone to enjoy, regular players or even new people who seek to enter the realm of golfing. It was truly a swell time to spend, and I think I will be participating again next year.’   Hojae Lim – 2B

Finally we enjoy this detailed report by Oscar Murphy about last week’s Lower School production of Treasure Island:

‘Our Second and Third Year Hampton play started with the scene in Jim Hawkins’ pub, acted by Will Greenall (3B), where Jim is able to find a treasure map. Jim, Squire (Faisal Jumaily – 3B) and the doctor (Miles Patience – 3H) all set off to Bristol to hire a crew for the journey to the treasure. Squire was able to make a crew with the luck of bumping into Long John Silver (Taran Chawla – 3F) who was treasure hungry and had secretly put his crew ‘The Walrus’ on board the ship.

As the journey on the ship went on Silver knew to get the treasure, he had to get more crew members on his side. He had to be very persuasive; unfortunately this led to the death of Job Anderson (George Smith – 3E). To Silver’s misfortune Jim was in the room of this palaver at the time and heard it all. Squire, Doctor, Jim and The Captain (Sam Hussey – 2J) all had to come up with a plan to get rid of the traitors and Silver. Their plan was to send them to the island and abandon them there to die. Everything was set and the plan was working when Jim said something he should not have, this was that he knew Silver had been on the island before, this had not been told to anyone but Silver’s shipmates and Silver demanded that the Walrus crew should take over the ship.

Moving into act two we first met the scrawny Ben Gunn (Tomas Dwyer – 3B) who was abandoned on the island. Scene 2 showed us that the ‘good guys’ had been captured by the Walrus crew. Once they had escaped because their guards Kiligrew (Oscar Murphy – 2J) and Black Dog (Makarious Naguib – 3C) had passed out due to a lot of ‘grog’, Silver came in and found them passed out. This incident led to Kiligrew’s death.

Soon Jim was to meet Ben Gunn and form a plan to kill silver with Jim’s friends.

During the planning unfortunately the crew lost Red Ruth and the captain, however the final fight saw Silver conquered at last and him drowning.

A huge ‘thank you’ goes to all of the tech staff for the props, lighting and the sound and Mr Duda and all three sixth form directors, Joe Jenkins, Tom Ackery and Oscar Cloud for directing the play.’  Oscar Murphy – 2J

There may only be a few days at School remaining but we have a lot to look forward to.  Boys, please listen out for instructions about your Second Year photographs which are scheduled to take place on Tuesday.  This is a chance to capture your forms before you head into the Third Year when your form groups will change and when you will be joined by a new group of Hamptonians.

We round off this blog with the eagerly-awaited results of 2015-16’s Second Year Inter-form Cup.  Well done to all involved in this hard-fought series of events.  The final results are:

Joint 4th place: 2H, 2L, 2P – 9 points

3rd place: 2W – 11 points

2nd place: 2J – 12 points

1st place: 2B – 13 points

Congratulations to 2B who are this year’s overall winners!

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