Paella, Quizzing and Cricket

Welcome to the Second Year Bulletin!

The end of the first full week means it’s time for the first bulletin of the Summer Term. After such a lengthy break there is plenty to catch up on so we’ve got a bumper edition. Enjoy!

MERITS

2H dominate the merits this week! Also, there has been a fair bit of merit “squirrelling” going on…

Felix D (2J) – 10, 20, 30

Joseph E (2B) – 20

Finlay F (2H) – 30

Thomas P (2H) – 30

Monty F (2H) – 30

Ben R (2H) – 30

Charles B (2H) – 30, 40, 50

Ayoub K (2W) – 50

Patrick H (2H) – 50

Aaron H (2H) – 60

Aran TM (2W) – 60

Sam S (2H) – 60

Naavya S (2H) – 60, 70

Rory P (2H) – 90

James A (2H) – 100 (Wow!)

Ben MJ (2W) – 100 (Amazing!)

Oscar T (2H) – 120 (Tremendous!)

Well done all!

TRIPS

Some Second Years began their Easter holidays spainfully early in the morning on the last day of term. Let’s hear all about it from Aaron M (2L):

Twenty nine Second Year pupils and five members of staff met at Heathrow airport at the crack of dawn to catch their early flight to Valencia. With the whole day ahead of us, a few sleepy heads were evident during the trouble free journey. On arrival at our hotel, we dropped our bags off and went for a walk around the old town, visiting the Central Market. Our first task was to buy ourselves lunch while practising our Spanish. After a short break at the hotel we had our first of many three course meals, followed by an evening of bowling.

On day two there was a long but pleasant walk ahead of us to the Valencia Science Museum which had amazing activities for us to try out. We then split into two groups, one group visited the Oceanographic Centre and the other had their entertaining and delicious paella workshop. Personally the paella was great fun and one of the best meals I have made. On the way back to our hotel we had a chance to do some shopping. After a long day which involved a lot of walking, the group’s appetite was ready for the evening meal. We then had a welcome rest before lights out.

After a substantial breakfast we travelled on the tram to Valencia beach, where there was a very competitive beach football match. It’s quite impressive that such a large city has a great beach just a tram ride away from the city centre. Then the groups reversed the previous day’s afternoon activities. The Oceanographic Centre, situated in the middle of the dried out river, was full of interesting marine life. This building and others near it, show how much modern Valencia has developed in recent years. We then had a short and dramatic hail storm, which accompanied us on our way back to the hotel.

We had an early rise on day four as we had a long coach journey to PortAventura theme park. The group spent all day trying out many of the rides, from fast roller coasters to gentle water rides. Fun was had by all.

Next morning, after our breakfast, we packed and got ready for our return to the UK.

We had a thoroughly enjoyable and memorable time in Valencia. A huge thanks to all the staff, particular appreciation to Mr Blachford for leading and organising such a fun and interesting trip.

¡Estupendo!

SPORT

The summer sports season is upon us! The fixtures come thick and fast this term, please do let me know how they go. Or perhaps you are trying something new such as rowing or climbing – we’d love to hear how you’re getting on. To get the ball rolling, let’s hear about the Surrey Festival of Tennis, followed by the U13B & C cricket fixtures:

• Last Wednesday, Rohan C (2B) and I went to St George’s School in Weybridge to play in the Surrey Festival of Tennis. Last year we faced tough opponents and didn’t quite make it through to the knockout rounds of the competition. But after a year of playing together since then, we felt stronger going into this tournament. We sailed through the first game of the group stage winning 4 – 0 and then again in the second match in a far closer game against Lingfield School, winning 4 – 2. But, unfortunately, we lost our next match to St George’s School, who were set to win the tournament, 4 – 0. Knowing we had to win this next match we really focused and won 4 – 1 comfortably. Unfortunately, we lost marginally in the quarter-finals to Claremont School, but we had a great day to start our tennis season and to get ready for the hard matches ahead. Tom W (2B)
• An overcast Saturday morning saw the first cricket fixture of the year for the U13Bs. The opposition was Fulham Boys School A Team, who were beaten last year by our A’s. This would clearly be a step up for us. Captained by Harry M (2L), Hampton went out to field first on the slightly damp pitch. Two early wickets from James G (2L) and another one from Toby N, quickly sent Fulham’s top order back into the pavilion. Ayoub K (2W) and Faizan F (2P) (also made bowling contributions and Edward K-B (2L) held a great catch. Dan C (2B) had a fine performance at wicket keeper, keeping the byes to a minimum. After 20 overs, Fulham left the field with a score of 102-9- this could’ve been less if it wasn’t for the extras! We opened the batting with William G (2J) and Theo M-J (2L). A solid opening performance saw the former caught at slip for 10 runs after 5 overs. Aaron M (2L) then came in to bat. After 10 overs we were struggling to score runs and with a score of 40-1, we were well behind the required run rate. The pair kept batting on gradually increasing our total. The 14th over saw a huge change in events as 20 runs were scored in just six balls. We reached the total after 17 overs with Theo M-J (2L) ending on 31 not out and Aaron M (2L) on 20 not out. Overall, it was an impressive display from the whole team including Conrad K (2W) and Ben R (2H) who made some brilliant fielding contributions. Harry M (2L)
• On Saturday the U13C cricket team played The Fulham Boys School at home. We started off fielding, with Ben M-J (2W) bowling out two boys in his first over and in his second over, bowled out three more boys, so a great start. We ended up getting out every single one of their batsman, and on the 19th over Francesco O (2B) bowled out the final batsman on his first ball. With Fulham Boys only on 57 runs, our spirits were high despite the extremely bad weather. After 5 overs we met their 57 runs with Ben M-J (2W) retiring after 26 runs. For the start of our season, this was an amazing result! Max M (2P)

 Thanks to Tom, Harry and Max and please keep the reports of all sports coming in.

MUN

Ms Field was delighted with the contributions Second Year pupils made at the Model United Nations Conference last weekend. It’s fantastic that so many Second Years have got involved. Fancy giving it a try? Here’s not one but two reports to give you a flavour of what’s involved:

• On the 27 April several pupils from the First and Second Year and I took part in a beginners conference for MUN. The day began with opening remarks from the Head of MUN at the school and was then followed by some slightly complicated lectures on the general format of a conference and a debate on a resolution to an issue. However this was made clearer when each country split into three committees which were GA1, GA3 and the Environment. GA1 discussed Human Trafficking, GA3 discussed Nuclear Proliferation in the DRPK and the Environment Committee discussed Marine Conservation. Hampton were separated into three countries which were China (which I was a part of), Belgium and Poland. When all the committees regrouped, we debated on a resolution of which the Environmental Committee of all three of the countries represented by Hampton proposed. The next hour involved all the countries making amendments or strikes for the resolution on Marine Conservation and the resolution passed. Overall, the trip was an interesting starter conference for MUN and has made me keen to join the weekly club at Hampton. Adam J (2P)

• On 27 April, Vishal S (2W), Ishaan D (2B), Hal L (2B), Adam J (2P) and Henry A (2B) with a group of First Year pupils travelled to Reigate Grammar School for a Junior MUN Conference day, with lots of other schools attending as well. The idea of the day was to introduce boys to MUN and a chance to try out their own debates. The boys were representing Poland and China. In the morning there were two workshops on how MUN works and how to debate in the right way. Afterwards, we were assigned to different rooms where we practised and prepared MUN debates about the Environment, Human Trafficking and Cyber Warfare. The boys learnt lots about how MUN works, including policy notes, resolutions, clauses and how to speak in the right manner. We then ate lunch and soon returned to our assigned rooms again, where we did some more debates. Finally, everybody returned to the large hall for a final large debate talking about the issue of plastic in our oceans. The day was enjoyed thoroughly by everyone and the boys found the new experience very interesting. Many thanks goes to Miss Field and Mr Agulian for taking us to the event. Anybody who is interested in taking part in future MUN conferences should talk to Miss Field or go to MUN club on Tuesday lunchtimes in the Pavilion Room in the History department. Vishal S (2W)

QUIZ REPORT

The Junior Quiz team have been exceptionally strong for the last two years. In 2018, we were denied a place in the National Finals by RGS Guildford. This year’s competition saw us again contest the Regional Final against the same opponents. Piers M (2P) tells us whether we managed to enact revenge:

This Monday, the quiz team faced their second game of the season. It was the regional final match against RGS Guildford, an infamously hard team to beat. The game started at 4:30 and we already knew it would be a very close match. After 15 minutes, RGS Guildford pulled in front by about 200 points, but Hampton knew to catch up. We managed to close the gap to about 50 points but to no avail. In the last minute it was a frantic race to win but RGS got a starter question and we knew it was all over. The final score was 540-490, thus ending the season for Hampton and advancing RGS to the inter-regional round.

Well done to Will C (2L), Tomas E (2L), and Piers on an excellent effort and fear not, the Hampton quiz season is far from over as next week sees the beginning of the Second Year Inter Form Quiz Championship. Each form will need a team of four. Fancy being involved? Here are some questions from Piers to whet your appetite:

Example questions:

How did William Herschel advance Science?

Beirut is the capital of which middle-eastern country?

Which inventor made a brightly coloured cube which is infamously difficult to solve?

Next week’s fixtures:

Tuesday in Room 26 in the Classics Department

1.00 2J v 2B

1.25 2H v 2P

JOKE OF THE WEEK

Aadi T (2W) wins for this. He correctly deduced that a joke involving Spanish would go down well with his Spanish teacher:

Have a great bank holiday weekend!