Old Abingdonians

Saturday 10 September 2011

Abingdon School

Twenty years on, the 'class of' 1991 returned to Abingdon to see how much the School and their former class mates had changed.

A group of 38 OAs plus partners gathered for a tour of the site followed by a drinks reception and formal dinner.  The party numbered over 50 and also included several members of staff, past and present: Bill and Angela Potter, Munna Mitra, Ian and Jenny Fishpool, Nick Revill and Andrew Broadbent.  During their tour of the Sports Centre the group were also delighted to encounter Jeff Drummond-Hay.  We were also pleased to welcome, unusually for an OA reunion, an ex-head boy of Pangbourne College.  Alex Tate, who joined Abingdon as Housemaster of Crescent and teacher of History in September 2011, was a direct contemporary of these 1991 leavers and remembers many names and faces from encounters both on and off the sports field.  (A full guest list is available to download.)

A wonderful sense of cameraderie pervaded the atmosphere of the whole event.  Every stage of the evening was characterised by lively chatter and fond remembrances. Ian Fishpool, who led the tour, confessed it had been a struggle to keep the party moving around the site, since each momentary pause gave rise to another round of reminiscences.

Our thanks go to Pete Mildenhall (1991) for initiating and co-ordinating the function (all the way from Australia where he and his family are now living).  We owe a big thank you also to Ian Fishpool for leading the tour and for his kind words after dinner.  The show was, however, undoubtedly stolen by the booming voice and sparkling wit of the Reverend Munna Mitra, who really did bring the house down with his very touching but incredibly humorous stroll down memory lane.

We hope that you enjoy viewing the photographs from this event.  We are very grateful to Zong Hao Tan (upper sixth), who came along as photographer for the night.  Full-sized version of these pictures are available from the OA Office.

This has been by far the most successful year group reunion the OA Club has seen for some time and we would very much like the formula replicated for future year groups.  All we need now is a volunteer to marshall the troops from 1992...