Abingdonian 2017

90 The Abingdonian The 2016-17 academic year brought with it a comprehensive set of changes to the house: a new name, a new houseroom, a new housemaster and 22 new students. In many ways there was less for the new boys to get their head around than there was for the Upper Sixth, for whom I was their third housemaster in five years, apart from the confusion of one nameless third year who queried why he had been placed in a boarding house. A spelling lesson needed, methinks! The year started off at a frantic pace, immediately jumping in to third year teambuilding. There were some excellent problem-solving skills on display and some passable attempts at teamwork, but the highlight for me was the young Mr Henriksen waving a mallet about and declaring it to be “Thor’s hammer”. A sign of groan-inducing jokes to come… Our first major competition was House Singing. The aim was simple, scientifically measured, and resoundingly achieved: to be the loudest house. Unfortunately this aim didn’t quite line up with that of the judge who deemed our rousing rendition of Bon Jovi’s Living on a prayer to have been enthusiastic but perhaps lacking in musicality. Still, a solid joint fourth (along with five other houses…) seems decent enough and my thanks must go to Edmund Breen and Chanka Pathinayake for taking the reins here. Still, as Christmas approached we moved towards somewhat more comfortable ground, and the first inter- house sports competition. This was an afternoon full to bursting with success stories, not least the last minute super- sub Vijay Parandaman managing to swim several lengths of the pool without drowning! In terms of podium places there were solid bronzes for the U16 pool and U15 table tennis, and splendid silvers for the U14 rugby team, U16 squash players and U18 table tennis trio. Leading the way, though, with a dominant performance in the pool, were the U14 swimmers, who obliterated their competition in the relays to take top spot. Not to be outdone, another last minute volunteer, William Bywater from the third year, agreed to have a crack at the U15 pool competition and won it outright. Overall, we scored more points than any other house during the afternoon. A good start to sporting life for Border’s! After the Christmas break the boys returned hungry for more success, and there was indeed more to be found. The debaters had a great go, with both the third year pairing of Jake Ginks and Luca Frauenfeld and the fourth year team of Edward Jones and Liam Deegan making it to their respective finals but narrowly missing out. The Lent Term also saw the annual Road Relay and some excellent performances. Highlights were the fifth year A team of Jamie Lawson, William Ginks, Christopher Monnery and Cameron Woodrow sneaking into the top ten and Calum Steer’s terrific individual performance to come in as the fastest Lower Sixth and second fastest runner on the day. Sadly, our efforts to take the overall win in the team competition were scuppered when one of our runners was unable to compete, but the team of Calum, Nick Webster, Mathéo Charrier-Chardin and James Smith ran bravely to secure second place amongst the student teams. They will have their eyes set higher in their final year! Most pleasing, however, was the huge number of teams we fielded, with five each from the third and fourth year, and another eight from the upper years. Can we field a full 20 teams next year, forcing me to fulfil my promise of running it myself if we do so? The Road Relay served as an excellent warm up for the end of term inter-house sports competitions. There were some excellent performance here, not least from the hockey players in trying to explain to me how their sport works. Border’s