Abingdonian 2017

92 The Abingdonian Heads of House this year were Rory Esom and George Strainge, who were both fantastically positive leaders. They were ably supported in the house by House Prefects Tom Buckle, Sean Dunnett, Sam Farrar, Abinayan Gunarajah, Darius Oraee and Luke Wilson. Rory, George and Sam were also selected as School Prefects in recognition of their whole-school contribution. All of these guys were friendly and helpful in the house as well as impressive in their work and Other Half contributions, and they created a really good atmosphere all year. As ever, the first important event of the year was the House Singing Competition. Darius Oraee led us in a memorable version of Never Forget , with Didier Delgorge accompanying on piano. We received very favourable comments from the judge, and we were happy to Take That… In the first inter-house sports competition, we had some really impressive successes, coming first in the U18 table tennis (Tom Buckle, George Tanner, Sean Dunnett) and U15 table tennis (Huba Varady, Kiran Gathani, Rohan Gathani), second in the U14 swimming (Nicholas Skelton, Matthew Hoult, Alex Oldham, Euan Baldwin, Max Hems, Lawrence Putt) and the chess (Ray Ren, Alister Jamieson, Sebastian Watkins) and third in the U18 Rugby (George Strainge, Luke Wilson, Matthew Johnson, Bertie Thomas, Angus Williams, George Newton, Edward Cope) and U15 badminton (Matty Ball, Rahul Ghandinesen, Iain Storrie). Then came the annual Road Relay, in which we had some excellent runs. The following boys stood out: Giles Oldershaw (9.16; 24th individual in school), Nicholas Skelton (9.17; 25th), Tom Philip (9.25; 32nd), Marcus Williams (9.30; 40th), Oscar Frost (9.33; 46th), Oliver Elly (9.35; 48th), and Edward Cope (9.37; 52nd). Our fifth year team (Oscar Frost, Marcus Williams, Alasdair Czaplewski, and Louis Brosnan) were the ninth fastest team overall, the fourth years (Tom Phillip, Oliver Elly, James Magé, and Kiran Gathani) were 17th and the Upper Sixth (Giles Oldershaw, Alexander Dalgliesh, Tom Buckle, Darius Oraee) 19th. Our house hero of the event was Jonah Marsh, who ran despite having concussion! In the next inter-house sports competition, we scored more notable successes, with George Simonson, Samuel Fenton, James Magé and Alex Oldham coming first in shooting, Lachlan Jones, Daniel Woodrow, James Robinson and Matthew Hoult first in the U14 ergo, and Marcus Williams, William Quirke and Didier Delgorge second in the U15 table tennis. House event hero was Giles Oldershaw, who played hockey for us despite suffering a severe facial injury in school hockey training just days before. Summer brought more great competition. We have superb strength in tennis, and our team of Huba Varady, Jimmy Strainge, Kiran Gathani, Rohan Gathani and Conrad Smith competed brilliantly to win third place overall. Lance Wilson also stepped up to achieve third place in the squash. Our cricketers – Oliver Elly, Rahul Ghandinesen, Edward Gill, George Patrikios and Toby Chambers - beat the final winners, Crescent, so that was certainly a moral victory! Franklin’s