The Abingdonian 2019

86 The Abingdonian Heads of House for the year were Alasdair Czaplewski and Louis Brosnan; Deputy Heads were John Dickson and Oscar Frost; and House Prefects were Jamie Chick, Daniel Bacon, Didier Delgorge and Oliver Williams. Talented and energetic, they were a most friendly and helpful group, and they set a great tone for the house. The House Singing Competition was the first arena of inter-house combat. Led by Didier Delgorge and accompanied by Ashwin Tennant, we sang The Heart Never Lies by McFly, with hearty sincerity. We were widely held to be the best singers, but fate eluded us this time. The Michaelmas round of the house sports was soon upon us, and the house did outstandingly well. In the U18 table tennis, always a Franklin’s strength, Huba Varady triumphed in the singles, and Kiran Gathani and Alister Jamieson played brilliantly in the doubles to win us first place overall. In rugby the U15s had a fantastic tournament. Tom Robson, Dominic Wood, Samuel Turner, Rufus Cox, Lachlan Borthwick, Alex McPherson and Luke Prior played with skill and energy from the start, and they deservedly ended up as champions. Our U14 swimming team, Christopher Skelton, Johnny James, Benjamin MacLennan, Jonathan Pannett-Smith and Trystan Moore put in a brilliant performance to win the competition. They won almost every race, and Christopher set a new school record. The overall result in the swimming was that Franklin’s came second overall, our best performance ever in the pool. Next came the Road Relay, a competition in which we have historically done extremely well. Our fourth year team of Luis Vasconcelos, Johnnie Willis-Bund, Jay Patel, and Sebastian McAllan were brilliant and came second in their year. Our third years, Johnny James, Benjamin MacLennan, Christopher Skelton and Jonathan Pannett-Smith were also superb, and also came second in the year, with Johnny James running an astonishing 8.23, a school record for his age group. Our Lower Sixth team, Oliver Elly, Kiran Gathani, Lancelot Wilson and Tom Phillip, went one better; they put in a fantastic run and won their competition with a superb time. Then came the Lent Term house sports. We put in strong performances in football, the best being in the U14 competition; Jonathan Pannett-Smith, William Blaylock, Samuel Turner, Lachlan Borthwick, Zac Connell and Alex MacPherson played really well to come second. Max Hems and Conrad Smith achieved a fine second place in table tennis doubles. In the U16 water polo, Lawrence Putt, Euan Baldwin, Zach Rhodes, James Robinson and Johnny James battled superbly to come third. The ergo competition went particularly well. Trystan Moore, Josef O’Connor, Rufus Cox and Luke Prior came fourth in the U14s, Harry Watkins, Johnny Stavropoulos, Sam Hayes-Newington and Matei Duta came third in the U15s, and Matthew Hoult, Daniel Woodrow, Lachlan Jones and Samuel King clinched second in U18, despite being very much younger than the opposition. Franklin’s achieved a tremendous second place overall. Last but not least, in the shooting competition, James Magé, Alex Oldham, Benjamin MacLennan and Jenson McKay all contended superbly and won the competition outright. The Summer Term sports competition proved very exciting for us. Eddie Good, Theo Hinnells, Alex McPherson, Oliver Pritchard, Krishen Rao and Hugo Stone came third in the cricket. In the tennis, Cosmo Gooch, Dominic Wood, Luis Vasconcelos, Samuel Turner and Ben Masterson came second overall. In basketball Freddie Coode, Lucas Marsh and Lachlan Borthwick also won second place. In rowing, Sam Hayes-Newington, Harry Watkins, Trystan Moore and Luke Prior came second overall and in squash, Edward Scott Payne and Jake Morris played superbly and were the overall winners. In summary, totting up the results from all the house sports competitions over the year, Franklin’s came fourth overall; and our third years, talented bunch that they are, came first. There were amazing individual successes in all areas, and the following are selected highlights: Edward Scott Payne is now the top fencer in the country in his age group. Benjamin MacLennan is on his tail, having been crowned U14 southern regional champion. Nicholas Skelton is a national swimming champion, and Christopher Skelton is also a brilliant prospect. Johnny James is one of the Franklin’s House