The Abingdonian 2019

95 www.abingdon.org.uk House Reports Watson put in a particularly memorable performance in goal. We also won the fencing! The Lent Term also brought the house quiz and house debating. Sadly victory was elusive, but there were some excellent performances. The fifth form team of Aidan Coster, Patrick Hannon and Kit Matthews made the final of the debating and the sixth form team of Henry Pickess and Louis Yue did well to win their first round match. A highlight was seeing the incredible preparation of Robin Collins and Naoki Parker in the fourth year competition. Victories abounded in the Summer Term inter-house sports. Jai Biswas Gladwin won the Middle School squash trophy while Matthew Buhler and Alex d’Arcy won the croquet. There were other notable performances from Robin Hambidge and Nicholas Owen in the golf and Alexander Bryant who competed in the squash with no knowledge whatsoever of squash. Green Army spirit was in abundance on sports day and we fielded an almost complete team (no minor feat). The third years did us proud, coming second overall. Adam Rashid won the 100m B event, Robin Hambidge won the 800m B event, Henry Channon won the 400m A event, in the second fastest time of anyone in the school, and Thomas Harding won the long jump B event. The fourth year came fifth overall with Ben Dray winning our only victory in the discus. The sixth form should be praised for their wonderful team spirit. As the day dawned we had half a team, when it came to the crunch they all pulled together. Special mention to the guys who competed in events whose rules they barely understood. David Grozin, Louis Bevan, Gabriel Tribe, we salute you. Henry Insley brought us our only victory — in the 1500 metres. Sadly this wasn’t enough to lift us above eighth place overall. However, last year we came last, so we’re on the up! Academically this has been a splendid year. The house managed to amass a total of 765 commendations over the year (100 more than last year) and Mr Taylor’s third year tutor group got the most with 213. Ross Tselos (for the 2nd year running) and Edward Saunders won the top commendation award at the end of the year with 31 commendations each. The Middle School won a large number of academic prizes at the Middle School awards evening – namely, Edward Saunders, Ross Tselos, Geordie Anderson, Ediz Hunter, and Naoki Parker. Oliver Simpson won the award for the most Head’s Praises with 5 (for his amazing contributions to school music) and was closely followed by Henry Channon and Will d’Arcy. My special thanks to Henry Muller (Head of House), Mohsen Ansari and Noah Walker (Deputy Heads of House) and all of the tutors. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my first year in charge, and that’s largely due to the spirit of the boys and the tutors. It’s people that make places and these guys are the best. Bring on next year! Richard Pygott