Abingdonian 2020

70 The Abingdonian The year started with the boys in very high spirits following some excellent public exam results for both our fifth year and Upper Sixth leavers. We were soon into the swing of things with the first house competition, House Singing. Under the stern direction of Justin Chan, we went about the challenge of the Queen classic, Crazy Little Thing Called Love with requests to be ‘funky’, ‘jazzy’ and ‘sassy’ at various stages throughout the performance. Whether we achieved this is another matter (!), but it was another strong fourth placed performance and I thank all the boys for their efforts, with special mentions to our director Justin and Bentley Cook for his fabulous skills on the piano. Inter-house sport took centre stage to finish the second half of the Michaelmas Term and once again, there were some excellent individual and group performances; Henry Lu coming third in the U18 singles badminton, and Michael Lam and Garfield Zhang achieving the same result in the doubles. Cameron Khoo took first place in the U18 singles table tennis and our U18 touch rugby side achieved a well-deserved third place in a very competitive competition. U16 squash proved a successful event for the house with Max Sheppard and Joseph Betts achieving second and first positions respectively, whilst the newer ‘bike challenge’ event proved less successful for the house! In a year that started with such high expectations and fizzled out with uncertainty and a sense of unfinished business for many, it would be remiss of me not to mention the contributions of our outgoing Upper Sixth boys. Our two Heads of House, Joshua Li and Charlie Betts were never anything but outstanding role models and I am thankful for their dedication to the house and their care for others over the years they have been in the house. It House Reports Austin House