Final Assembly Spring Term 2023

SPORT

Hockey

This term, we have played 108 fixtures in a busy period for the hockey club, scoring 248 goals along the way! The 1st XI has had a fantastic season, one that will go down as one of the best in recent times. They have only lost one block fixture all year, and this was the first one of the season against the Perse. They have now progressed to the Olympic Stadium to fight for a national title. Honourable mentions to the Upper Sixth boys who leave having had lots of successes these past two years and leave with a very good record in the senior teams.

The hockey club is in a strong position, and there are several exciting year groups coming through the school. Mr Mee would like to thank all boys for their ongoing commitment and support and say what a privilege it has been to be Director of Hockey for the past seven years. He wishes all boys well next season and looks forward to watching games from the sidelines. And we, for our part, wish Mr Mee well and thank him for his enormous contribution to Bedford School hockey in the years he has been with us.

Hockey Honours Caps were awarded to:

• Max Pearson
• Charlie Blythman
• Joshua Stewart
• Thomas Hayward
• Eldon Craven
• Tom Godber

Major Sports Colours for Hockey were awarded to:

• Gabriel O’Neill
• Freddie McPhail
• Caleb Sanders
• Sam Bayley
• Thomas Bates
• Freddie Drake-Lee
• Josh Addo

Minor Sports Colours were awarded to:

• Zach Cumming
• Ed Briers
• Oliver Needham
• Harry Payne
• Charlie Faulkner

Rowing

The club started January and February with wins at Bedford, Star and Peterborough Heads that involved most age groups.

The highlight of the term has been the Schools’ Head, where the boys performed beyond the wildest expectations of their coaches, and took wins in 1st Eights by 4 seconds, J16 1st Eights by 15 seconds and J15 1st Eights by 2 seconds to complete a triple for the first time in the school’s history. Well done to all the boys who participated in this race that is a test of stamina and mental aptitude.

The school sent two Fourth Form crews (we entered four but were only permitted two) to the national scullery event held at Dorney on what was a far better day than last year. The A crew were steaming along well and, based on their first half time, would have finished about 10/40 if they had not snapped a blade on the last stroke of the 1st leg, which relegated them to 20th place. The B crew managed to keep all equipment intact, and so fared better, placing 5th of the B crews racing over the 2 x 1900m legs.

Eighty boys have signed up to join the yearly training camp over the Easter break, hosted by Radley College, which should create competition for places going forward in all boats.

Hopefully, most of these boys will be continuing in the summer term, where the weather should be better, and the focus turns to the National Schools Regatta and side-by-side racing in May.

Major Sports Colours for Rowing were awarded to:

• Harry Tongue
• Barnaby Williams
• Scott Gildersleve
• Jasper Walter
• Rupert Apps
• Dylan Mitchell
• Harry Tolmie
• Archie Black
• Ben Edwards

Minor Sports Colours for Rowing awarded to:

• Oliver Pope
• Wilfred Barker
• Cyrus Goddard
• Luke Pollen-Brooks
• William Cave
• William Baker
• Matthias Pascall
• Hari Mistry
• Nathanael Lord
• Daniel Hutchins
• Henry McCutcheon
• Olly Pritchett
• Will Tweedie

Football

 Cup fixtures, futsal tournaments, the Mercian league and an array of block fixtures have brought plenty of excitement to the football pitches this year. With an average of 4.5 goals per game, it was one for the enthusiasts more so than the purists! Special mentions must go to Tom Norton, Tai Tsang Goodwin and Jerry Williams for their contributions to not only the 1st XI but the football club as a whole, on and off the field. There were strong performances throughout the age groups, the U15 and U16A teams racking up some impressive victories against strong opponents, whilst the U15Cs can lay claim to an ‘Invincibles’ title, albeit in a rather condensed and limited season!

Minor Colours awarded to:

• Pharell Peters
• Isaac Talbot
• Luca Moretto
• Kush Katechia

Badminton 

The badminton first team pairs won all of their five fixtures in the spring term, with notable contributions from Gideon Chan, Alex Lamb, Timothy Wai, Jacob Yau and Yash Stachowiak. The second team pairs have been involved in many closely-fought matches and have represented the school admirably, always giving their best, even when close matches went against them.

Minor Sports Colours awarded to:

• Gideon Chan
• Kevin Subeegaran
• James Holliday
• Koushik Daggu

Basketball

The basketball team have had an excellent season winning every match, including all their league matches, so far. The best performances came against the strong opposition of Bedford Academy (a basketball college) and in a tightly fought battle against a capable and experienced Cedar’s Upper School team. It was also good to host the new Oundle basketball team in a friendly match where the visitors certainly showed some future potential.

Colours awarded to:

• Sutong He
• Jamie Wallwork
• Ian Ho
• Troy Arora
• Isaac Cheung

Cross-Country 

There were some excellent performances from our runners at both the District and County Cross-Country Championships. Special mentions go to those boys who represented Bedfordshire at National Schools. They were Danny Chapman, who came 182nd out of 327 in the Intermediate Boys’ Race; Jake Reynolds and Tom Deardon, who came 299th and 302nd, respectively, out of 314 in the Senior Boys’ Race. 

Minor Sports Colours awarded to:

• Tom Deardon
• Jake Reynolds
• Danny Chapman

(Rugby) Fives

This term saw Bedford host the East Midlands Regional Tournament, with students from Oundle, Stamford, Derby Moor, Rugby and Bedford Modern all in attendance. Sachin Kambli and Fraser Morgan secured an outstanding finalist position in the U18 doubles and in the U18 singles as well, for Sachin, narrowly losing to Rugby School. The First IV also had fixtures against Berkhamsted, the OBs and Rugby School this term. Within the school, the Mellor Cup was won by Sam McMurran and Junior House Fives by Crescent. 

Golf

A seemingly quiet first half-term for golf, with no fixtures, but a lot of important hard work happening on the practice ground, in the simulator and in the gym. As previously reported, the team had a hugely successful trip to Hollinwell for the 54-hole HMC Strokeplay competition; Fin Rennie tied for 1st place and earned a World Amateur Golf Ranking and, as a result, the team came in 2nd place and all boys took some successes away from the event. This has qualified us for the HMC Strokeplay Tour Championship at the JCB Golf & Country Club in late April.

More recently, we have held our club championships – two rounds played on the Marquess and Duchess courses at Woburn, with the top three players to qualify to represent us in the ISGA Finals at Slaley Hall (also in late April). Fin Rennie, Freddie Tucker and Jack Peters secured their place, with an honourable mention to Ed Wade, who was just one shot back from Jack, having also narrowly missed out last year. In fact, Fin and Freddie tied at +4 for 36 holes, and a play-off was needed to separate them. The play-off brought more drama and, indeed, the best out of both players; Freddie hit the pin from his chip shot on the 1st, and the ball somehow stayed out. Fin then replied with an excellent chip of his own to move on to the 2nd. It was not until the 4th green that we reached a resolution – having holed an 8ft putt on the 3rd to continue, Fin then hit his tee shot to 6ft on the par 3 15th. Not deterred, Freddie hit an excellent reply to 14ft. Unfortunately for him, his putt remained in the jaws of the hole, and Fin made his birdie to take the title.

Rugby Sevens

Most age groups committed to the programme, and this was reflected in significant success at certain levels. The U15 were outstanding in winning at the Perse floodlit event and provided the highlight of the term, in winning the cup at the John Pieroni (Wimbledon College) tournament, beating very strong Dulwich, Warwick and Epsom outfits on the way. This is the first occasion that a Bedford team has won this tournament. The U16 team had an excellent campaign. They were finalists at Ipswich, semi-finalists at Oakham and quarter-finalists at Barnet, as well as reaching day two at Rosslyn Park. The U18s were semi-finalists at Oakham.

At Rosslyn Park, the U14s won their group on day one and progressed to the plate, eventually losing in extra time to Epsom in the semi-finals. The U16s won their day one group and elimination round against Berkhamsted to qualify for the second day. In a very tight group, the boys subsequently drew 1, won 1 and lost 1, to just miss out on progression. The U18s started well, winning their first two matches, but faded a little, bowing out in the group stage. 

Well done to all the boys involved, and huge thanks to the staff for giving up their time to take the boys to the various tournaments.

Shooting

This term has been one of the busiest we have ever seen, with an almost constant stream of competition cards to shoot. The depth and experience of the team means we have now ascended to the First Division of the BSSRA Leagues and competition across the five rounds was very tight, with the team pipped to 4th position from 3rd by a single point.

A number of boys competed in the individual, BSSRA Senior Championship. James Lumley-Wood, James Hine and Harry Norris made the cut for the second round in 5th, 6th and 24th place respectively, and we are still waiting for the final results for this.

Alex Hayward, James Lumley-Wood and Harry Norris continue to shoot as part of the Bedfordshire County Team and Hine, Lumley-Wood and Norris were also selected to represent England in the Schools Team against Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Channel Islands. Once again, we await the results of these.

In March, we hosted a shoulder-to-shoulder match against Cambridge University, who had every right to feel confident as they fielded a very strong team, including this year’s Queen’s Prize Bisley champion, Alice Good.

Our team of James Barney, James Hine, James Lumley-Wood, James Sumner, Harry Norris and Alex Hayward shot very well, to the increasing discomfort of the opposition as the match progressed, and it came down to the very last shot to decide the winner. Sadly, we were pipped at the post, with Cambridge winning by just two points, with a score of 1161 to our 1159.

The match against the OBs in March was once again a very busy afternoon, with 11 OBs and nine boys shooting. The course of fire for this competition was changed at the request of the OBs to a 10-bull and snap, as they really did not like the 10 shot rapid shot in previous years. Once again, the experience of the now battle-hardened school team came to the fore, and the school prevailed for the fourth year running, winning by a convincing 76 points. Top shot for the school was awarded to Harry Norris, and for the OBs, Marc Smith.

Squash

The squash team have continued with their strong season. The club has been excellently captained by Louis Day in his final season with us, leading the 1st V to 11 wins from 13 matches. This is certainly one of the strongest score sheets we have seen for many years with the promise of a similar strength team playing next season. The 2nd V have worked equally hard, winning seven of their 11 matches, well captained by Abhinav Iarala.  Player development through the entire club has been excellent with all players advancing their games considerably. The season culminated in a very close fixture against a strong OB side.

Minor Sports Colours are awarded to: 

• Vova Sumbaev

Swimming and Water Polo

This term is totally dedicated to the National Water Polo Championships.

For the first time, the school had a team, the U15s, advancing to the semi-final stage of the main competition. Travelling to Trinity School in Croydon, they faced the hosts, Dulwich College, Emmanuel School and Ibstock Place. The top two schools qualified for the finals. Unfortunately, we came third, finishing the tournament with two wins and two losses. Trinity and Dulwich progressed becoming champions and runners-up respectively in the finals.

The Senior team, packed with the U15 players, played in the Bowl competition. Hosting the semi-final round, we beat both Bradford Grammar School and Warwick School 8-1 and 7-0 respectively.

In the finals, we beat Bradford Grammar School again (4-0) and Churcher’s College (8-4) to set up a decider with Millfield School. In a very exciting game, we led 2-0 and 3-2 but were 4-3 down with four minutes of the game remaining. Umpteen chances went begging before we finally manged to get an equaliser with 40 seconds remaining and then held out. The team finished a worthy second, due to Millfield having a better goal difference in the tournament.

CCF

This term has been a busy one for the CCF, starting with the recruitment of over 100 Fourth Form cadets in January and their continuing training progressing through the term. January also saw us compete in the annual Intelligence Corps Cadet competition, where our team of eight cadets won overall against those from other contingents and detachments across the country, performing tasks based on open-source intelligence, human intelligence, map interpretation, command tasks, survival and shooting.

The RAF took five cadets flying in February and the Navy conducted their afloat training in March, sailing to Cowes and taking part in an air/sea rescue exercise, as well as training in the Phoenix Damage Repair Unit in Portsmouth, where the cadets learnt how to save a sinking ship.

The Corps took delivery of a Field Gun in March and look forward to incorporating it into the training next term.

This term also saw some changes in CCF staffing, with Lt Bassaly taking command of the Navy Section and Flt Lt Tansell joining the RAF Section.

CREATIVE ARTS

Music

We have had a very busy term (as usual!) in the Music Department, with musical highlights ranging from Instrumental Music Prize Competitions and performances at the Bedfordshire Festival to a wonderful Chamber Concert last week featuring a number of small ensembles performing some very refined chamber music. There were a good number of successes at the Bedfordshire Festival, including 24 winners, 20 second places and 22 third places across the Prep and Upper School. Six boys, including Fraser Morgan and Max Leung, were invited to perform at the final Gala Concert at the end of the festival. Boys who were placed in the school instrumental and singing prizes this term gained credit for their Houses. In the senior competitions, Bromham House came out top, and in the junior competitions it was Crescent House. Crescent was the overall winner for the second year running! It has also been good to see the Creative Arts Faculty getting together to present material at the Detweiler Competition, which had a strong field in all disciplines this year. The Music winner was Angus Timmins. Contemporary music was given the limelight at the annual Rock Night earlier on in the term – there were an excellent number of performances from the boys, ably joined by girls from Bedford Girls’ School for many of the acts. The Chapel Choir has continued to provide music for all the Chapel services this term – including accompaniment by a small string orchestra at the service last week – it is wonderful to see the choir growing in numbers and confidence under the assured direction of Mr Roberts. Three of our Visiting Fellows have spent time working with boys in masterclass and seminar sessions this term, which has been an excellent opportunity for the boys to develop their musical skills. Weekly lunchtime concerts have continued to take place, giving opportunities for every boy to perform at least once per term.

Art

The big Art event of this term was the annual Detweiler Prize Giving. The theme this year was ‘Order/Disorder’, and we were delighted to welcome as our judge OB Peter Webb (1954-59). Peter is an art historian who has published a number of books including publications on Hans Bellmer, David Hockney and Leonor Fini. As such, the boys’ work was judged by an extremely well-informed eye. The first prize 2D was awarded to Freddie McPhail (Upper Sixth) for his striking and technically accomplished self-portrait while the first prize 3D was awarded to Ted Ferris (Upper Sixth) for his ambitious and imposing sculpture of some fish. Highly commendeds were also awarded to Jake Biffa (Fifth Form), Tom Godber (Upper Sixth), Alex Hayward (Upper Sixth), Oliver Phillips (Fifth Form) and Merlin Toms (Upper Sixth).

For the Gilbert Lloyd Lecture this term, we welcomed Peter Schade, who has been the Head of the Framing Department at the National Gallery in London since 2005. He is responsible for the frames of more than 2,000 paintings, which make up the UK’s major collection of European art, and he has to-date changed over 350 frames of the permanent collection. Born in East Germany, Peter moved to London in 1990, when he first worked with picture frames. For this fascinating talk, Peter showed examples of how frames manipulate our encounters with paintings and explained the National Gallery’s approach to framing Old Masters.

In the national competition ARTiculation for speaking about Art, Christian Tyrrell and Merlin Toms (Upper Sixth) represented the school at the Eastern regional heat at Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury. Both did excellent presentations on their chosen artworks but Merlin’s talk on Gericault’s ‘Raft of the Medusa’ was chosen by the adjudicator Mark Bills, Director of Ganisborough’s House, to go on to the final on Tuesday 8 March at the National Gallery in London.

To coincide with the impressive exhibition of his photographs in the Bell Room, former member of staff Aidan Huxford gave an insightful talk to the Art Society explaining the importance of composition and lighting, not just to a good photograph but in all media, which was a key take-away for all our artists.

Hannah Martin Merchant returned in February for another excellent talk this time titled ‘Surreal Identity: Claude Cahun’s Self Portraits’ to coincide with LGBT History month. Hannah explored the work of Claude Cahun (1894-1954), an artist who utilised Surrealist photography to explore gender and identity. In 1938, Cahun fled her native France to escape the rising Nazi Party. However, in 1944 her work was discovered and labelled as undermining to Nazi authority; she narrowly evaded a death sentence with the timely Allied victory in 1945. Hannah looked at her autobiographical and performative practice and the ways in which she represented her gender using photography as a medium.

Louis Cooke (Lower Sixth) gave a passionate and insightful talk on the designer Bob Mackie. As an aspiring designer himself, Louis was able to explain why Mackie is so iconic and why he is referred to as the ‘Sultan of Sequins’ in what was an entertaining and enlightening presentation.

In January, Merlin Toms (Upper Sixth) talked about his work experience at several Architecture practices and the whole architecture degree application process, including how he decided on which courses to apply for. This was incredibly useful to our Lower Sixth boys in particular, who are just about to start the whole application process.

In March, we met for an Architecture Society meeting in the Chapel, one of the last buildings by the great Victorian architect G.F Bodley. Mr Maltby from the OB office has been doing extensive research on the history of the building and, with assistance from architect Marcus Beale, explained how the Chapel has evolved since it was first built. We were delighted that this was attended not just by aspiring architects but other boys who were interested to know more about this iconic building.

Drama

It has been a very busy term for the Drama Department. Our highlight of the term was welcoming Professor David Barnett from the University of York, who lectured on the theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht. We were fortunate enough to have members of the public, as well as staff and students from Bedford Girls’ School and Bedford School in attendance. Auditions and rehearsals have taken place for the forthcoming production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle (to be performed in July as part of the Creative Arts Festival). In addition, we have had Scholar workshops on ‘Voice over’, the GCSE scripted performance mock exam evening for parents, Speech and Drama Evening, Tech Club and, of course, our weekly Drama Society meetings. We now have over 20 boys join the society each week, and we welcome new members at the start of the summer term.

Mrs Keylock and Miss Boughey have also been rehearsing a production of John Godber’s Teechers, and we hope you are able to watch this performance on Tuesday 25 April at 7.30pm in the Quarry Theatre.

Our favourite event of the spring term is the Drama Detweiler performances. Many congratulations go to the following performers:

• Louis Cooke
• Will Hayward
• Aryan Sohanpal
• Oliver Quince
• Daniel Hudson

First Place: Leo Cromwell

Second Place: Aryan Sohanpal

Runner Up: Isaac Ferguson

Our Academic Drama Society has continued to flourish, with Charlie Lawrence as our President and Millan Verwoert as Vice. The society started with a fascinating lecture from Charlie on August Boal. Scholar Louis Cooke lectured on costume designer Bob Mackie with enthusiasm and maturity. Ex President of the drama society Max Pearson took a session on how to apply for National Youth Theatre, and the boys were lucky enough to get some tips on audition technique. Lower Sixth drama student Jacob Foster led an innovative technical workshop on stage lighting. Fourth Form pupil Matt Hackney gave an excellent talk on George Bernard Shaw. Later in the term, the society members were lucky enough to have an online lecture by OB Oliver Lyons, perhaps most well-known for his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Oliver delivered a thought-provoking talk detailing his theatrical journey since leaving Bedford School to his role as education advisor for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The boys found his talk hugely helpful on how to get into the theatre industry and the different routes one can take.

Speech and Drama Evening

This was a highly successful evening and very well attended by friends and family. Many congratulations to all involved. Over 30 boys took to the stage on Monday 20 March. The event was hosted by Josh Cooke and Louis Cooke:

Performers:

• Charlie Gibson
• Misha Savitski
• Ollie Cadman-Kerr
• Oscar Qualtrough
• Mikel Deans
• Aryan Sohanpal
• Millan Verwoert
• Tanay Rai
• Stirling Smallwood
• Leo Mathew
• Stanley Breed
• Koya Okusaga
• Tobi Akinola
• Matt Hackney
• Nirmay Patel
• Charlie Eggleton
• Yaseen Khedr
• Advik Mishra
• Will Hayward
• Thomas Taylor
• Will Trobe
• Charlie Neale
• Josh Lincoln
• Oli Bymolen
• Cormac Hayes
• Kasim Sheikh
• Ralph Franklin
• Jarred Love
• Nathan Tharakan
• Leo Butler
• Oli Phillips
• Henry Gillham
• Arnav Dhaliwal
• Dilan Sharma
• Jake Reynolds
• Oliver Quince
• Sammy Rawlings

Tech support:

• Elio Lepore
• Jacob Foster

Awards:

Most Improved: Leo Mathew, Will Spice, Advik Mishra, Dominic Ray

Contribution to Speech and Drama: Will Hayward, Leo Butler, Jake Reynolds, Oscar Qualtrough

LAW SOCIETY

Bedford School Law Society continued to meet, with Joe Maravala and Shaun Thomas delivering an insightful talk entitled Murder on the High Seas! on the importance of the R vs Dudley and Stephens Case in 1884. 

House Cups, Spring 2023

Current House Cup Standing

Head Master’s Commendations

Upper Sixth

Tom Howe: For his well-structured, insightful and engaging assembly exploring gender representation and equality. This was not only well-crafted but expertly delivered to the whole school community. 

Makar Molchanov and Aslan Bekov: For achieving a band 8 IELTS score, which demonstrates a mastery of language.

Lower Sixth

Tom Cameron-Fraser: for showing outstanding commitment to French and insight in response to French Literature.

Thomas Li: for achieving an IELTs score of Band 8, which demonstrates a mastery of language.

Arun Penhall: for his BSIP winning essay, a high merit total and excellent learning behaviour grades on the spring term grade card.

Shaun Thomas: for being the BSIP presentation evening winner, a high merit total and excellent learning behaviour grades on the spring term grade card.

Fifth Form

Angus Timmins: for excellence across a number of subjects, including achieving a commendation for his superb presentation on whether Elvis deserves the title of ‘King’.

Olly Wright: for his consistent excellence, including achieving a commendation for writing such powerful short story, entirely in French.

Remove Form

Jibran Baloch: for achieving three commendations this term, including one for excellence in his intelligent and creative approach to imaginative writing.

Fourth Form

Advik Mishra: For achieving three commendations this term over multiple subjects, including one for delivering a Physics and Engineering presentation on natural and manmade structures.

Oscar Qualtrough (again): For achieving three commendations this term, including one for producing a report on democracy, totalitarianism (in a variety of forms) and monarchy, as well as an analysis of ‘left’ and ‘right’ wing politics, demonstrating the school values of curiosity and endeavour.

Awards for 75 Academic Merits

Andrew Wright        Fourth Form – 84 merits

Advik Mishra            Fourth Form – 80 merits

Akram El Gabour      Remove Form – 79 merits

Sam Yeomans           Fourth Form – 77 merits

HEAD MASTER’S SCARVES

There is one:

This boy has distinguished himself in the classroom, on the rugby field, in his Day House and in a number of areas around school. In Art, his teachers say that he has shown exceptional drive and ambition. He has consistently and independently endeavoured to push himself out of his comfort zone, and worked to refine and develop his skills, resulting in a colossal sculptural work which recently won the Detweiler competition. In the Art School, he acts as a superb example of how hard work, diligence and dedication pay off. On the rugby field he has been a member of the school’s 1st XV for two years and has shown unstinting commitment to his teammates on and off the field. In his tutor group, he has provided the very best example of leadership, kindness and understanding of others’ needs. In particular, he is someone that younger boys naturally look up to. He takes an active interest in their activities, successes and indeed failures, providing understanding and support in just the right measure when necessary. During the recent Art and RS trip to Paris, he looked out for the younger members of the group without request, chatting to them with ease and maturity, championing their work and building their confidence to share their thoughts and ideas. As Captain of Sport in his Day House, he has organised house teams and encouraged others to get involved whilst always putting himself forward for events wherever possible. At the recent House dinner, he was Master of Ceremonies, and could be seen working his way round the room talking to year groups other than his own to see how they were enjoying the evening. He has only been at this school since the start of the Sixth Form, but, in a short space of time, he has made a wonderfully strong and positive impression on those around him in his naturally understated way, demonstrating all the core values of the school. Well done to Ted Ferris.