Old Sulians' Association

Annual Dinner 2010

Old Sulians’ Association

Annual Dinner

October 16th—Association Annual Dinner at Bath Cricket Club, North Parade. 7 for 8pm. Black tie or Lounge suit. A chitty should be found below for your convenience, or better still, print it out and send it back to me pronto. Our friends at Bath Cricket Club are hoping to hold their prices and so are we. Tickets will be £35 each but you can get an early-bird discount! A mere £30 if paid before the 5th October. The toast to the Association will be conjured up by Roy Harper; Rich Wood, the President will reply; Andrew Davies, the Headmaster will have his customary few words and the Rugby Club will have the last word. All will be curtailed to around 5 minutes to maximise the social time. I have no doubt that my trustee whips will be rounding up their groups but don’t wait to be cajoled, send off your chit now and feel warm and virtuous. Above all, put the date on the calendar (if you are allowed, or speak nicely to the keeper of your social itinerary and show this note!)

Old Sulians’ Association Annual Dinner 2010

I enclose a cheque payable to ‘Old Sulians’ Association’ for £35 per person,

(£30 if paid before the 6th October) for this year’s dinner on

Saturday 16th October. 7.00pm for 8.00pm. Black tie or dark lounge suit. The Bath Cricket Club, North Parade.

Name(s):

Address:

Please return to: Roger Wood, 101 Hansford Square, Bath, BA2 5LL Queries phone: 01225 832207 or e-mail: roger.wood3(at)virgin.net

BY THE 5th OCTOBER Tick here for the vegetarian option ………

If possible seat me near…………………………

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Newsletter – September 2010

News

Visit to School July 15th.

A group of 14 happy souls enjoyed lunch, looking through the archives and a tour of the School hosted by Headmaster Andrew Davies, Tony Lawdham and a number of Prefects. One of many comments received came from Colin Cooper who summed up the general feelings; ‘We were well looked after and were suitably impressed by the changes made over the years.  Thankfully sufficient remains of the old to trigger many happy memories and any less happy moments have faded with time’. The President herded them together for a family picture, the results of which can be seen below. Pictured at front left is Glyn Maddocks, former Master and Hon. Life Member.

NHSOB Golf, June 3rd, Sham Castle. We were triumphant 4 and 3. This long-running match between old adversaries continues under Mick Moore’s beady eye. (Newport High Schools Old Boys for the young amongst us!)

Association Golf, June 18th, Sham Castle. Down on numbers again but well supported by the Rugby Club. Roy Aust collected some of the spoils.

Approach Golf, July 7th,Victoria Park.

5 played. After the reading of the runes Alan Blake and Ian Weekes played 58, Pete Powell won with 57. The President and ‘Pebble’ Beach remained, in the best Sulian tradition, silent in defeat, magnanimous in victory!

Walking Rally. July 22nd. Although threatened by the weather, Sue Trude’s final outing as organiser, compiler and whipper-in of the annual trundle round the streets of Bath was another success. Some 8 teams competed to find their way through the maze of clues with the Sidcup Su’ Den Lambern and his crew ending triumphant after a tie-break question. Having declared her intention to retire Sue has found a worthy successor to inflict the pain and full details will be revealed when the honour has fully sunk in!

Committee Meetings

We have now settled in to The Bath Cricket Club, North Parade, and for the winter season will meet at 7.30 pm. on the first Tuesday before the 2nd Wednesday! (Don’t ask!) You are always welcome to drop in for a pint if not the intellectual stimulation.

Basement to Beechen Cliff

From the 400 printed we now have just 35 copies left. If you haven’t got yours yet then time is running out. The Editorial Team are delighted with the sales and the feedback. The use of the profit is the subject of current discussion. Copies have been placed in the British Library, the Bath Reference Library and the School Library for posterity. Hopefully there will be a few left at the Annual Dinner. (See over).

Passed on.

Sadly there are several names for the honours board. Former Science Master Don Radford, A F (Tony) White, also I believe known to his Westinghouse friends as ‘Knocker’, and ‘49er Pete Bryers. We send our thoughts and condolences to their families but we keep our memories.

Headmaster’s Letter.

Enclosed you will find the usual update from the Headmaster, scribed and typed this time by his own fair hand and for which I am even more than usually grateful. This was passed on at the end of last term before the break, as things get a bit frantic at the beginning of term. I am a little tardy with this edition for various reasons but I have seen the DT master setting off on his bike so they must have just returned to the fray. As the Head indicates, secondary education is once again in a state of flux in Bath. (No change there then!) And the adoption of Academy status by Oldfield Girls may or may not throw spanners in the works. We have been this way before but hopefully this time around Beechen Cliff will not be directly affected. Currently Culverhay, formerly West Hill, is facing the chop but watch this space, as they say.

Old Sulians RFC

Former Bath player Martin Haag was the guest speaker at the Su’s annual dinner back in May. An excellent time was had by the 62 present. This season sees them relegated to Somerset Tribute 1 after the last 2 rather torrid years in the Premier league. This should provide more balanced competition and we wish them well. Tony Davies has taken on the Club mantle of Fixture Secretary from the still sick Tony Slee. We wish them both well. And talking of the Rugby Club, that ever youthful Club stalwart Peter Beech has been elected as President of the Bath Combination for another year. (Notice that I never mentioned ‘veteran’!)

Coach Trip

Didn’t happen. Insufficient numbers in the end made it uneconomic. If you have any alternative venues or ideas please contact any of the committee by any legal means.

And finally we welcome Robin Butler (1960) as a new life member and I’m not sure whether I have mentioned A Llewellyn (1960) J Ebdon (1974) and P Elliott (1981) who have also joined up this year. Next News in February 2011 and the AGM will be at the end of February. (I am not going to mention Christmas).

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Headmasters Letter – September 2010

Three Peaks, Centurion Challenge, MCC Cricket matches, Cricket tours, World Bog Snorkelling, Man vs Horse, F1 Challenges and Petanque…. What might I have omitted? It seems that the Summer Term leaves too little time for the classroom and the inculcation of knowledge and wisdom. It is possible that I am moving away from the realm of Summer Newsletter and into something a little ‘philosophical’ – so I will return to the task in hand.

The range of activities undertaken over the last eight weeks has been exceptional and more than six hundred boys have been involved in an extra-curricular activity which has seen them on cricket pitches, scaling mountains, trudging along canal towpaths or scuba diving in Egypt. As I write John Young and his team are in Corsica with the boys and girls undertaking their Duke of Edinburgh Award expeditions. All of this adds up to the same desired outcome; the ‘well rounded’ child, able, we hope, to take their place confidently in society. I never fail to be impressed by the exceptional talents of our boys and girls, recognising that their skills will be in even greater demand in the future, particularly given the need for our country to be confident in itself and the potential which exists – to see Beechen Cliff boys in a range of different situations reinforces the point that the school has proved very successful in creating an articulate, friendly and positive outlook on life which has a wonderful effect upon all those with whom they come into contact.

The House system has been incredibly successful for our Lower School boys, generating fantastic competition in every area of school life, from Sports day to the desire to be the best in terms of conduct and punctuality. No boy wishes to be the one singled out by his Head of House as one whose conduct has lost points for the rest of his House – peer pressure can have very positive results! Shakespeare emerged as the winning House and the Prefects collected the new Oldham Plate at the end of Year assembly, an event which also celebrated the success of many teams and individuals.

One of our newer sports, shooting, has seen an incredible leap forward. This month we sent a team to Bisley as part of the joint KES/BCS Combined Cadet Force to participate in the annual national competition. We achieve incredible success; winning the .22 rifle competition against sixty teams and coming third in the pistol competition. The other teams, many of whom had become used to lifting the trophies, were somewhat shocked. We are very thankful to Major Yeshim and Sergeant Major Lee for their exceptional efforts in nurturing the talent of our boys and developing the discipline within them to reach such levels.

It was wonderful to have a number of Old Sulians join us for lunch and a tour of the school recently. It was a splendid occasion and one which gave our boys the opportunity to spend a little time with gentlemen who conveyed their sense of pride in having been a part of the school. I very much hope that the boys will take with them into their future lives that sense of having belonged to something very special.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the changes which are about to take place in Bath and its secondary provision. For the boys, staff and parents of Culverhay School this will be a very sad time. I have met many men who were pupils at that fine school and remember with affection the time when it was equal in size to Beechen Cliff, recounting the great rugby and football pitch ‘conflicts’ which characterised th great rivalry between the schools. That time is now over, it seems, and we must look a change in the provision in the city which will see only one boys’ school, meeting the needs of those from within and beyond the city who recognise the very special school on the Bear Flat. I doubt they choose us because our academic results are the best for boys anywhere in the area; it is unlikely that hey choose us because the sporting opportunities are the best of any state provider in the south west, or indeed because the outdoor education is wide ranging and exciting. It could be because of the view from the front of the building or because of the exceptional food provided for boys but again, it seems unlikely. I think it is probably the factor which one of the Old Sulians’ mentioned during the recent visit. “I walked into the building and immediately felt at home. The atmosphere was just as I remembered it and you could sense the good relationships between the masters and the boys”.

I think that says it all.

May I wish you all a good summer.

Andrew Davies.

Headmaster.

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Visit to School

A visit to School has been arranged for Thursday 15th July.
Meet at 12 noon, followed by lunch and then a tour of the School.
The cost of lunch is £5.
There is now a group of 12 attending.
There may be room for a few more so………
If you would like to join the group please contact us through committee@oldsulians.org.uk immediately!

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The Gryphon

Next week we publish the second edition of our school year book – ‘The Gryphon’. You will possibly have been given a copy at the Old Sulians’ dinner last October.

John Cruickshank, our Head of Economics, has worked tirelessly to bring together articles and photographs which have been assembled to create a publication which attempts to give an insight into the varied activities which make up an education at Beechen Cliff.

Alex Wood’s Systemagic has produced the piece, working on the design and arranging the printing. As you can appreciate it is important that parents and friends of the school purchase a copy to ensure that we can continue the fine tradition started many years ago with the production of “The Sulian”.

At £10 a copy it is an eighty-four page highly ‘professional’ soft-backed book, fit to grace any coffee table and a fitting tribute to another varied year at the school.

We would be very grateful if you could purchase a copy, helping the school meet its obligations to our suppliers (!) and also allowing you to see how much goes on at your old school.

In the PDF document at the end of this email there is a ‘tear off’ slip which can be completed and sent to the school, together with a cheque for £10, made payable to Beechen Cliff School. We will then send you a copy of ‘The Gryphon’ upon publication!

Thank you so much for your anticipated support.

Yours sincerely,

A Davies
Headmaster

Gryphon Form

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Pat’s Coastal Walk – Update

NEWS FROM AN OLD CBBS & BCS TEACHER

Pat Colbourne (Teacher ’66-96) has recently embarked on a mammoth challenge in his 70^th year.

He has started a walk around the coastal pathway of the UK. It’s a 5,000 mile (8,000km) journey and may take him two years to complete.

He says “I have decided, before I pop my clogs, to do something that’s really challenging, purposeful and worthy so that others may benefit from my actions”.

He invites past pupils and fellow teaching colleagues to join him for a day or more? You can follow his progress and read his diary on the website : www.patsukcoastwalk.co.uk or contact him on his mobile while he walks – 07702 606713.

In 2003 Pat had the obligatory hip replacement op’ followed, in 2005, by a heart attack and subsequent coronary by-pass. Later on (in Sept’2007) he wanted to find a way to prove his fitness so he walked from coast to coast, across the country, along Hadrian’s Wall, and loved the experience.

He comments “I was so fortunate, during my 30 years of teaching both at CBBS & BCS. I had the opportunity to climb mountains in the Alps and travel the world with youth cricket teams. I witnessed great opulence, poverty and destitution in many places while travelling and I know I can do something to help a few people in the world add some dignity to their lives and that’s what I aim to do with my small fund raising effort – please help me”

He would welcome donations from Old Sulians towards his charities (see his website). He says “There are over one billion people who live without clean, fresh water and nearly 5,000 children die each day due to severe poverty, starvation or disease. In our 21^st Century this should never be. Many organisations, including Rotary (I am a past-President of the Rotary Club of Bath) do their best to help alleviate these problems even if they cannot immediately solve them. This may be the last worthwhile thing I am able to do in my life so please join me in this project by giving to the charities I am supporting. Please help me help others to help themselves”.

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PDF Newsletters – May 2010

The May 2010 newsletters in extended PDF format.

Newsletter – May 2010

Headmaster – May 2010

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