AMI U tAAUAttiAiKIAU AIMIUAfi IUM

The Albanian DECEMBER 1977 Vol. 24 No. 2

SCHOOL NOTESWe welcomed this term Miss Caroline Belam,

Miss Margaret Layton, and Dr. Robert Ely,who joined the Mathematics Department, Mrs.Judith James, who joined the GeographyDepartment, and Mr. Sean Elder, who joinedthe Economics Department.

Work has now reached completion in the OldHall, the interior of which has now been re-modelled by the insertion of a new floor toprovide a large practice room and offices onthe ground floor, and an activities area for theMiddle School on the upper level. Upstairs, thenew floor has enabled the fine wooden roof tobe seen to great advantage, while a particularlyattractive feature of the lower room is thepanelling, which once fronted the galley of theoriginal hall.

On the fifth of November the School wel-comed parents and friends to an open day,when departments had the opportunity topresent displays of their work and equipment,and many visitors had the chance to see someof the School's newer accommodation for thefirst time.

In September the School welcomed theCharles Williams Society to the New Hall.Charles Williams, whose reputation as anovelist has grown greatly over the years, wasat the School from 1899 until 1902; his parentsowned a stationer's shop at 36 Victoria Street.

We congratulate Mr. Geoffrey Pryke on theaward of the Queen's Jubilee Medal for servicesto the Cadet Force Movement.

We would particularly like to express ourthanks to the following friends of the School:To Mr. Tom Dean, for his gift of a set of theEncyclopaedia Britannica to the library;To Mrs. Boardman, daughter of Mr. ErnestNightingale, for the gift of a bookcase for theEnglish Room;

Our cover illustration, by Nigel Gittins,VI.if, shows the new science laboratory.For a glimpse of the past, turn to our firstphotograph.

To Mr. Tarry, whose assistance and advicemade possible the recent work on the pavilionat King Harry;To Mr. George Cooper, the School Grounds-man, for his work on the pavilion and pondprojects, and his enthusiastic support of schoolgames;To Mr. Tim Clark, O.A., for the gift of anineteenth-century Japanese woodcut by theartist Utagawa Kunisada.

To Mr. Robin Ollington, O.A., for the helpin the design and preparation of the new Schoolprospectus, and Mr. G. A. Tanner for thesplendid photographs with which it was illus-trated.

OBITUARIESErnest Nightingale

The School lost an old and loyal friend bythe death in May at the age of 87 of Mr. ErnestNightingale, M.Sc.

When he joined the staff in 1918, the standardof science teaching was still rudimentary.Although money had been spent some 25 yearspreviously on the establishment of a sciencelab and lecture room (the present upper andlower Art Rooms), little science was donebeyond the most elementary level, and it wasleft to Ernest Nightingale and his contemporaryin the Chemistry Department, George Wishart,who died in 1974, to begin the advanced courseswhich led on in time to Higher Certificate (thepresent A level GCE) and university entrance.As a teacher, he had great gifts—an ability topersuade even unpromising pupils that sciencewas exciting, an unquenchable enthusiasm andendless ingenuity in devising experiments outof quite inadequate materials; above all, thesympathy and humanity to help those who werein difficulty. He had a great following of ex-pupils, all of whom spoke of him with respectand affection and many of whom have reachedhigh positions in science and industry. Theyalways called on him when they were in St.Albans, and he was always glad to see them.

In middle life Ernie (for so he was alwaysknown) wrote a series of Physics text-booksand he quoted with pride the number oflanguages into which they had been translated.

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The income from them enabled him to retirerather earlier than he might have done,especially as he found increasing deafness, theresult of a childhood illness, a difficulty in theclassroom. He was thus enabled to increase thescope of his outside activities, and, in particular,the Science Masters' Association (now theAssociation for Science Education), of whichhe had been an early member. It was a fittinghonour when in 1974 the local branch estab-lished an annual lecture in his name.

In his later years Ernie became the corres-pondent for the O.A. Gazette in the Albanian.and letters from O.As all over the world foundtheir way to his post-box. He enjoyed thisfurther opportunity for serving the School andfor using his knowledge of successive genera-tions to maintain contact with an ever widercircle.

He remained alert and active to the end, andstill exhibited the same Mancunian sharpnessand realism which had always characterisedhim. To perpetuate his memory we have set upan Ernest Nightingale Fund from which moneywill be used for the establishment and main-tenance of a Nightingale Memorial Library.This will consist partly of a collection of booksby Old Albanian authors which Ernie gatheredin his last years and partly of a scientific libraryfor the Middle School. The whole will behoused in the new science wing, and we hopethat it will be a fitting tribute to a great teacherand a staunch friend.

Nicholas HivesNicholas Hives died on a mountain in Skye

on 16th September.In his seven years at the School he had gained

the affection and respect of people of all agesas one who ' saw life steadily and saw it whole'.He could be quick and sharp enough, but hestrove always to see things in the round, tocomprehend, to relate and reconcile. He had awarmth, and a humour too, which made one atease in his company. To talk with him was arelaxing but also a refreshing experience, forhe had an originality of mind and a depth ofjudgement which uncovered hidden truths andfostered insight.

On the public scene many of us will thinkof him as Hamlet, a role in which he touredboth here and abroad with the Abbots LangleyYoung Players; or we may recall his perform-

ance as the tramp character in a TV religiousprogramme. But it is as a person and as a friendthat we shall continue to value him, and to misshim. We can only offer our sincerest sympathyto his parents and to his brother Timothy, andbe grateful for the opportunity of having knownhim.

Roy BurnettIt was with the greatest regret that we

received the news in October of the suddendeath of Mr. R. E. Burnett, O.B.E., the Manag-ing Director of Marconi Instruments Ltd., anda Governor of the School.

So far as his onerous responsibilities allowed,Roy Burnett always took a keen interest in theSchool and its affairs, and I learnt to value andrespect his judgement in a wide variety ofissues. It was, of course, particularly in theimportant field of relations with industry thathis influence was of such consequence, and heput a great deal of personal effort into theorganisation and running of our appeal toindustrial firms for bursary funds. It was fittingthat his last appearance in the School only afew days before he died should have been at ameeting of industrialists to carry forward ourcontact with them into a programme forindustrial education.

He was a person of rare distinction, for hecombined with his extensive knowledge andhigh standing an essential humility and concernfor others which was far removed from thepopular view of a ' captain of industry'. It isno wonder that his firm enjoyed such a highreputation as combining efficiency with human-ity, and we are grateful for all that he broughtof those two qualities into our school affairs.

F.I.K.

Memorial LibraryWe are grateful to the following for gifts to

the Library: R. B. Sharp, M. J. Bates, D. J.Bates, T. S. Bates, M. R. Jones, A. J. Robert-son, E. G. Atkinson, T. T. Clark, R. S. Lock,P. M. Wheller, S. R. Patience, C. Thrale, S. W.Powell, P. R. Burbidge, J. P. M. Webster,J. W. B. Apter, A. P. R. Jones, P. R. Bixby,A. J. R. Rogers, K. G. Drake, N. Birch, P. T.Quinlan, R. V. H. Smith, C. B. Marshall,C J. Stansbury, J. M. Buckley, J. S. Simms,and L. G. Walker, Esq., M. G. F. Darby, Esq.

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HIGHER EDUCATION AWARDS AND PLACES1976-77A. J. BATTENJ. McL. BUCKLEYA. J. HARDINGP. F. REEVESS. B. STEBBINGSA. W. STEVENSONE. G. ATKINSONN. BIRCHP. R. BIXBYC. R. BLACKMOREM. D. BOWLESK. P. BOWYERJ. J. V. BRYANTJ. M. BULSINGA. J. S. BURNST. T. CLARKN. R. CORBLEA. J. CROOKA. M. CROSSD. C. CROSSK. E. DRAKEA. F. EAMESS. P. EMSONS. A. W. FROSTD. R. GRANTR. P. HARDINGM. A. HARRISONR. F. HEMSLEYN. IMIP. A. JELLEYI. E. JOHNSONA. P. R. JONESM. R. JONESC. N. LAVINA. W. LEEW. J. LLOYDR. S. LOCKJ. C. E. LOVEJOYG.J.MACKENZIEC. B. MARSHALLR. P. MILLIEC. C. MOOREP. E. NICHOLASS. R. PATIENCEC. J. PECKT. W. POMROYD. M. PONTONS. W. POWELLD. M. PRESTONP. T. QUINLANP. ROBERTSA. J. ROBERTSON

Exhibition in Mathematics, Christ's College, CambridgeScholarship in Science, University of St. AndrewsExhibition in Mathematics, Emmanuel College, CambridgeExhibition in Geography, St. John's College, CambridgeScholarship in Natural Sciences, Worcester College, OxfordExhibition in English, St. John's College, CambridgeUniversity of BristolUniversity of ManchesterPolytechnic of the South BankGrey College, DurhamGonville and Caius College, CambridgeUniversity of WarwickUniversity College, LondonUniversity College, DurhamMagdalene College, CambridgeSt. John's College, OxfordUniversity of KeeleCollingwood College, DurhamUniversity of Wales (Aberystwyth)University of SussexUniversity of SussexUniversity of Wales (Bangor)Queens' College, CambridgeUniversity of Aston-in-BirminghamUniversity of SheffieldUniversity of NottinghamUnviersity of Wales (Cardiff)University of SussexUniversity of KentHatfield PolytechnicUniversity of BristolUniversity of East AngliaUniversity of Newcastle-on-TyneCorpus Christi College, CambridgeQueens' College, CambridgeRoyal College of MusicUniversity of ExeterExeter College, OxfordLondon College of FurnitureSt. John's College, CambridgeUniversity of SouthamptonUniversity of SouthamptonUniversity of BristolUniversity of LiverpoolUniversity of SussexLiverpool PolytechnicSidney Sussex College, CambridgeSt. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical SchoolUniversity of LancasterUniversity of Wales (Aberystwyth)University College, DurhamUniversity of Exeter

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A. J. R. ROGERST. D. SALTM. SCAMMELJ. S. SIMMSR. V. H. SMITHA. SOFATC. J. STANSBURYM. H. STURDYM. C. TAYLORS. E. TURNERG. D. de VILLIERSD. J. VOLLBORTHR. G. J. WALKER-SMITHJ. C. W. WARDJ. WELCHD. J. WELSHP. M. WHELLERE. A. D. WHITFELDP. J. WILDER

AMERICAEncounter with Everyman—Impressions of California,Christmas 1976

Deep inside each of us here in the Old Worldlurks a frustrated American. Between 1815 and1924 thirty million of our ancestors left theseand other shores in search of stability andprosperity in the United States. Some went tobuild a new life, others to rebuild an old oneshattered by economic change in the OldWorld. For others the spur was escape fromreligious, racial, political or class oppression,for yet others sheer adventure. Many stayed,some returned; some were sent back; and therewere the Africans who had little choice in anyof these matters. Such a migration, the largestin recorded human history, touched the wholeof humankind. It means, simply, that a slightlydifferent decision taken by any one of our directancestors might have made us New Yorkers orTexans instead of residents of Hertfordshire.It is this wafer-thin margin of fate which, Ibelieve, lies at the root of endemic Old Worldanti-Americanism. The fact is that the UnitedStates is the greatest of a small group ofcountries built by the labours of ordinary peoplesuch as you and me. As Malcolm Muggeridgeonce put it: ' Europe's poor made Americarich.' To which I would add ' and we have neverforgiven them for it.' To take the chance on anew life in the New World shows us up enoughas it is; to then go on and create the world's

Middlesex PolytechnicUniversity of KentPeterhouse, CambridgeUniversity of East AngliaCambridge College of Art and TechnologyUniversity of ManchesterUniversity of Wales (Cardiff)University College, DurhamJesus College, CambridgeUniversity of Wales (Aberystwyth)University College, DurhamHertfordshire College of Art and DesignUniversity of BirminghamUniversity of SheffieldHertfordshire College of BuildingLanchester PolytechnicEmmanuel College, CambridgeHertfordshire College of Art and DesignSidney Sussex College, Cambridge

greatest super-power has been too much formost of us to bear. That this strain of envy runsdeep in our culture is confirmed by the complexof emotions that arise both within oneself andamongst acquaintances when the idea of aholiday in America is mooted. A tingle ofanticipation, excitement and curiosity wells upunknown with regard to any other country.Similarly, no holiday, once past, leaves such adeep or abiding impact. It is next to impossible,lo stop talking about the United States or tostop anybody asking question about it: particu-larly that most significant of questions '. . . andwould you like to live there? ' Equally signifi-cant is the fact that the only other countriesabout which one would be asked the samequestions are Canada, Australia and NewZealand: all societies which owe their veryexistence to the fact of mass immigration. Deepinside our Old World consciousness lurks thenotion that it still might just be possible thatsomebody visiting the United States will leavetheir bags unpacked and take a chance on anew future as millions did before them.

Within the United States, California occupiesroughly the same psychological position vis-a-vis the rest of the country as the United Statesitself once occupied with regard to the world.Since the late 1950's when New York City andFlorida lost some of their traditional magnetism,California has become the focus for approxi-mately the same complex bundle of hopes oncecarried to America itself by the great waves ofnineteenth-century immigrants. The AmericanEpic finds its summation in California and both

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the pre-1924 and post-1950's phases find respec-tive expression in the state's two major cities,San Francisco and Los Angeles, which my wifeand 1 were privileged to visit at Christmas 1976.Although we spent considerably longer time inLos Angeles than in San Francisco, I would liketo discuss the latter city first for its shape,substance and feel represent, for me at anyrate, the earlier stage in America's historicalexperience.

Old World visitors to the United Statesnaturally take with them a range of inbibedexpectations. Those heading for California areconditioned to expect San Francisco to be' European', a sort of Paris of the West.Implicit in this conditioning is, of course, thesuggestion that because it is ' European', SanFrancisco is likeable and acceptable. It is a verygood example of that abiding Old World envyof those ancestors who went and built theUnited States commending only that in theirsociety which approximates most closely to' European' standards. I did not find SanFrancisco in the least bit European and wasthoroughly relieved not to do so. To have flown6,000 miles and then found just a replica ofParis would have been ridiculously expensiveas well as an anti-climax. The fact is that, inits own distinctive way, San Francisco is athoroughly American city. It is often forgottenthat, historically, San Francisco was one ofAmerica's great immigrant ports. The greatmajority of the 350,000 Chinese and Japanesewho left their own Old World in the couple ofdecades before the First World War entered theUnited States through San Francisco. Althoughthe city's famous Chinatown has become some-thing of an ethnic exaggeration for tourists, thisenormous influx has left an intangible, but deepimpression upon the city. I mean the impression,everywhere, of a city of hope, promise andexpectation, of a forward-looking vitality—allqualities which stamp San Francisco immedi-ately as an American and not a European city.There is an energy and a tension here impossibleto find anywhere in Europe. It is built high andbuilt narrow, it is crowded, compact, evencramped—yet somehow seems to be wide open.The combination of the proximity of the sea, themassive beauty of the bridges linking the baycities, the skyscrapers jostling for space as theyclimb the steep and crowded hills, draws themind upwards in a spiral of expectation andpremonition. Literally, the sky seems to be thelimit. All personal ambition suddenly seems

realisable. Few immigrants, of course, wouldhave been naive enough to pitch their hopes sohigh, but 1 could not help but reflect when inSan Francisco—particularly on one of its mainstreets at night—that all around must approxi-mate to the multitude of sights, sounds andsmells—at once terrifying and inspirational—that so many of our ancestors must haveencountered on their first contact with urbanAmerica.

Los Angeles is also a coastal city, but therethe similarity with San Francisco ends. LosAngeles owes its origin and existence to longlines of overland migrants rather than tohuddled masses in crowded harbours. Becauseof this it belongs definitively to the second (andcontinuing) act in the American drama. Tosavour the essence of San Francisco it is best tostand at the lower end of one of its main streetswithin sight and smell of the sea. To savour theessence of Los Angeles it is best to cruise alongone of its four-lane urban freeways in anAmerican car. San Francisco is a city ofarrivals; Los Angeles is a city of movement.Where San Francisco is high, crowded andcontainable, Los Angeles is low, roomy andlimitless. By all that is rational Los Angelesshould not exist. It is built upon pure desert,having grown to its present enormous size froma small eighteenth-century Spanish settlement.Yet, defying a hostile Nature, it does exist, andcontinues to grow. It is this extraordinary factof existence which again releases the feelingthat, here, the sky, only, is the limit and thatany, but any, personal ambition or desire isattainable. After all, if the world's most aston-ishing urban consumer civilisation can existwhere once there was desert, need anything beimpossible? It struck me while in Los Angelesthat its almost perfect sub-tropical climatemight, after all, be one of the least rather thanone of the most important reasons why the citywas the film and is now the TV capital of theworld. There is, quite simply, no more apt placeon earth wherein to manufacture dreams. Thewhole city has a dream-like quality from whichthere seems to be no awakening. I ponderedwhether there might be a more than tenuousconnection between the Spanish conquistadoresfor whom the gesture of a grand achievementwas more important than the achievement itselfand the later cinema and TV moguls for whomthe form of entertainment seems more importantthan the substance. At any rate, both sets ofindividuals could and did command an un-

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waveringly loyal popular (in the latter case,mass) following. It is not simply a question ofeconomic power that dictates the mass exportof American film and TV productions. They doseem, genuinely, to answer a universal call:amongst rich and poor, black and white, theambitious and the contented, urban and rural,hopeful and hopeless, self-sufficient and help-less. More marxists voluntarily follow Grouchothan can be compelled to follow Karl.

So we are back with Everyman of whom suchpowerful echoes are found in both San Fran-cisco and Los Angeles. It is an Old World clicheto say that America has no history. There is nogreater falsehood. America is everybody'shistory. There is a piece of America in each ofus; and a piece of each of us in America.

M. T. Hudis

' NEW YORK . . . NEW YORK!'Arriving to live in New York City for the

first time, the contrasts to anything else onemay have experienced are tremendous. Thewealth on 5th Avenue, the poverty of the LowerEast Side, the traffic everywhere, the noise ofthe subway and the humidity (if you arrive inAugust as I did), were my immediate observa-tions.

Big yellow taxis darting through clouds ofsteam (yes, the drains do steam—courtesy ofConsolidated Edison, though since the blackoutof July their public image has been terrible).The graffiti on the subway trains is an art ofa kind, done at great risk to the artists.Apparently these are mainly Puerto Ricans, soyou have to speak Spanish to understand anyof it.

Everything is big: it is only from the top ofthe Empire State Building or the World TradeCentre that you truly appreciate the size of thiscity. Since I have been here my travels havebeen mainly restricted to Manhattan. The otherfour boroughs, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronxand Staten Island, wait to be fully discovered.Brooklyn, a borough of N.Y.C. that separatelywould be the 5th biggest city in the U.S.A.;The Bronx where some areas resemble bombed-out Berlin in May 1945; Queens with KennedyAirport and, soon to be heard, Condcorde?

This city never sleeps; it is possible to get adrink or meal at any time of day or night,though Whitbread Tankard at about £1 a pintis not the most quenching drink I know. Localbeer is drinkable but not like MacMullens

Country Bitter—nor are there any places likethe Farriers.

I have been here two months now and noteven a threatening look! There are places thatyou don't go to, like the corner of 145th Streetand 8th Avenue—four murders last week in adrug war shoot-out. America's problem withviolence is that anyone can get hold of a gun.Shootings and deaths are reported on televisionas casually as they introduce the weather report,but I must add that I have met New Yorkerswho have shown only hospitality and friendship.The Press rarely covers the good things thathappen here and so N.Y.C. will continue to getits reputation for everything that is bad insociety. It is bad in places but not as bad asit's painted. If you don't believe me come andsee for yourselves. Remember Laker AirwaysSky train is only 245 dollars, round trip. So seeyou all next summer!

The Albanian's Correspondent in New YorkCity,

Peter D. Hamer-Hodges

SSLC—an experienceLet me first say that this is not intended to

be a plug for the Army as such, more anaccount of the life a candidate for a ShortService Limited Commission can expect.Particular emphasis is laid on my own experi-ences as a Second Lieutenant in the RoyalMilitary Police. It should be remembered thatindividual's treatment could vary wildly,although the general outline should remain thesame.

The scheme allows a school-leaver with afirm place at University to join the Army as aSubaltern in the regiment or corps of his choice,with certain exceptions. The first hurdle isthe Regular Commissions Board, which thecandidate must pass at a higher than normalstandard, due to the very abrupt transition from' curry' to officer. The final obstacle to successmay be the imposition of the establishmentceiling of sixty SSLC officers, although 1977 isthe first year this level has been reached.

Should the candidate, now a ' potentialofficer', reach this stage with flying colours heis required to enlist, a frightening ordeal as itseems to entail commitment to nine years'servitude in the ranks. This turns out not to beso, despite there being no revocation of con-tract. The terms of service are quite reasonable,a minimum of four and a maximum of eighteen

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month, with six weeks' notice required fortermination. It does work—I'm out!

To commence the story, five days afterhearing that I had passed the R.C.B., I wasreporting to Sandhurst, as an Officer Cadet inthe General Service Corps. The opinion wasthat the three weeks at Sandhurst was fun' looking back on it', meaning, of course, thatit was twenty-one days of unmitigated torture!The course Sergeant-Major explained 'I willcall you sir and you will call me sir. You willmean it, I won't.' We all passed out at the endof the course, leaving him a sadly disillusionedman.

After commissioning, the British Army founditself the proud possessor of seventy-one veryjunior Subalterns. Wisely, it scattered themaround the country as soon as possible, manygoing to depots before joining their units. In mycase the depot was the R.M.P. Training Centrein Chichester, where I was thrown in the deep-end on arrival. The transition from being oneof a squad to being the chap out in front wasbad enough, but burdened with a sword andobliged to shout orders it was horrifying.

My stay at depot was, if not conducive torelaxation, at least an opportunity to practisebeing an officer in front of recruits, who willsalute anything that moves and some thingsthat don't. I knew; not a fortnight earlier I hadbeen doing the same! Still, two months later Ideparted for Germany, having had both theprivilege of attending O.A. Brigadier D. B.Rendell's dining-out and the misfortune ofhaving the school's visit thrust in my unwillinghands. I heard the visit was greatly enjoyed byall concerned.

Germany must be the goal for anyone want-ing to see what the Army is all about. Theknowledge that only a hundred miles to theEast lies the G.D.R. border and with it themight of the Group of Soviet Forces Germany,is a sobering thought.

BAOR offered the delights of Germany, theopportunity to exercise ' for real' and, depen-dent on choice of regiment or corps, a fair shotat sports of one kind or another. As far aswas possible I was treated as a normal R.M.P.officer, with little of the opportunity for sportthat, perhaps, some regiments might haveoffered. I was certainly not given the red carpettreatment in that respect. Far better, in myopinion, than to have had nothing to do but bepacked off on courses, fun or otherwise.

For 112 Provost Company and me, Germany

'77 meant basically one thing, the Queen's SilverJubilee Review of the Army at Sennelagef.That mammoth display utilised vast resourcesof material and manpower, R.M.P. included.Committed as we were to traffic control on theapproaches and car parking, we did not get thebest views of the spectacle; but simply to takepart in the organisation of that tremendousevent was an experience in itself.

So, what did I get out of the Army? On themost superficial level I spent my time gainfullyemployed at a reasonable salary whilst enjoyingmyself. More importantly I was allowed tooperate within a chain of command, from therelatively secure position of an officer. Thisdespite comments such as ' I don't know whatyou're pretending to be, but you aren't doingit very well', from one W.R.A.C. Corporal and' Can I speak to anyone else? ' from a StaffOffice on the telephone.

I would like to recommend the SSLC toanyone who has enjoyed himself in the CCF,whether he is thinking of joining the forces ornot. It is of particular value to those who havenever had anything to do with the Army andwish to find out, and to those who are notcertain that a military career is for them. Thereare no strings attached to life subsequent tothe commission, although it does provide foran entry into the T&AVR if desired.

S. B. Stebbings, O.A.

THE PONDThis summer past has seen the first full

operation of The Pond.Two years ago, several members of the

Natural History Society cast around for aproject in which to engage. Their collective eyefell—from the heights of the Science Block—upon the open green lawns of the small SchoolHouse garden. A water for biological studies?A deep pond perhaps? A home for a few chosenfish? Was it a strange coincidence that severalof the N.H.S. members were also activeparticipants in the Angling Society?

And so, through the kind introduction of aparent, Mr. Donald Pitcher, a dull Novemberafternoon found several of the boys followingMr. Ingrey (Head Garden Adviser at I.C.I.Welwyn) in the making of a peg-lattice in thelawn. Thereafter followed many weeks of hardlabour. The turf was lifted and, through thegenerous assistance and direction of our owngroundsman, Mr. Cooper, many cubic yardsof soil were excavated and removed. It is still

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difficult to think that so much earth could havecome from such a comparatively small hole.

The work progressed, the sides were graded,an infill of soft sand laid below the ' liner ' anda covering of sifted soil above—until theexciting moment arrived to turn on the supplytap and to fill this inland lake.

Since that time, a water flora has been plantedand a constant study and record of the colonis-ing fauna has been maintained and is provinga richness in variety beyond our wildest hopes.We hope that this pond will provide an increas-ing asset in the future both for scientific studiesand in forming a micro-landscape of consider-able beauty.

We owe our thanks to many people. To Mr.Pitcher and to Mr. Ingrey who advised andencouraged us over many months; to Mr.Cooper who advised and encouraged us overmany months; to Mr. Cooper who gaveunstintingly of his own limited time and un-limited practical expertise and who kept us at itwhen we were flagging; to the boys who dug andsifted in term time and in holiday throughoutthe excavation. I hope that all feel their timewas well spent—I am confident that it was.

J.B.R.

TRAVELTrip to Russia, Summer 1977

For those five of us from the Sixth Form,plus Fred Wartenberg, who went on the school'strip to Russia, the first 1000 miles wereundoubtedly the worst. They took us fromDover to Vienna in two days, and were accom-panied by pathetic groans of ' I want to gohome' from most of the party of V.2. However,by the time we reached Hungary, via WestGermany and Austria, dysentery and gnat biteswere the major problems, eventually overcomeby excess of alcohol. The journey throughHungary proved in itself to be a disappointmentas the terrain was flat and boring. This wasmore than offset by the fact that it was the firstof the Eastern Bloc countries to be visited.There seemed to be genuine surprise that theborder guards smiled, chewed and smoked. InGyor we had our first taste of the endless formfilling that was to continue everywhere we went.The city of Budapest was perhaps one of themost beautiful places we saw. In the market inPest there was general hostility if we attemptedto communicate by speaking Russian or evenGerman, and the hatred of everything con-

cerned with Russia was evident in Czecho-slovakia, and also in Rumania, which was thenext country we visited. Wherever we arrivedto stay in the following days, the police turnedup about an hour later to make sure no illegaltransaction took place and their generally subtleattitude to all transgressors of the law was wellillustrated in Oradea, our first stop, by onepoliceman who knocked out a fellow Rumanianfor trying to pick up someone else's girlfriend.This devotion to duty was in stark contrast toour experiences when entering the country,when one border official generously decidednot to search the coach, for the price of a silverteaspoon and a packet of English fags. Rumaniawas a far more beautiful country than Hungary,despite the presence of a few rather incongruousindustrial complexes, and the traumas of thefirst two days were mostly forgotten when wereached Odessa on the Black Sea, havingtravelled for 1 week exactly. Further relief camewhen the rest of the party finally believed weweren't punks after all, rumours to this effecthaving been caused mostly by Pete Abbott'sability to come out in safety pins when understress.

Impressions of Odessa and Kiev, where westayed for four and three days respectively, werevastly different. Odessa was littered with tourists,some from abroad and also holidaymakers fromthe rest of Russia. A lot of time there was spenton the beach, as it was the only place which wevisited that had one. It was split into two parts,one for foreigners and one for Russians. How-ever, the appearance of several fat bikinis withfat women inside on the tourist beach suggestedthat the rules were not strictly adhered to, aswas the case with many others. Everyone in theparty was approached by someone wanting tobuy jeans, but to accept cash offers was highlydangerous.

In both Odessa and Kiev, all Russians whoapproached us were interested only in tellingus facts about their own country such as thearea which it occupied, the population figuresof the major cities: knowledge of this kindseemed to represent their ideas of intelligence,and throughout the week we were flooded withthis type of of information. The only interestshown in our own country was concerned withhow ' the " war " was progressing in NorthernIreland'. In contrast to Odessa, Kiev, which isinland, was not so much of a tourist attraction,despite the fact that it is a very beautiful city,and it was surprising that there were no signs

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of people being followed, as there were inOdessa.

The three-day stay in Czechoslovakia wasprobably the most enjoyable part of the holiday,despite an incident when three of us were nearlyknifed. This was due partly to the fact that itwas the most attractive and relaxed of thecommunist countries, and partly to the pleasantatmosphere on the coach. Prague could havebeen a disaster as we had all changed ourmoney on the black market, in order to buypresents—only to find that we had arrivedduring a bank holiday.

However, from here onwards the trip ransmoothly, apart from in Frankfurt, where PeteAbbott sat on a spiked fence (no doubt asymbolic safety pin), and was in great pain allthe way home (a mere 400 miles from Frank-furt). With this exception, we arrived homeintact, thanks to a loan from Mr. Wartenberg(who probably won't get his money back).Hopefully, we will be able to persuade somepeople to part with their money for next year'strip with Carrie.

P. Abbott, G. Bartlett, B. W. Copestick,G. Hughes, M. Whittaker, A.U.

School Party to Cornwall,14th-29th July 1977

This year we changed our venue from theChannel Islands to Bude in North Cornwall,where our camp site was close to ideal as it hada panoramic view of the town. A quarter of amile seawards from the site took you onto thetop of some 200 ft. cliffs.

As usual, the holiday started the day afterwe broke up for the summer holidays. Insteadof the hectic rush into London and through therush hour by train, we travelled in style, usingthe school's new minibus. There was no expen-sive sea voyage, just a nice cheap and easyjourney through southern England.

We arrived at the field in time for an orderlysetting up of camp before supper. The next twodays were sunny and hot and were spent mainlyon Bude beach. Much swimming and surfingwas done in the freezing surf of the AtlanticOcean. After those sun-soaked days the weatherset in, cold, damp and windy. Nevertheless thesunburn toll was high, though not as bad aslast year, so french cricket for some still heldextra peril, as the bowling remained very hardand accurate.

The weather had just turned when youngAdrian Cottrell, an additional camp member,arrived as planned.

Cooking outdoors in the wet is always un-pleasant, but this camp was saved from possiblesqualor by a large heavy army tent borrowedfrom the CCF, which mean that when itrained we could safely cook under this khakimonstrosity. This we indeed did on severaloccasions.

The minibus came into its own during thebad weather as it extended our visiting rangea great deal. It also meant dry transport whichbikes never had done in previous years. Duringthe course of the holiday we visited manyresorts, towns and Exeter. We visited tourist-packed Clovelly, King Arthur's Tintagel, ExeterCathedral and Ilfracombe. We also drove overa lot of Dartmoor but unfortunately we couldnot see much of it as it was covered in a thickmist at the time. On some of the better days wevisited the more local beauty spots such asBoscastle.

During some of the windy periods the surfbecame fantastic and on such days, certain ofus would venture into the sea from an emptyand freezing beach, under a leaden sky; maso-chists! In spite of the weather, which didbrighten up from time to time, everybody hada very enjoyable time.

Exactly a fortnight after we had arrived wepacked up, ironically under a brilliant blue sky.Instead of driving straight home we stopped forthe night at the officers' married quarters atR.A.F. Lyneham. The army tent was put upin a back garden and varying degrees of sleepwere obtained by al!. Mr. Cottrell is a navigatorand flight commander in one of the Herculessquadrons stationed there. Before setting offfor St. Albans the next day, we were shownaround a training simulator and one of themassive planes. We also saw the flight ofHercules going to the Queen's review of theR.A.F. at Finningley.

We left Lyneham with memories of the 12bottles of wine and the large 1-inch thick beefsteaks on which we had feasted the previousevening as the only guests at Adrian's birthdayparty. This more than kept up with the highquality cuisine of the whole camp.

St. Albans was reached at last and we allsplit up and went to that meal that you didn'thave to cook yourself, preceded by thatwelcome hot bath.

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We would like to thank Mr. Culver verymuch for his work and organisation that madeit all possible.

5. D. Humphris, F.3

St. Albans School-French PyreneesExchange

The party from Argeles-Gazost arrived onllth July, paying us a return visit after ourtrip to France at Easter. As usual, they wereaccompanied by Monsieur and Madame Dariesand on this occasion, by Monsieur Nodenot,also from the English staff of the Lycee. Theemphasis is always on the individual contactsbetween correspondents and to give any fairimpression of the Exchange, its successes andfailures, there should now follow twenty-eightseparate reports on the next fifteen days. Wedid, however, meet together on two occasions.

Our first gathering was a grand roundersmatch on King Harry field. Since the teamswere of mixed nationality this was in no sensean attempt to compensate for the humiliationsof the international soccer match at Easter. TheFrench boys mastered the game quickly, thoughthe girls preferred to remain spectators . . . asdid the staff! The afternoon was pleasant andrelaxed. Our excursion was by double-deckerto Hampton Court and Windsor. At the formerwe had time only for a rapid visit to the gardenand maze, but we managed to stay rather longerin Windsor. The outing culminated with a rivertrip to Staines, attractive despite the drizzle andaircraft noise. The fact that a number of theparty spent the voyage below deck may not beentirely due to the weather, however!

The French group returned to France on27th July—we hope to see them again.

S.R.G.

The German Exchange 1977One of the highlights of 1977, for me at any

rate, was the German exchange, between usand the Herdeschule of Luneburg. The tripstarted at 8.30 a.m. with a coach trip toHarwich, where we boarded the ferry. Thejourney from Harwich was fairly rough but ithad few effects on anyone in the group. Whenwe arrived at Luneburg we were met by ourexchange families.

During our stay we were all shown round thehistoric town of Luneburg and some of theplaces of interest in the surrounding country.

Nearly all of us visited the Rathaus (Town Hall)of Luneburg. This was about 600 years oldand had much gold and silver in its vaults.Apart from the language, the food was probablythe most different feature off our stay, parti-cularly the bread, which was much morecompressed than English bread. Specialitieswhich I tasted were sauerkraut, lemon tea,many kinds of sausages, and white wine.

One of the most popular places which wevisited was the Schiffshebewerk at Sharnebeck.This was a device which lifted barges andother boats through 38 m. in 15 minutes, farquicker than by making the barges go througha series of locks. The weight of the water alone,in troughs which carry the boats, is 5700 tonnes.

The visit was highlighted by a trip to theEast German Border, which was particularlyenhanced by the East German Border Soldiers'interest in us. With us all the time on this tripwere Customs officials, of whom we were ableto ask many questions. Many people found theCustoms headquarters and the Customs boatheadquarters particularly fascinating.

On the last Tuesday, we went to theHerdeschule which was very big and moderncompared to St. Albans School. Most of thepupils went daily by bicycle and underneathwere 1000 spaces for parking all these bicycles.

On the way back the crossing was muchcalmer. On the coach back to St. Albans, muchamusement was provided by ' Henry' thedriver. Finally, I would like to thank ourGerman hosts for the marvellous time we hadin Germany and particularly Mr. Stubbs forall his care and hard work in organising theexchange.

M. G. Spurgeon, IV.9

Biology Field Trip, April 1977' Don't worry, we'll all fit in somehow,' said

Mr. Harper as eleven of us busied ourselvespacking the ten-seater Landrover with kit andbiological equipment one cold, rainy, Eastermorning. We managed to squeeze in somehowand headed off due south at a sedate 40 m.p.h.Ten hours later we found Penarthur amidst therain and fog, and revived our frost-bittenappendages.

On waking (after an intolerable night on thenotorious Penarthur boards), we saw that thesky was overcast and threatening rain, whilethe wind came through the cracks in the ceiling.Snuggling back down into our lovely warm

44

sleeping bags we looked forward to a day oftable tennis and general inactivity.

Our tranquility was soon shattered by thehoarse voice of Mr. Harper shouting up thestairs that breakfast was ready and that wewould be leaving at 8.30 for our first field study.Groaning, we crawled out of bed, demolishedour breakfast and reluctantly prepared for ourday out. The first day was a visit to the FedwFawr plateau to examine the piles of earthscattered across the bleak landscape. Mr.Harper discounted many theories in favour ofhis own which was the cause of that evening'sargument.

Weather permitting, this pattern of a day outon a particular study and the evening discussingour findings, continued throughout the entireweek. The studies included a detailed survey ofstream flora and fauna and the effect of altitudeon it—this required two days, and despite thedriving rain, howling gales and near-zerotemperatures, we all managed to survive. Wespent a day comparing the flora in oak andlarch woods, which led to an intensive study ofmosses and liverworts. Another day was devotedto a study of forestry and growth rates ofseedling conifers on different sides of a hill.The only day the weather was too bad for astudy, we were press-ganged into picking uptons of stones and putting them into thecrevasses and sink holes in the track. Surpriseof surprises—the last day we had free, and someof us tramped up to Trichrug by a new routeand we found ourselves discussing biologyfreely and animatedly.

Sadly, the week came to an end, and we piledthe kit back into the Land rover, collapsed intoour seats and enjoyed our first sit-down for sixdays.

Our thanks for a most enjoyable trip are dueto Mr. Harper who took us to places whicheven the sheep had not populated, and also toMr. Alphey, whose cooking kept us wellballasted for the week.

Andy Almond, S.U.Jem Ewer, S.U.

Expeditionary SocietyAltitude Project

This project was aiming to find the variationin plant and vegetation types in relation toaltitude and hence build up a model for thePyrenees of the height at which the dominanttypes tended to fade out and be replaced by

others. This was done taking other variablessuch as aspect, gradient and geology intoaccount to see what effect these had on thegeneral trends.

The second part was centred on the morecommon species of mammal, bird, reptile andplant that we found to see what their delimitingaltitudes were—for example the common frogwas found from base level up to 2140 m.

At the time of writing, final conclusions havestill to be formulated, but the immediateimpression was one of tremendous variationbetween (a) the north and the south sides ofthe range, and (b) one slope and another,seemingly particularly influenced by aspect. Forinstance, on one east-facing slope there were notrees at all, while on the opposite valley therewere trees for 1,800 feet!

Interesting results should eventually come outof this study.

P. Buckley

Woodland ProjectThe plan was to compare two different wood-

lands at roughly the same altitudes, firstly onthe French side and then on the Spanish sideof the Pyrenees. The two woodland types chosenwere (a) predominantly Beech and (b) pre-dominantly Silver Fir. The information requiredfrom each wood included:

(i) Tree density—the number and type of eachtree in each quadrat survey.

(ii) Other vegetation.(iii) Type of leaf litter.(iv) Birds and mammals seen.(v) Geology and slope.

The method of surveying (as mentioned in (i))was by quadrates. 10 m. square areas weremeasured out—5 such areas being surveyed at30 m. intervals. In each quadrat the numbersof each species of tree were counted, geologyand slope recorded and any other observationson the flora and fauna were made. The onlyarea we did not manage to cover was the livetrapping of mammals—our camp site being toofar from suitable woods to ensure regularchecking of the traps.

Our results have yet to be analysed but Imust mention a few of the interesting organismswe found, namely the saphrophytic YellowBirdsnest and Birdsnest Orchid (which live ondecaying matter like fungi), and several interest-ing birds, including the Crested Tit andGoshawk.

R. W. S. Knightbridge, S.U.

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Migration ProjectAnother of the projects was to record bird

and insect migration.The one definite record of bird migration in

the Pyrenees was of a House Martin flying lowover the Port de Gavarnie on 10th August. Onthe Spanish side there were masses of HouseMartins and Crag Martins over our camp sitesbut they still seemed to have nests on nearbycliffs—probably not ready to migrate for severalweeks. Accompanying the Martins were smallparties of Alpine Swifts; these would havefinished breeding and were probably massingfor migration.

I was not able to obtain records of insectmigration to send to Rothamsted for tworeasons: (a) It was very difficult to tell whetherinsects were migrating or just feeding, especiallyat the Port de Gavarnie, and (b) 7 people wentup very high to the Breche de Roland and sawbutterflies at the top of a high pass on theborder which were probably migrating but,unfortunately, they did not record the relevantdata.

7?. W. S. Knightbridge, S.U.

ExpeditionThe Expeditionary Society's summer expedi-

tion to the Pyrenees, lst-21st August.We left the school yard in our heavily-loaded

Ford Transit on 1st August and took the ferryfrom Dover to Boulogne. After a pleasant stayin the marshlands just south of Nantes wherewe saw a colony of rare avocets, we arrived atGavarnie in the Pyrenees on Sunday, 7thAugust.

We intended to stay on the French side forabout a week and then move on to the Spanishside for a week. We camped at a site a fewmiles away from the Cirque de Gavarnie whichwas our study area, and so a short drive wasneeded before we could start the projects eachday. The days were equally divided betweenproject work and recreation, and one day sevenof us climbed the legendary Breche de Rolandup some very steep snow slopes. The finalascent took half an hour, while with a coolnerve and supple knees the descent took threeminutes!

We left Gavarnie for the national park atOrdesa, four miles as the crow flies, but theTransit is no crow, and it took us two days tocover the 106 miles, camping ' sauvage ' for onenight. We spent the time at Ordesa betweenproject work and sunbathing in the hot sun.

We left for home on Thursday, 18th August,and after a hair-raising drive through themountains we arrived in France that evening.Very wet weather drove us on through Franceso that we were able to catch the ferry onSunday evening, and so arrived back a dayearlier than expected.

Our thanks must go to Dr. and Mrs.Grummitt for taking us, and to all the parents,sponsors and friends who helped to make thetrip such a success.

T. M. Gminmitt (Chairman)Members: Dr. and Mrs. Grummitt, P. Buckley,E. Flint, H. Flint, T. Grummitt, D. Hammond,R. Knightbridge, N. Morgan and S. Tanner.

MUSICMusic Notes

Although I was spared the responsibility oflooking after the music in the Abbey lastsummer term, it must go on record as thebusiest yet, what with 2 broadcast evensongs,ten days of International Organ Festival, a tripto France, as well as plenty to keep me out ofmischief at School!

By the time this is in print, the Music Depart-ment will have moved out of the B.L.R. andinto the ground floor of the Old Hall. Thereasons for this are two-fold; firstly the B.L.R.is needed for use as a Lecture Room, with thefacilities that this implies, but secondly becausemuch more floor space is needed for theOrchestras and Concert Band—the presentarrangement in Hall being fine for a weeklyperformance of Martinu's ' Ballad of thekitchen utensils' but quite hopeless for anywork not requiring an obligato 'spoons' part.It is very encouraging that it is more space thatwe need and not less! All the class teaching willalso take place in the new room, which willmean that all the Department's facilities willbe in one place and gone will be the weeklyoperation of carrying the music stands backand forth. The use of the Song School willcontinue unchanged—and what a differencethat has made to life in the Music Department.Some of the more observant will have noticedthe arrival of two rather solid, heavy lookingpianos which, despite their appearance, areexcellent reconditioned pianos which I hopewill do something to relieve the problems ofaccompanying a lesson on a piano a semi-toneflat! The standard of transposition may welldecline among the instrumental teaching staff.

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The School now seems fairly well establishedas a source for many interesting engagementsfor members of the Choir. Andrew Harbord hasrecently returned from a tour to Holland withthe English Music Theatre Company, singingin performances of several Britten operas,having previously sung Harry in ' AlbertHerring' in London. During the summer wewere asked to provide three trebles for a pro-duction with the English National Opera, whichproved impossible to arrange because ofholidays, etc. Justin Booth-Clibborn has justfinished singing in a production o f ' The Balladof Salomon Pavey' for Thames Television—which is likely lo become a well-known operajudging by the success that it has had so far,and yesterday I was rung by the E.N.O. to seeif we had a treble for their next production of' The Magic Flute' by Mozart. All these haveprovided a wonderful experience for those luckyenough to get the part—I hope that the offerskeep arriving!!

The Music Society has just got off to aroaring start with an evening with Alex Welsh,his Jazz Band, and Humphrey Lyttleton.Judging by the record number of Patrons ofthe Society this year, the programme seems tohave met with approval. Don't waste the oppor-tunity of hearing these concerts; they are FREE!At this point may I suggest that you get your1978 diaries out and write in the dates now.

Even though these notes always seem to endwith the same sentiment, 1 cannot help thankingDavid McCord and Richard Bond for thetremendous hard work that they put into allsorts of music activities—unknown to most, Isuspect. And lastly, to the boys who toleratebeing shouted at to play in tune, and worse—it's worth it, I hope!

J.F.C.

Calendar for Spring and Summer 1978JANUARY31 The ' Bochmann String Quartet ' play

works by Haydn, Berg, Wolf and Beet-hoven in the Hall at 7.30 p.m.

FEBRUARY8 Communion sung by the School Choir in

the Abbey at 6.00 p.m.14 Concert of Contemporary Music with

Sarah Walker. Programme will include' The Soldier's Tale ' (Stravinsky), 'O King '& 'Folk Songs' (Berio) and the firstperformance in England of ' Three Hale

Mairies' (Roger Marsh). In the Hall at7.30 p.m. Admission by programme.

MARCH8 ORATORIO CONCERT—Abbey at 7.30

p.m.Magnificat (Bach)Organ Concerto (Poulenc)Paukenmesse (Haydn)Hazel Holt, Julie Kennard,Doreen Walker, Rogers Covey-Crump,Ian Caddy, Gillian WeirThe School Choral SocietyThe High School Choral SocietyThe Tilford Bach Festival Orchestra

21 School Concert in the Hall at 7.30 p.m.APRIL25 Annual Music Competition

Adjudicator: David Pettit, Esq., CliftonCollegePrizewinners' Concert in the Hall at 7.30p.m.

MAY23 Recital by the Cathedral Choir with Simon

Lindley (Organ solos) in the Abbey at8.00 p.m.

JUNE17 Founders' Day Service in the Abbey at

10.45 a.m.20 Commemoration Concert in the Hall at

8.00 p.m.JULY11 Piano recital by Ronald Smith in the Hall

at 8.00 p.m.

The Music SocietyThe Summer Term saw the completion of a

fine series of programmes for the School MusicSociety with two contrasting concerts. First wehad a really professional concert by the MusicGroup of London, consisting on this occasionof Frances Mason (Violin), Eileen Croxford('Cello) and David Parkhouse (Piano). DavidParkhouse introduced each item in a pleasantlyinformal and informative way. The onlymodern work was by Halvorsen. and yet itowed its inspiration to 200 years ago. It was hisPassacaglia on a theme of Handel, for un-accompanied violin and 'cello, and it was amost moving performance.

The other works, in order, were Haydn'sTrio in G major, called the Gypsy Rondo,Brahms Trio in C minor, and the great Arch-duke trio in B flat by Beethoven. I cannot thinkof any music more suited to the School Halland the intimate atmosphere of a Music Society.

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It certainly got very high marks from me forenjoyment, beauty, and technical skill.

A fortnight later it was the turn of theamateurs, when members of the Schoolpresented the Commemoration Concert. Pre-dominantly this was by groups of players. Theonly two solo performances were swan songsby those who have so often delighted us—PeterMayo at the piano with Rachmaninov's Preludein C sharp minor and Gerard Mackenzie play-ing four movements by J. S. Bach on the 'cello.Space forbids mentioning every item in detail,but special record must be made of new groundbroken. It was thrilling to find two cases ofsoloists playing with orchestral accompaniment,which demands so much more from all con-cerned, not least the conductor! First the StringOrchestra combined with David Adams to playBaermann's Adagio for clarinet and strings, inwhich the soloist produced a good tone andshowed every confidence.

The the concert concluded with the Rondofrom Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto, in whichWilliam Lloyd was the soloist with the fullorchestra, a fine performance by this accom-plished pianist. We shall miss him as well asseveral others who have led the various sectionsof the orchestra, but we are confident that thesuccession will not fail.

Other groups featuring in the concert werethe Brass Group, the Concert Band, theRecorder Consort, The Big Band, who set ourfeet a-tingling, and the String Orchestraadmirably playing Britten's Simple Symphony.What a wide range of musical talent all thisrepresents, not to mention smaller groups ofguitars, Nigel Mills' group in his own composi-tion, ' You Stand Alone', and Chris de Villiers'quartet playing Davy by Grappelli. Here wassuch variety that everyone must have foundsomething to his taste.

H. Schofield

School Choir: Summer 1977The summer term is invariably a slack one

from the choir's point of view, mainly becauseof examinations: O and A levels for the moresenior members of the School, and then theever-popular School exams. In the past it hasbeen found impossible to get the choir to areally ' professional' standard, and keep itthere, and so there are usually no more thantwo major events in the term, and so it was thissummer.

The first of these, on 12th May, wasCompline, a meditative evening service datingfrom monastic times. It may be of interest tonote that we are the only choir to sing Complinein the Abbey. To complete the plainsong servicewe sang Antonio Lotti's rousing anthem' Regina Coeli Laetare '.

The second was the Annual Founders' Dayservice held in the Abbey on 28th May. Theservice began with John Rutter's ' O clap yourhands ', a fitting start to this eulogistic occasion.The anthem, sung just before the Commemora-tion of Benefactors, was Handel's CoronationAnthem ' Zadok the priest', which has beensung at every British Coronation since 1727.

During the term the choir sang ' Easter'from the ' Five Mystical Songs' by Vaughan-Williams (with James Frost singing the solopart admirably), as well as ' The King shallrejoice' by Handel and several shorter anthems.

Finally, I must express my gratitude to thoseinvolved in the preparation of these services—to John Clough for his superlative training ofthe choir; Andrew Daynes without whom itwould not flourish; and lastly to Richard Bondthe stalwart organist who upholds both choirand congregation during these services.

A. P. Crook, M.U.

THE SIXTH FORM CENTREChairman: : P. GirlingSecretary: C. AndrewsUpper Sixth Members: K. Baker, H. Clear Hill,

T. Dobson, K. SharpeLower Sixth Members: P. Carpenter, B. Davies,

P. Richardson, J. Riddle,P. Rossington, C. Weir

A new school year brings change everywhere,especially to the sixth form. From the solitudeof the end of the Summer Term when the UpperSixth had left for exams, to the bustle of theAutumn Term, with a new Lower Sixth, andthe added ' burden ' of a very large Third YearSixth. But although our facilities are strained,they appear to have won through yet again.

The Summer Disco proved to be the biggestand most enjoyable sixth form social functionso far, despite some early problems. I wouldlike to be able to say that the disco takings paidfor the long-awaited new football table, but wewere even luckier than that, owing to a verykind gentleman who offered to come and takeour worn-out table away, and leave in its placea very expensive-looking table in perfect con-dition. However, I am confident the Committeewill be able to think of some way to spend the

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money, having finally paid off our debts to theschool.

Around the Centre, our thanks must go toNick Tarry who has put an enormous amountof energy into running the snooker room, organ-ising competitions and replacing the equipment—Oh that everyone showed his enthusiasm andcommitment! The Shop continues to make analarming profit. The Treasury is quiet but verycapable. The Gazette reaches hitherto unknownheights of wit and journalism, surrounded bylong periods of apathy. In other areas theCentre appears to be content to serve itsfunction and no more.

Our thanks must go to all the people whogive some of their spare time and energies torunning the Centre, by doing jobs or serving onthe Committee, and also to Mr. Pincock whodoes his best to keep us on a reasonably straightpath. Our thanks also to retiring ChairmanKevin Baker. Without the help of these people,the Sixth Form Centre would be a much lessenterprising affair, if indeed it could exist at all.Thank you very much.

P. Girling, A.U.

ACTIVITIESCORPS NOTESPROMOTIONS:Army Section

23 Jul. 77—To be S/Sgts: Sgts N. Corfield, P.Downey.To be Sgts: Cpls H. Clear Hill, N. Evans, K.Harding, N. Morgan, D. Nevell, D. Nowell, P.Parker, M. Smith, D. Tiley, L. Walker, J. West,D. Wharton.To be Cpls: L/Cpls S. Burns, I. King, N. Tarry.

1 Sept. 77—To be L/Cpls: Cdts C. Albury, C.Blythe, A. Brigs, G. Colledge, R. Cooper, B.Davies, A. Haysom, D. Lester, A. Marshall,S. Martin, R. Morgan, A. Morrison, M. Norman,T. Pegg, M. Pembroke, T. Penney, D. Tryon,P. Tynan, W. Weir.

RAF Section23 Jul. 77—To be F/Sgt: Sgt M. Robinson.

To be Sgts: Cpls P. Fairs, A. Ingelbrecht, K.Welsh, C. Yates.To be Cpls: J/Cpls S. McNamara, N. Neill.

Naval SectionAdvancement to Leading Seaman: S. Libby,

Seniority 1.5.77; C. Allner, Seniority 1.6.77;P. Dean, Seniority 1.10.77.

Resignations:vv.e.f. 1 Sept. 77

2Lt M. G. F. Darby from the Army Section onleaving the School.Pilot Officer N. A. Wood Smith as OC RAFSection.

The ' silly' season has come and gone andwith it the Annual Inspection, Annual Camp

and the visit to BAOR. It is good to be able torecord that all these events were highly success-ful and in every case all the NCOs and Cadetsinvolved brought great credit to both the Schooland the Corps. In particular the InspectingOfficer, Air Commodore R. Colbeck, RAF,gave us a glowing report which was echoed bythose Inspecting the individual sections. Howwe manage to work this annual miracle I shallnever fully appreciate but I shall keep myfingers crossed for 1978 when the InspectingOfficer will be Major-General Sir Philip Ward,KCVO, CBE, Commandant The Royal MilitaryAcademy, Sandhurst.

Talking of Major-Generals, I am delighted tobe able to report that Brigadier R. G. Lawson,OBE, DSO (OA), has been promoted to thatrank and appointed to command 1 Div,l (BR)Corps. At this moment I suppose more ex-members of the Contingent are holding highService commands than at any previous timeand that many of them are prepared to help uswhenever they can—we are most grateful.

It would be idle to pretend that there are noclouds on the horizon because with the Defencecuts beginning to bite this is inevitable. Unfor-tunately the main area of ' pinch' is traveland it looks certain that our movements willbecome more restricted in the immediate future.However, we shall do our utmost to becomeself-financing in this respect in a serious attemptto avoid curtailing our training and to ensurethat those joining the Contingent at the presenttime, and recruiting is running at 50-60 peryear, are no worse off than their predecessors.I regard it of fundamental importance that themembers of the Contingent should visit as manyService establishments as possible during theiryears with us.

The other problem is that we are nowseriously under-manned as far as officers areconcerned and there is no immediate solutionto this in sight. We are all the more grateful,therefore, to our affiliated RA Battery, theRoyal Anglian Regiment, the Royal MilitaryPolice, the Cadet Training Teams and ArmyYouth Teams, all of whom help us both' home' and ' away' and without whose assist-ance the Contingent would be very mediocreindeed.

By now you will probably feel that anatmosphere of gloom has settled over thisreport and if so I am sorry for that is not theintention—indeed I consider the Contingent tobe on the crest of a wave—but before I make

49

matters worse 1 will shut up and hand over tothe Cadets for detailed descriptions of the' nitty gritty'.

c.E.r.

CCF Annual Camp 1977Annual camp was held at Sennybridge, a

small village about 8 miles from Brecon. Thetransport to the camp had two extremes—thecomfort of British Rail's new express train, the125, and the hot, stuffy air of two coaches, eachloaded with 40 cadets and their luggage.

On arrival at camp the first thing asked ofthe members of the advance party was whatamenities the village of Sennybridge possessed.We discovered, to our relief, that Sennybridgehad three pubs and a fish and chip shop.

We were then formally welcomed to the campby the CO, who told us we would be accom-panied on most of our activities by Lt D. W.Willox, RA (who is an O.A.).

After a somewhat belated tea, due to a largequeue, which was to become commonplace forthe rest of our stay, we were treated to a tourof the camp, not by walking around with aguide, but in the form of a cross-country run.(Twice round the camp did little to give us agood impression.)

That evening we were let loose into the townand the amenities of Sennybridge were fullytested, both for their quality and facilitiesoffered.

The next morning the Orienteering competi-tion was held, this was won by Cpl D. Nevellin a time of 35 mins, knocking 9 mins off theprevious course record. The team event waswon by the School, and several days later thecup and medals were presented to the victoriousteam by Major-General J. D. C. Graham, CBE,who is GOC Wales. He was one of the dis-tinguished guests who visited us. Others wereColonel D. W. Fladgate, MBE, who is ColonelRecruiting, Eastern District, and Colonel J. S.Agar, who is now becoming one of us.

While at camp we were given various displaysby members of the regular army; there was aRapier demonstration (low-level anti-aircraftmissile) by 22 Lt AD Regiment RA; theQueen's Dragoon Guards display team, showinga variety of vehicles including the Scorpion, andtheir band who played one afternoon in thecanteen and then went outside and soundedRetreat; 30th Signals Regiment displaying thevariety of modern equipment they use; and19 Field Regiment RA who, although involved

in an exercise with the other SAS, had enoughtime to let us man the guns and help fire therounds.

Apart from Lt Willox we had also ' gained 'Col Sgt M. Abbott from 1st Battalion, RoyalAnglian Regiment. Together, these two made astrong team and organised all the Battlecraftexercises we did:: there was section battlecraft,which involved attacking a small ' enemy'outfie (in reality some of our NCO's); and anight ambush was planned and successfullyexecuted against the 'enemy' (more NCO's!)this was particularly popular. A Patrol expedi-tion was carried out; this initially involvedwalking two and a half miles to a bivouac sitewhere we had our first sample of ' compo'rations for this camp. After the food, somepatrols were sent out to check at which one ofthree positions the enemy was located (notNCO's but ' regulars'). Having determinedwhere they were we were supposed to reportback and then sleep until 0300 when we wouldattack the enemy position. However, due tosentries who fell asleep we did not get out ofbed until 0500 (much to our relief!) when theattack was carried out and was successful dueto a thick mist which had engulfed us.

The March and Shoot competition was heldin camp, which involved two teams in ful luniform and all carrying rifles, except one fromeach team, who carried a Bren gun, runningtwo and a half miles, doing the assault course(both timed) and then having to shoot downsome plates as quickly as possible (an accidentoccurred here when a certain NCO managed toshoot a sheep!). Both teams distinguishedthemselves, the ' B ' team setting record timesfor both the assault course and the run andfinishing 4th overall, and the ' A ' team finishinglast overall, due to poor shooting.

Those of us not in the teams were not let offlightly, though. We too had to do the run,although without a Bren gun, and the assaultcourse. This was the first time we met theassault course but not the last.

The inter-platoon competition consisted of arun (three times round the camp), orienteering,a ' circus' consisting of weapons, signals, firstaid, etc., and the assault course. This was wonby the recruits section, mainly due to some fineleadership from their NCO's.

During our stay at Sennybridge we spent oneand a half days firing No. 4 Rifle. One daywas spent at a gallery range, mainly to decidethe teams for the IBSR competition. This was

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held at ' G' range, which was electricallyoperated. Our team managed to finished 2ndoverall. Here we were visited by Major-GeneralGraham, who surprised us all with his eagernessto talk to everyone.

The expeditions were not what everyone hadhoped for, especially Cpl Novell's group. Westarted off in fine weather yet once up on theBrecon Beacons we were surrounded by cloudsand mist and the wind began to blow at galeforce, thus soaking everyone within a matterof minutes. It was not without danger either;walking along the edge of a 100 ft. precipicewith a 40 m.p.h. wind trying to blow you overis not for those with bad nerves! However,having reached the camp site, we sampled thedelights of ' compo' again, and had a goodnight's sleep (13 hours!).

The next item on the agenda was the adven-ture training. This was done with the help ofthe Army Youth Team. This year there was nosailing but this was compensated for by theintroduction of caving—if you think you cansqueeze through a nine-inch gap between thefloor and the ceiling and enjoy it then cavingis for you. The rock-climbing and canoeing alsoproved popular and great fun was had when allthe canoes were lined up and the people at eachend told to swop places!

Finally our thanks must go to the CO, hisOfficers and the RSM, who worked hard tomake the camp a success.

Michael Pembroke, M.L.

BAOR 1977On 31st July twenty cadets plus Lt-Col

Pryke and 2 Lt Darby left St. Albans for theBritish Army on the Rhine. We caught the boatfrom Harwich to the Hook of Holland andfrom there travelled by train to Monchenglad-bach where we were met by Major B. L. Wood,RMP, and then went on to Diisseldorf to 101Provost Company RMP, of which he is theCommanding Officer. After settling in we hadlunch and were then taken over to Diisseldorfairport which is virtually next door to thebarracks. After being shown round the airportbuildings by our German guide we were takenout in a coach to see the runways and taxiingareas. It was very interesting to see how proudour guide was of the airport and how full offacts and figures he was as he identified aircraftwe saw.

The next morning we set off for 23 BaseREME Workshop at Wetter on the banks of

the Ruhr. After a brief talk about the workdone there we were shown around. Basically itis the place to which broken-down vehicles orvehicles needing complete overhauls are taken.After lunch in the German staff's canteen, weleft for Werl and 115 Provost Company RMP,where we were to stay for the next two nights.On arrival we discovered that Simon Stebbings,who was at school until December 1976, wasthere. At the time he was a 2nd Lieutenant inthe RMP while on a Short Service LimitedCommission. That evening we were given a talkon the functions and activities of the RMP andshown how mobile patrols are controlled.

On Wednesday morning we went to 26 FdRegt Royal Artillery where we were shownsurveying equpiment and were allowed to drivetheir 110 mm self-propelled guns. Andrew Wraymade an ' error of judgement' in changingstraight from top gear back into first andreceived a kick in the back of the head as thestartled instructor lurched forward, and a cutnose from the front of the driver's compart-ment !

In the afternoon a few of us were allowed todrive Armoured Personnel Carriers at 1st BnThe Queens Regiment who are stationedadjacent to the RMP at Werl, and we were alsoshown their mortars, anti-tank weapons andsmall arms.

That evening was supposed to be spentshooting on the 30 m range with Capt M. N.Collyer, RMP. Second in Command of 115Provost Company, but it wasn't to be as easyas that. As only four people could shoot at atime it was decided that those not shootingshould be put over the assault course. The onlycasualty was Nicholas Greenwood who had adisagreement with a rope over how far he shouldcome down to earth and ended up with a blackeye for his endeavours.

The next morning we left Werl for the QueensRoyal Irish Hussars at Paderborn. Here wewere given a short history of the regiment andwere then taken outside where we were drivenaround in two Chieftains, a Stalwart, a Ferretscout car and a Scimitar. The driver of theScimitar obviously had a lapse of memory ashe blatantly ignored the 20 km per hour speedlimit around the camp, managing to reach about80 km per hour in places! That afternoon wetravelled to the 16th/5th Queen's Royal Lancersat Wolfenbuttel where we were to stay the night.

On Friday morning, after awakening in our' Colditz '-like accommodation, we went to

51

Helmstedt near the East-West German borderand were then taken on a tour of the borderitself and were shown the terrible measures theEast Germans have to take to keep their peoplein, including automatically-triggered machineguns and networks of fencing, not to mentionmines and dog patrols. After lunch at Helmstedtwe drove back to Diisseldorf, half of us arrivingat 10.30 that night and the other half at 12.30.due to one of the two Transits, that we weretravelling in, breaking down on the Autobahn.

Saturday morning was free (used by many asan excuse for a lie-in!) and in the afternoonwe went orienteering at Hub be] rath. Unfor-tunately, the black and white small scale mapsled to a lot of confusion, but the competitionwas eventually won by Nigel Meeson, secondwas Nicholas Corfield and third was AndrewMorrison, all of whom received prizes.

Sunday was enjoyed by everybody, beingspent at Fantasialand, which is a giant funfairnear Cologne. Michael Norman, AndrewMcDonnell, John Giffen and David King triedto order ice-cream in German and were serveda mixture of ice-cream, fruit and Schnapps!

The following morning we went to 14 Topo-graphic Squadron, Royal Engineers, where wewere shown how maps are made from thesurveying through the printing to the storingand issuing. In the afternoon we travelled toBritish Forces Broadcasting Service HQ atCologne, and four of us, Nigel Mccson, DavidBatey, Simon Kingsley and myself, were inter-viewed on the radio about the CCF. Later wewent out on a night exercise on Hubbelrathtraining area. The idea was to get from check-point to checkpoint, evading capture by RMPpatrols. The event was won by NicholasCorfield's team who received a can of beer each.Andrew Wray's team were unfortunately caughtfour times and we were told that one of thecaptures was due to them being seen strollingalong a skyline (a cardinal sin in such anexercise).

On the morning of our last day we wereshown round the Inventory Control Point atViersen where all stores needed by BAOR areprocessed, and after lunch at 102 Provost Com-pany RMP at MSnchengladbach we were takenaround the HQ of the Special InvestigationsBranch of the RMP where all serious crimesinvolving military personnel are dealt with. Ttwas here also that we were visited by ColP. A. W. G. Durrani, RMP, who is the ProvostMarshal (BAOR). That evening we presented

crates of beer to Cpls Hodgson and ' Dusty"Miller, who had been our drivers throughoutour stay, and then left for home.

I think 1 can speak for everyone who went insaying that the stay in Germany was reallyenjoyable, both as a great holiday and as achance to meet the soldiers and see the equip-ment of the Army, and I would strongly recom-mend any cadet to place a trip to BAOR on topof his list of priorities. Many thanks are due toLt-Col G. A. Taylor, RMP (an O.A.). whoorganised the trip; the CO, for all his hardwork; and to all at 101 and 115 Provost Com-panies who looked after us so well throughoutour stay.

David Tryon, A .L.

CCF Aquatic SportsThose who had never been to Colchester

before, looked forward to the weekend withcautious excitement; for those who had beenbefore, it was just another training weekend.

We arrived at 156 Provost Coy, RMP atabout 7 o'clock Friday evening and, after theusual scramble for the bunks, were rushed overto the dining room to bolt down our first meal,which was extremely good. The MPs obviouslybelieve that an army marches on its stomach!Then it was a lightning change into combat kitand the weekend had really begun. After anopening address by the OC of the Company wewere taken to the 1 StafFords barracks forinstruction on the SLR, GPMG and 84 mmanti-tank gun. Then it was back to the barracksand to bed.

On Saturday morning we were woken at theunearthly time of 6.15. After breakfast we wentswimming; the programme included taking themilitary survival test followed by a variationof water polo. The rest of the morning wasspent on the range and at the training theatre.On the range we were allowed to fire 10-15rounds on the SLR, and 60-80 rounds on theGPMG, in both the light and sustained roles.At the training theatre we fired converted anti-tank guns and SLRs at film sequences. Imme-diately after dinner the OC, Major O'Brien.tried to teach us some Akido (self-defence inEnglish!) and Sgt Nowell proved to be anexcellent subject for the demonstrations. Thenwe were taken to 665 Sqn Lines to look at theirScout and Sioux helicopters. Unfortunately wecould not fly in them, but were allowed to sitin the pilots' scats and discover the uses of allthe switches.

52

The evening activity was the one we had notbeen looking forward to; a mere 8 miles cross-country in combat kit, with some orienteeringin the pitch dark thrown in. However, everybodyarrived back at the barracks—eventually—afteradventures with friendly farm goats andfarmers! Fortunately the NAAFI was open andwe drowned our sorrows there. When the timecame, everyone crawled into bed and was asleepalmost straight away, in marked contrast to thenight before!

On Sunday morning the MPs organised theirown version of ' It's a Knockout', where wetook part in the races and they ' encouraged'us by throwing buckets of water and playinghoses over us. Despite this (or was it becauseof this?), we all enjoyed the morning very much.Sgt Tiley's team won.

Thanks to the RMPs for all the obvious hardwork that went into such a full and variedweekend, and especially to Major O'Brien, StaffSgt Seggie and the CO.

J. C. G. Woodrow, VA

CCF Naval SectionThree crews were entered for the S.E. Area

Regatta in July—a one-day event at Chathamwhich was even more ' do-it-yourself' thanusual—but valuable training nevertheless.

Unfortunately, in the September NationalRegatta we had difficulty raising a full teamand could only enter one A.S.C. crew with thehelp of W. Green—RAF Section! S.E. AreaRegatta. Neither were the results as good as lastyear.

Bosun ' A ' (Aimer, P. Blythe)points result 4th out of 13

Bosun ' B ' (Oliver, Skinner) 12th out of 13A.S.C. (Limebear, Bishop, Harbord, Onslow)

2nd out of 4September A.S.C.

(Limebear, Green, Oliver, Onslow)24th out of 41

Here the best position was 10/41, but a dis-qualification after protest in the second racebrought us down heavily.

During the summer holiday Steve Libbystruggled with poor weather to complete a30-hr RN Flying Scholarship in Cessna 150aircraft at Luton—he still had 20 hours to doat the end of the holiday! Graham Bishopenjoyed an Engineering Course at HMS' Sultan' and is to be congratulated on achiev-ing 96% in the end of course test, which was thehighest score ever recorded.

Our dinghy camping cruise in ASC dinghiesborrowed from Ipswich Sea Cadets was can-celled because the safety boat was not available.As it happened that period contained 24 hoursof continuous heavy rain, so perhaps it was justas well we didn't go.

Much work has been done on our secondASC—now in use at Bury Lake, Rickmans-worth, and the other is due into the TechnicalCentre for a major refit during October, aftertwo years of continuous work, with littleattention.

We have been much helped by M. R. Menziewho has given sail training in his Vega atBurnham, and by an O.A., Bryan Evans, whohas provided another splendid training weekendaboard his ' One ton Cup' yacht, ' Cohort', inthe Solent area. These opportunities to enlargethe range of experience of the Cadets are alwaysgreatly appreciated.

The usual pattern of R.Y.A. tests, to saynothing of preparation for Naval proficiencyand Advanced Naval proficiency tests, tend tomake this term a pint pot, into which a quartmust be fitted; but this situation may be easedby more frequent help from CPO Flower—ourtraining Chief Petty Officer.

B.R.R.M.

D.E.A.S.The 1976-77 school year was a remarkable

one for the scheme within the school. Duringthe course of that year fourteen boys gainedtheir Gold award and this October five of themwill attend the ceremony at Buckingham Palace.They comprise members of a number of schoolyears, one of whom having left the schoolin 1974 completed his award at college. Thissuccess reflects the commitment that has beenapparent in recent years. At Silver level theschool has always done well and although theachievement of awards is not the only importantthing, it is pleasing for staff and boys to havedone so well at Gold level.

The expeditions in the summer suggested thatthe number of awards may not be so high inthe future. One Gold group showed total com-mand of the ground and weather conditions;the other two groups were less convincing. Onegroup revealed a tendency to slowness that withgood fortune appeared to escape the attentionof the assessors. The other group having battledthrough, fell prey to bad weather. Their badweather route was not appreciated by assessors

53

who thought the weather tolerable but con-sidered waiting for them on their neglected goodweather route intolerable. The Silver expedi-tions were better but even so left some worries.Clashes with foreign exchanges reducednumbers and two boys failed to complete theirexpedition. A Silver group showed the commonfault of poor time-keeping which resulted in athree-hour wait for two of us on BannauBrycheiniog in the rain and mist. In fairness,three groups went through that point whichwas a great feat of navigation in the mist, afeat the staff very nearly failed to equal.

The scheme in school and at Penarthur isnow in the hands of Messrs. Epton, Rowley,Johnson, Waterman and myself, but specialthanks are due to a number of helpers. Mrs.Tarling continues to run a very successful FirstAid course each Christmas Term. Mr. Scaseprovides expert help at Penarthur and leaves ususe of the gym every Friday afternoon. A largenumber of staff and boys join us in Wales tohelp with assessing, cooking and generally tocreate a pleasant atmosphere. Simon Turner.Mick Bing, Les Fields, Paul Jelley, JohnWebster, Keith Bowyer have all been a greatasset to the scheme and we hope this desireof older and old boys to help will continue.

G. Best

The Other ExpeditionMost of the school (and perhaps even some

of the DEAS staff) will be unaware that thesummer holidays saw the completion of aDEAS expedition other than the well-publicisedone in the Brecon Beacons. This report is forthose of you who thought the Scheme'sexpeditions were all walking-boots and ruck-sacks.

Our Gold cycling expedition took place inExmoor over the period 27th-30th July. Thearea was chosen for its accessibility and for itsreasonableness (the popular image of cyclistsamong the Award Authorities seems to be oneof Herculean enthusiasts contouring roundsheep-tracks or wading through bracken hold-ing their laden machines over their heads tocomplete the 140 miles). We arrived at Tauntonon the 26th, by train via London, and stayedat Crowcombe Youth Hostel.

Day one was a strenuous forty miles, and theoccasional breaks for observation of our'purposes'—'Church Architecture', 'HumanGeography of Exmoor' and ' Geology andTopography'—were welcome. Our assessor

54

visited us at the camp-site and was rewarded (?)with a cup of tea, which he kindly said was' as good as you'd get at a motorway servicestation'.

On day two the weathed continued to be kindto us—it was warm and sunny for most of theexpedition—though flies aroused considerableantagonism. The morning of day three camewith our tents surrounded by bullocks, Twentyor so of them stood around watching us cookbreakfast, making the occasional comment fromeither end of their anatomy. As the days pro-gressed, the requisite mileage declined, givingmore ounces of Ryvita/baked beans per unitdistance, and on day four we had the addedbonus of visiting the local metropolis—Dulver-ton. Here we met a policeman (ex-Hitchinbased); our police sergeant supervisor had' gone to Yeovil' for the weekend.

Returning to the Youth Hostel we confirmedthe cause of a minor mishap, i.e. the sultanasleft in the bike-shed. As we journeyed home andthe last tortuous hill faded into the distance,while only the relatively sedate completion of' purpose' remained, it was generally held tohave been ' all good fun '.

Simon Chivers, Robert Festenstein,Kevin Tuffnell. Chris Budd, U.6

SOCIAL SERVICETask Force

The Task Force has continued its veryworthwhile work over the last term, with neworganisers following the departure of theprevious Upper Sixth. We would like to expressour thanks to them, and also to the Bursar andMr. Finley for their continued help.

Our numbers have fallen slightly this term,with fewer Lower Sixth recruits than we hopedfor. However, at the time of writing this isnot particularly noticeable because we aresuffering from one of our periodic job shortages,the supply being variable to say the least. BleakHouse still provides the majority of jobs, butcontacts have been maintained with othercommunity service organisations. This can bevery useful when Bleak House cannot provideanything.

The jobs that we do consist mainly of decor-ating and gardening, the latter becoming lessimportant as we approach the winter, but we areprepared to accept any task within our capa-bilities. We often find that what starts as a smalljob rapidly grows until we end up clearing an

entire garden or painting several rooms of ahouse. This often leads to regular visits to cutgrass, clean windows or just for general tidyingup, which we encourage as people tend toappreciate this more than a couple of afternoonsof frenzied activity.

The shortage of tools has been a problem, butthe situation is no longer as serious. The majorshortage was of garden tools, but now that thecolder weather has started these are not requiredso much.

The new year in Task Force promises to be atleast as interesting as the last, and we hope thatwe will be able to increase the scope of ourservices still further in 1978.

Ted Flint, M.U.Colin Jackson, M.U.

Les Mather, S.U.

SOCIETIESBridge Club

With the departure of last year's Upper Sixth,a large hole has been left in the school's bridge,especially because there are no players in thisyear's Upper Sixth, and so the captaincy hasfallen to us in the Lower Sixth, where experienceis less than it might be. Three of the school teampairs have left, so we are having to produce agenerally inexperienced side, though with luckthe experience gained this season will be helpfulnext.

We feel that regularly-attended meetings ofthe Bridge Society should help to improvethe existing partnerships and provide someexperience.

The bridge tournament held at the end of lastterm was won by the inevitable Smith andDowney, but several last year's Fifth Formpairs did well, which gives hope for the future.

J. Ireson and G. Walters, 6.L.

ChessWhat a season!Last season was almost certainly the most

successful for many years! The school captured3 ou of 5 Herts Junior Chess Trophies: theSenior, Junior and Knockout Competitions, andonly lost in the final of the Intermediate tostrong opposition

These obviously good results are due to fineteam performances, coupled with one or twoexceptional individual results. The whole of theSenior Team played very consistently, whilelower down the school, Bond, Nellist, Parry,

Such, Ashman and Simpson produced some fineresults.

The final positions in the annual schoolcompetition were:

1. Simpson 6\ (out of 8)2. Nellist 6

As an example of how strong our Juniorplayers are, M. Murphy recently won a sub-stantial cash prize in one of the country's largestcongresses. R. Rickard also won the JuniorSection at the Hitchin congress.

I can only hope that the enthusiasm andstrength of the chess club continues for manyyears yet!

A. M. Simpson (Chess Captain)

The Debating SocietyThe debates over the last term have been

dominated by four or five speakers, withoutwhom hardly any debates could have takenplace. Therefore, many thanks to Simon Black-more, Philip Lawrence, Gerry Sagar and,inevitably, the infamous Robert Padmore; theirpresence will be greatly missed by the society.To celebrate their departure from the society,the last debate of term, a balloon debate, wasdevoted to these four speakers and the secretary,Gerry Sagar won, as the Duke of Edinburgh,closely followed by Simon Blackmore as theQueen; unfortunately, the Invisible Man, Hitlerand a Reasonable Man, played by Peter Gray,Robert Padmore and Philip Lawrence,did not do so well.

The Debating Society also staged a soap-boxdebate, in the amphitheatre, where speakerstried to speak against the heckling crowd. Thiswas not totally successful, as few speakersmanaged to finish their speeches due to theshouting of the rowdy audience. However, thelast speaker, John Thwaites, ignored thespectators completely and just talked and talked,from notes on a piece of paper. All the crowd,some seventy people, just walked away, andJohn was left talking to Mr. Gell alone!

Another important day in the history of theDebating Society was when Christopher White-side made his return, speaking for the UpperSchool Christian Union, in a debate entitled"This House believes in miracles". Despite theefforts of the Chaplain, the motion was passedby sixteen votes to ten.

Many thanks must go to Simon Blackmorefor his colourful publicity posters which gaveeveryone a laugh, and to Mr. Gel! for makingit all possible. Peter Gray (Secretary)

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Printing SocietyA particularly encouraging feature of the past

terms has been the speed with which theSociety's new members have acquired the basicskills of printing. Credit for this must go notonly to these boys themselves but also to AlanFrith and Robert Bunting who have helped totrain them. Although we welcome newcomers atany time, the Society must depend on a nucleusof trained members. We are now gaining fullbenefit from the school litho press which hasrelieved us of our more tedious jobs and left usgreater time to devote to setting up, surely themost rewarding aspect of printing.

With the phasing out of Founders' Dayexhibitions we are particularly looking forwardto welcoming visitors to the Printing Room onthe school's Open Day, by which time we hopeto be well ahead with our main job of theChristmas term, the printing of Christmas cards.Our other major event is the visit to the DailyTelegraph, to share the excitement of seeing thefirst editions coming off the presses.

S.R.G.

Railway & General Transport SocietyFirstly, I would like to thank Paul Shannon

for his efficient running of the society over thepast year. I am extremely grateful and wish himsuccess in the future.

Our summer excursion this year was some-what unusual in that we visited two placesrather than one. A two-hour break was arrangedin Southampton before we continued to ourfinal destination of Bournemouth. At the timeof writing, an excursion to Liverpool is beingarranged for the end of October, and it ispossible that a visit to a London TransportUnderground installation will take place duringthe winter.

Our meetings have continued to be on alter-nate Mondays, with attendances being generallygood. Efforts to encourage this year's First Formto come to the meetings have met with somesuccess, although our Middle School membersstill seem to be in the majority. Subjects coveredhave included the railways of London, busesand West German railways, along with thecustomary talks on various aspects of BritishRailways.

L. J. Mather, S.U.

SPORTSCHOOL CRICKET

The school's cricket would seem to be in avery healthy state; the county selectors regardedour 1977 team as the strongest side in the countyand while we have lost the vast services ofRoberts, and the valuable services of Lovejoyand Salt, we still have our two ' superstars '„Rodgers, and that radio and television person-ality, Beardow, with us for another year. Muchhas already been written of their performancesfor the county in the summer; none who sawthe epic victory over Essex will ever forget it.Next season will see the school's first fixtureagainst an M.C.C. side.

The six new hard nets at ' King Harry' werea most valuable acquisition and while most ofthe credit for the work must go to GeorgeCooper, our head groundsman, the 1st and 2ndXI cricket captains proved most adept at con-creting. (The Governors, too, must be thankedfor allocating the money!)

The weather was not as kind as 1976, andopposition teams at senior level were increas-ingly defensive; there has always been somesupport for limited over cricket, this becamevociferous as Berkhamsted batted until 6.15with a seven o'clock finish.

All three senior elevens had their mostsuccessful seasons for years. The ' colts' sidewere disappointing, the first U.15 team to losea match in three years; it was a particularlydisappointing season for them since there is somuch individual talent within the year. Perhapsthe most exciting side were the second year,managed and coached by Charles Bloxham.Mumford has real talent as a batsman, whileNorman and Bird are immensely sound players.As the defeated captain of the staff and parentsteam who played the first year, it was perverselysatisfying to see school batsmen stepping downthe wicket to smash the bowler back over hishead to the boundary.

While Rodgers has recorded elsewhere ourcontinued debt to A. J. Goodier, I must thankA. Pope for his work and support during theseason and the team managers, MTH, NJF,RS, JAC, PDHH and CTB, for all their work.

Nigel A. Wood Smith

1st XIThis was undoubtedly one of the strongest

school sides to take the field for many years.Despite, our good results, one occasionally felt

56

New aspects of the School: Above: The hard playing area in the orchard

Below: The New Technical Centre Photos: G. A. Tanner,

f _\ T

11

Above: A Rodgers century at King Harry

Below: The Corps enjoying their Sennybridge stay

that the side did not quite fulfill all its promise.Perhaps it was only in the latter half of theseason that the side fully applied itself andproduced its best performances.

Nevertheless, this must still be regarded as avery successful season. Although Chris Thrales'102 n.o. v Richard Hale and David Rodgers'106 v Hitchin highlighted the season, thestrength of the side was in the sheer depth ofbatting. A glance at the averages shows fivebatsmen all averaging over 20 runs. Certainlythere were difficulties in picking a battingorder! It was a pity that the wet summer pro-duced slow, spongy wickets which rather limitedstroke-play. Thus, as is nearly always the case,it was the bowlers who won the matches. In ourcase, it was mainly a two-pronged attack ofNick Beardow and Peter Roberts (taking 43 and40 wickets respectively). Although these twospearheaded the attack, the other bowlers allhad their moments. In truth, though, one wouldexpect Jim Frost, Chris Blythe and SimonDymoke to look to the future to develop theirundoubted potential. The latter in particularcould with practice develop into that rarematch-winner—a penetrative leg spinner!

Finally, one must mention Ian Walker(wicket-keeper), who maintained a high standardof performance throughout the season.1st XI Match Reportsv VERULAM—WON

St. Albans 148-5 dec. Verulam 83A fine partnership of 91 between Love joy (60) and

Dymoke (35) provided the batting platform fromwhich Beardow (5-21) and Roberts (4-23) completelydecimated the opposition.v MERCHANT TAYLORS'—LOST

St. Albans 87 Merchant Taylors' 88-9On a cold April afternoon, with the opposition at

74-3 chasing only 87 runs, a skipper often feels thathe might as well pack up and go home. However withthe introduction of Frost (3-1) and Dymoke into theattack everything happened! In fact a disputed run-out decision robbed us of what would have been aminor miracle. If only the batting had shown anyearly season form. . . .v BERKHAMSTED—DRAWN

Berkhamsted 100-8 dec. St. Albans 75-2In a rain-affected match the opposition crawled,

between the showers, to a declaration by 6.15. Facedwith 15 overs to knock oif the runs, the school losttwo early wickets and, in losing momentum, had tosettle for a draw,v KIMBOLTON—MATCH ABANDONED

St. Albans 134-3 dec. Kimbolton 23-0Despite solid performances from all the top-line

batsmen, the rain finally won.v BEDFORD MODERN—DRAWN

Bedford Modern 90-9 dec. St. Albans 36-6In taking two and a half hours to reach a declara-

tion, Bedford Modern seemed to pass their batting

disease on to us. Our run chase was an absolutedebacle! A match best forgotten.v ST. GEORGE'S—WON

St. George's 34 St. Albans 35-0With the fall of the first St. George's wicket in the

sixth over, Beardow (4-21) and Roberts (6-5)promptly proceeded to dismiss the entire oppositionin the next 18 overs. Rodgers (21 n.o.) and Salt (12n.o.) knocked off the runs.v ST. EDMUND'S—DRAWN

St. Albans 154-7 dec. St. Edmund's 113-3After a brisk start from Rodgers (36) and Salt (25),

Roberts (29) and Dymoke (28) consolidated ourposition without ever completely dominating thebowling. In reply, St. Edmund's showed no inclinationto go for the runs and with our bowling attack lackingthe depth and variety to force a win, a very tamedraw resulted.v WATFORD—WON

Watford 81 St. Albans 84-4This was undoubtedly one of the best performances

of the season. Hostile opening spells from Beardow(5-22) and Roberts (2-22), combined with someelectric fielding, had the opposition reeling at 17 for5. With Frost (2-9) chipping in, Watford were dis-missed for a paltry 81. After a hesitant start theschool knocked the runs off at a stroll (Thrale 25n.o..)v OLD ALBANIANS—DRAWN

School 157-8 dec. Old Albanians 131-7Having been put into bat on a scorching afternoon,

the school collapsed to 50 for 4, Hopwood bowlingparticularly well. However, a delightful innings fromRichardson (41) enabled a respectable declaration.In reply the Old Albanians proceeded briskly but amarathon spell from Roberts (5-45) held them incheck, and in the latter stages neither side came reallyclose to a win.v RICHARD HALE—WON

St. Alans 171-7 Richard Hale 110An exhilarating 102 n.o. from Thrale, including 1

six and 17 fours, the second fifty requiring just 15scoring shots, dominated the afternoon's proceedings.In reply the opposition were undone by the leg spinof Dymoke (5-32) in crumbling to 110 all out.v BANCROFT'S—DRAWN

Bancroft's 149-7 St. Albans 119-7Casual fielding and some misfortune played their

part as the school found difficulty in prising theopposition out. The school collapsed from 61 for 1(Lovejoy 41) to 115 for 7 in the chase for runs, andin the end were content with a draw,v QUEEN ELIZABETH'S—DRAWN

Queen Elizabeth's 125 St. Albans 72-7With Beardow (5-28) and Roberts (4-33) opening

the door wide, the school's batting promptly closedit shut in an undistinguished performance.v HITCHIN—WON

St. Albans 177-3 Hitchin 86A mammoth opening partnership of 163 between

Rodgers (106) and Dymoke (58), the former hitting1 six and 14 fours, hammered the Hitchin bowlingattack. Shaken out of its recent lethargy, fine fieldingsupported some accurate bowling in concluding a verysatisfactory win. The school held eight catches indismissing the opposition.v INVITATION XI—WON

Invitation XI 165-7 dec. St. Albans 166-4The school were at last striking form and although

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steady batting by the opposition (Blythe 4-33) enableda 5.30 declaration, the school run-chase led byRodgers (44) and Lovejoy (41) was always on targetand a fine win was duly completed,v STAFF—WON

School 150-7 dec. Staff 136Swashbuckling batting by Salt (56), Thrale (38) and

Roberts (36) was enough to ensure that the staffwould have too much to do. A. Thomas (60) caused afew worried looks, but our trump card Frost (5-23)saw us through,v GENTS OF HERTS—DRAWN

Gents of Herts 222-5 dec. School 209-9From 49-4 the Gents, through R. Johns (108 n.p.)

demolished the school bowling. Facing the massivetotal, the school, through Roberts (61) and Richardson(46), were always up with the clock. However the'magic' of Giffen (3-41) and Driver (3-51) left thegame finely balanced and an exciting draw resulted.

I think a special note must go to AlanGoodier whose coaching, both in the lowerschool this year and throughout the school inprevious years, has done so much for ourcricket. Looking throughout the school, boththe keenness and quality of our cricketers makesme very optimistic for the future.

D. Rodgers

2nd XIThe 2nd XI this year was composed of many

varied temperaments, ranging from the veryserious to the ' only here for the beer!', and itis considerable tribute to the game of cricketthat it is possible to bring such extremestogether as a team. As the season progressed,the team grew in stature both in spirit and onthe strength of its results, which surely reflectconsiderable promise for next season, even if welose just a few players to the 1st XI. Unfor-tunately, we were unable to capitalise on oursuccessful form as we were frequently doggedby bad weather, opposition umpires and can-cellations. In consequence we produced a goodseason but not, sadly, the much-prized un-defeated one.

However, it is easy to be overly righteousin retrospect, we must aim to improve onourselves in the coming season. There isundoubtedly a wealth of good 2nd XI playersto come, let us hope they can restore the edgeto our blade!

K. Baker

2nd XI Match Reportsv MERCHANT TAYLORS' (Away)

Result: WON—100 runsThis was the first match of the season. Having won

the toss we elected to bat as this was where weconsidered our strengths to lie. In the event westruggled to get a high total to bowl against within

the time available. Adam Cottingham's 54 made up inusefulness what it lacked in style. Our innings closedat 130. We need not have worried about our total as.we dismissed their best batsman with the first ball.Despite a rapid opposition collapse the suspense lasteduntil the 21st over in the last hour hour when TerryDpbson concluded a good spell by taking the lastwicket. Taylors' were all out for 29. The valuablecontribution from Tim Lovejoy, although a stand-inabove his age group, is worthy of mention.v BERKHAMSTED (Home)

Result: LOST^2 runsWe won the toss and put the opposition in to bat.

The first wicket fell quickly but then the oppositionbatted steadily to 3 for 74. After tea a period of 6 for20 due to excellent fielding saw the opposition all outfor 96. Faced with this total we thought we had agood chance of victory. Don Preston (26) and MikeNorman (22) got us to 36 for 3, then we lost our nextfour batsmen for 8 runs. At 44 for 7 we decided toshut up shop and play for the draw. This proved tobe about 2 overs outside our reach. The 5 l.b.w.decisions from the opposition umpire left us aggrievedat losing.v KIMBOLTON (Home)

Result: WON—5 wicketsWe lost the toss and the opposition batted. They

never looked good and were all out for 72. TerryDobson ((6-23) bowled exceptionally well. Our otherbowlers were Andy Jones (2-22) and Tony Briggs whoon his first appearance bowled five maidens in fiveovers! We went in to bat and started well despite thelack of Don Preston. Mark Frost looked impressiveand Adam Cottingham made 33, including a good six.Anxious wicket losses took us to 73 for 5. It shouldhave been less. We just won before the rain. This wasa good win for morale, including Michael Harrison's' famous ' run-out,v ST. GEORGE'S (Away)

Result: WON—20 runsWe lost the toss and were put in to bat on a rough

wicket with a short boundary. Adrian Strain showedup well in his first game at number 2. Don Preston's111 not out was the memorable event of the innings,including 3 sixes and a single from consecutive balls.The teatime declaration at 164-4 was in retrospectsomewhat premature and we could well have donewith an extra 30 runs ' safety margin '. The twobig-hitters for the opposition gave great cause forconcern, nearly putting them in a winning position.The debut as off-spinners of Andy Jones and DonPreston broke the partnership and from then on withthe steady fall of wickets it was only a race againstthe clock, which we were fortunately able to win.v ST. EDMUND'S (Home)

Result: WON—119 runsWe won the toss and elected to bat. This was a good

hard wicket and batting was steady and resolute(helped by 36 extras). Tony Briggs and Terry Dobsonpushed the score on very effectively. Our bowling wasdevastating! The opposition were all out for 25,despite four dropped catches. This was the only weakarea of play, i.e. fielding, against a side that didn'tgive too many chances it would be vital to take thosethat come.v WATFORD (Home)

Result: LOST—4 wicketsWe won the toss and elected to bat. Good con-

ditions and what seemed like a good batting wicket.

58

However, there were early problems. Don Preston wasout for 0, Adam Cottingham made 15 and there wasa consequent slow scoring rate. The last three wicketsfell for 0 runs in the last over. We were all put for85. However we bowled well to take the opposition to86 for 6. One player making 54 not out was droppedthree times, his wicket might have made all thedifference. The basic problem was a shortage of runs.A match we should undoubtedly not have lost. AndyJones bowled very accurately,v OLD ALBANIANS (Home)

Result: DRAWO.A's batted as we neglected to toss a coin for

the sake of tradition. They amassed 153 for 8 beforedeclaring and attempting to get us out; only therigorous intervention of Lady Luck in the form ofsomeone called Clair and her cosmic messages to ourusually inept No. 11 batsman saved the day and gaveus a draw at 89 for 9.v BANCROFT'S (Away)

Result: WON—8 wicketsHaving won the toss and elected to field we were

well pleased to decimate them for 42, particularlywithout Terry Dobson to open the bowling. It took usover the half-hour to reach the required 43 for 2.Noteworthy was Mark Frost's 4 for 8 and AdrianStrain's 28.v QUEEN ELIZABETH'S (Home)

Result: DRAWWe lost the toss and were put in on a green wicket.

Facing the task with foreboding we were well pleasedto achieve 106 for 1 with Mike Norman (53) andAdrian Strain (28) (despite retiring hurt at one stageafter being hit on the cheek). Declaring at tea with148 for 6, we tried to get them out. Once againwithout Terry Dobson, but not this time with thesame success. The match ended 59 for 9, after severaldropped catches which cost us victory in our lastmatch.

3rd XIThis was the most successful third elevent

season since 1972 and had the greatest numberof wins since 1971. The enthusiasm and skillthat began to show itself last season was backedup by a belief in our ability and a will to win.

The first match of the season was againstMerchant Taylors' who declared at 112-9(Apter 4-13). The school managing 114-3 sur-passed that total with a good all-round per-formance, Strain top-scoring with 34 and Tomlinscoring 24 n.o.

The second match was against Berkhamstedwho were bowled out for 81 (G. Clark 4-5),and we passed that total with five wickets tospare.

There then followed an unfortunate spate ofbad weather which dampened our exceedinglyhigh morale, and not until seventeen days laterdid a strengthened 3rd XI team face a verystrong ' Coots ' side. The masters raced to 118-4off their 25 overs, with only Dobson (2-12)

having respectable figures. After being 21-2after ten overs, the rest of the side threw theirwickets away, Mr. Hamer-Hodges mopping upthe innings with 3-3 off two overs. Only SimonDymoke scored respectably with 38 out of 89-9.

Our fourth match was against Watford on anotoriously strange-shaped pitch. I took over aswicket-keeper, after Riddle, who had kept sowell previously, was put out with an ankleinjury. Watford battled from 11-2 to 119, Baylistaking 4-15. The school, mainly through asuperb 66 from Tomlin (including the memor-able breaking of the bat), lost by only fourruns after needing only 12 runs with threewickets left. It was a sad reflection on such astrong side that only two players made doublefigures for the school.

The final match of the season was a satisfyingdraw against the Old Albanians. The old boysmade 158 before tea, with only Tryon (2-9) andSmith (1-2) bowling well. We were 21-2 and34-3 before Morgan and myself provided somestability. The innings closed at 103-6.

/. Lawton

U.I 5 XIThe team had a poor start to the season,

losing easily to Verulam, with only Lynes (44)showing promise. Against Berkhamsted, ourtight bowling, spearheaded by Gray (3-27),kept them down to 95. We replied with amiserable 45-7 (Lawrence 31 n.o.).

Victory over Roundwood in a twenty-overgame was due to the excellent running betweenthe wickets of Sherlock and Bacon. On ' CupFinal Day' we easily beat St. Edmund's, withLynes scoring a fast 50 and Lovejoy making useof the wind to take 5-19. Against a very goodAldenham side we played well. After their 138,Lovejoy (38) and Loader (35) produced a 92opening stand, but the match ended in a draw.Bancroft's was a close, exciting match, withLawrence scoring a fine 48, but it too ended ina draw. Matches against Queen Elizabeth's andHaberdashers' were lost due to poor batting, butagainst Merchant Taylors' we reached 133-5(Bacon 48 n.o., Loader 28). Five quick wicketsfrom Hopkins made victory seem possible, butagain the match ended in a draw.

The last match of the season was a very closematch against Watford but it again ended in adefeat, in spite of 48 from Lovejoy.

T. Lovejoy

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U.14 XIOverall, the season was not quite as success-

ful as we had hoped. We tended to rely toomuch on certain individuals and had not enoughdepth in either our batting or our bowling.

After a poor start to the season we playedwell to beat both Queen Elizabeth's andMerchant Taylors'. The defeat of MerchantTaylors' is worthy of note. They batted fornearly four hours, leaving us to score 92 in thelast hour; an opening partnership of 78 betweenDay and Dent set the foundation for victory,and when Dent (34) was run out we needed 14runs from the final over. Day then hit a six anda four and we finished it comfortably in singles.Day was 38 n.o. at the end.

We also came very close to beating Haber-dashers'. Batting first, we scored 100-9 dec.,with Baylis (449) and Woolf (16) being the mainscorers. Dent then took 5-30 to leave themstruggling at 95-8.

We only lost one afternoon match, againstBancroft's, when fielding a very weak side, butwe could have lost at least three others, buteach time our last pair hung out to force a draw.

A. Dent

side by scoring 125 for the loss of only onewickets, with I. Simpson scoring the highestscore of the season, 45 not out.

W. J. Dean, HA

AVERAGESBatting1st XI

ThraleRodgersDymokeRobertsSaltLovejoyRichardson2nd XIPrestonCottinghamNormanBowling1st XI

Inns,1414131511159

668

BeardowRobertsDymokeFrost J.Blythe2nd XIJonesDobsonFrost M.

N.O.4242222

101

Overs187.5203.258.461.132

97.483.424.3

Runs310338221275185256122

176125144

Runs470502187177107

18523161

Avge.31282521212017

352121

Wickets434015129

29309

U.13 XIThe U.13 XI had a successful season, with the

batting of R. Mumford and A. Bird makinguseful conributions. M. Thompson spearheadedthe bowling, with Mumford, Norman, Bird andSuch, the ' find of the season', in support.

The team beat Queen Elizabeth's by 8 wicketswith a good all-round performance; there werealso useful victories over Bancroft's, Watfordand Roundwood. Our only defeat was againstHaberdashers', when bad bowling and fieldinglost us the match.

D. R. Norman

U.12 XIThe U.12 XI had an interesting season,

winning two, losing two and drawing one oftheir five matches. Two of the games turned outto be very exciting. We beat Roundwood by sixruns, but lost to Watford Grammar by a singlewicket.

There were some fine individual performanceswith both the bat and the ball, but unfortunatelybad fielding twice was the cause of defeat.

The most decisive win of the season was ina new fixture when we beat a staff and parents

School TennisA quietly satisfying season in which much

good tennis was played. The first VI kept astable side throughout the season which provedtoo good for Watford in our final game, whichwe won by ten sets to eight after a hard-foughtmatch. Other fixtures were against HighgateSchool, St. Edmund's Ware, Verulam, MerchantTaylors' and a Staff VI. The final reckoningwas: Played 6, Won 3, Drawn 1, Lost 2.

Congratulations must go to Paul Jelley, who,despite his heavy out of school tennis commit-ments, was an enthusiastic and skilful captain.

The U.I6 VI also played two fixtures, andtheir performances augur well for the forth-coming season. Further down the school, theU.14 VI played Mount Grace School and theU.13s Cavendish High School—both fixturesproducing enthusiasm and dedication in theface of a more experienced opposition.

S.R.W.

Orienteering: The British Junior Tour1977

The tour lasted from the 19th of July untilthe 2nd of August, and during that time, we

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competed in the French 3-day event—' Les troisjours de Paris', the first of its kind to be heldin France; and in the Swiss 5-day event, themajor international event this year.

There were 26 of us altogether on the tour,including 4 adults, from all parts of the U.K.,some chosen as I was, i.e. regional nominations;and some selected on the basis of performancesat various selection events held during thepreceding months. Travelling in two minibuses,the team left Southampton by ferry at 2200 onthe 19th, and reached Le Havre at 0600 the nextday. We arrived at the French event centre inVersailles about 1300 and were directed to ouraccommodation about a mile away, which wason the floor of a large sports hall—a buildingwe shared with the British under-21s tour. Thenext day, we leisurely completed two trainingevents and then on the following day, Fridaythe 22nd, the actual competition began.

The event on this day was in part of theforest of Fontainbleu, a well-known forest about40 km south of Paris. After parking the mini-buses we had a 40-minute walk to the finshingfield, followed by a further 20-minute walk tothe start—rather lengthy by our standards! Themap was very good, though the scale of1:15000 and the extensive bracken threw mesomewhat at the beginning—a position fromwhich I never really recovered, and I ended theday rather disastrously, about three-quartersdown the field. The second day we ran on com-pletely different terrain, a lot of ' up and down ',which was absolutely strewn with boulders andboulder fields, often concealed by bracken; also,a lot of the paths were sand, making runningvery tiring. Many people did badly here, thoughfortunately not me. The third event was run ina forest on the border of Versailles, the finishonly a few minutes from the event centre. Itwas fast, runnable forest, and I would havebeen up with the leaders if I hadn't lost 5minutes due to a mistake at the penultimatecontrol. My final position for the competitionwas 51 out of 108, this was 7th out of the 10' M 17s' on the tour, the highest placed ofwhom came 7th. In general. Great Britain hadfew platings in this competition; though one ofour 'M 15s', Colin Mclntyre, this year'snational champion, was placed 3rd, only secondsbehind the winner. Perhaps it is also worthnoting that the first three in the ' M 12' classwere all British!

On Monday, the 25th, we travelled throughtorrential rain from Versailles to Mohlin, the

Swiss Event Centre, 20 km east of Basel. Theminibuses became somehow separated duringthe journey, though luckily I had packed thelunch for the two buses into our bus, so we didnot go hungry! On arrival I was amazed at theevent centre; there were facilities for absolutelyeverything anybody could wish for during theirstay and the organisation must have beenincredible. Accommodation for most of the5,000 or so competitors from 30 differentcountries was in their own tents on a large fieldadjacent to the event centre. We were accom-modated in a gym, with about 100 other people,which made life rather more cramped than inFrance. However, we had the exclusive use ofa brand new school nearby for catering andwashing, so this made up for the sleeping.

After an arduous training event, the actualcompetition began on the following day, the27th. There was a 40-minute walk to the start,in open hilly forest, and by chance 1 met, andhad a long chat with Susan Barker (the orien-teer!), one of the British girls sponsored byWilliam Youngers. My run on this day was verygood, especially after having purchased a pairof Swiss ' bramble bashers' the day before,though marred by a mistake at the penultimatecontrol (again!). The next day was in flatter,less open woods, and concentration was re-quired; of this I did not have enough, for I ranrelatively badly and finished just below half-way. The third day was more like the true ' Pre-Alpine' terrain, in a forest clinging to one sideof a mountain range, with few paths, andnavigation to a large extent by clearings. Itrained continuously, and this, together with themuddy quagmires which were paths, combinedto give me a mediocre run. The fourth day washeld in Germany, just over the Rhine fromMohlin, and there was an hour's walk from theevent centre to the finish, with a further half-hour to the start. This was technically the' Black Forest' and resembled the Chilternsterrain. My orienteering technique had by nowimproved, though an otherwise fairly good runwas spoilt by a mistake at the penultimatecontrol, yet again. This day I met Jean Ramsdenand also photographed the world champion,Egil Johannsen, on the run-in. The last day washeld in appalling weather conditions with anhours' walk to the finish and half-an-hour tothe start from there. The start was a chasingstart, and I began 44th out of 120, about 52minutes behind the leader. By some mysteriousmeans I had a good run, and caught 4 places,

61

to end 40th overall in the competition. With thisI was quite pleased! After a 750 km drive thenext day from Basel to Zeebrugge, 1 arrivedhome on the 2nd of August at about 10.00.

The tour was extremely enjoyable, especiallyin terms of the experience gained and of newfriends and acquaintances made from all overthe U.K. I should like to thank the school forits donation to my expenses, and also Mr. Pryke,from whom I first learned of the tour.

D. C. Wharton, S.V.

School SailingAt 1.30 p.m. fourteen people clambered into

a minibus along with fourteen life jackets andthree sail bags. It was Wednesday, 14thSeptember, 1977, the beginning of anotherterm's sailing. The previous year had beencharacterised by people improving their skillsof sailing, this term had seen six new peoplewho had not even set foot in a dinghy before.However, with the help of some of the seniorboys, we hope that the newcomers will soonbecome expert at the skill and art of sailing.

The winter of 1976 saw all of the boats inschool for the annual refit. All the boats wererepainted and revarnished, while such thingsas broken centre boards and broken tiller exten-sions were either repaired or replaced. Sailingrecommended halfway through the Easter termand the rest of the term and the summer termwere very good indeed. We had a number ofWednesdays when the wind was very strong,strong enough for various people to try using atrapeze, some were more of a success thanothers who usually ended up getting rather wet.One eventful Wednesday afternoon saw Mr.McDonnell's ' International 14' capsize fivetimes; the expertise of the occupants wasapparent when they came ashore with only theirfeet wet.

P. Parker

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