July 2012 It has been an excellent term and ... - Radley College

July 2012
It has been an excellent term and despite atrocious weather an enormous amount has been achieved.
Generally I write of Radley’s collective efforts, and there is much of course to celebrate in those, but I
thought this term I would reflect first on some outstanding individual achievements by our 6.2 leavers.
No school in England has had the concentration of batting talent with which we have been blessed this
year in an exceptional 1 st XI. Wilf Marriott, the Captain, scored 3 centuries in his first 4 innings of the
season and even after that blistering start he has continued to accumulate runs, with another hundred and
a ninety, laying a solid foundation for a team which has defeated Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Bradfield,
Charterhouse, Marlborough and Tonbridge with Johnny Wright, Albert Lindsell and Freddie Fairhead
the pick of the bowlers. Alex Hearne has never played a school innings at Radley other than in the 1 st
XI, and completes a distinguished 5 th season, having scored more than 2,300 runs for the side. Nick
Gubbins has proved not only that he can be powerfully destructive, but that he can build an innings in
adverse conditions against really good bowling. His 130 v Bradfield was acknowledged by Andy
Wagner, our coach, as the finest schoolboy innings he had seen on Bigside. Nick and Wilf scored 236
together in their opening stand against Eton, and then topped it with 252 against Abingdon (Marriott 138
n.o. Gubbins 102 n.o.). This cohort of cricketers, which won both the Cowdrey Cup and John Harvey
Cup, will be a hard act to follow, but it has been pleasing to see younger members of the side, Freddie
Fairhead, Hugo Bibby and Christian Hollingsworth making their mark.
We have had some equally distinguished oarsmen at the top of the school: Captain of Boats, Charlie
Shaw, and Olly Wynne-Griffiths (Captain of Rugby) rowed for Britain at the Munich Regatta. A fast
improving 1 st VIII took the Bronze Medal in the National Schools Championships and then rowed
superbly in reaching the final of the Princess Elizabeth Cup for the first time since 2001. On the running
track Blair McCullum has enjoyed an outstanding season in which he has broken the school record for
both 100m and 200m – recording times of 10.6 and 21.6 seconds respectively - and anchored our 4 x
100m relay team who gained victory in the Achilles Relays and broke another school record with a time
of 43.2 seconds. And we have seen individual excellence beyond sport this term. Radley’s Leavers’
Recitals are invariably a treat, and this year’s crop of Tom Bennett, Will Ford, Lawrence Halksworth
and John Warner have been excellent. All have contributed heroically to Radley music. Another Recital
was like no other as Tommy Siman and Jon Tarcy sang, acted and performed to a capacity audience in
the Theatre. Jon Tarcy has his place at the Central School of Speech and Drama, a real achievement.
Tommy has epitomised the all-roundedness of the ideal Radleian: he has been a tower of strength as
Senior Prefect, has acted and sang to a high level (he was one of our first Drama scholars) uniquely has
won Declamations in each of his five years at the school, and has achieved the rare feat of playing in 1 st
XV, 1 st XI Hockey and Cricket. The deputy Second Prefect, Hamish Miller, runs him close – Sewell
scholar, captain of a strong 1 st XI Hockey, captain of Tennis, 1 st Rackets pair, winner of the Inter-School
Medical debate among other accomplishments.

So, a number of boys of exceptional ability and real achievement have made their mark this term. Yet
the abiding feature of Radley is the teamwork. It is frequently observed, by parents and by dons, how
other schools, often with an abundance of talent in their ranks, are outperformed by the collective spirit
and by the excellent coaching of Radley teams. Those teams get stronger across the five years here as
coaching makes its impact. At the end of it all, our senior teams are always very competitive. This year
it is worth reflecting that the 1 st XV won all but two games, the 1 st XI Hockey and Cricket lost but a
game each, the 1 st VIII established itself as the second best school crew in Britain, the Tennis 1 st VI has
won nearly all its fixtures, and these in a very strong circuit, and so it goes on. That process of steady
development through coaching can be seen in Midgets 1 st XI Cricket this term; a slow, unsuccessful start
followed by excellent wins in June against Winchester and Harrow.
Radley esprit de corps has been evident, too, academically. The A level candidates have given a model
example of calm, steady, well ordered revision, and have this term established a tone in the school which
has rubbed off on the IGCSE and GCSE candidates. Even the excitement of European football failed to
knock 6.2 off its scholarly stride. They have recognised that, while they have done extremely well to get
offers from a range of top universities, those offers, with a regular sprinkling of A*s in them, are very
demanding. They have been helped by countless revision classes from dons in evenings and at
weekends. Equally, Radley’s team work has been evident in the music, with a high quality Warden’s
Music in May, an impressive Wharton Piano Prize Competition in June won by Henry McPherson, and,
each week, demanding anthems from a Chapel Choir of up to 100 singers. It has also been present on
stage, where two 6.1 boys, Henry McPherson and Jamie Robinson, directed the Shells in a diverting,
piratical romp, ‘Treasure Island’, and in a wonderful exhibition of Art and DT work by this year’s
leavers.
I wrote earlier about the long first half of term, which was a legacy of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations
where, by the way, a new Radley Trinity 500 craft manned by Remove boys (Johnnie Hayes, Ed Walker,
Freddie Light, Ben Mills) was the only school CCF boat in that waterborne and waterlogged Jubilee
Pageant. This long run-up to Leave Away saw most IGCSE and GCSE exams completed. So, through
Stephen Rathbone’s planning and organisation many 5 th Formers took part in an enjoyable and
educative programme involving Adventurous Activities, trips, expeditions, coaching in self-defence,
cookery skills, etiquette and life skills. I understand few other schools organised this time constructively,
and I hope the boys have really benefited from it.
We have given considerable thought to the matter of Prefectship. We canvassed the boys of both 6.1
and 6.2 and this has helped crystallize our thinking. With the new 6.2 we have decided to have a select
group of 6 or so prefects in each social who will help the tutor run the house and do the necessary duties.
Other boys will have opportunities next term to prove their suitability for elevation by showing
leadership in the social.
You will have seen that the term has been marked by a good deal of building work on the campus. A
huge crane towers over H Social and the Old Gym site as the girders of our exciting new edifice for
History, Art and a Coffee Shop comes into focus. It cannot come too soon.
A Summer Term is always tinged with sadness for we say farewell to our leavers. We shall miss the
leadership and example of our outstanding 6.2. We shall also miss our Common Room leavers: Andrew
Reekes a quite outstanding Sub Warden and Director of Studies, retires after 18 years of extraordinary
service to the school. Robin Schofield retires after many years caring for and nurturing boys in need of
Learning Support–their many successes at A level are tribute to his selfless dedication. Mick Wright
also retires, so much more than a Biology teacher for he has run Orchard House, run Careers with
distinction, commanded the RAF Section of CCF, galvanised Sub-Aqua, and refereed; Liz Murtagh has
been a charismatic and relentless Head of Spanish, both setting vertiginous standards for her

examinees and popularising the subject. She has also helped Mike Hopkins on the Welfare team, and
acted to professional standards on the theatre stage – she leaves to go to Drama School in Birmingham;
Chris Martin has taught Classics here since 2000, specialising in A level Latin. Many Radleians have
cause to thank him for his rigour and insight – and for his enthusiasm for the turf for he has run
Tattersalls here; Tim Mullins our Senior Chaplain leaves after 7 years dedicated ministry to be a parish
priest again – he has been an excellent all-round schoolmaster, taking games all three terms, on top of
his energetic leadership of Christian worship in Chapel and in the wider college; Naomi Hall has taught
in the Design Department for the past two years and we have valued her skills as an architecture
graduate in the workshop – she moves on to Clifton College; Bérénice Haëntjens and Camille
Léonard, our language assistants have been a great asset in helping the boys polish their spoken French.
All our leavers have made a great contribution and we will indeed miss them. And H Social, and E
Social have said farewell to two very popular tutors, David Edwards and Rob King, and to the H Social
Matron Val Walker.
A number of changes of responsibility take place over the summer. Mike Hopkins becomes Sub
Warden; Stephen Rathbone Academic Director; Ben Holden Senior Master and Child Protection
Officer and Roger Shaw Director of Administration. In addition George May succeeds David Edwards
as Tutor of H and Tim Lawson follows Rob King as Tutor of E. Charlie Scott-Malden becomes Head
of Learning Support and Alex Gilley starts as Lead Nurse in the Medical Centre.
The following dons will join Common Room in September:
David Wilson Chaplain from St Andrews Church, St Andrews
Mark Spivey Director of Fitness
and Sport
from the English Cricket Board
Thomas Barfield English from Ampleforth College
Michael Hemingway History
from Cambridge University
Sebastian Perkins Biology from Oxford University
Matthew Walker Politics/History from Wood Green School
Josh Sumner Modern Languages from Cambridge University
Abbie Stephenson Classics from Queen Anne’s, Caversham
The way in which the boys have uncomplainingly got on with their work, contributed so much in and
out of the classroom, despite the awful weather, has been deeply impressive. Perhaps, thirty years on,
they will cherish their memories of meteorological records broken for the wrong reasons, but in the
immediate future I hope you are all able to enjoy some sunshine.