Old_Cliftonian_Mag_2011

Hockey at Clifton
BEGGARS BUSH TODAY
As the Sports Ground at BB
celebrates its centenary this
year, this whole area has become
unrecognisable from the stone-bestrewn,
bumpy, poorly-drained site bought for
the College by the OCs all those years
ago. It now boasts facilities which are
the equal of most Public Schools – high
quality astroturf pitches, an indoor tennis
school and netball centre, a 3G football
pitch and an international-quality waterbased
hockey pitch. In addition, it boasts
expanded changing-facilities, a vibrant
bar and catering area, a Real Tennis
Court, physio and fitness areas and a
pitch-levelling programme which has not
only provided far better and more level
grass surfaces for the College, but has
also helped generate income which has
been deployed in projects elsewhere to
the general benefit of Clifton. There is
no denying that Beggar’s Bush has quite
simply been transformed into a centre of
sporting excellence.
If “ADI” was instrumental
in the original
development of the estate,
then the most recent
expansion and success of
this part of the College
owes much to “MDI”, or
Mike Innes, who up until
recently was Managing
Director of Clifton College
Leisure Services, the
College’s commercial
arm. His main task was to
maximise the use of College Mike Innes.
facilities so that the College
benefited, income was generated, and
the School’s contribution to the wider
Bristol community further enhanced.
When Mike took over CCSL in the
1990s, College finances were not in
the best of health and, in order to fulfil
obligations to Clerical Medical, who had
invested heavily in the pitches at BB, at
one stage both the Upper School and
the Pre were actually having to rent
Hockey pitches from their own school
in order to balance the books. If the
restoration of the College finances owed
much to the OCs and Council members
such as John Cottrell, Louis Sherwood
and Andrew Thornhill, along with the
significant contribution of the Bursar,
Oliver Delaney, then the restoration
of BB’s fortunes equally owed an
immense amount to John Bretten, the
Council member with responsibility for
overseeing CCSL, and his appointment
of Mike Innes as MD. Together they
arranged a buy-out of Clerical Medical
and embarked upon a business plan
which rejuvenated the facility with the
construction of the Real Tennis court.
The maximising of the pitches in the
evenings to sports organisations in
the locality, along with eye-catching
initiatives such as the
Manchester United soccer
schools and the creation of
a relationship with Bristol
City FC, created muchneeded
cash which was
then ploughed back in to
improve and expand the
site further. The tragic and
untimely death of John
Bretten came as a blow
to the College, but Mike
Innes carried on with a
renewed determination to
realise John’s vision and to
play his part as a part of the team which
would ensure the success of the College
on a wide front. Their achievement
speaks for itself and, when Mike Innes
resigned a couple of years ago, much of
what he and John Bretten had planned
had been delivered. The current
Headmaster, Mark Moore, Chairman,
Tim Ross, and Bursar, Louise Hanson,
have carried on where they left off;
CCSL thrives and the recent, quite
outstanding, provision of the waterbased
Hockey pitch is ample proof of
that.
One of the main beneficiaries of this
transformation over the past decade
or so has been Hockey. Once the poor
relation, then the mud-bound, illnessprone
activity, the provision of astroturf
has revolutionised the sport at Clifton
for both boys and girls. From the 1990s
onwards, Clifton has regularly been
County Champions at all levels from
U11 to U18, and has featured regularly
at the National Championships at
Cannock or Nottingham; the Upper
12 the CLIFTON MAGAZINE 2011