CO-EDUCATION THE FUTURE IS - Jules Akel

Refurbished RacketsWork to refurbish theRackets Court beganon the first day of the EasterHolidays and was completedin time for the start of theMichaelmas term. Front andside walls were repaired andrepainted, while the floorwas completely replaced.The gallery was restoredto its original size, and allhonours boards dating backto Wellington’s first representativesat Prince’s Club in 1871 arenow on display. The court wasoYcially reopened on Saturday15th October by Sir David Scholeyand two exhibition matcheswere played. In the first theCollege Pair (James Fuller (Bn,The Dragon) and Rod Shephard(Bn, St Aubyn’s Rottingdean))played the Old Wellingtonians(George Tysoe (O.W., L), FosterCup winner 2002 and JamesCoyne (O.W., O), currently u24Old Boys’ Champions). TysoeAbove: Peter Mallinson (O.W., Pn)with Sir David ScholeyBelow: Tim Cockroft (O.W., A)and Coyne, recently returningfrom the prestigious Knox-StevensTour of all North Americanclubs beat the boys in convincingstyle: 15-1, 15-4, 15-10, 15-7.After the game Sir DavidoYcially opened the court,revealing two new honoursboards. The first lists allthe professionals who havecoached the game at Wellington.In his speech hemade particular reference toJim Dear (1950 to 1969), andWalter and Ronnie Hawes,father and son, who betweenthem covered 51 years between1902 and 1953. The second newboard lists the names of the donorswho contributed towardsthe refurbishment.The second exhibition matchwas a replay of the World ChampionshipChallenge which hadbeen held in Chicago and atQueen’s Club in March earlierthis year. World Champions GuyBarker and Alister Robinson againbeat Tim Cockroft (O.W., A)and Guy Smith-Bingham 3-2, butcoming from 1-2 down to do so.festival of remembranceThree current Wellingtonians,watched by millionson television, tookpart in the Festival of Remembranceat The Royal Albert Hall on Saturday12th November. Headof College, Oliver Tilney (Bn,Woodcote House), College Prefect,Edwina Hayward (Ap, CheltenhamLadies College) and HughHemsley (Bd, Wells CathedralSchool) all read at the occasion,which was attended, as usual,Photograph: Clare Patterson (Wokingham Times)by Her Majesty The Queen andother members of the RoyalFamily. Their poise, confidenceand impressive presentationwere commented upon favourablyby many of those present.Organising the Festival wasW.J.H.Clark O.W., the Directorof Administration at the RoyalBritish Legion. All three readersfelt extremely honoured to takepart and thrilled that Wellingtonwas represented in this way.HOT ICEIf your idea of walking 25 kmin the hot sun in the rarefiedatmosphere of the mountainsis fun, then you wouldhave loved being a WellingtonGeography student this summer.For the tenth year running thegeography department took agroup of students on a week longvisit to the southern French Alps.Staying in Serre Chevalier, theweek was spent walking throughbreathtaking mountain sceneryto trace evidence of ancient glacialactivity and to witness currentglaciers in the Ecrins region.To the uninitiated, a pile ofrocks can just seem like a pile of& wondrous rocksrocks. Our Lower Sixth geographersfound out these rocks areoften clues to the action of glaciersof the past. Through studyingsize, roundness and angle oforientation of glacial debris, it ispossible to deduce much aboutthe origins of the landscape.Other days were spent lookingat the Glacier Blanc, significantlyreduced in size since ourfirst visit there in 1995, and theCol d’Arsine, complete with itsspectacular and icy cold morainedammed lake. On each trip,the scale of the work of ice wasbrought home to students andstaV alike. Every evening weenjoyed a fantastic supper backat base camp hotel (cooked bythe resident Swedish chef) beforesome work was done toensure that the work of the daywas applied and understood.The trip brought out the best inboth girls and boys and relationshipsbetween staV and studentwere cemented. We are lookingforward to returning in 2006.As in previous trips, the groupwas expertly led by MurrayFowler, assisted by Brynn Baymanand Will Williams, eachtrying to outdo each other withlarge words, florid explanationsand ridiculous items of clothing.