The Salopian Summer 2023

84
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS
Baseball Federation. He started playing Baseball at university
but first became interested in the sport after playing softball
at Shrewsbury. Richard Evans (M 1976-78) is the Marketing
and Communications Officer. A chance conversation about
attending boarding school led them to discover recently that
they are both Old Salopians.
Baseball is one of the most popular sports in the USA but is
relatively unknown in the UK. The GB team chalked up their
first ever win against Columbia to finish fourth in their group
which guaranteed a place at the 2026 competition. The WBC
is equivalent to the World Cup in football. Qualifying is worth
six times the annual income of the governing body in Britain.
The British team also ran the USA and Mexico surprisingly
close which shocked the World Baseball Community.
The Federation led by Tom Thornhill hope this represents a
significant breakthrough for the sport in this country. Tom
and Rich will both be in London in June to see the Chicago
Cubs take on the St Louis Cardinals when Major League
Baseball returns to the London Stadium. It’s only the second
time a series has been played in the UK and this time the
games will be live on the BBC.
Old Salopians cheer on crews at the Schools’
Head of the River Race
Parents, Old Salopians and supporters once again assembled
at the Blue Anchor in Hammersmith on 17th March to watch
a sizeable number of School crews row past in the Schools’
Head of the River Race. Six RSSBC crews were among a
record 339 crews who took to the water on a damp, grey
day to compete. The event is the culmination of the head
racing season, attracting competitors from across the UK and
Ireland. Full results can be found at https://www.shorr.org.
uk/2023/results.html
The event provides an excellent opportunity for current
parents and old Salopians to meet together and support
the School crews. The shelter of the pub was particularly
welcome on such a wet day. A hearty lunch, organised by
James Russell (PH 1990-95) and the Sabrina Club, was
available to all Salopian spectators who were able to view
the racing from the upstairs room of the pub.
70 Old Salopians support the School Chapel
Choir singing Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral
On a truly memorable evening the School Chapel Choir
sang to around a thousand people during the course of the
day at St Paul’s Cathedral, culminating in Evensong at 5 pm
on 24th April. Seventy Old Salopians joined tourists, visitors
and regular worshippers to enjoy the sublime experience of
hearing the singing echo around the famous dome.
Afterwards the School party was entertained at Dion at a
reception hosted by the Marketing Department. It was great
to see so many Old Salopians in attendance including those
working in the music world including the composer Richard
Eteson (G 1989-93), singers Patrick Craig (Ch 1982-87)
and Martin Harris (S 1968-73) Vicars Choral at St Paul’s,
and singer-songwriter Joe Bell (Rb/I 2010-15), alongside
current members of staff, parents and governors.
A tour of the Silk Roads
A party of 30 Salopians and guests had the privilege of a
guided tour at the British Museum on Thursday 16th March
with Nicholas Barber (SH 1954-58). The tour concentrated
on the artefacts of India and China and their associated
history and religions and benefitted considerably from
Nicholas’ encyclopaedic knowledge.
The ‘Silk Roads’ refer to the network of people, objects and
ideas that moved across Afro-Eurasia particularly during the
first millennium AD. During the 19th century Britain and
Russia vied for control of this region and sought to explore
its lands.
Nicholas Barber is the Honorary President of the charity
Classics for All which supports maintained schools across the
UK to introduce or develop the teaching of classical subjects.
He was a previously a Trustee of the British Museum and
later the Chairman of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.
The tour was enthusiastically received by those who
attended, one old Salopian remarked, “Nicholas’s erudition
and witty commentary was superlative” and another former
member of staff said, “Nicholas’ knowledge of those cultures
and the clarity of his delivery was a lesson to us all.”
Sincere thanks are due not only to Nicholas Barber but also
to Peter Fanning (Staff 1981-2012) for organising the tour
and to Kit Oates (PH 2000-05) for his technical support.
A memorable afternoon concluded with some welcome
refreshment at The Plough in Museum Street.
Dubai Salopians gather in a stunning location
for the annual get-together
Around 30 Salopians and friends met at the newly opened
restaurant “Mi Amie” in the world-famous Jumeirah Emirates
Towers for supper in March. This is the twelfth consecutive
event in Dubai, one of the most active international Old
Salopian groups.
The evening was organised by Rupert Connor (S 1992-
97), who has lived in the UAE for the past 16 years. This
year’s event once again coincided with a visit to Dubai by
Shrewsbury School’s Development Director Oliver Jackson-
Hutt, who was able to update Salopians on everything
going on back at HQ. There are a number of Salopians
living in Dubai and the surrounding areas working in a
variety of fields, including financial planning, property,
law, shipbroking, contemporary art dealing, recruitment,
plastic surgery, management consulting and many more.
The evening, as always, was filled with laughter, great
conversations, and company, with plenty of Salopian tales of
years gone by.
If you happen to find yourself out in the Middle East, please
feel free to reach out and join the network –
rupert.connor@gmail.com.
Old Salopian wins major new writers’ prize
In a week bookended by two of Shrewsbury’s strongest
creative challenges, the McEachran and Sidney prizes, it
was a timely and real delight to hear that Will Hunter (Rt
2007-12) has received the #Merky Books New Writers’ prize
for 2023. A competition that aims to discover unpublished,
underrepresented writers aged 16-30, it was founded by the
musician Stormzy, who also oversees the judging panel. Will’s
novel, People Like Us, tells the story of a boy who falls in love
with a family and into a world in which he doesn’t belong.
Will commented, that “writing is something that I’ve wanted
to do for as long as I can remember, but I’d begun to feel
like that door was closed to me.” As part of the prize, Will
receives a book deal with Penguin Random House, who will
work with him to publish People Like Us. Stormzy added that
he was “so happy to crown Will as the winner of this year’s
prize. An extremely talented writer and I can’t wait to
read more.”