Old Crosbeians and their guests arriving at our Wessex Luncheon venue were reassured to see the sun umbrellas being placed ready on the outside tables. Sadly, they were to remain furled since the day was one of those that have characterised this year’s June, even in normally warm and sunny Hampshire. However the grey and chilly day was invisible from the interior of The Fox at North Waltham where the party enjoyed both the meal, the venue’s welcoming hospitality and the customary sociability that marks this occasion. As ever, a summer Saturday causes competitive demands from holidays and family occasions for many OC’s but we still managed to occupy our usual three tables.
The rural charm of the surroundings must have made a striking contrast with those at the Paris Dinner, an event that caused this lunch to move from its usual date in May. Yet it was apparent that our President, Phillip Marshall Q.C., enjoyed this sole OC daytime event. In his address that followed the traditional toasts, he remarked on the longevity of friendships and good memories that he had heard about that day from Old Crosbeians. It also gave him the opportunity to remind the company that preparations are already underway to celebrate the School’s quatercentenary in 2020. To conclude, those male voices present then provided our small recognition of that history by a reasonably tuneful rendition of ‘Crescat Crosbeia’.
This year Amanda Hassell and Sylvia Scott were our ‘Old Girls’ representatives whilst the ‘Old Boys’ and their partners comprised David Anderson, Norman Dixon, Steve & Gisela Duckworth, John, Robert & Mary Goble, Stan & Barbara Holden, Jeremy Myers, Michael Purse, Michael & Maureen Sharp, John van Gelder and Alfred & Isabel Witham. Unfortunately, Richard & Shirley Cropper found themselves stranded within one of those traditional lengthy A 31 traffic jams and had to join us in spirit as they lunched near Salisbury instead. For most of us, this venue is just a comfortable drive away so thanks are due once again to Jeremy Myers who accepted the challenge of making the long rail journey down from Merseyside. John van Gelder was our most intrepid traveller, however, finding his way albeit within other visits from Germany’s Land Nordrhein-Westfalen. A tribute to those map-reading skills learned from his military apprenticeship in the CCF in Crosby, no doubt.
(L to R) : John van Gelder, Amanda Hassell, Jeremy Myers and Phillip Marshall
(L to R) : Gisela Duckworth, Sylvia Scott, Mary Goble and Steve Duckworth
(L to R) : Barbara & Stanley Holden, David Anderson
Alfred & Isabel Witham
The British Biology Olympiad is a highly prestigious, national, Biology Competition, run by the Royal Society of Biology.
This year we had a number of our Upper Sixth students, who preformed extremely well, amongst the thousands of entries for this award.
In addition to the girls success below, one of the bronze medalists, Victoria Mason, has bee awarded a very prestigious award, which was based on a written biology scholarship paper. As a result she has been awarded the top scholarship available, the Bangor Excellence Scholarship for 2016-2017, congratulations Victoria.
Our success this year are as follows;
Commended
Highly Commended
Bronze Medals
Congratulations to Jack Carney who has been selected for this years U11 Lancashire Cricket Squad.
Jack who was also selected for the Lancashire U10 Cricket Squad last year, was invited to attend the County’s Winter development programme which was spread across nine weeks prior to the start of the season. Following the conclusion of the programme, Jack was invited to participate in the final County Trials along with 23 other players.
A few days after the trial, the good news came from Lancashire informing us that Jack had be selected for the main squad for a second season running.
Following the completion of another training session, the team are now preparing for eight matches against other counties from around the UK during June and July, finishing off with the National Cricket Festival in August which will be held at Kings College Taunton.
Jack loves representing his school and county, and this season already he has managed to score two centuries, one for the school and one for the Sefton District Team.
Ed Jones (“Eddie”) and I grew up literally around the corner from each other in Crosby and ran along parallel paths at school from the age of 5 at Forefield Lane through our time at MTS leaving in 1983. We shared many experiences through school and outside and it was amazing to see the old photos on display at Ed’s 50th birthday do at Twickenham last year including one of he and I as Laurel and Hardy at a VSU concert (guess who was whom – we were not VSU members but were persuaded to take part as penance for some schoolboy misdemeanour). Ed was the scorer for the MTS first XI and mastered the Bill Frindall method which gave a pretty good pointer to his eye for detail and numbers that would serve him well in his career in IT. Being part of the school Cricket team meant lots of long away games, great times spent together, lots of laughs and a pretty negative impact on our A-level results (I have never understood why exams are in the Cricket season!). Ed took all this in his stride and went on to have a stellar career at Logica/CGI where I know he was held in extremely high regard. I have very few regrets in life but one is that Ed and I lost touch for a number of years only to reconnect fairly recently when in catching up he told me of his illness. I have been amazed by the positivity and total focus that Ed and his wonderful family have shown in battling through, the incredible work done to raise not just money but the profile of brain tumours as an under focused area of medicine. This is a horribly cruel disease that no-one could have fought harder than Ed. When we met up again he asked me if I was surprised how far he had gone in his career in running the public sector business at CGI. I was not surprised at all having seen his determination at close hand in taking on many challenges and all with a unique sense of humour. A truly great lad that will be sadly missed.
Laural and Hardy
From Ian Kerr 1977-83
I met Ed “Eddie” Jones on my first day at school and we became friends throughout our schooldays, lost touch for a while after school and reconnected, to my great pleasure, later in life – in Ed’s case, sadly, towards the end of his life. Whilst at school we had many happy times around the cricket pitch. I say “around”, as neither of us was particularly gifted in the cricket playing department, but at least Ed was helpful, by acting as scorer, compiling impressively detailed and accurate statistics about each game. I was 12th man, which mainly involved watching the game.
Ed and I also enjoyed hitting golf balls in my back garden. On one occasion, he hit the sweetest 7 iron, which flew down the garden 150 yards and landed on the greenhouse roof, miraculously without breaking anything. It must have hit the frame. It was probably the best 7 iron Ed ever hit, but the one he enjoyed the least. As we walked those 150 yards, all the colour drained from his face and he was very relieved to that no damage was done.
The nicest thing Ed told me when we reconnected was that his successful career in IT had been inspired by attending talks by my father at the Merchants Computer Club in the early 1980s. My father is still passionate about electrical engineering and computers and was absolutely delighted to discover that this passion had inspired a successful career.
Although Ed was taken from us too soon, it was a privilege and pleasure to know him and to be one of his friends.
From Jon Bond 1977-83
The pictures below were provided by Edwards family.
A huge congratulations and good luck to the Book Quiz Team, who have made it to this years Cheshire Book Quiz Final, which is to be held on the 14th June at Lymm High School in Chester. The girls were the third top scoring team scoring a magnificent 192 points, and are looking forward to the challenge ahead. The team consists of Jenni Jackson, Freya Cumine, Becca Caudwell all of whom are year 8 and Roshini Brown who is in year 7.
The Merchant Taylors’ London dinner was held on Friday 18 March at the Travellers Club on Pall Mall in London. The Travellers Club was founded in 1819 and sits in the heart of London.
The London dinner is a popular and well attended event in the Old Boys’ Association social calendar. And the evening provided a perfect opportunity for Old Crosbeians of all ages to meet and reminisce over happy memories of our own experiences at Merchants. The event was well attended with a wide range of alumni in attendance, ranging from 1939 to 2013.
The evening started with a champagne reception. The guests then sat down to an excellent dinner which was complemented by a range of superb drinks.
MTS Crosby was represented by Mr Jonathan Green, Deputy Headmaster, who gave an entertaining speech about life at Merchants. Jonathan’s speech was followed by Mr Darius Ferrigno, the organiser of the London dinner. A highlight of Darius’ speech was sharing the somewhat questionable apologies from some of the missing alumni. After the speeches were complete the dinner was concluded by a powerful and passionate rendition of the school song.
I would like to extend a special thanks to Darius and Elizabeth Ferrigno for organising the London dinner. The next London event will be the City Drinks event this autumn. The City Drinks are held at the magnificent Merchant Taylors Hall on Threadneedle Street in the heart of the City of London.
Michael Pinder, 2008 alumnus, Old Crosbeian
To add to the history and character of the building, whilst removing one of the old concrete lintels, it was found that the reinforcement bar used in the construction of the lintel, was an old piece of narrow gauge railway track, clearly our builders were recycling in the early 1900’s.
Our contractors are working hard to keep the programme of works on track and are currently looking at works required to make good, the upper floor classrooms once the roof works are fully complete.
The Year 4 Art Club at Stanfield, have been involved in a new project, making textiles with a difference! Their aim was to use all recycled materials, such as bubble wrap, sweet wrappers, fabric and threads to design and make either a bag or a scarf. The process involved making initial samples, designing a bag or scarf and working on sizing to suit. The girls explored the technique of bonding fibres together with an iron and using surface embroidery to enhance their final piece.
The girls enjoyed designing and creating their accessories and were given the opportunity to create a fashion show video, see below.
The finale involved a stunning fashion show in the school assembly.
The Merchant Taylors’ Paris Dinner took place on 14 May. It was a perfect evening when Paris bathed in the glorious sunshine of an early summer’s evening.
The dinner was held at Cercle de l’Union Interalliée, a spectacular club tucked away in the heart of Paris. The Union Interalliée was founded in 1917 as a meeting place for officers of the Allied nations during the First World War. The interior of the club is opulent, with numerous chandeliers, paintings and rich tapestries. The club also boasts a large garden with a picturesque backdrop of The Eiffel Tour.
The evening began with a champagne reception where guests made new friends and rekindled old acquaintances. The dinner attracted 44 guests from across the various schools – 29 from MTS Crosby (both the Boys’ and Girls’ Schools) and 15 from MTS Northwood. The promise of Paris drew a wide range of alumni which ranged from a 1939 alumnus to a 2014 alumna (both MTS Crosby). And we were not disappointed when it came to food and wine. We were treated to a delightful four course dinner. Each course was delicious and washed down with excellent wine.
There was strong support from MTS Crosby and MTS Northwood. Mrs Louise Robinson, Headmistress of Merchant Taylors’ Girls’ School, Crosby, set out the challenges and opportunities posed by technology in education. Mr Simon Everson, Headmaster of Merchant Taylors’ School, Northwood, echoed Louise’s comments with the news that some MTS Northwood pupils have set up a drone society!
An important part of the evening unfolded after the speeches: the school songs. Despite not being planned, it only took a lone voice to sing ‘not in some sheltered nook…’ for an impromptu choir of MTS Crosby alumni to assemble. There may well be video evidence of the performance that followed…. the only disappointment was doing two verses, not five! The MTS Northwood alumni then responded with an excellent rendition of the all MTS Northwood school song – all in Latin.
After the dinner, speeches and singing had finished a group of younger members embarked on a night out exploring Paris. It was a magnificent and entertaining evening, and was the perfect finale to the fantastic dinner.
Finally I would like to extend a special thanks to Mr Peter Magill for organising the dinner. It was a wonderful evening and I’m sure that all guests will treasure memories from the evening for a long time to come. We are very fortunate to be part of the strong and close family that is Merchant Taylors’.
Michael Pinder, 2008 alumnus, Old Crosbeian