OLS Ramble
The first Old Leysian Society Ramble was held on Sunday 24th January 2010. Seventeen walkers (including Phoebe the Headmaster's labrador!) braved the sharp Fenland weather to complete the ten mile route along the Roman Road (Worsted Street) from Cambridge to the Old Red Lion at Horseheath, where we all enjoyed an excellent lunch. We hope to arrange another Cambridge walk later in the year and, if enough OLs are interested, to arrange some trips further afield. Please contact the Development Office if you have ideas for possible routes or other suggestions.
OL Society AGM & Dinner 2009
The Old Leysian Society AGM and Dinner on 12th December 2009 saw a record turnout of 102 OLs. The address was given by former Housemaster Mark Waldron, now Headmaster of the English College in Prague. We were particularly pleased to see twenty-nine “under 30s” joining the older generations of OLs. Bijan Sanii (E 72-77) describes his return to The Leys after more than three decades away:
The day I left the Leys in the summer of 1977 I never thought it would be 32 years before I would be back on the school grounds attending an O.L. Event!
A number of us have kept in touch over the years but I knew I would be seeing many friends from The Leys for the first time since leaving. It was also the first time I was returning to The Leys and knew memories and emotions would surface.
I had a long flight from Vancouver, Canada to think about my time at The Leys. East House, with its red polished floors and austere structure. Our dormitories sleeping six or more complete with horse boxes and squeaky metal frame beds. The colorful personalities on the teaching staff and a million more thoughts.
On Saturday afternoon, prior to the OL dinner, Chris Bliss, Lester Dales and I together with several other friends visited the school. The amount of change is astonishing! Girl boarders, numerous new facilities and buildings, and an East House that has been converted to luxury hotel compared to what I remembered!!!
At the dinner event our group having a mini reunion sat together with John Harding at one end of the table and Fiona Slot at the other. It was great fun sharing stories and catching up. There was a lot of laughter and I think a few of us instantly fell in love with Fiona.
Jeremy Ratcliff and I had boarded at St. Faiths before the Leys and not kept in touch since then. Jeremy was Head Boy at St. Faiths and I generally seemed attract trouble there. At The Leys we seemed to switch roles with me being being the school prefect and Head of House for East House and him being in detention on a regular basis!! This was specially amusing given that his father was a Governor at the time.
So many years have passed and it we just seemed to start from where we left off....perhaps just a little grayer, fatter, balder and arguably wiser. I look forward to the next time we are all able to plan to get together around an OL dinner event.
OL Clay Pigeon Shoot
After much initial interest ten OL's together with a guest met up at Holland and Holland's shooting grounds in North London for the inaugural OL clay pigeon shoot. It was good to see a wide range of interest both from those whom shoot as well as several novices. On arrival we were greeted with coffee and a plethora of bacon rolls which we were unable to finish. During breakfast we were split into two teams and allocated an instructor.
For the first hour and a half our instructors got to know our capabilities across four different traps; teal, rabbit, going away and driven birds. We then retired to reception for another coffee and were handed out score cards to instil a bit of friendly competition. After shooting at four further stands our scores were calculated before we tried a few testing shots at the high tower. Two OL's had excelled, Alex Smethers and Paul Winchester with 28 and 26 out of 32 respectively. The novice guns also put in some very credible scores, one achieving 8 out of 8 at one stand before being out for a duck at another. Our overall average was 21 out of 32 - a reasonable pass mark by anyone's standard.
We retired to the club house for a bite to eat and in usual Leysian fashion toasted our scores with a glass of bubbly. As a result of our self congratulatory exuberance, Alex Smethers received a bottle of Buck Fizz rather than something a bit more traditional, but with his shooting ability I doubt any of the rest of us will get much of a look in for some time - so this is probably just as well!
The day was most enjoyable and I believe considered to be a success by all those involved. I have provisionally booked the grounds again for the third Saturday in September in order not to conflict with driven days, and to give those of us whom need it a bit of practice before the season is in full swing. Hopefully more OL's will be encouraged to attend and the day will become a permanent fixture in our calendars.
James Middleton (North A 82-87)
OL London Drinks Reception
The Old Leysian Society's annual London Drinks Reception was held on Tuesday 3rd November in the library of the Travellers Club, Pall Mall. A record turn-out of 100 Old Leysians enjoyed a very pleasant evening in a stunning venue and the School, the Development Office and the OLS Committee would like to record our grateful thanks to John Tanzer (F 63-68) for hosting us this year. We were particularly pleased to see a number of recent OLs joining the older generations!