Yesterday, on a bright spring day, over 100 Old Bloxhamists, past parents, and friends of the School, gathered for our annual Old Bloxhamist Day.
It was an action-packed day with the 200 Club Lunch, Old Bloxhamist sport, as well as a Gathering of Remembrance for Paddy Kellett (Wn 05-10), led by Paddy’s father, Paul Kellett.
Members of the 200 Club enjoyed a fine lunch, which was superbly hosted by the School’s catering team. After the lunch, the bi-annual 200 Club draw commenced and ‘Bernie’ a computer-generated number machine, created by Alan Griffin (Staff 68-99), set into action. Several draws were made, and the winners will be notified.
An afternoon of sport opened with a well contested OB Fives tournament. During the games, no player emerged unbeaten from the round-robin format, but Charlie Gulliver (Sy 10-15) finished top of the table after an 11-7 win against Jonny Stirrup (Sy 08-15). Charlie Tredwell (Sy 10-15) finished third while Sam Manning (Sy 13-15), to whom we are grateful as always for organising the event, finished fourth despite beating the eventual champion.
The OB v School XI Hockey match, appropriately played on St Patrick’s Day, was preceded by a minute’s silence in memory of Paddy Kellett and was played in the presence of many members of Paddy’s family. One of them, Will Kellett (Wn 03-08), scored a hat trick in a 5-2 win for the OBs which ranked among the best matches witnessed in this fixture.
The game was much closer than the scoreline suggests, with a skilful young school side scoring two excellent goals through brothers Sam C and Dom C, while Charlie Bastable (Cr 10-13) and Charlie Gulliver also scored for the OBs. Oscar H was in fine form in the School goal and kept out some fierce shots.
In the end, the difference between the two sides was the greater cohesion between the members of an OB side containing several players who have built up an understanding playing together for school, OB and Banbury sides over the years. Remarkably, one of the veterans, Martin Noble-Bowers (Eg 92-97), was playing in this fixture for the 22nd time. This year also marks the point at which Steve O’Connor (Cr 02-09) stands down after a great stint of 13 years as OBs captain.
Fittingly, Steve O’Connor was awarded ‘Players’ Player’ by the School team. For the second consecutive year, the Old Bloxhamists awarded their trophy to Lower Sixth student Tom F.
Our School Archivist, Simon Batten, concluded OB Day 2024 by thanking everyone who had helped make the day such a special one; the School’s grounds team, sports coaches, officials, catering team and Palmer, as well as all the players and spectators. In particular, Simon thanked the OB captains Sam Manning (Fives) and Steve O’Connor (Hockey).
To see photos from the day, please click here.