Bloxham School welcomed over a hundred members of the Old Bloxhamist community for OB Day 2020
It was brilliant to welcome over a hundred members of the Old Bloxhamist community back to the school for OB Day 2020 last weekend, on Sunday 1st March.
The action-packed day started with the OB Society AGM which was led by Chairman Jolyon Griffiths and then the 200 Club enjoyed a delicious lunch. Meanwhile, a number of Old Bloxhamists along with current and former members of staff, family and friends gathered at Paddy Kellett’s (Wn 05-10) grave for a remembrance, led by Father Michael.
An afternoon of excellent sport followed at The Dewey ‘ the annual OB men’s hockey tournament, the netball fixture and, for the first time in a few years, squash made a comeback!
Captained by Richard Dean (Cr 56-60), the squash players took on a newly formed school side, led by recently appointed squash coach Mike Morris and we are grateful to him for the following report. The match began with a series of singles games before the main match. Each of the players were then ranked from 1 to 3 with the best players playing at number 1 against each other, although there was very little difference between the levels of ability in each of the seedings. The match was competitive with each player from both sides happily demonstrating very good technical, tactical, physical and mental abilities. The OB’s strengths came from understanding the game and using their knowledge to play some beautiful racket skills and the Bloxham team matched with their fitness and their ability to learn quickly.”
The spirit of the match was superb and the respect that each team demonstrated to the other was a joy to see. The result of all the singles games and the team match was an admirable draw. Each team was then asked to nominate their opposition player of the day, based upon the players skill, sportsmanship and fairness. Trophies were awarded to Andrew Whiffin (Staff 88-09) and student Harry N.
At the same time, the OBs, captained by Ellie Jeffrey (Ry 12-17) took on an incredibly strong school Netball 1st VII side.’ It was a fast-paced game, with impressive scoring on both sides. The school’s skills, stamina and experience of playing regularly as a team shone through and they led right from the start. The final result was 42-22 to the school, and although disappointed, the OBs remained in high spirits. We were very grateful to Jenny Edwards and Denise James for umpiring the game. Each side awarded each other with a Players’ Player trophy, congratulations to OB captain Ellie and student Ellen S-C.
The Men’s Hockey 7-a-side tournament saw two pools of three teams made up of players from the Old Bloxhamists, School and Banbury Hockey Club. After holding a minute’s silence in memory of Paddy, the games began. This year was a more evenly matched competition and the school side showed up well against older and more experienced opposition. There were some spectacular goals, including two from School Bursar and Banbury Hockey Club player, Charlie Little, who was awarded Player of the Tournament. The best game of the day was when Old Bloxhamist 3, led by OB Hockey Captain Steve O’Connor (Cr 02-09), met Banbury 2, loosing in the end 5-3. The tournament winners were Banbury Hockey Club and Old Bloxhamist Resident Secretary Simon Batten presented the trophy to George Brooker.
It was a fantastic day and many OBs came together at The Elephant & Castle at the end of the day to share stories and catch up.
To see pictures from the day, chick here to visit our Flickr page.