Michaelmas 2013
Michaelmas 2013 House Ties— Alex Jefferies, Harry Eamey, Jerrick Carne, Harvey Jack‐ son, Ollie Sexton, Tom Going & Freddie Banks
Academic Prizes— Ted Walliker, Harry Liversedge, Josh Thomas & Lawrence Fortescue
From the Housemaster
JMW
This term is the longest, most ring and falls in the darkest part of the year. However, it is also the term in which the House welcomes an en re new 4th form, establishes a new 6th form leadership team, competes in lots of spor ng events and completes a large part of the years’ academic work. As always, most of the ar cles below are wri en by the boys and hopefully will give you an overview of some of the things that the House has been up to over the past term. Unfortunately, we can nev‐ er cover everything that goes in a busy House like ours so instead we have tried to highlight some of the best events of the term. I hope that you all have a great Christmas!
4th Form X‐Country
Cal St Johnston
As one of the first house events of the year East did a great job and managed to come 2nd despite having three of us com‐ ing in the top five; Niall came 5th Finn came 3rd and I managed to come 1st . A really fun compe on for us all to start off our East House career’s!
Public Speaking
‘Twas week 6 of the Michaelmas term 2013. Freddie Coates and I (Tom Hollidge) made our way down and sat behind the desk. People were, however, ques oning as to the whereabouts of our third person when Harry Horstead drama cally leapt out from behind the stands and, completely unchanged by the audience’s reac on, gave an hilarious two minute speech introducing the team and the topic. Then it was my turn (Tom Hollidge) to deliver the six minute speech presen ng our topic, zero tolerance policing; a er answering a tricky ques on on the topic at the end, I handed over to Freddie Coates. Freddie Coates then gave his two minute speech thanking everyone who had taken part in this year’s junior House public speaking. Unfortunately we ended up second to South House. Thanks must go to James Edwards and Mark Czajkowski East Upper 6th.
N.Richardson, E.Russell, O.Sexton
A talented group of East House Juniors stepped up to the mark as they were called upon to perform in the House Basketball. Needless to say things did not go as planned… we narrowly lost to north (we was robbed). In this game we saw some good baskets and runs from Niall, Josh and Zaid which put us in the third forth playoffs against Cubi . We destroyed them. There were some excellent baskets from George, Thomas and JJ who scored a three pointer pu ng us in the lead. Due to our overwhelming victory against the more inferior Cubi we managed to claim third place for the House. Btw Niall has a poor lid. In the Fi h form compe on, I would firstly like to begin by saying we were far from our full strength team due to injuries, most no ceably Rich Eamey and Joe Hellman who undoubtedly would have made our star ng 5. We came up against Loveday in the 1st round who were the underlining favourites going into the compe on. We then were in the 3rd 4th place playoff up against a very feeble Cubi side. With fresh legs coming from the fives courts of G‐mac and Larwood, east was now feeling strong going into the match. The depth of talent with the physical presence of G‐mac and Larwood being matched with the elegant technical capabili es of Max Subba Row who was ‘flying’ around the top court ‘D’ led East house to a comfortable victory, much to Cubi ’s despair. Overall we came third but believe passionately that had we not played Loveday in the first round we would have progressed further in the compe on. Unfortunately this year, as with most, was not our year on the basketball court for the seniors. Resources had been allocated to winning other events and a lack of hea ng or hot water certainly played against us. Nevertheless a strong and spirited team headed out onto the court to face Cubi . The match was compe ve and close in the early stages with baskets scored for east from Jerrick Carne and Harry Eamey with Jerrick’s being a “free throw”. As the game drew on Cubi ’s relentless a ack finally got the be er of our defence and they beat us. As the compe on is run on a knock out basis this was our only game. Maybe next year!
T.Hollidge, Max La Fosse
On the 6th December three decep vely ar culate young men (James Edwards, Edward Russell and Max Lafosse) took to the lecture theatre stage to argue that the “adolescent” Scotland is not ready for independence. Despite strong undertones of casual racism (“I’ve seen Braveheart. I know what one Scot can do. Are we ready to grant freedom to 5 million more?”) there were some genuinely compelling arguments that did not go unno ced by the judges. However, neither did the “casual racism” or “gentle mick taking of the art of public speaking” as the ever percep ve judge Mr Allison alluded to. Such sharp wit proved to be our downfall, as the judges opted for the compara vely well‐ researched, academic speeches of Cubi and West, leaving us to wallow in the murky back‐waters of regret as we lamented our ill‐judged speech; “Hadrian’s Wall was built for a reason.”
House Basketball
6th Form Football
J Carne
As Tom Landry accurately put it: “Football is an incredible game. Some mes it's so incredible, it's unbelievable.” This was certainly true for the East sixth form, Monday Night Football team. The elite East squad stepped out onto Pickup for the first me against Loveday. A slow start led to a weak goal being conceded just before half me, but then the sky‐blues admirably fought back, scoring two late goals from Riva and Wilkinson to win the game by the skin of our teeth. Our next game was against a strong North team, who on paper were very evenly matched to us. But the East army fought hard and secured a strong 3‐0 win, proving their technical prowess with goals from Rooke, Sexton and Carne. As the only unbeaten side going into our final game against Cubi , and with a handy goal difference, a 3‐0 loss would be enough to guarantee East overall victory. But the East machine wanted a final display of the most glorious standard to end a campaign that highlighted individual genius, tac cal awareness and huge amounts of camaraderie. A final 2‐0 victory with goals from Rooke and Carne secured the flawless unbeaten season and ensured the names of all players would forever be remembered in history.
Michaelmas 2013
Michaelmas 2013
New Tutors— Ian Rossiter, Helen Merry, Nick Drake, Dan Reed & Jamie Bartle
House Play
Orlando Taylor (L)
East then treated the VCT audience to a play that allowed for laughter, sympathy and banter squeezed into less than an hour. The play opened with the dol sh, yet lively, Luke Rooke, who held the audience from beginning to end: his physicality complemented his vocality wholly. His obliviousness to the preten ousness of the cricket club’s captain, played with panache by Freddie Banks, led to moments of rapturous laughter. His rela onship to the other characters was a perfect framework to the unfolding of the plot. Ha e Allison playing Pauline Hincliff was the perfect contrast to the dim‐wi ed nature of Billy Wigley (Luke’s character): full of despair and ambi on for a date that was either a tad more glamorous than Te ord Cricket Club or a meal that had more to it than a measly pickled gherkin. The idea of both, she felt, was a li le unrealis c. Their rela onship was tested by the disobliging character of Pauline’s Father – Len Hincliff, played by Freddie Banks, with his supercilious, pompous a tude. His deluded idea that his reputa on was unassailable and his bowling unplayable shone through in Freddie’s brilliant characterisa on. As the play went on the audience were told about two different secrets: Jean Hincliff, ( Maddie Lock) who was Len’s wife, was having an affair with Ray, who was Len’s ‘right hand men’ and played by Joe Gill. The other secret was that the girls’ cricket team were the England na onal team – the audience were gently teased with more informa on about these two secrets by Maddie and Jemima Stephenson in her role as the Captain of the women’s team. Maddie owned the stage with her sure presence and was extremely convincing. The reluctance she showed towards her husband was delicately played, bringing out the more serious element of the play. Jemima Stephenson’s secret, on the other hand, was a rather different affair. However, it was just as well played. She and her two team mates exploited the obscenely dumb‐wi ed nature of the boys, each having, by far, more brain power than the males put together. Joe Gill played his part brilliantly, showing he had higher aspira ons than a dodgy cricket club in Yorkshire. His dream to run off with Jean was a theme that he and she played perfectly, portraying a very realis c and rather despairing plot line. The twain had an intensity that stole the audience’s sympathy with Joe Gill’s ability to swap between humour and severity especially enviable. The play was held together brilliantly by Ed Russell, Tom Berry and Adam Forrester playing brilliantly on the farcical nature of the club, as well as Iola Andrews and Ellie Williamson, who owned the stage as they showed their superiority to the dim‐wi ed nature of the boys. It was a superb play directed by two enigma c directors: Alex Forsdike and Ed Griffiths. Their ingenuity was clearly evident.
House Rugby
Various
This year the House rugby has spilt into two very different compe ons. On the Monday of the final week the house touch compe on took place—the WNB Cup. This was a fantas c event, with 4 teams , with each team being captained by a member of staff with 2 rugby players (non 1st XV) from each year. The event was played in great spirit and East were to
finish second overall. The A team won their compe on, with the B & C teams coming 2nd in theirs respec vely and with the D team coming last. What was so good about it was seeing boys from different years and sides coming together to represent the house. On Tuesday we had the main compe on. This year a sevens comple on, with squads up to 12 per side. In total 6 mini compe ons, 2 for the seniors, and 4 for the U5th, L5th and 4th form took place. The House was suffering from lots on injuries, mainly in the A team compe ons and thus this had a knock effect for the B teams. In the Senior compe on the two teams came overall. The same in the Junior Heavies compe ons, and in the Juniors Lights the East side won. The overall result was a very respectable second. However it was li le consola on to the boys when we found out that if we had won one more game in either of the senior compe would had one the overall trophy.
ons we
Michaelmas 2013
Michaelmas 2013 Senior House Cup— Harry Adorian
Junior House Cup— Ed Russell Squash & Fives
J. Howell,, T.Going, T. Hemming, H.Eamey
In the Junior comp ‐ thanks to injury, we were le with few players who had actually ever played the game, but we managed to find 5 in the end. In the first round we lost to the winners Loveday 3 games to 2. Harry Gough and Josh Wilkinson winning their games, and Luke Sterry, Ollie Mitchell and Joe Howell narrowly losing! We clearly had the best support of all the houses as always! We then faced North in the 3rd and 4th play offs, and lost 4‐1 in games. Seb Friedrich, this me back from injury, replaced an injured Joe Howel and Seb Hazel replaced Luke Sterry in the last minute. Again we dominated the support, but it wasn’t enough to beat a strong North side. East isn’t known for its squash, but put up a strong fight against all odds. Five valiant East players stepped up to perform in the senior house squash; Tom Going, Ben Larwood, Pete Coe, Harry Eamey and Ollie Sexton. The group tried as hard they could to get East a win but were not as successful as hoped… Pete, Ollie and Harry did not live up to their reputa ons and needless to say let the house down with their defeats to north which did not go down to well with the rest of the House. Tom Going and Ben Larwood however joined the group of the greats, seeing as they both beat their rivals in north comfortably. Therefore placing East third on the league table, at least we didn’t come last. The Junior Fives in the first round against Cubi an East team consis ng of Thomas Hemming, George Gundry, Cameron Morse, Sam Halstead, Joe Howell and JJ basil we unfortunately lost 2 matches to 1 with Hemming and Gundry winning their game. This meant in the second round East were playing Loveday and through injury and deten on it was a depleted team. However, we put in a huge amount of effort and, although we lost all three games, the East spirit was evident in every single game. All in all, it was a great game of Eton fives enjoyed by all athletes and ul mately ‘we was robbed’. Tradi onally, fives had been a major forte of East house for the Seniors, with years of dominance from the likes of Harry Eamey and Harvey Jackson who in essence, monopolised this tremendous event. Larwood, Adorian and others renowned to have excellent skillsets managed to beat North quite convincingly: with strong performances from just about everyone. Sadly in the final, Cubi was our nemesis and the subtlety of Fin Johnston simply being too much sadly. However; the support helped as always to make the event an East one – a spectacular spectacle of East House spirit.
East in Pictures
Part Song & 4th Form Dance
T Going & F Banks
With only a couple of weeks into the school year, the annual House performance loomed. But when rehearsals began, strong leadership by the six front dancers (Caroline Zoet, Tash Gerrard, Tom Mar n, Zaid Muallah, Nial Richardson and Rafe Sco ) helped everyone else gain energy and excitement. As we mixed the songs together and constantly repeated the music the dancing got be er and perfected. A er two great performances we ended up winning the dance and many thanks goes to the helpers Cecile Zoet, Tish Montgomerie and Ollie Sexton. East called upon the greats to take part in the part song. The soloists included Tom Going, Rufus Wilkinson, Alex Tracey and Phoebe Bagge they produced an incredible cover of the song “Pompeii” by Bas lle. They took full advantage of the skills of the talented soloists and the great backing that they had from the rest of the House that took part in it. They also used a very interes ng urban vibe in the song including a clapping rhythm throughout some of the verses. Through the great skill and effort of the par cipants in East House, it led them to victory where they won first place!!!
East win the double!! House Challenge
J.Edwards
As one of the most auspicious occasions in the School year the House challenge was eagerly an cipated by all, the East suppor ng con ngent was in good heart and voice. The team comprising of Jeds, Jhibbs, Hollidge and Norton were ready for ba le and as always looked the best dressed, with the words dashing, iconic and suave used by many to describe their ou its. We came up against a tough West team in the first round but managed to overcome them, thanks to inspira on from the juniors. However in the semi‐final we became unstuck against a talented Loveday team whose superb knowledge of children’s TV was to be our downfall. It was an enjoyable occasion all round, with many entertaining answers given and as always East created a rambunc ous atmosphere over the proceedings.
Contacts Housemaster: 01483 542040 Warden: 01483 542037
Mr James Witcombe jmw@cranleigh.org Mr Ed Griffiths ejg@cranleigh.org
Deputy Housemaster: 01483 542073 Matrons: 01483 542045
Mr Alex Forsdike apf@cranleigh.org Jen / Sue eastmatron@cranleigh.org