Old Boys' Association

The CCCS OBA was founded in 1933, and exists to keep former pupils and choristers in touch with the School, and with each other. All former pupils of the School, whether choristers or not, may join the Association.

See below for how to join.

The Association arranges Reunions, usually at the School, on a regular basis (usually every two years). The date of the next one will be announced in due course.

The 2005 Reunion. Old Boys in the Cathedral Garden.

There are two annual events:

Concert at the School in which Members play or sing an item of their own choice. This year's concert took place on Saturday 31st March (See Report below).

Cricket Match on the School Playing Field on the first Sunday in September.

See below for further details.

In addition, the OBA has joined with the Parents’ Association to form a Trust in June 2006, called the Christ Church Cathedral School Educational Trust (registered charity No 1114828), for the benefit of the School. The CCCS ET exists to provide extra funding for specific projects at the School, but has the long term aim of establishing bursaries and scholarships for talented potential pupils from financially challenging backgrounds a well as support the Outreach programme the school carries out within Oxford itself. Grants of £6500 have been made to date to upgrade the IT system, replace the pre-school play area and provide outdoor furniture for the quiet garden project.

The money for these grants has been raised by a biennial Singing Workshop & Concert in Christ Church Cathedral, directed by Dr Stephen Darlington, Organist & Master of the Choristers. The most recent Singing Workshop took place on 9 October 2010. The most recent Singing Workshop took place on Saturday 2nd February 2013 (See Report below).

Annual Newsletter

The Cardinal’s Newsletter is sent out to all members in January every year. It contains news of the School, Reports of events, Information about forthcoming events, Articles of interest to former members of the School. Members are invited to send in their own news, and thus keep in touch with former contemporaries and friends. Old Boys are invited to send in their news to the Editor, Mike Ward michael-ward49@o2.co.uk

Forthcoming Events

OBA Cricket Match

Sunday 1 September 2013

1.45 for a 2 pm start on the School Playing Field. We welcome Old Boys and past parents to play or spectate. The Match will be followed by a BBQ with drinks@ £10 per head for adults.

Parking will be available in Christ Church Meadows from 12.30 pm onwards.

Please contact Gordon Hughes on gordonhughes@btconnect.com

Recent Events

CONCERT - SATURDAY 23 MARCH 2013

We welcomed a number of old faces, as well as several new ones, in the latest of our series of annual concerts. Also there was a great spread of ages, as indicated by the year of leaving which performers were asked to include when introducing themselves and their music. Paul Mizen (1949) was our resident accompanist for the second year running, again with his daughter Hilary as page turner.

Anthony White (2012) started the concert on the piano with a piece entitled Famigale by Alan Dale, followed by Jack Lewis (2012) with some improvisations on his guitar. Next was a clarinet solo by Ben Wodehouse (2012) playing Traumerei by Schumann. Tom Smith-Macey (2012) reverted to the piano with a Fantasia by Mozart, followed by a violin solo by John Howarth (1995), who performed the third movement (Andante) from one of Bach's unaccompanied violin suites.

Following this, our Chairman Gordon Hughes (1959) sang Bass solos from well-known musicals: Stranger in Paradise (from Kismet), People will say we're in Love (from Oklahoma), and Some enchanted Evening (from South Pacific). Next we were very pleased to welcome Maki Sekiya, parent of a youngster in the Pre-Prep Department (who she said would join the Old Boys in due course!). She performed a Fantasy for piano by Scriabin. The concert ended with a Haydn piano trio in G, performed by Paul Mizen (1949, piano), John Howarth (1995, violin) and Richard Lane (1951, 'cello).

The Old Boys' Association is, as always, so grateful to all who come along to take part, and all parents and friends who came to the concert as supporting audience. Lisa and Nick Mynheer again provided the refreshments, which completed the enjoyment of the evening. We are already making plans for next year, and our aim is to schedule it always on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. Next year this will be Saturday 12 April 2014. Do note it in your diaries.

The Performers

Choral Workshop and Concert - Saturday 2 February in the Cathedral

This event was arranged by the Christ Church Cathedral School Education Trust (CCCSET, a joint venture between Parents Association and the Old Boys Association, Registered Charity No 1114828). Anybody could participate and around 60 adult singers applied to form the Festival Choir, comprising past and present parents, former pupils and local choral society guests, supported by the Cathedral Choristers and Worcester College choristers. The Workshop studied two choral works.

James Gorick, former Cathedral Chorister (1983 - 91) now Director of Music at Bilton Grange Preparatory School, Dunchurch, Near Rugby was our Guest Conductor for Ralph Vaughan Williams' Five Mystical Songs. Our Baritone soloist was Theo Platt, former Cathedral Chorister (2003-2007), now a Teaching Assistant at the School and Lay Clerk in the Cathedral Choir in his gap year before going to St John's College, Cambridge as a choral scholar in October 2013.

Dr Stephen Darlington, Organist and Master of Choristers since 1985, directed the Workshop and conducted the Fauré Requiem in the second part of the concert with the boy Choristers singing the Pie Jesu superbly, much to the delight of Festival Choir members and the Audience.

Clive Driskill-Smith, Sub Organist, played the organ superbly for both works and is now acting as Master of Choristers for six months while Stephen Darlington takes a well deserved sabbatical break.

Dr. Edmund Newell, Sub Dean, welcomed us at the Concert and thanked the organisers and participants on behalf of the School Governors and the Dean and Chapter for such an enjoyable and spiritually uplifting experience for singers and listeners alike. We wish Dr. Newell well as he leaves Christ Church in March 2013 to become Principal of Cumberland Lodge, an educational charity and study centre in Windsor Great Park.

We were particularly pleased that Martin Bruce, present Headmaster, felt well enough to join the Festival Choir in the Tenor section, and The CCCSET Trustees would especially like to thank Lavina Snoek, Chairman of CCCS Parents Association and her team of present parent volunteers and Gordon Hughes, Chairman of CCCS Old Boys Association for his role as Coordinator, who jointly arranged this successful fund raising event.

Dr Darlington is happy to direct a similar event again in October 2014 for the CCCSET (subject to permission of the Dean and Chapter), and hopes to meet up with many more of his ex choristers either singing or as audience.

Conductors' conference; starting the Workshop

James Gorick at work; James Gorick & Theo Platt, our soloist

Our accompanist, Clive Driskill-Smith (below)

Cricket Match & Informal Reunion - Sunday 2 September 2012

Tom Pote's team batted first, and began with an opening partnership of Seb Bearn and Nicholas Schneider. Both proved to be hard hitters, and the fielders were kept busy chasing fours and sixes, until they decided to retire undefeated and give some other players a chance. However, the next three batsmen, Louis Bearn, Andrew Pote and Gabriel Mynheer followed in similar form with a number of boundaries, and also retired in their turn, so the score reached 89 before a wicket truly fell. The innings finally came to an end with the score at 101.

Tom Bennett's team proved equally adept at finding the boundary, with fast scoring from Christian Spallini, Aadam Samiullah, George English and Tom Bennett himself. In this innings too, batsmen retired rather than lost their wicket. However, in both teams when everybody had batted, some of the retired ones returned to the crease so as to make up the batting numbers. The match came to an end when Tom Bennett's team reached 103.

This time it has been decided that the day would end with an informal Reunion, so the refreshments included a barbecue provided by Lisa Mynheer and family, with accompanying wines (also soft drinks for our younger members!). A representation was made by our Chairman Gordon Hughes to Paul Wavell (Deputy Head) to mark the gratitude of the OBA for his organisation of this annual cricket match year after year. Paul is due to retire at the end of the Summer Term next year, so this was the last occasion on which he would be officiating at the match.

After this, the rain which had held off until this point, began to fall, causing most of the participants to disperse. However, a brief General Meeting was held in the Pavilion, in order to re-elect the Committee, and discuss a few ideas for the future, which will be made known to members in due course.

The Players

Tom Pote's Team: Seb Bearn, Nick Schneider, Louis Bearn, Andrew Pote, Gabriel Mynheer, John Bearn, Reuben Mynheer, Hasan Masood, Nigel Willis.

Tom Bennett's Team: Joe Clapton, Andrew Brown, Christian Spallini, Aadam Samiullah, Thomas Moy, Ben Schneider, George Duggan, James Willis.

Christ Church Cathedral School