18/11/08.

Elmshurst Senior “A” House Rugby Competition

By Freddy Green:
Knowing our team wasn’t as strong as our previous years, the team gallantly decided to enter the “A” team competition. Knowing that we were the underdogs in practically every match only spurred us on to put the utmost effort in. We began the day with a fixture against Walters. We lost this match 12-0, but as Walters included 3 1st team players in their backline of 5, the score line is a testament to the effort put in. Lyttelton came next. This match was also lost two tries to none. Again in this match the effort could not be criticised by any, as spectators began to view the impressive fight from Elmshurst. In our match against Lupton we thought we had a genuine chance of pulling off a win. The match was very tightly contested, but two sole breaks through our lines set us up for another 12-0 defeat. Then came our match against the eventual winners of the competition, Housman Hall. This was always to be the hardest match of the day, as they contained many of the 1st team. The match was eagerly anticipated by our team as we wanted to cause an upset against the strong favourites for the competition. However this was not to be. We eventually lost the match two tries to nil. However, the score line flatters our opposition, as we gave everything possible that was left in us to fight back. Our heads never dropped. The neutral spectators acknowledged this and began cheering for Elmshurst. Testament must go to our forwards in the lineout, as every one of our line outs was won easily.
So we finished the tournament without a win. However, the result cannot undermine the effort that was put in by all of the team. As captain, I was proud of the player’s determination to succeed for their house and their friends. I was approached by one of the referees of the day, Mr Mullan, who said he was impressed by the team. As clear underdogs of the tournament, we were tipped to be beaten convincingly by most if not all teams. But we proved everyone wrong by having close fixtures with every team we played against. We had players continuing with injuries, as they didn’t want to let either their friends or their house down. It is difficult to pick out star performers, as in my eyes every player deserves to be mentioned. Some say our tournament was an unsuccessful one; however I disagree, as we knew we were the underdogs, and we wanted to show all our doubters that we weren’t the easy team to beat. And we did that convincingly.

Senior House Rugby “A” team as follows:

Godfrey Leung, Donald Cheung,Justin Tsoi, Freddy Green (c), Hugh McBride, George White, James Bell, Jack Taft (vc), Chris Coombs, Michael Prudden

The A team came 6th.
Senior Plate competition 4th Jack Dardis was captain.

By Jack Taft:
In the holidays George Smallman performed very well in the CCF orienteering, this bodes well for future aspirations in challenges such as Ten Tors, which requires high orienteering skill.Chris Coombs was part of the Honour Guard at the remembrance Service, looked smart and looked the part. (It’s all in the white gloves!).

Hugh Mcbride is through to the North Midlands rugby, a brilliant achievement, Hugh is no doubt becoming a very high valued asset to house and school rugby – we wish him well with his progress.

Charlie Green and Jack Moseley won the preliminary debate based on audience votes for Junior Debating. They played to their undeniable strengths; Charlie’s looks combined with Jack’s high intellect we believe was the killer combination for their opposition. Unfortunately the official judges did not see it this way and they failed to progress to the next round.

‘This upcoming weekend on the Sunday 16th November the Paintballing trip will commence, 35 will be going, To Mr Perry that will equal, of course for some odd reason, 34 rifles pointing towards him. If the paint and smoke grenades just happen to be for sale too, well, in that case, he’ll need divine intervention.

There was a good turn out at disco, with half sitting on the sidelines, this was remedied once the king of dance MJ came on with Billy Jean and Thriller. Some anonymous fellow was doing the moonwalk that he learned and practiced off the internet (well worth the effort.)

The PA are buying the house a much needed telly, thanks to their financial support, without it we as a house would be stranded with run down equipment and an unbelievably miserable lifestyle, we appreciate it hugely!

Vadim and Constantin have been acting as saviours of Russians in the prep school by helping them with their prep.

Junior House Swimming Competition Results from the last week before Half term need to be remembered for their heroic win for the house!

The following boys took part

Special mentions go to John Ng, Radif Yangursov who won their individual races and to the relay team which consisted of Nick Garvie, Charlie Green, John Ng and James Hanna who beat the other houses by 1 length in the pool.
It was a great win for the house and the boys have done Elmshurst proud.

October 17th

Senior House Swimming competition took place recently. Captained by George White, the team was up against strong competition and they fought hard to take a respectable 3rd place.
The team was composed of:
Lax Chan, Chris Chan, Anthony Ng, Mike Prudden, Clarence Fong, Hugh MucBride, Viktor Brandt, Howard Kwan, Artyom Kan, Vlad Yanovskiy

The Junior House Rugby competition took place on Monday 13th October. Unfortunately due to injuries the 4th Form did not enter the A team competition but instead had to opt for the B team competition. They were still tested nonetheless against a Lyttelton side that had previously defeated them in a drop-kick shootout after a draw in the semi-finals. They met again immediately after, in the final. In preparation the team was huddled together, after a pep talk from the Head of House and stand-in captain Charlie Green, they were ready to fight it out, and they did. In the closing stages of the game a determined charge was led up the field, notably in an unforeseen frenzy, Jae Lee broke through as he took on their entire back line. He played the rugby match of his life. George Toft was fearless at scrum-half, and Charlie Green produced some titanic clashes in a kamikaze like manner running from full back. Once a position was secure up the field with forward James Hanna, House Monitors wandered over to give their vocal support and it clearly made a difference.

George White, Viktor Brandt and Carl Rettig all did a good job guiding this week. Carl has also won a Hockey match playing for the 1st team along with Robert Sieg and Max Schwann. Hugh Mcbride has been selected for U16 Worcester county rugby and Ollie Strong is going to participate in county trials for Cricket.

Recently boys have received their fist effort grades and some of the results were very pleasing. The following have received commendations:
Stefan Naumov 2.0 (House commendation)
Anthony Ng 1.8 (School commendation) 
Clarence Fong 1.9 (School commendation)
Stefan Miller 1.9 (School commendation)
Carl Rettig 2.0 (House commendation)
Vadim Chernushkin 1.4 (School commendation)
Chris Coombs 2.0 (House commendation)
Andy Lai 1.5 (School commendation)

Good luck to the House in the song competition this week. Confidence is high.

On the last Thursday of the half-term the senior house rugby team will be competing in the inter-house event. They have trained hard and we wish them all the best.

Jack Taft.

Elmshurst update 28.9.08

This past week Routh Hall mentions went to Donald Cheung and Jack Taft.
Donald Cheung was one of the top 10 AS level textiles in the country; this is a fabulous achievement which will no doubt bode well for university applications. Jack Taft meanwhile represented the school in the European Youth Parliament National Session in Durham University where schools competed to represent Great Britain in the upcoming European Sessions held abroad. Unfortunately the team was not chosen, but Jack can look forward to questioning William Hague and Conservative Party shadow ministers on Monday. Aslan Zhenetl was one of the top 10 students in the Russian GCSE; he was competing against the likes of 2000 other well educated students.

Congratulations to Chris Coombs. He was promoted to Staff Sergeant in the Combined Cadet Force, taking on a leadership role which will be crucial to his Gold Duke of Edinburgh.

Alex Hillier and Jae Lee read in chapel confidently in front of a large audience. George Stevens, John Ng, Louis Preira, Brett Huxley [injured at the moment] are representing the U14 A team in rugby. Hugh McBride has been training with County rugby team and the House has been preparing for House rugby.

Meanwhile Tom Williams kicked an epic conversion that clinched the game for the U16 C team. Aslan Zhenetl won his first ever rugby match last Wednesday playing for the U16A’s!

Lax Chan performed Beethoven’s moonlight sonata, an epic display of talent on the piano, a truly mesmerising performance in a packed Houseman room. His skills will be sure to prove invaluable when playing the House song.  The House song indeed, will is to be practiced intensely over the coming 2 weeks, as the house gets to grips with the Shrek song “I’m a Believer” by Smash Mouth.

Boarders are preparing for a shopping trip to London this weekend. Exchange students from Germany were welcomed by the house this week. On that note, Max Schwann, a new member of Elmshurst from Germany, is looking forward to training with the former England Goalkeeper this week.

Effort and attainment grades will be out next week. We hope the boys have done well. The Lower 4th will visit the Malvern Hills on Wednesday for the field day. This is normally one of the most enjoyable days of the year and we hope the sun stays shining.

News update written by Jack Taft [Head of House.]

21st September 2008.

Terms has started well for the 67 boys in Elmshurst. 23 of the boys are new to the house and they have been made very welcome by the old campaigners. Mr Bowmer and Miss Nelson have also joined the house as tutors and they have adapted to boarding routine very smoothly. The monitor team, led by Jack Taft, is setting the tone in the house and they have already started practising for the inter-house song competition. This year the theme is ‘songs from films’. We are doing ‘I’m a believer.’ I am sure that enthusiasm will be as high as last year but hopefully we will be a little more tuneful! Vadim Chernushkin has been joined by Vincent Wong on the school monitor team. Vincent was made up in the second round of appointments. It is a great honour for the house to have two school monitors. We wish Jack Taft luck in the European Youth Parliament event he has gone on this weekend in Durham.

Much has happened in the last three weeks. Boarders have been on a cinema trip to Rubery; an Alton Towers trip, Dining –In for the 6th form; and most recently Duke of Edinburgh and Combined Cadet Force Expeditions have gone out. House participation in these events has been impressive. Many boys have been involved in sports fixtures. Michael Prudden has been successful as the school’s squash captain. Hugh Mcbride has been involved in county rugby trials and Carl Rettig has been selected for the school 1st team for hockey. Brett Huxley scored twice against King’s Worcester and George Smallman has been made captain of the under 15B rugby team. George has also got on the score board with a try.

George White has proven to be an excellent guide in recent weeks and Kenneth Chan spoke in Chapel about the role of student listeners. James Bell helped out in a talk to the 5th form and the house were delighted to hear that Aslan Zhenetl obtained one of the top 10 highest scores in the country in his Russian exam.

Our representatives for various school bodies are as follows:
Senior Boarders forum rep-Nikita Enotov
Junior boarders’ forum rep- Alex Hillier
Charity reps- Godfrey Leung and Justin Tsoi;
Senior bullying committee rep-George White
Junior bullying committee rep-Phil Lam;
Eco rep-Tom Williams.

Elmshurst are on the chapel rota this week so we have to provide the readers. Jack Dardis is going to read in Routh on Friday and I will do a talk on the theme of the Good Samaritan on Wednesday’. We are currently collecting tinned food for harvest festival in the house. We are currently thinking of organising a house paint balling trip in the second half of term. I am sure interest will be high as the boys will be able to target the staff!
More news next week.

News from Summer 2008

News from Lent 2008

News from Michaelmas 2007