Ok…I promise not to go on about it too much more, but the highlight of the week remains James Wallis’s Art Prize which was splashed all over yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph (p. 15) So not only a bag of cash but some fantastic publicity for the school – we are thinking of renaming the Art Room, ‘The Wallis Collection’!

Whilst we were all away in London, the Pingers Team went over to Papplewick and notched up their first victory of the term – no cash prize, but huge congratulations all round nonetheless for winning a very tough match.

Wednesday heralded the arrival of Bishopsgate for some Rugby fixtures, with Woodcote victorious in three out of four.The Firsts and Colts A piled on massive scores and were both looking for their first real test of the season – hopefully against Sunningdale on Saturday, but more on that shortly.

On Friday evening the Boarders and a few Day Boys were treated to another evening of Bingo, hosted by our regular caller, Mr. Lyddon – great value entertainment and great fun.

Saturday saw the first leg of matches against the ‘Dale. Sunningdale brought their Firsts and Colts A here and we took the 2s, Bs and U9s to them. I was lucky enough to watch most of the 1st XV game which was won comfortably in the end by Woodcote, although Sunningdale rallied strongly in the second half. The return fixture promises to be a cracker. There were good wins for both Woodcote Colts teams and the U9s, with Sunningdale coming out on top in a hard-fought 2s game. All the boys are looking forward to the second leg in a month’s time.

In the early part of Saturday evening the boys were entertained by a chap who came to teach them how to play the African Drums. Everybody got involved and the noise emanating from the gym was tremendous. We shall certainly have another session of this in the future!

African Drums - Session 1

Mr. Beharrell has a go

On Sunday afternoon, the squash team took on Horris Hill at Wellington and beat them 6-4 but were back in time to take their turn on the Formula One Racing Simulators. These were a huge hit with the boys as they raced against each other on various circuits around the world. The simulators had been hand built by the guys who brought them over and were incredibly authentic – right down to vibrating ferociously every time the boys skidded off the track or crashed into the safety barriers, which seemed like most of the time from where I was watching! It turns out that this company also have go-karts which they can bring on site, so we may well book them for a Boarders’ Grand Prix on Dominies one Sunday in the latter part of the Summer term.

The F1 Simulators

High Excitement!!

The Gamers....

This week is a little quieter as it is an Exeat weekend, but there are matches for the U8s and U9s on Tuesday against Dorset House (good to renew fixtures with them) and the senior teams (1s, 2s, As, Bs) play Hall Grove on Wednesday.

Just a reminder that there is a Parents’ evening for all parents with boys in Juniors 1 and 2 on Sunday evening at 6:30pm in the gym. I look forward to seeing you there.

Have a great Exeat Weekend.

That is all.