Cubitt Newsletter

Summer 2012

T20 Trip : Henry Crinage

The last week of term is always a good one to look forward to from a house perspective. And this was certainly the case when we travelled to the Kia Oval to watch Surrey play Sus-sex. Although the weather was mixed from the start, all year groups thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Unfortunately for a lot of the boys, Surrey were defeated and even our efforts on starting a Mexican wave or performing ‘the Robot’ with a Sur-rey fielder, Jason Roy, failed to spark a fight back. However the Mexican wave was successfully passed right the way around the ground started by our very own Sam Guinness. Although cricket may not have been the most popular sport amongst the boys, everyone found a way to have a great night. And this leads me on to, on behalf of the whole house, say thanks to Mr Cooke for organising the evening.

Twitter Reply: “@HenryCrinage: @JasonRoy20 Did you like my Robot?”loved it...need more of them around the ground!!”

House Tennis: Jonny Pullar

The Cubitt team was full of talent and flare, including players such as Hall, Findlay and Lyster. With players of this great cali-bre, we would not settle for anything other than a victory.

The day began in the pouring rain, with an important match against North. We won 3 and drew 1. Lyster and Zorab were the stand-out pair with an impressive 5-1 victory. This was followed by a convincing whitewash over Loveday. Findlay and Slynn were particularly dominant, winning 5-1. We then went into the final round as marginal leaders, 33 games to East’s 32! Pairs 3 and 4 won quickly and convincingly, releasing the pressure a little off the top 2 pairs. Jack Hall managed to maintain his high standard despite East’s gamesmanship! Will Calnan and Charlie Thompson persevered to a hard fought victory, epito-mising the great attitude shown by everyone. The victory was well deserved; inspiration provided by the supremely talented Marc Sadler!

House Golf: Jonah Ghinn

The infamously talented Marc Sadler headed the Cubitt line up for the house golf competition. He was joined by Jonny “Shoulders” Pullar, the devilishly handsome Jack Hall, Savage, and myself. In the first round we were drawn against Loveday, a house renowned for its sporting prowess, and beat them convincingly, with all but Savage winning. So we then went into the final against the East underdogs, and sadly were beaten by a team many would consider to be weaker on paper. Sadler’s surprise loss destabilised team morale, and was there-fore likely a contributing factor to our loss. He did bring back a bit of glory to Cubitt, by winning the “shot-of-the-tournament”, with a 220-yard approach shot with a lob wedge, putting it within 3 ft of the hole. Special thanks must go to CHDB for his inspiring support throughout.

Housemasters Comments: CHDB

Cubitt has enjoyed a particularly successful year with many trophies won, individual honours' achieved and, most impor-tantly, a wonderfully fun and supportive atmosphere about the place. As in any organization the tone is set very much from the top and the leadership that the U6 have offered and the commitment they have shown to the house has been second to none in my time here. They are also a hugely talented bunch from the academics to drama, sports and music but what really stands out is the sense of togetherness and support for one another that has been forged here – they have set a tremendous example for others to follow and will be greatly missed.

The other vital ingredient has been our wonderful team of tutor and matrons and their dedication, verve and deep sense of pastoral care has enriched the place and the lives of the boys enormously. Sadly though, we have to say farewell to two tutors who, as part of a school-wide reshuffle, are moving to other houses after a successful year in Cubitt: Miss Hannah Warner has made a hugely positive impact in the short time she has been with us but is now moving to take on the very different chal-lenge of girls in West while Mr James Copp is returning to East after a year’s very successful secondment with us here in Cu-bitt. I am pleased to say though that moving the other way to replace them in September are Mrs Clair Neill and Mr Stuart Welch respectively. Finally we will welcome one new member of Common room, Mr Edward Clarke, to the Cubitt team in September.

I hope you enjoy reading the rest of the newsletter and admire the excellent photos - many thanks indeed to Sam Cooke for his tireless energy in organizing this. Finally, I would like to wish everyone a wonderful summer and hopefully we will see some sun before too long!

“WE WILL DONATE”: Jamie ‘Charity Prefect’ House

We have a dream... that one day all children in Zambia will have the same opportunities we have. This term we helped realise that dream. We have a dream... that the poor and op-pressed will no longer suffer in silence. This term we gave them a voice. We have a dream... that no child should go hungry. This term we filled their plates. We have a dream... that all children deserve equal education. This term we gave them that schooling.

There are children in Zambia less fortunate than us. They need our help. For too long the needs of the poverty stricken have come second. Today we say “no, we will no longer ignore them, we will no longer watch our fellow man suffer and we will solve this problem of the past.”

Bridget Zuze lives in a home with six other people and is responsible for caring for other young children despite being just ten. She has lost both parents so has to support herself. The support raised by Cubitt has helped her and three others; Bandete, Emmanuel and Gift, get proper a education and improve their quality of life.

However, these children need our continued support. I eagerly await spearheading the chari-table operations next year and the challenge of continuing to support; Bridget, Bandete, Em-manuel and Gift.

Our dreams are achievable, they may take dedication but as a House we will prevail in the face of opposition, we will not quiver before the sword of injustice and we will not stutter in reply to inequality. We will step forth from the darkness, we will reach out and “WE WILL DONATE”

House Athletics: Jack Pearson

Cubitt performed very well in the house athletics winning over-all, with the juniors winning overall, and the inters and seniors coming a very close second! It was a brilliant afternoon, made all the better by nearly the whole of Cubitt coming down to support, despite treacherous conditions underfoot and mon-soon like rains! Many of our runners did extremely well, with an extra well done to our winners: from the juniors; Charlie Firth in the 100m and Seb Leman in both the 800m and the 1500m. In the inters; James Godfrey in the Discus and the Javelin, Matt Foster in the 400m and Jake Storey in the high jump. In the seniors; Luke Chitty in the 100m and 200m and Jack Pearson in the 400m and 800m. Everyone else did in-credibly as well, with too many second places to name!

Junior Play: Jon Oldfield

Following on from the Cubitt dominated Lent term musical,' Beasts and Beauties' (by Carol Ann Duffy; adapted by Melly Still and Tim Supple) allowed the youngest two years to tread the board of the VCT. Once again, the cast was awash with Cubittians as the ensemble cast staged this collection of six short fairy tales from around Europe. The sto-rytelling was accompanied throughout by disciplined, choreographed and focused movement by the young cast and the staging was inventive and original, making excel-lent use of the VCT’s open thrust stage. The evening began in France with Weston Lord as the brilliantly threatening central character in “Blue Beard” before a Norwegian tale entitled “Kari and The North Wind” saw the impressive Seb Leman make his theatrical debut at Cranleigh with a strikingly mature performance as the North Wind. Another Cubittian who stood out in this was Cam Scheidje whose fantastically comic facial ex-pressions had many of the audience in hysterics. Special mention should also be made of Cam as he managed to gain a place in the prestigious National Youth Theatre this year – an impressive feat for such a young actor. After a brilliant staging of “Beauty and the Beast”, Weston Lord returned on stage as the manipulative wolf in “Toby and the Wolf”, his sinister character showed his versatility as an actor. The darkly comic “Juniper Tree” followed before the evening was rounded off with a hilarious telling of “The Emperor's New Clothes” where special mention should go to the delightfully camp courtiers – Ali Johnston and Seb Leman.

House Swimming: Alex Foster

House swimming this year was met with another uniform moan from all those associated with Cubitt house, as last year not one Cubittian won a race. However a unit of athletes, although very few ‘swimmers’, was assembled to compete. During the competition, race after race took place with a common pattern beginning to emerge, “Cubitt 4th place”. There were a few valiant performers who deserve honourable mentions amongst the younger year groups, including a relay team consisting of Matt Foster, Jake Storey, Alex Livingstone and Chris Linford who fin-ished 3rd, and a special mention must go to Chris who even reached the dizzy heights of 2nd place in his individual breaststroke event, and to Gregor McIntyre who also finished 3rd in his individual event.

Some of the more light-hearted moments of the competition were ‘performed’ by Cubittian’s including Luke Chitty’s ‘swim-walking’ and Henry “Wardo” Ward’s gallant attempt at butter-fly.Although we may have lacked the competitive edge we usually bring to house competitions, everyone enjoyed their rare visit to the pool.

Charity Swimathon: Alex Clarke

It was a bright albeit cold day on 22nd April, and the clocks had scarcely struck six before the school’s indoor swimming pool was set upon by a doggedly determined Cubitt House. Heads hugged by goggles, towels wrapped around waists and minds focused solely on the task at hand; this was a horde of charity do-gooders to be reckoned with. Tildy’s Trust and Beyond Ourselves were engrained within the conscience of each swim-mer, and the tranquil chlorinated waters were soon awash with heads, legs and arms flailing and propelling bodies about for their cause. From the lowliest Fourth Former to the most haughty Upper Sixth; from the least aquatic to the most athletic; everyone took part. As a result, it was unsurprising that talk quickly spread of amounting length totals; Pullar 900 lengths, Thompson 800, and Seb Haddock 600. The only intermis-sion to this dynamism and activity came as a result of the culinary prow-ess of Crinage and AJ manning the barbecue, yet even this distraction was not enough to dissuade an en mass return to the pool in the afternoon. When all began to settle, then emerged the streamline figures of CHDB, TRF and STC, trunked and adequately energised by three or four cups of coffee prior. This culminated in a total collection of £4616.17, a sum which will be divided between combating childhood cancer and leukemia, and supporting children through school in Zambia.

House Badminton : James Gall

Cubitt were quietly confident going into the senior competition this year after having no fewer than six members of the sixth form represent Cranleigh Badminton team the pre-vious term, albeit simply because badminton was a substitute for playing rugby. Two pairs took to the courts, with the B team winning one match and losing the other. How-ever the A team pair required a late personnel change and, as a result, James Thompson was drafted in while wearing chinos and plimsols. Despite his best efforts, tactically Cu-bitt were weak and the match was lost. James Trower was then called to the courts for the second game, and despite a marked improvement in the quality of badminton on show, again, we lost.

House Cricket: James Trower and Jordan Bedford

The Junior House Cricket was a great success turning last year’s 4th place into a well deserved 1st place. In their first match against East, the team bowled first with Sam Guinness and Matt Foster both taking two wickets restricting East to 86-6. This did not seem to trouble Matt Foster and Ollie Trower as they cruised to that target scoring 54 and 26 not out. In the final Cubitt came up against a dangerous Loveday side, again skipper Dan Chitty won the toss and chose to bowl with a dominantly batting side. Dan opened up with Charlie Terry who got two wickets early on followed by Matt Foster continuing his fine form picking up two more. Loveday scored 79-6 but gave Cubitt a more challenging bowling opposition. They began the innings at a steady run rate which kept us on level pegging with Loveday and after getting 16-2 of three over’s Matt Foster and Jordan Bedford finished the game off in the last over scoring 24 and 49 not out respectably.

Coming up against Loveday in the first round was always going to be a challenge; winning the toss and electing to bowl, they were on top until Luke chitty managed two key wickets and kept Loveday to 40-4 until a 1st XI player guided them to a total of 92. The run chase we got off to a solid start with 38 on the board after 5 over’s; Peter Westcott and James Trower well set, however wickets fell and we were 78 for 9 in our 12 over’s. This brought North in the 3rd Vs 4th play off and we managed 96 in 12 over’s with Ben Wilson hitting 4 6’s in four balls after a good foundation from Will Slynn, this led Ben Wilson and Alex foster to open the bowling and in the end North finished with 65 all out, Alex Clarke, Sam Richards, James Gall all claimed wickets, but special mention to Alex foster picking up 3 in both games, meaning the sen-ior Cubitt came 3rd overall.

House Music: Luke Halls

This term saw Cubitt’s finest musicians at their best once again. Noah Frett kicked off term with a Lunchtime Concert, fol-lowed by appearances at the Encore Concert and Summer Concert, featuring Peter Westcott, Theo Golden and Alex Curtis in the Symphonic Wind Band, Charlie La Fosse, Alex Curtis and Olly Parker in the Big Band and Horatio Cox in the String Or-chestra. Alex Curtis took to the stage in the Helen Wareham Competition Final, narrowly missing out on the Brass Prize but demonstrating a highly intricate piece of musicianship in performing an arrangement of Mozart’s “Agnus Dei”. Finally on the last Friday of the school year, a large set of Cubitt musicians partook in the annual RocSoc Concert, displaying a range of dif-ferent performances. The age range throughout the night was fantastic to see, showing musical talent throughout the whole of the house. From the 4th Form we saw Theo Golden and Cameron Scheidje performing their rendition of “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins, Guy Trevellyan (LVth) performed some of his own songs alongside some accompaniment from myself playing bass guitar and Noah Frett helping to cover a Bruce Springsteen song on harmonica. In the UVth, Ben Castle-Gibb performed a version of “Too Close” by Alex Clare in singing and playing guitar, one of the crowds’ favourites of the whole night. In the Sixth Form, Oscar Reeve joined up with Jon Oldfield and Ben Cox to perform their final show at Cranleigh, whilst Alex Foster played the show for the first time in singing and playing guitar. I took up the task of forming a backing band for the night, as well as performing in my band in playing bass guitar. The spectrum of musical talent was great to see this year, and the term will be remembered for its music for a long time!