This has been an interesting year in Ashburnham. The year started with us losing our glorious leader, Mr. Griffiths (Awwwww), and then gaining a new one, Mr. Jones (Yippee!). Although we all miss Mr. Griffiths and his particularly...individual sense of humour (anyone remember when he decided the house should be re-painted pink? We're still suffering from that one), Mr. Jones is also a great housemaster and we couldn't have hoped for a better replacement. He also had the 6th Form dayroom repainted in not pink.
The first major sporting event of the year was, of course, the Long Distance Race down the Towpath. Ashburnham fielded the fastest two runners, Ted Roy and James Furlong, who took first and second places respectively in the Seniors, and also turned out a surprisingly energetic junior team. But we were beaten by Liddell's. Ouch.
Our house play didn't happen. It's that simple. Anyone who turned up on the dates marked in the almanack will know that. Kazim Zaidi, our director and writer, was ill when he should have been writing. The Ashburnham-Milne's house concert was once again very good, with excellent performers from both houses. Yes, Milne's too.
After the excitement of the Long Distance Races, we didn't want to be vulgar and decided to slow things down for the Bringsty Relay. It worked, despite Ted once again being the fastest runner there. We came in eighth overall. On a high note, Ashburnham are usually quite good at football, and this year was no exception. We produced a very weak six-a-side team and didn't achieve anything. However we reached the semi final of the eleven-a-side, beating strong teams such as Grant's and Busby's, unfortunately losing out to Wren's in the end.
We once again did well in the House Fives but, sadly, only came second. Apparently we should have won, Liddell's were just lucky. So, we've had almost a full year of Mr. Jones and we haven't won anything yet, but that's not what its about. We've always enjoyed Ashburnham, despite what people might say about it, it is a good house.
James Furlong and Ted Roy
The entrance to Busby's is a dim passageway skirting the back of the Common Room, where little light filters and bikes are stored. They've cut down a tree or two to help the sun get through and placed a wooden bench tastefully on the square of cracked concrete that serves for a garden, but it still retains an air of Dickensian charm.
Music from Chris Ho's room blares out across the passageway (in fact, his quiff is one of the architectural highlights of the house). There's not much variety: Oasis or other faded Britpop. The new matron (Mrs Boyman) meticulously arranges the newspapers either in alphabetical order or according to position on the political spectrum. Through the door padded in snooker table velvet is the housemaster's flat, in which Rachel Mylne gave birth to her third child, Ella, on the study floor at one thirty in the morning on November 16th. Jimmy claims to have heard everything. We subsequently spent the next week counselling him. Poor boy. These are the sights of Busby's this year.
Achievements: the College Street Clarion was restarted, after a lapse of 40 years. It looks very professional : don't try reading it, but the pictures are nice. We won the house footie, the cricket and shooting. Busby's also dominated a somewhat less active station: golf was a prime domain of our Remove, and now Mrs Newton (the station master) knows much more than she ever did about cars, Britney Spears, and Ealing night-life. But despite a casual habit of beating the other houses on the sports field, Busby's is best at music. Our house concert was disbanded by the police after the crowd began to riot, and afterwards it was revealed that the school had violated licensing laws by packing so many people into the hall. Captain Dave and Harry gave a soul-wrenching rendition of their own songs, Jack Farthing's guitar solo also provoked bouts of rhapsody-stricken violence. And there was some classical stuff; that was good too. In the singing competition, we put on a barnstorming version Blur's Park Life, with Ed and Chris strutting up and down displaying their working class credentials. Didn't win anything, but then again the contest was more about politics than artistic merit.The girls are coy about releasing information from their floor (it's a different world up there). Occasionally, someone stumbles up there at night in a drunken stupor and sets off the motion sensor, like at the end of last term. This mysterious individual allegedly still roams the house as we speak.
The house has a new TV courtesy of Cameron Christie, who left last year to do military service in Singapore (poor guy), but bequeathed a 28-inch wide-screen telly as he left. It's superior to the old one in every way. We can change channels now! Thanks, mate! We've also got new staff: Mrs Brown and Dr Milner, who's filled Mr Riddle's gargantuan shoes and moved into the staff flat. It would be a disservice to the Riddler to say that anyone can fill his shoes so casually, but he's certainly developing a nice line in patrolling the corridors late at night, the only important part of the job. So, it's been a wicked year. One thing though: we're still waiting for the long promised digital channels for our flash new telly. Maybe next year.
Paul Kreitman