POWELL HOUSE CHRISTMAS 2016 HAPPY CHRISTMAS! It has been yet another busy, productive term with plenty of work, sport, service, music, art and drama. Highlights include: House Singing and Rugby competitions, Cinderella and A Chorus Line, an excellent House Dinner and a festive Christmas Tea. As ever, there is plenty of activity to report back on, and I have tried to squeeze in as much as possible. The new boys have settled in very well indeed. The seven new to the Lower Sixth have been excellent company, and our batch of thirteen in Year 9 are multi-talented and fun. They worked exceptionally well as a group in both the Y9 drama production of Cinderella and reached the final of House Rugby. Further reports follow. Emily, Nessie, Peter and I wish you all a very happy Christmas and a fantastic New Year!
SPORT Rugby: Kieran Cheney and Savvas Demos both wore 1st XV jerseys with great pride. Kieran secured one of the Blue Collar awards, was awarded his half-colours, and represented Sussex U17s. Felix Hickman impressed with the 2nd XV. The House provided a good number of impressive Tigers in Arthur Pickard, James Alsop, Luke Sprintall, Nadir Al-Hashim, Tom Macdonald, Max Leighton, Elias Brown, Tom Sangster, Tom Crathern, Giles Kerr and Louis Wood. The Senior House side competed well against Gonville and Craig, with a memorable try through Louis Wood and drop goal from Arthur Pickard. Murray Trott, Louis Heywood, Nikita Malkov, Joel Pearce and James Young all played well for the U16As. Murray and Louis enjoyed appearances for the 1st XV, too. The very impressive Murray Trott was selected for the Sussex U16 team. In the house competition, they narrowly lost a very tight game with Gonville before convincing victories over Wargrave and Craig. Along the way, there were big tackles from Oliver Gent and tries from Nikita Malkov, Louis, Heywood, James Young and Joel Pearce. As for the Year 10s, Felix Harffey-Burkhill worked hard for the College U15A team and led a cheerfully spirited House team, with Alfredo Vazquez, Luke Muschialli and Felix himself all scoring great tries. With a tremendous year group effort, the U14 Powell team reached the final. Spike Gleave was the outstanding player of the competition, ably supported by powerful runs from Louis Loubser and Will Lowery, determined rucking from Loïc Bass- Gualbert, super support play from Ali Al-Shamaa, Edward Gent, Alex Photiou and Christian Greenhow. Giacomo Ghiro was excellent at scrum half. Lots of tries in the round robin stage, but the try of the competition came in front of a large crowd on College Field in the final, with Giacomo finishing off in the corner following a great team move which swept from one end of the pitch to the other. Other Sport: Louis Wood continued to knock valuable seconds off his personal best swimming times in the pool. James Tomlinson is Captain of Fencing. Jeeyam Patel competed well as House Captain of Fives alongside Louis Wilson. Alex Garcia Whittam, Luke Sprintall and Stephen Graham competed for the College in basketball. Henry Cox and Luke Greenhow have enjoyed autumn cross-country training ahead of next term s Steeplechase. John Wallinger, Will Dawkins and Will Jeffery have been honing their football skills, while James Young has been competing for the College in tennis. James Ross has been playing golf. Will Lowery and Matt Thompson have impressed in winter training for cricket. Louis Heywood and Arthur Pickard were key players on a successful 1st XI hockey tour to Germany. Elias Brown leads the College Shooting team, which includes Alexander Photiou.
DRAMA The Powell Year 9 Drama production of Cinderella was great fun. There were super performances by all: Loïc Bass-Gualbert s brilliant Cinderella finally found her Prince in Kamran Rajwani; Ali Al-Shamaa shone as the wicked step-mother alongside her four stepsisters: Will Lowery, Louis Loubser, Alexander Photiou and Giacomo Ghiro; Ricardo Nasrallah enjoyed a cameo as Mrs Clinton, with Spike Gleave as her husband, Bill; Christian Greenhow ( Nein! ) was a German clock. The narrators, Ed Gent and Sean Wilson, held everything together. Matt Thompson sparkled as a the fairy godmother. The script was written and the play directed by George Ruskin, Giles Kerr and Louis Wood. It was a tremendous effort by all and great fun to watch. A good number of Powell boys also starred in the College s main production, the musical A Chorus Line. James Young. Luke Muschialli, Felix Harffey-Burkhill, Thomas Watkins and Sean Wilson all enjoyed plenty of stage time, songs, dance routines and sparkly costumes. Powell boys were very much involved behind the scenes, too, with James Tomlinson and Tom Sangster helping provide the music, and George Ruskin on the sound desk.
MUSIC Powell boys have been major contributors to College music this term. Invariably led by James Tomlinson, in various College orchestras performing at various and manifold events were Oliver Gent, Edward Gent, Luke Greenhow, Christian Greenhow, George Ruskin, Ashraf Owasil, Luke Muschialli, Loïc Bass-Gualbert, Spike Gleave, Louis Loubser and Tom Sangster. The brass trio of George Ruskin, Luke Greenhow and Loïc Bass-Gualbert performed the Last Post on Remembrance Day. Congratulations to Luke Muschialli for passing his Grade 5 Theory with merit. There are a very healthy number of Powell boys who have contributed this term to the Chapel Choir: Loic Bass-Gualbert, Spike Gleave, Ed Gent, Oliver Gent, James Tomlinson, Henry Cox, Tom Sangster, Luke Muschialli and Sean Wilson have all sung well, be it at Choral Evensong at Chichester Cathedral, or in the Advent and Christmas Carol Services. James Tomlinson conducted the Chamber Choir in what was widely regarded as the champagne moment of the Carol Service. Congratulations also to James for securing his Grade 8 Singing with distinction. The House Song competition involved everyone. After a busy week of rehearsing as best we could whenever we could, the boys gave a great performance of Take That s Shine! Third place among the boys houses was a decent result. CONGRATULATIONS: Headmaster s Challenge Essay: congratulations to the following: Ashraf Owasil, Oliver Gent, Elias Brown and Alex Garcia Whittam, all 2nd in their respective year group competitions; and to George Ruskin who won the Y11 section. House erc effort prizes to an impressive 23 boys this term: Alexander Photiou, Sean Wilson, Loïc Bass-Gualbert, Edward Gent, Kamran Rajwani, Matt Thompson, Luke Muschialli, Oliver Gent, Louis Heywood, Elias Brown, George Ruskin, Henry Cox, Tom Sangster, Stephen Graham, Maxmo Collins, Tom Crathern, Luke Greenhow, Giles Kerr, Kieran Cheney, Alex Garcia Whittam, Jeeyam Patel, Tom Macdonald, James Tomlinson and Luke Sprintall. Powell House End of Term prizes were awarded to: Loïc Bass-Gualbert (Y9), Felix Harffey-Burkhill (Y10), Nikita Malkov (Y11), Giles Kerr, George Ruskin and Louis Wood (L6) and James Tomlinson (U6) Full College Colours were awarded to James Tomlinson for music. Half Colours were awarded to Kieran Cheney for rugby. House Table Tennis: this year s championship was won by Louis Loubser. Felix Hickman: for completing the Hever Triathlon and raising over 2000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust in the process. NEXT TERM: The Powell House Concert: scheduled for the last Saturday of term, 18th March, in the Birley Centre at 7pm. We hope that this will be a really fun occasion when the boys can show off their talents. Please come and join us! Various Competitions: the College s inter-house cross-country event will be on Thursday 16th March, with football and hockey events in the following week. Also to be held, the College s Young Musician of the Year and the House Debating competitions. The House we want to be: sociable, supportive, successful. We seek wholeheartedly the College s core values of pursuit of excellence, kindness, courtesy, integrity and participation.