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Every year at Summer Fields is a memorable

one – for some people, and for certain

particular reasons – but 2015-16 must be

noted especially for the list of scholarships

and exhibitions achieved by the 5th Years.

A new record has been set, with 20 awards

won by 17 boys, and further details may

be found within these pages. The academic

year should also be remembered, though, for

some of the events that took place beyond

the safety of Summer Fields and Oxford, a

few of which might well have repercussions

for future generations. Terrorist atrocities

in Paris and Brussels, mass migration from

war-torn countries, the result of the EU

Referendum (unforeseen by many) and a

US presidential race that has already given

rise to considerable consternation – all of

these are likely to reshape the world in

which our boys will take their place in the

future. During the year I believe that we

have endeavoured to strike the right balance

between making them aware of current

affairs and sheltering them from unnecessary

anxiety. The Summer Fields magazines

of 1916 (in those days there were three

issues per year, one for each term) reveal

that during that momentous and turbulent

era the school looked outwards as well as

inwards. Alongside the detailed reports of

cricket matches, scholarship results, chess

and many other internal matters, there are

lists of the Old Summerfieldian casualties

of the GreatWar and even letters from the

front line. Of further interest are the lists

of theWounded or Prisoners and those

Mentioned in Dispatches; here, surely, is an

area for research – for example, how many

OS Military Crosses were awarded?

In last year’s editorial I highlighted the

value of the earlier editions of the Summer

Fields magazine, and I make no apology

for again referring to archive documents.

Perhaps, though, I should have included a

translation of the Latin quote from Cicero,

with which I concluded the piece:

To be

ignorant of what occurred before you were

born is to remain always a child

. This reason

alone is sufficient justification for what

some people might deem to be an over-

emphasis on the battlefields of Flanders and

northern France: are there too many images

of cemeteries and memorials in this issue? It

seems likely that our next two editions will

continue the theme, but it will surely be less

appropriate beyond the year 2019. I hope

that current Summerfieldians will, in years

to come, look back and feel that we were

right to try to instil in them the culture of

remembrance of the sacrifice of others.

The 1916 volumes make reference to

“… the ten minutes’ Swedish drill in which

the whole School indulges every morning

before work begins.” Elsewhere there is an

exhortation (presumably from the Head

Master, the Rev Charles EcclesWilliams)

that “It would be of great advantage to the

boys if they kept up during the holidays the

Swedish drill; … ten minutes every morning

as they were dressing would be enough.”

On seeing these words I turned directly to

my P.G.Wodehouse reference books and

found that the Larsen exercises (Danish) are

described in some detail in the early part of

the novel

Something Fresh

, whose centenary

of publication coincidentally fell at the start

of the school year. Literary and cultural

connections with Summer Fields … another

possible area for investigation? Some

months ago, in conversation with a parent,

I mooted the idea of making more widely

available, on disc perhaps, the entire archive

of Summer Fields magazines from 1897 to

the present. I wonder if there would be much

interest in such a resource.

As last year, I’d like to conclude with

another Cicero quote, this time in English:

“Six mistakes mankind keeps making

century after century: Believing that personal

gain is made by crushing others;Worrying

about things that cannot be changed or

corrected; Insisting that a thing is impossible

because we cannot accomplish it; Refusing

to set aside trivial preferences; Neglecting

development and refinement of the mind;

Attempting to compel others to believe and

live as we do.”

APWB

Editorial

Editorial ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������1

Valete������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������2-5

Summerfieldiana ����������������������������������������������������������������������������6-9

Term Reviews ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 10-16

Prizegiving����������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 17-18

Leavers����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 19-24

Chapel������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 25

Music�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 26-28

Art Department������������������������������������������������������������������������� 29-35

CreativeWriting������������������������������������������������������������������������� 36-39

Drama ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 40-45

Challenges & Activities ������������������������������������������������������������ 46-52

Expeditions ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 53-64

Football���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 65-77

Hockey����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 78

Rugby ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 79-90

Cricket ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������91-102

Other Sports�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 103-112

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