

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
Contents
S u m m e r F i e l d s
2 0 1 5 – 2 0 1 6
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