Talbot's House

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Well, it's been a fantastic year in Talbot's. So many wonderful memories of fun in the house, great trips and events and lots of everyday laughs. Here's some of the best memories from 2018-19 in video form:

Man of the Week
Alex for being county 400m champion.

Nominees for Man of the Week

Ruslan - giving a geog society lecture
Ben - audition at Oxford
James and Magomed - great concert playing
Henry - helping others with prep
Moritz - giving assembly

It has been a week of focused work as the men of Talbot's have approached their exams with vigor, but still a healthy mindset, especially enjoying some outside time in the sunshine earlier in the week.


In sports
Tom was part of the victorious U17 cricket side and Alex performed very well in Thursday's athletics multi-events.

Tomorrow we have:
Cricket: 1sts - Tom
Rowing: Henry in a J16 double and an octo, Makar making his rowing debut in a coxed quad, Max also in a coxed quad and an octo, Leo in an octo, Aslan also in an octo, Orlando is a J15 coxed four and an octo, too.
Tizian, Moritz and Simon are all in the 1st 8 Tennis against Oakham.
Athletics has Alex running and jumping at Abingdon.

Even though it has been exam week, Joe still got 2 merits--a great effort!

The weeks continue to give many awesome Talbot's memories. As we had some sunny evenings and the days got longer there has been some epic backyard football, especially on Wednesday when we finished prep early for it.

We also had the traditional Dr Seuss reading for our leavers on Thursday. Big well done to Luca who was the first man to finish all his exams. The A level guys also finished lessons forever on Thursday!

In the last week Ben and Dan gave lectures to the Adrian Boult and Investment Societies respectively and Moritz lectured to the German Society and boys and parents for 4th form revision this week.


 Merits Competition
1: Divine, Henry, Arron, Richard, Brady, Dan
2: Leo, Roy
3: Will, Simon
4: Aslan
5: Alex, Dell

The Remove form absolutely cleaned up this week, averaging 3.75 merits per person with all of them contributing at least 2!

The winning tutor group was Mr Hinkins by a huge margin
In tennis Desmond is promoted back to join Moritz, Simon and Tizian in the 1st team

In Rowing, Lennart races for the 1st boat and Orlando in the top J15 boat at Eton Dorney.  Aslan and Max are off to Peterborough for a training day as well.


Man of the week nominees were:
James for helping with preps and music, 
Ben for helping with preps, 
Moritz for his revision session and ...
Tizian for helping with preps. 

Man of the week though was Leo who gave a fantastic performance to some of the house on his violin on Monday evening which has wowed a number of people

Our musicians have been to the fore with James, Ben and Tizian singing at new college Oxford on Tuesday and then James and Ben performing in the music scholars' concert. 

A big accolade was Ben being named head of brass for the upcoming year, well done!

Academically, Ben and Dan both gave school society lectures today--Ben on links between mathematics and music and Dan on the Zimbabwean currency crisis. Others used this as an opportunity to extend their scores for the 'new things' tutor group challenge.


In sports this week we have had lots of fixtures already. This weekend we have:

Cricket
U16B: Will
2nds: Dan 
1st: Tom

M is in the 1st team golf

Tennis
Tizian, Simon and Desmond
Simon will be playing for the 1sts against Kimbolton.

It is also the Bedford Regatta and we have lots of guys involved:
U14A - Max
u14D - Aslan
u15A - Orlando
U16B - Henry
1st 8 and 4 - Lennart

This week's merit comp was a rollover with the following being gained:

1: Curtis, Stephen, Desmond, Ben, Will, Jason, M, Max, Makar
2: Simon, Moritz, Divine, Roy, Magomed
3: Joe
5: James, and Alex 

It's been a very busy week with many midweek fixtures and concert playing alongside the start of GCSE exams. The house is buzzing, but there is some rest needed this weekend too. 
This week also saw the culmination of the two week tutor group challenge for most overall contributions to the house. In this one, Ms Thompson's group were the winners, owing much to Richard's prolific helpfulness to matrons and the house team.

Before that weekend rest comes we have the following in Saturday fixtures:

Hockey:
1st: Tom 
2nd: Dan U16B

Football:
1st:  Alikhan
3rd: Tizian

In merits, the following have been gained:
1: Makar, Felix, Brady, Moritz, Alikhan, Igor, Arthur
2: Dell, Roy, Sebastian, James, Jason, Oscar
3: Divine, Will, Tizian
4: Ruslan, Desmond
5: Arron
9: Richard

The tutor group with the most merits per person is:
Team Thompson

And quite clearly, therefore, Richard must be Man of the Week!

It's been an eventful and at times rainy week. 

Merits (double rollover due to exeat):
1 -- Makar, Tizian
2 --  Roy, Jason, Richard, Brady, Dan, Moritz
3 -- Max, Orlando, Michael, Will, Desmond, Lennart
4 -- Owen, Alex
5 -- Dell, Felix
6 -- James

Tutor group with the most merits
Mrs. Thompson's

Commendations!
Kabi, James, Alex

Yesterday evening we held a pancake competition between the tutor groups.  Each group had to decide on recipes, acquire ingredients and make their own pancakes which were then later judged for taste and presentation.

Making the pancakes:


Eating!




Voting


Winners:  Mr Waite's Tutor group

It's been a lovely week to return. The evenings are lighter, the newly chopped trees are letting this in more and the warmer air has given us all a spring in our steps!

Earlier this week, we had football house matches and Makar battled in a 2 man team in the juniors whilst the seniors came second thanks to sterling efforts from Alikhan, Ben and Tizian.

In sport this weekend, we have the hockey house matches in the seniors, but otherwise most teams are resting up.

A huge event this week was the Detweiler competition and a large number of our boys exhibited their painting, printing and writing in what is a fantastic opportunity for all.

We also had a great visit from the chaplain on Thursday who brought bedtime stories for the juniors and cheese and wine for the seniors!

Since we have returned, the following merits have been earned:

1: Max, Magomed, Orlando, Ben
2: Leo, James, Felix, Jason, Brady, Ruslan
3: Makar, Kabi, Alex, Michael, Simon, Tizian, Moritz

The best tutor group this week was Mr Hinkins!

It's been a great week in the house finishing with our Chinese New Year celebratory meal last night. 

The house is starting to look very different with some rather dramatic tree surgery happening in the orchard, and obviously the snow this week sent everyone giddy with snowball fights for a brief 24 hours before it all melted. 

This week merits were achieved by:
1: Magomed, M, Will, Nathan, Simon, Kevin, Tizian, Curtis, Luca, Igor, Arthur, Lennart
2: Max, Roy, Jason, Brady, Moritz
3: Owen, Aslan, James, Arron, Desmond, Ben
4: Dell, Edwin
5: Makkar

and an incredible EIGHT merits were achieved by Orlando! Makar has also been awarded a commendation for amazing debate contribution.

In sports we have:
Hockey: 1st - Tom, 2nd - Dan, U16B - Divine and Will, U15C - Kabi, u14D - Josh

Football: All matches have been postponed but Alikhan was in the 1st and Felix in the U16A 

In rowing, Nik and Evgenni are in a 4, Alex in an 8 as is Orlando and Lennart is in an 8 too at Peterborough

On Sunday, Max was in the U14 and Will in the U16 7s after making his debut for the U18s last week. Unfortunately, due to an injury this week Max will be unable to play this time. 

This week's man of the week for outstanding teaching of a younger boy is Dan Reid. We love seeing older boys showing leadership skills and mentoring younger students, so we're really pleased to be able to recognise these qualities in Dan. 

It's been a difficult week for everyone to come back to after bad news and 2/3 of the house being in mock exams. This is where our culture of everyone being valued and the house family really come into their own though. We love seeing everyone looking after one another and the way the men of Talbot's have kept going and got on with the start of term with vigour. As a result of only being back 5 days and it being exams, some awards are lighter.

Merits:
1: Owen, Magomed, Kabi, Seb, Ruslan, Tizian, Moritz
2: Alex, Roy, Ben


In sport, Owen, Max and Alexis had another win in the U14 basketball team and will play in the county championships next week.

Hockey:
U14D: Josh
U16B: Divine
U15C: The terrible twins Kabi and Seb will strike fear into the opposition!

Football:
1st: Alikhan
3rd: Tizian
4th: Ben Watson
U16A: Felix (who is also VC)
U15A: Makar (playing a year up no less!)

Richard will test himself in the county table tennis championships this weekend.

The  rowers will continue to beast themselves in preparation for great things too of course!

This weekend will be a chilled one, ready for another week of exams and settling in together!

It's been a great week.

Last Sunday we were the duty house in chapel and Orlando and Alex did an amazing job reading alongside our terrific ushers.

On the house competition front we have been quite phenomenal. We started with wins in the A  and B streams of house Rugby, followed by first in the junior rowing and a top 6 in the basketball. We then took second in basketball and an overall win in house table tennis. 
What. A. Week!

In teams this weekend are:

U16 A: Will (VC), Henry, U16B: Divine
U14A: Max,U14D: Josh
Our big sports story this week is Magomed who has been promoted 2 teams after a week of try scoring heroics to the U14C!

Merits:
1: James, Simon, Richard, Moritz, Luca, Igor
2: Alexis, Makar, Alex, Roy, Kabi, Brady, Alikhan, Edwin, Arthur, Oscar
3: Max, Josh, jason, Kevin, Ben, Nik
4: Desmond
5: Orlando, Arron

The tutor quiz was obviously too easy with every group earning 10/10 this week.

Ruslan has also gained himself a commendation for an excellent online safety presentation to the prep school - a great effort!

Top Bloke
For helping read and fetching many meals for sick boys: Alex.

Man of the Week 
For fetching meals, 5 merits and great reading, but also setting a school record in the junior individual indoor rowing event is: Orlando.

We also had our first ever house art gallery & tutor group play competition with Mrs Thomspon's tutor group wining.  

This year we had our highest levels of representation in this with James, Ben, Stephen, Owen, Jason, Alexis, Leo and Marcus.
Many members of the house were able to see it live, but for those who weren't, the livestream is below:

The first week back has seen renewal of our amazing community spirit and fond memories of the first half of term where we started building an even greater house, and also happened to win sports day and singing!

James played 3 pieces in the organ concert on Thursday, quite a feat, and Lennart reported on an amazingly successful senior quad race on the tideway in half term.

We also enjoyed updates from the rowing camp and D of E during half term.




  

Merits: 
1: Edwin, Curtis, Evgenii, Igor, Nik, Richard, Ben, Michael, David, Kabi, Seb, Max
2: Will, Orlando, Makar
3: Josh, Jason
4: Stephen

Weekly Merits per Boy Competition Winners
Mr Waite's tutor group won the new weekly merits per boys competition.

Matron's Weekly Quiz Winners 
Mr Waite and Mr Dawson;s tutor groups also shared the prize for matron's weekly quiz

Top Bloke 

Top Bloke was awarded jointly to Brady and Ruslan for getting the house tuck shop up and running, an excellent thing to have going again.

We surveyed all the boys in the house to say 1 thing they are grateful for and this has been turned into a poster for the house where the most said phrases appear larger. We think it reflects a house in a healthy place and that this has highlighted loads of the amazing things about being a man of Talbot's. Take a look:

Lots has happened this week, especially in the field of music. There has been a choir trip and lots of hard practice for house singing.  This included our first rehearsal in the great hall with Mr Sanders watching. The musical highlight was the lunchtime concert where the part song performed and included Ben, James, Tizian and Arron's first ever public singing performance at school. Ben also sang a great piece from 'The Messiah' and Leo matched Arron with a wonderful first upper school singing performance.

Richard was one of the most successful players in the 1st team table tennis game this week. Nathan and Divine played well for the U16 basketball side. Last weekend Seb also raced at the national school ski championships.

Edwin also went to his LNAT test in Cambridge - inspirational stuff.

In Sports this Weekend

It's been a really busy week with lots of great opportunities for boys to try new things or give their best in their commitments. 

In music, James and Marcus performed well in the lunchtime piano concert.  Plenty of lads also went to the Gilbert Lloyd lecture and Quarry Theater play Ion Thursday.

In sport, the might 5ths came close to a ridiculous 3rd win of the season with Brady and Moritz really putting their bodies on the line and Simon getting stuck in for the 4ths.  Divine also continued to electrify the U16B wing against Flested.  Will, Henry, and Max have had busy weeks playing for the U16 and U14A teams on both Tuesday and Friday--a very busy week overall!

In basketball, Divine and Nathan played well for the U16 win and Igor held the water polo team to a comfortable victory.

There was amazing house commitment shown by Roy, Alex, Edwin, and Tizian who also turned up last minute to perform very creditably in house debating.

This weekend Desmond makes his 2nd 1st team badminton appearance and is joined by Nathan.

In the 5ths we have Simon, Roy in the U15D.  Bertie received the biggest cheer of the week for his promotion to the U14E team!

This was also the first Friday celebration since our incredible 6th consecutive sports day win too--to say we have been gloating would be, well, accurate!

Merits (double roll-over due to Exeat last week)
1:  Divine, Tizian, Moritz
2: Max, Bertie, M, Brady, Oscar
3:  Seb, James, Curtis, Igor
4:  Jason, Ben, Niklas
5:  Dell, Will, David
6:  Alex
7:  Aslan
8:  Makar
9:  Desmond, who is King of Merits this week!

Top Bloke
Roy for being so helpful, gaining loads of merits, and stepping up brilliantly to fill in house debating last week.

Man of the Week
Felix who has gained loads of merits, been terrifically helpful to Ms Larson and Mrs Leicester, and had a fantastically tidy room.

Well...!

We've only been back 3 days, but so much has happened already.  We started off with New Boys' Day on Tuesday, in which the Upper Sixth were superb!

The ten newest members of Talbot's have added much and therefore had many 'firsts' such as lessons, games sessions, extra activities and nights in the house!  On Wednesday, we had the first Sports Hall visit of the term, which was played in great spirit (see pictures below), and was an early chance to show some skills.  To be fair, Stephen was probably Man of the Match with his silky footwork, but Aslan impressed in particular with his remarkable bravery as he took a peppering in goal!

The Lower Sixth have started their first duties supervising prep time and stepping up to new leadership challenges.  Saturday sees trial matches for the Fourth Form so those lads have a week to wait for any school sports debuts.  House Singing also begins in earnest next week and promises to bring us unity as we compete with everyone else.

In Merits this Week
1:  Jason, Richard, Moritz, Curtis, Evgenii, Igor, Oscar
2:  Simon
3:  Brady, who is King of Merits and also graduated from the NCS course he undertook over the summer.


In Sports this Week
U15:  Alex continues in the A Team having been a part of the festival sinning side that didn't concede a try last weekend.
U16:  Divine is in the B's and is joined by a pair of vice-captains with Will in the A's and Henry in the B's.

The story of the week, however, is in the 5th XV where 6 men of Talbot's will be donning the eagle of our favourite team:  Simon, Alikhan, Evgenii, Igor, Brady, and Moritz are those men.  You know that when a third of the squad are Talbot's legends, there is going to be a great show!

Top Bloke
Jointly awarded by Igor and the Upper Sixth to Bertie and Leo, who have already impressed by getting stuck in and helping with house sports stuff this week.

Man of the Week
Moritz deserves a really special mention for being awarded the house's first commendation of the year for being fantastically helpful on the Berlin trip.  This, along with his amazing support to his new roommate in the house, makes him our deserved Man of the Week.