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Under clear blue skies, the sun shone brightly on Bloxham School as over a hundred Old Bloxhamists, visitors and their guests returned for Old Bloxhamist Day 2018.

It was a beautiful crisp day at Bloxham yesterday as over a hundred Old Bloxhamists, visitors and their guests returned for Old Bloxhamist Day 2018.

The day had a poignant start with a memorial service at Paddy Kellett’s (Wn 05-10) grave, which was attended by Paddy’s family, many OBs and members of staff. A brilliant afternoon of sport followed.

At 1pm, ladies netball took centre stage at the Dewey. Annabel Gulliver (Ry 12-17) captained a strong OB side against the school’s 1st‘VII team. It was a competitive, fast paced match with everything to play for; it was anyone’s game! The closely fought contest saw a 17-17 draw at half-time and after the third quarter the OBs had taken the lead 28-25, but the 1st VII turned up the energy in the final quarter, showing great skill, stamina and determination to triumph in the last few minutes taking the win, 35-32. Each side voted for a Players’ Player for the opposition and trophies were awarded to OB Georgie Gulliver (Ry 13-15) and Fifth Form student Sadie T. Sophie Heathcote and Jenny Edwards kindly umpired the game with Sophie commenting: ‘It’s been a fantastic game, the best I’ve seen in 14 years with great play on both sides.’

Simon Batten then welcomed eight teams to the men’s hockey which started with a minute’s silence in memory of Paddy Kellett. The teams played in two pools in a 7-a-side tournament and the Dewey studio was filled with cheering supporters. The hockey was a fiercely fought contest with passionate play on all sides, especially the contests between the four OB sides. A very high standard of hockey was complemented by excellent umpiring from Richard Hobley, Becky Odlin, Mike Tideswell and David Best.

Before presenting the trophies, Jacky Kellett gave a few words of thanks on behalf of the whole Kellett family. She then presented OB Bradley Sharp (Cr 09-14) with the award for Player of the Tournament. Matt Bull, Banbury Hockey Club Chairman and Seymour Housemaster received the trophy for the tournament winners, BHC.’

The finishing order was:

1st Banbury HC A
2nd Banbury HC B
3rd Old Bloxhamists B
4th Old Bloxhamists A
5th Old Bloxhamists Blue
6th Old Bloxhamists Yellow
7th Bloxham School A
8th Bloxham School B

Thank you to everyone who took part in the fixtures and to all the fantastic supporters and umpires! To view photos of the day, please click here.