Bancrofts Insight Newsletter Autumn 2019 Final

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B A N C R O F T ’ S C OM M U N I T Y
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Bancroft’s Singers’
40 year on reunion May 2019
OB Golfers visit Suffolk
Kevin Campbell OB (1974-1981)
To mark the 40th Anniversary of the founding of the Bancroft’s Singers
by John Dunston in 1979 the OBA hosted a reunion of Bancroft’s
Singers on May 11. By kind permission of the Head some sixty singers,
including three of the four previous conductors of the Singers and the
current Director of Music, JuliaWhitbread, met in the Great Hall to sing
through a selection of songs chosen from across the forty years. This
included: Lollipop; SingWe and Chant It; Goodnight; I Got Rhythm; Cantate;
TheWayWeWere; Now is the Month;Wild Mountain Thyme. There was also
a commission piece composed especially for the occasion, The Skylark
written by Chris Brammeld.,
We were put through our paces by John Dunston, John Pearce,
EnidWeaver and JuliaWhitbread and it was encouraging to see how
quickly the harmonies and quality of singing soon came back. Which was
just as well as there was a concert planned for the evening. During lunch there was much reminiscing prompted by memorabilia
brought along by many but principally by John Dunston who brought his treasured scrapbooks from the very first days of the singers.
After further rehearsal in the afternoon, the OBA provided a well-earned tea break and the conductors chose the songs and
running order for the evening concert. Having put out chairs for about thirty we were overwhelmed by an audience of over sixty,
including Chris Brammeld himself. Considering not all the singers knew all the music and had not sung together the end result
was, so we are reliably informed, pleasing to the ear and unmistakably the Bancroft’s Singers.
The evening before some forty Singers and guests joined for Dinner in the Dining Hall at the school and reminisced. Some had
not been back to the school since they left. Others had organised trips to the UK to coincide with the weekend.
Thanks must go to John Pearce for tracking down paper copies of all the music from many sources, to JuliaWhitbread
for her support both before the day and on the day and to John Dunston for forming the Singers all those years ago and being
present to impart his constant enthusiasm for everything connected with the Singers. It was fantastic to see Old Bancroftians
from across the decades joining together at the School and meeting old and new friends. £100 was raised for the Foundation
and it is hoped the next reunion will be well before the next forty years!
Eight OB golfers and one guest visited Suffolk in mid-September,
playing at Felixstowe Ferry GC,Thorpeness GC and Ipswich GC
and staying and dining at The Thorpeness were also
joined by a couple of Suffolk resident OBs on some of the days.
It drizzled for most of the round at Felixstowe, but at least it wasn’t
windy, which makes a links course play quite a lot easier than usual.
We also managed not to bounce any golf balls off the Martello
tower! The weather at Thorpeness was good, but the combination
of firm fairways, heather, gorse and bracken was very challenging.
Ipswich was similar toThorpeness, although not quite as challenging.
The competition winners were Frank Davis at Thorpeness GC and
Andrew Montlake and John Seabrook at Ipswich GC.
Our next meeting is golf followed by lunch and our AGM at Chigwell
GC on 28 November. For more details about OB Golf, contact our
Hon Secretary, Adam Kodish via Bancrofts Connect