Petrean Events in the UK 1997/98See news item on dates and details
The Christmas Party was held on Friday 5th December at the White Horse public house in Parsons Green, London SW6.
The evening started off with a group consisting of Giles Dolleymore (F), Andrew Finlay(G), Mike Phillips (G), Richard Sugden (P) and Grant Page (E) - As numbers grew we moved upstairs to the function room and were soon joined by Rob Wilkinson (M), Rupert Pennant-Rea (E), Nick Dawson (P), Mike Paterson, Tim Daniel (E), Chris Paterson (P), Simon Gibbs (P), Michael Fane (G), Mark Stuart (E) as well as a good number of partners.
Richard Sugden(P65) writes : It was good so see so many friends from years ago, and particularly good to see so many of my contemporariest ! Yes our faces had aged a bit and the hairs were certain greyer amongst the 60s contingent ! However everyone looked remarkably fit ! It was interesting to hear that some Petreans were as active as ever, with Andrew Finlay recently cycling to Paris in aid of The Royal British Legion, and Grant Page cycling around in the South of England. I was tempted to say that I too cycled but usually only got as far as the local Hampshire pubs !
Rupert Pennant-Rea has been busy acquiring the Government Publications businesses - while Chris Paterson, is busy publishing at Macmillan; Chris was able to give us a first hand account of some of the activities currently going on in Zimbabwe in the last few weeks concerning proposals to acquire many farms there, and its effect on many farmers, which included a large number of Petreans. You can read more about this subject in the Weekly Zimbabwe Independent published online
Mike Phillips is being kept busy as a Management Consultant and enjoying life, his memory is as good as ever for events and faces !
I was pleased to see Rob WIlkinson, and despite the years on I could still remember him doing tremendous kicks in the different Rugger matches back in the 60s.
Mike Paterson had organised the evening well for us and had come straight from his company's staff party which had started at lunchtime earlier in the day - however he still managed to be an excellent host ! (I might add though that Mike asked me to write up a short report on the evening as his memory is a little fuzzy !)
We had a good chat about many of our absent friends and it is amazing how memories come back in good company
I have recently heard from Murray Somerville(M65) and he is planning a sabbatical in England in February and March 98 away from Harvard in the USA. I also hear regularly from John Hodgson (Staff) who was present at Peterhouse Speech Day this year and who was asked to play the School Hymn and Wedding March (both composed by him) at the Chapel Service. He is enjoying his retirement but seems to be as busy as ever playing Music and enjoying his Bridge afternoons in Marondera.
All in all an excellent evening and we look forward to our next gathering in 1998.
Send your cheque (payable to the Petrean Society) for any donation towards the Peterhouse cricket tour to :
Mike Paterson, 141 Windmill Road, Brentford, Middlesex, TW8 9NH. Telephone 0181-847-1979.
Cricket Match - UK Petreans v Falcon OB XI (Falcon College Old Boys Network)
The match consisted of 40 overs and was held at Oxford, UK.
Scores were :
Falcon OB : 198 all out after 36.3 overs - (S Scott 55, M Hammond 50)
Petreans : 180 all out after 31.4 overs (A Hill 44)
Falcon won by 18 runs
It was a beautiful, English summer's day. One of the hottest in a record-breaking hot August. The ground was wonderful with an excellent pavilion and facilities. Many thanks to Peter Hildebrand, who's doing a PhD at Oxford, for organising this.
The field was in superb condition with a soft, green-topped pitch, which played slow but true. Andrew Mills, the Petrean skipper, won the toss and put Falcon OB in to bat.
We experienced some difficulty containing Falcon's aggressive batting with only 10 men on the field for 20 or so overs (Ian McFadyen, nursing a hangover, and having driven down all the way from Norwich, spent over an hour driving aimlessly around the streets of Oxford trying to find us). However, wickets fell fairly regularly, and had we been able to break a mid-order partnership (Scott/Hammond), Falcon would have set us a much easier target than their eventual 198.
After lunch, we set off to overhaul Falcon's score, and were well ahead of the rate and going pretty well for most of the way. But we gave up our wickets too cheaply (nobody broke the 50 mark), and eventually ended up 19 runs shy of the required 199. As you can see we had lots of overs in hand and may have won with more diligent batting and tighter bowling.
But the teams were very evenly matched making for a thoroughly enjoyable day. Thanks to you Falcon guys for helping make it so. We look forward to a revenge encounter next year, as well as a planned match against the touring Peterhouse 1st XI in April/May 1998.
And what about you other Zim OBs? Churchill? St Georges? PE? If you can get a team together, we'd love to play you next year.
Standing: A Mills; A Hill; M Paterson; M Hildebrand; B Dorward; A Lester; Trupti Mehta (Scorer)
Kneeling: R Carter; M Vandoros
Sitting: S Gibbs; I McFadyen; P Hildebrand
PS : To remind you of past events view the two pictures below of Petrean UK Cricket teams at Oxford and Shiplake in the early/mid 90s.
