2013 WHOBA Reunion on Saturday, 17th August at the RHYC in Woolverstone Marina

Well, my impression was that it went very well, with a relaxed and jovial atmostphere at lunch in particular. We greeted the arriving guests on the lawn outside the RHYC and I distributed labels to identify everyone. While doing this I lost the notes to my speech, which I thus had to improvise ..........

It is always of course a particular pleasure to see the former masters again; The usual suspects were there, including Merlin Channon plus Derek Thornbery, Barry Salmon, Colin Hawes, Peter Cox, Bill Newman-Saunders and their wives, not all of whose names I can remember, for which I apologize.

We went into lunch just before 13:00 and I said a few words of introduction. The food and service were excellent and we changed places after each course in order to maximise conversation opportunities. As usual for me it all seemed to go by in a flash, but I spent some time talking to various people and was pleased to see the smiles and hear so many animated conversations. New this time were Ceri Howell and John Walmsley, and their news was therefore fresh and fascinating.

After the meal, Barry Salmon said a few words of thanks and we slowly wound things down and said our goodbyes.

The masters all went on their way home but most of the Old Boys walked along the foreshore to the Butt & Oyster in Pin Mill. I had been slightly worried about the logistics of all this but in the end we just all walked back again - it really isn't that far once you get going. On the way there I got a few good pics of the school.

In the evening most of the Old Boys met at the Loch Fyne restaurant, though Mike Bysh, Peter Brown and David Ashton couldn't make it. Even so, we had an animated and jolly meal, though in retrospect it would have been good to change places now and then as we had at lunchtime, as we were on a long table which meant discourse was limited to those in close proximity.

The following day we had a wander round the school, and though I have now done this numerous times in the last ten years it is always a nostalgic and rewarding visit.

The highlight was meeting up with Peter Sadler at the end of our walk, for which we thank Ceri Howell for hunting him down.

I had not felt confident about continuing the reunions into a second decade, but it all seemed to go pretty well and people were making positive noises about meeting next year, so we'll see. It would be nice, however, to get some new faces along.

Chris SNUGGS