The Insight. Queen s rackets Competition

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1 The Insight VOLUME 1 ISSUE 4 28TH JANUARY 2014 The Insight is a Winchester College newsletter produced by VI Book II boys in an attempt to bring parents and Old Wykehamists up to date with current events. We hope you enjoy it. INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Welcome to Winchester Football Cameron Bespolka 3 2 Spirit Lamp Reading 4 Queen s rackets Competition As Short Half came to an end, so did an entire term s preparations for the focus of the rackets year: The Public Schools Singles Tournament at Queen s Club in London. On troublesome courts very dissimilar to our own, the Winchester College boys played admirably. In the Jim Dear, the competition for the youngest two year groups, James Korossy and Louis Pope progressed to the last 32, while Max Cheung made it even further to the round of 16. Congratulations must also go to the eventual winner of the event, Ben Cawston, the son of our resident Rackets Professional, Tim Cawston. The tournament for those in V Book was also well represented by Wykehamists, as was the event for VI Book, with Rupert Kettle, Chris Cooper and William Rasmussen reaching the last 32 of their respective competitions. Steve Powell 5 The Mathematical Brain 1st XI Hockey 6 Dates for the Diary 6 Recent Awards 7 Notions 7 SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST: Winchester College Football 5 Henry Duxfield and Dan Escott were selected to play in the Foster Cup, the contest which only the sixteen best Under 18 players in the country are invited to. Escott lost out in the quarter finals, while Duxfield made it to the semis. Both can hold their heads high though, as the opponents who knocked them out were those who ended up battling it out in the final. All of these results bode well for the doubles version of the tournament which takes place during the Easter holidays. Dan Escott

2 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 4 PAGE 2 Welcome to Winchester Football Winchester College Football, also known as Winkies, WinCoFo or simply Our Game, is a version of football played at Winchester College. History of the Game: Winchester Football was originally played down the length of Kingsgate Street, with each team attempting to move a football from one end of the road to the other with few or no rules. The only tribute the modern game bears to its earliest form are the measurements of a modern canvas (i.e. pitch), fitted to a particular section of Kingsgate Street. Most likely after one broken window too many, the game was moved a safe twenty minutes' walk away from the College to the flat, grassy top of St. Catherine's Hill. The game persisted with few rules, but now required a long line of junior men to keep the ball from rolling down the slope and disappearing into the canal below. The first addition that remains almost unadulterated in the modern game was made when the lines of kickers-in became depleted due to injuries caused by overenthusiastic players colliding with them whilst in the pursuit of rogue balls: ropes were erected down each side of the pitch, supported by nine solid posts. In the early 19th century, the necessary changes to the rules were standardised to create the relatively cultured, civilised affair that it is today. The fundamental rules of dribble (someone kicking the ball twice in a row) and tag (members of the same team kicking the ball twice in a row) were added at this stage, presumably followed by the other rules. The game was also moved from the top of St Catherine's Hill to where it is played now, on Meads, as well as in Palmer Swamp. At the same time as this move, the lines of kickers-in were finally replaced by canvas sheets, and very soon afterwards by netting, in order to allow others to appreciate the game without the aid of a ladder. The earliest evidence of coloured shirts used to identify football teams comes from Winchester football: an image from before 1840 is entitled The commoners have red and the College Boys blue jerseys. The use of coloured shirts at Winchester college is confirmed again in 1859: Precisely at twelve o'clock, according to good old custom, the blue jerseys of College and the red of Commoners mingled in the grand commencing hot. In soccer, Winchester wear dark blue shirts to signify their connection with the University of Oxford and especially with New College, Oxford. The Pitch: Winchester football is played on a pitch known as a canvas, which is approximately 80 metres long and 15 metres wide and is flanked on either side by 2.5 metre high netting (confusingly called the canvas as well) designed to prevent balls from being kicked off the pitch. Approximately a metre in front of the netting and running parallel to it is found a thick one-metre high rope supported by nine stout posts at intervals along the canvas (seven on some of the smaller pitches on Palmer Field). The distance between two adjacent posts is known as a post and hence the total length of the canvas is eight posts. The inaccessible area between the ropes and the netting is known as ropes. The area off the end of the pitch is known as worms.

3 PAGE 3 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 4 Teams: Major matches are played with teams made up of 6, 10 or 15 people, though some inter-house competitions are played with different team sizes. In VIs, there are two kicks (full-backs), one hotwatch (half-back) and three hot (scrum) players; in Xs, there are two kicks, three hotwatches and five hot players, and in XVs there are three kicks, four hotwatches and eight hot players. OTH, Commoners and College: The houses of Winchester College are split up into 3 groups. These are the Old Tutor Houses (OTH, in brown and white striped zephyrs), consisting of Furley's, Toye's, Cook's, Chawker's and Hopper's; Commoners (in red and white striped zephyrs), consisting of Kenny's, Freddie's, Phil's, Trant's, and Beloe's; and College (in blue and white striped zephyrs), the scholars' institution, which fields teams on its own. Each group has a captain who is responsible for organising their canvases and selecting the teams for matches. George Garnett Cameron Bespolka As many will have heard, Cameron Bespolka, in his third year in Cook's, died in an avalanche on 17th December An enthusiastic and respected birder, Cameron was enormously well-liked by all who knew him. He is and will always be sorely missed. His family are setting up a charity in his memory to support teenagers with similar interests especially those who have less privileged backgrounds. There is more information about Cameron, his passion for birding and the trust being established in his name as well as how to donate to it at Michael Turner

4 T HE INSIGHT PAGE 4 Spirit Lamp Reading Aia Nzsdejan talks to Marcus Scott, art editor of the Spirit Lamp magazine: AN: Can you explain to us what the Spirit Lamp magazine is? MS: Spirit Lamp magazine is produced by the College and is supposed to incorporate both English pieces and artwork into one magazine. It is designed for pupils to express their cultural talent, and we have prizes for each different category. This encourages people to write for the magazine. AN: Tell us a little about your job within the magazine. MS: I am one of the art editors, so I collect artwork from around the school and help select the final pieces which go into the magazine. I also help decide the prizewinners for each art category. Furthermore, I help encourage people in the younger years to create artwork for the magazine, which is important because they themselves are the future editors. AN: You say that you help decide who the prizewinners are. How does this process work? MS: The English editors decide who receive the prizes for the English pieces, and for the art prizes, the art editors get together and decide. Although, overall, we all come together and have a say in what goes into the magazine. We all have an input. AN: Deciding which article goes in must be hard, because each editor has a unique taste. Are there ever any differences between the editors? MS: I think, obviously the artwork has to compliment the prose, so that they will contribute to the overall publication - they have to create a balance. So sometimes there are disagreements but a middle ground is always reached. AN: Can the editors submit their own work? MS: Yes. When the publication asks for artwork to be submitted in, if one of the editors wants to submit their piece, then they are entitled to, but they do this anonymously. This means there is no bias. AN: What are the stylistic differences between the summer and winter issue? MS: The work usually steps up a level and improves in the summer because by that point most people have finished their exams. We also usually try to make the magazine compatible with the season, so for the winter, we try to make it festive and for the summer, we try to make it flamboyant. AN: Tell us about the Spirit Lamp reading, which took place last week. MS: The Spirit Lamp reading is a chance for people who have written for the magazine to read out their work and talk about where their ideas came from. It s always interesting because you get a completely different feel for the piece when the author reads it out loud, compared to when you read it yourself. AN: What makes Spirit Lamp so unique?

5 PAGE 5 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 4 MS: I think that overall, it s good that people throughout the school have a chance to express themselves on paper and that they get the chance to be recognised for their efforts. AN: Thank you very much for your time. Aia Nzsdejan Steve Powell Steve Powell is an artist and printmaker who teaches and gives lectures at Art Colleges all over the country. Mrs Dowell, the former head of art, managed to persuade him to help and advise the GCSE and Pre-U painters. He provided insightful and analytical advice on composition and colour and even performed a demonstration using black ink. During the session, which lasted four hours, the Pre-U boys created some inspiring work: Marcus Scott (F) created a dramatic painting focusing on the mouth, James Song (K) painted a portrait of Mrs Dowell appropriating from Klimt s later work, Guy Portman (F) produced a calm landscape using acrylic paint and James Vickery (I) painted a portrait inspired by Kokoshka. As for the GCSE boys, they produced a series of works for their upcoming examination. Powell himself put up an exhibition in the Angellus Gallery in Art School. His works on display consist of abstract prints using delicate shapes and a contrasting range of colour. James Song The Mathematical Brain On 21 January, Dr Roi Cohen Kadosh visited to give a lecture to the Science Society on the topic of the Mathematical Brain. He first of all indicated the importance of numbers in our lives, with examples ranging from the number of numbers on the front page of an issue of the Guardian to, of course, their extremely important use in finance. However, the talk did not continue in this vein, for Dr Cohen Kadosh next showed through a series of quick-fire vocal tests that expertise in a field is expressed automaticity through answering a simple question, yet with some tests it can have the opposite effect. For instance, he gave the example of saying the colour the word is in without reading the word, a question from which was along the lines of Green. This revealed how a six year old, who is not as proficient at reading, will find this particular task easier than an adult. He then presented, through a series of results from experiments, the idea of excitation of particular areas of the brain, by first proving how part of the body such as a finger can be moved by an external machine, and after that how speed in the learning of a skill for a test can be improved by excitation of the correct area of the brain. After proving that a person with particular learning difficulties, such as dyscalculia, is able to, with the assistance of some excitation of the correct part of the brain, perform at a much higher level than they usually could, Dr Cohen Kadosh warned the audience not to seek to use these machines as well. He proved through yet another series of results that if the brain is working optimally then excitation or stimulation will inhibit its ability in particular tasks. He finished by explaining that the point of his research is to help those who are struggling in subjects, not those who are ahead to increase their lead. Maxim Bird

6 T HE INSIGHT PAGE 6 1st XI Hockey Hockey is still a developing sport at Winchester, and thus, the team can only be picked from a few pupils. Traditionally, our squads have been fairly weak, but more recently, under the guidance of MJW and now the introduction of 3-time Olympian Mr Robert Moore, the sport has started to become more and more popular. This year, our 1 st XI looks to be full of talent and, promisingly for the future, contains plenty of third and fourth years. The season started in solid fashion with a goalless draw against a strong Pangbourne team. Pangbourne were obviously well drilled and played with confidence, but the skill and fight of the Winchester team restricted the passing play of the opposition. As the half progressed, Winchester started to play with more belief and got on top of the opposition, pegging them back in their own half for the majority of that time, and were unlucky not to score through striker James Song (K). The second half was more even, and a lack of fitness became very evident on both sides. The game eventually petered out into a draw, with neither side able to make a breakthrough, however there was certainly some promise for the rest of the season with exciting performances from Robert Hewett (C), Rupert Kettle (G) and Toby Latham (I). The second game saw Winchester travel to Wellington. This was always going to be a tricky match, but in the opening exchanges, everything was rather equal, with both sides squandering early chances. However, five minutes before the break, Wellington scored two quick- fire goals on the counterattack to leave us in a bad position at half time. The talk at the break had a positive effect on the team, however, and Winchester came out a rejuvenated side, piling on the pressure and camping in the opposition half. There was suddenly more urgency in the play and soon enough, the breakthrough came, albeit quite fortunately, with Hewett tapping the ball through the keeper s legs from three yards out. This gave us even more spirit and the score quickly became level after a defense- splitting run on the right wing opened up space before Sebastian Fletcher (A) converted the cross. It was a heroic comeback from a young side as the rain lashed onto their faces. Yet, alas, it was not meant to be. The second goal had taken so much energy out of the players that nobody was able to track back as Wellington countered quickly and soon found a player unmarked in the D, one-on-one with the goalkeeper and he slotted home their winner. Despite the loss, there is a great deal of excitement in the hockey camp at the moment, as we look forward to a potentially great season. There is a huge amount of talent in a team that is determined to succeed, and I am sure it will pay off. Jasen Soopramanien Dates for the Diary Wednesday 29 th January: The Soldier s Tale by Stravinsky, Music School, 19:00 Thursday 30 th January: Winchester College Watercolours Exhibition, Art School, Until 12 th February Thursday 6 th February: Double Bill: DNA by Dennis Kelly and Blackout by Davey Anderson, QEII, 19:30 6 th 8 th February Friday 7 th February: Winchester College Watercolours Private Viewing, Art School, 18:30 Tuesday 11 th February: Xs: College v OTH, College Canvas, 14:30 Thursday 13 th February: Xs: College v Commoners, College Canvas, 14:30 Chamber Music II, Music School, 19:00

7 Recent Awards Headmaster s Commentations: The Insight The Porters Lodge College Street Winchester Hampshire 1: insight@wincoll.ac.uk 2: j_beaumont@wincoll.ac.uk HJH Au (F), JW Fraser (Coll), J Jeon (Coll), R Makov (H) and RHK Metrebian (Coll) For outstanding performances in the British Mathematics Olympiad Paper 1 P Nuntnarunuit (K) For an outstanding presentation to Faith Circles Xavier de la Roche (E) For an informative and well researched tour of Hispanic art at the National Gallery Notions As George Garnett has already explained, this issue is the first of the much awaited Winkies season. On this theme: 'Raising a plant' is the heroic act of charging down an opposition player's attempt to kick the ball by blocking it with part of your body. The 'faceplant' is a particularly courageous variation on this. A 'down kick' is, rather logically, a kick which must at no stage fly above five feet from the ground, or the player will be penalised. Lastly, 'cabbage' is a rule unknown to many players and even referees, which states that if a player dummies a kick of the ball, an opposition team member may not be penalised for instinctively nudging the ball, even when it would ordinarily be an offence. If you are confused by the terminology, you are not alone. The only way to learn about Winkies is to watch some matches, of which there are many coming up. We will be there to report on them, and we hope you might join in on what are some incredible occasions. Thank you for the Feedback If you would like to contact us again, our current address is insight@wincoll.ac.uk. Please do write in with any requests for articles on societies, sports, events or anything that you would like to know more about, and we will do our best to complete your insight into Winchester College. Many thanks. Advertisement Opportunities If you would like the opportunity to advertise in our newsletter, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact us at insight@wincoll.ac.uk. Young Enterprise Thanks to: Dan Escott Edward Cunningham James Beaumont James Song Punn Tengtrirat Aia Nzsdejan Maxim Bird George Dunlop Jasen Soopramanien George Garnett Michael Turner