Richard O Smith - Feature

Richard O Smith will be the guest speaker at the Old Bostonian Association Annual Dinner, 2014. I previously
cobbled together a biography. Thanks to Richard I can now do a slightly better job of it.

Richard was at Boston Grammar School 1975-1982. According to Richard, he "was at BGS for 7 years, though I didn't ever pass any exams! Got told by a teacher 'thinking up jokes isn't going to get you anywhere in life, Smith!'. True, although it did get me a writing job on Dara O'Briain's last BBC2 series!".

He grew up in Freiston, and started his writing career as Freiston and Butterwick correspondent for The Standard, before setting up the Boston United Fanzine From Behind Your Fences. He was named as National Football Writer of the Year as a result of his work on this publication, which led him to work with The Independent and When Saturday Comes.

Richard writes for BBC Radio 4's The Now Show, The News Quiz and BBC2's Dara O'Briain's Science Club.

He has had several books published, including Oxford Student Pranks (praised by Dr Lucy Worsley as "I was expecting the book to be a jape-filled jamboree of jollity, but it turned out to be full of sex and violence as well") and Britain's Most Eccentric Sports (described by Dr Phil Hammond as "very, very funny" and acknowledged by Henning Wehn as "better than all 26 days of one of your English cricket matches").

Richard is a Chortle Comedy Award Winner, a former National Football Writer of the Year, and pens the popular "Oxford Examined" column for the Oxford Times. He is the appointed Writer in Residence at the Daffodil Hotel, Grasmere, in the Lake District and co-scriptwriter of the movie Foosball, directed by Academy Award winner Juan José Campanella.

His next book will be As Thick As Thieves, subtitled "Foolish Felons and Loopy Laws".

Old Bostonian Association Dinner 2014 - guest speaker Richard O Smith

Richard O Smith with two of the books he has written

The date is set for the 2014 annual dinner of the Old Bostonian Association. It will be held on Saturday 22 March 2014 at the Boston & County Club.

We are very pleased to be able to announce that the guest speaker will be Richard O Smith.

Have you heard of gravy wrestling, F1 pram racing, 100m in high heels and dwile flonking? These are just some of the weird and bizarre sports uncovered by Richard O Smith  in his book, Britain’s Most Eccentric Sports. Richard is a writer for Radio 4’s The Now Show among others.

Old Bostonian book and video store

There are many old bostonians who have published their work either in book form or otherwise. There is now a single place where you can buy some of these. It is the Old Bostonian store. The store is accessible from the menu on this blog.

As an Amazon aStore, any purchases you make from it can result in a small amount being paid back to the store. In the case of the Old Bostonian store, any such payments will be donated to The Old Bostonian Association.

Simon Ashberry - Feature

If you raise your head above the parapet you get tracked down. Simon Ashberry added details to the Old Bostonian Alumni Group on Facebook about John McDermott: It's Not All Black & White, the autobiography of Grimsby Town's John McDermott, which Simon has co-authored.

It's great to see people contributing to discussion on all of the OBA-related places around the web, but when someone writes something that needs a bit of research to work out (Simon didn't mention that he is co-author of the book), one thing leads to another and I tend to find out more about that person than I already knew.

In this case I found that Simon has been involved with Bradford Community Broadcasting for a long time and presents a regular programme. You can even listen to his shows on the web site.

Simon previously wrote Come and Sit with Us: A History of Boston Town 1964 to 2004 which is pretty self-explanatory. He is also webmaster of the Boston Town FC website.

Congratulations to Boston Borough Council

I occasionally post an article here that isn't directly related to Boston Grammar School or its "old boys". Here's one. There has long been a debate going on about the number of immigrants in Boston, and their effect on the life of the town. I'm not commenting on that matter, but some time ago, BBC's Question Time programme came from Lincoln, and Mary Beard, well known professor of Classics at Cambridge University, caused quite a stir by quoting from a council report.

According to Mary Beard's blog, Boston Borough Council has won the "overall impact award" for that very report at the annual Good Scrutiny Awards. You can read more about Mary's reaction to this news on her blog - A Don's Life.

BGS Junior Athletics Team in regional final

The Boston Grammar School Junior Athletics Team has qualified for North Midlands Schools' Cup Regional Final at Moorways Stadium, Derby on Monday June 17th.

Thank you to Richard Anderson for this information.

Calling all '49ers

Trevor Page (BGS 1949-55) has asked me to help him contact his school colleagues, who he calls the "49ers" because most of them entered Boston Grammar School in 1949.

Trevor is hoping to organise a reunion some time in the future, but even if you don't think you would be able to take part, he is interested in gathering potted biographies from as many as possible of his contemporaries. If you are one of them or know how to contact any, then please leave a message or contact me on webmaster@bostonian.org.uk and I will pass your details on to Trevor.

Bill Howes - Obituary

William "Bill" Howes (BGS 1945-50)

Bill Howes of Boston, passed away peacefully at Pilgrim Hospital on 28th May 2013, aged 78 years. Husband of the late Ruth Howes.