Old Bostonian Association Quiz Night 2017 - results

Quiz Master, Richard Anderson

Thanks go to Richard Anderson for continuing his role as quiz master for the 2017 Quiz Night. Scores were ably and efficiently recorded by Harry Hopkins (BGS Year 10). Photographs with thanks to Howard Charlton.

There was a good turn-out at the OBA Quiz Night this year: 11 teams filled the whole Boston and County Club dining room.

Scores were out of a total of 100, so scores are percentages.

Team results:

1st	Urban Bunny	89.5
2nd	Camalamadingdong	88
3rd	Freiston Sure	82
4th	The Cunning Linguists	79
5th	Rennies and Us	77.5
6th	Quiz In His Pants!	72.5
7th	Spaceballs	64
8th	Rose's Rebels	63.5
9th	Mummy's Boys	62
10th	Foundations	45. 5
11th	I thought it was Speed Dating!	36

In the buzzer and light finale Camalamadingdong beat Urban Bunny 240-190, a reversal of last year's result.

Winners: Camalamadingdong - Judy Cammack, Nicola Cammack,
Oli Cammack and Richard Cammack

Runners up: Urban Bunny - Nick Charlton, Howard Charlton,
Pat Everitt and Colin Clark

Boston Quiz League Success for BGS alumni

Thanks to Nick Charlton for this report on the Boston Quiz League results.

In Division 1 the winning team was from the Little Peacock, featuring Stephen Barker (former BGS student, second from left) and Richard Anderson (former BGS staff, third from left).

Knockout winners were White Hart A featuring (from left to right) Nick Charlton, Howard Charlton and Andy Boyer who are all former BGS students. The fourth team member was Neil Wilkinson.

Coming second in Division 1 was the same team from the White Hart.

The winning team in the sport and entertainment quiz was also a team from the White Hart, with Nick Charlton replaced by Mick MacShane, because Nick was the question setter for this competition.

OBA Quiz Night 2016

The Old Bostonian Association Quiz Night 2016 took place on 25 February at the Boston and County Club. The quiz master was Richard Anderson and there were teams made up of BGS old boys, current students of the school, BGS staff and old girls of Boston High School.

In a reverse of the 2015 scores Urban Bunny (left one member short this year with the absence of Nick Charlton) and a team led by Richard Cammack (this year called The Frankless Tasks presumably because Frank Cammack was replaced by Nicola Cammack) came second and first respectively in the qualifying round, and first and second after the final quick fire buzzer round.

I would like to thank Thomas Vamplew of BGS Y13 for the record of the scores.

Team	GK 1	GK 2	Picture	Music	Jackpot	Total
Doddy's Limbos	12	12	12	17	2	55
Quasimdodo and the Repulsions	16	18	15	18	10	77
Shining Whits	15	18	19	20	8	80
Stick to your Tedzuz	13	12	12	11	2	50
The Frankless Tasks	17	19	19	21	10	86
The Jays	15	9	13	6	6	49
The Old Gals	17	13	15	12	6	63
The President Elect	18	17	13	17	8	73
Unprepared	16	13	14	17	4	64
Urban Bunny	19	19	16	21	8	83
Final Buzzer Round
The Frankless Tasks	Dan	Oli	Richard	Nicola	Final Score
	80	70	60	0	210
Urban Bunny	Howie	Pat	Colin
	250	110	0		360	WINNERS!

Photographs, with thanks to Howard Charlton.

The winning team, Urban Bunny:
Howard Charlton, Pat Everitt and Colin Clark

Runners-up, The Frankless Task:
Richard Cammack, Nicola Cammack, Oli Cammack and Dan Newton

Quiz Master: Richard Anderson

Old Bostonian Association Annual Dinner 2015 - Report

Richard Anderson leads
everyone in some exercises

As predicted the Old Bostonian Association Annual Dinner 2015 was a huge success. Once Richard Anderson, the almost universally popular Modern Languages teacher of 43 years (and one term) who retired in 2014, was booked as the guest speaker, it seemed almost inevitable that we would achieve a record attendance for recent years, and so we did.

I hope you enjoy this long report with many photographs. Maybe you will be able to identify long-lost friends in some of the images - click on an image to see a larger version.

The last few dinners have been held at the Boston and County Club where our recent record of ninety-something stretched comfort; last year's sixty-something was perfect for that venue. We needed somewhere larger, and the solution was in hindsight obvious - we returned to the school hall for the first time in probably a couple of decades (dinners around the turn of the 21st century were held in the school dining hall). This time we were able to bring with us the excellent caterers from the county club and all was set.

OBA Quiz Night 2015

Urban Bunny (old boys)

The Old Bostonian Association Quiz Night, 2015 took place on 25 February at the Boston and

County Club. The quiz-master was Richard Anderson and the scores were as follows.

Buzzer and light finale

Place	Team	Score
1	3 Cammack generations plus Dan	44
2	Urban bunny (BGS old boys)	32

3 Cammack generations plus Dan

Main quiz results

Place	Team	Score %
1	Urban bunny (old boys)	89
2	3 Cammack generations plus Dan	83
3	Return of porky beef (old boys)	79
4	Only ones that would come (BGS team)	65
5	Quizrag (recent old boys)	62
6	Haven't a clue (old girls)	61
7	Green sprouts (old boys)	52
8	Spring chickens (old girls)	42
9	Klever klogs (best name!)	39

Thanks go to Richard Anderson for providing the scores, to Howard Charlton for the photos and to everyone who took part for... er... taking part!

BGS GK Club Reunion "Sesh"

Richard "Anders" Anderson with
the late Andrew Martin in about 1981

There was a Boston Grammar School General Knowledge Club Reunion "Sesh" on Friday 23 January. It was attended by Richard Anderson who retired from the school at the end of the 2013-14 school year.

In further GK Club news, Richard Anderson announced that the club archives would be held in the school staff room by Mr and Mrs Rennie. The archive includes past questions which may be useful if members wish to hold quizzes in the future.

Richard hopes there will be at least one staff team and one student team at the Old Bostonian Association Quiz Night on 25 February.

Senior Schools' Challenge General Knowledge Tournament

East Midlands Senior Schools' Challenge - BGS team comes away undefeated!

Ten star members of the BGS GK Club travelled by train and tram to the impressive Cottingham Boys' High School on Wednesday November 26th to compete in the annual senior schools' challenge quiz tournament. (last year they won the plate trophy - duly returned by Richard Anderson).

There was a record turn-out of 17 teams from 10 different schools and the BGS a team of Sam Hallam (captain), Thomas Vamplew, Oliver Cammack and Neelay Sant gave an excellent account of themselves.

A hat-trick of wins:

BGS A	570	Trent College	420
BGS A	440	Kesteven and Grantham Girls	390
BGS A	450	Uppingham School	370

Therefore our lads qualified for the semi-final in a match scheduled to be against Leicester Grammar School. However, the time factor meant that our team had to pull out of the semi-final in order to catch the tram and train back to Boston at 6:44 pm as agreed in advance.

Hard lines for all, but we live to fight again!

The very young BGS B team of David Wardell (captain), Ross Hawkins, Abdullah Ahmed and enthusiastic newcomer Melbin Baby had the bad luck to be drawn against two A teams, scoring 160 against Carre's GS A team's 520. However, the lads managed a creditable 260 against Dixie Grammar School's A team's 580.

GK twins, Zain and Meursaleen Asif proved to be first-rate supporters and special surprise guest star, Ben Hallam (last year's GK club manager) officiated ''hot foot" from Loughborough University! Old boy Michael Mardell (big brother of David) also popped up on the Nottingham station platform from his home town university to cheer us all up after the disappointment of having to leave before the finish.

Special thanks are due to Mrs Rennie for giving up so much of her time to make the trip to Nottingham possible.

Many thanks too to the lads' parents and school management for their support of this highly educational and entertaining event!

RWA 27.11.14

OBA Annual Dinner - Confirmed Details

We now have confirmed details of the Old Bostonian Association Annual Dinner 2015. Following an excellent response to the request for early expressions of interest, we believe we will have outgrown our recent regular venue at the Boston and County Club, so we are returning to the School this year and holding the event in the Assembly Hall. The move should not however impact quality since Julie Holland and her team from the Boston and County Club have given the kitchen facilities at the school their seal of approval and they will be travelling across town to serve us again.

Here are the details, which are also available in the OBA diary.

OBA Annual Dinner

Saturday 28th March 2015- 6:30pm for 7:30pm
Assembly Hall, Boston Grammar School

Guest Speaker:  Richard Anderson (BGS staff 1971-2014)

Dress: Lounge Suits

Tickets £22

Contact Peter Sharman for further details (tel: 01205 353659; president@bostonian.org.uk) 

Menu
(Catering by Julie Holland of the Boston and County Club)

Starter

Homemade Vegetable Soup

Selection of Cold Meats (including haslet and chine)

Prawn Cocktail

Main Course

Mountain's Boston Sausage and Mash

Chicken Breast stuffed with Buffalo Mozzarella and wrapped in Parma Ham

Salmon Fillet with Chardonnay Sauce, garnished with fresh Prawns

Tuscan Bean Crunch (vegetarian)

(all served with Seasonal Vegetables)

Dessert

Bakewell Tart with Custard

Pineapple and Malibu Cheesecake

Cheese and Biscuits

Coffee or Tea and Mints

---

The dinner is open to former students of Boston Grammar School together with current and former members of staff at the school, whether or not they are members of the Old Bostonian Association. You may also buy a ticket for a guest (not necessarily being connected to BGS)

If you wish to visit the OBA Museum at the School whilst in Boston please contact Peter Sharman as above to make arrangements.

Please order your tickets as soon as possible. There are three ways to do so:

• by sending the following details to Peter Sharman together with, or followed soon after by, a cheque payable to "Old Bostonian Association"
• by using the form below to order your tickets via PayPal
• via BACS; please contact Peter Sharman for the OBA bank account details

Details required:

• Your name
• Your years at Boston Grammar School
• Number of tickets required
• Your menu choice (each of three courses as above)
• Your address and contact telephone number
• Your email address
• Your guest's name
• Your guest's menu choice

Seating will probably be on tables of 10/12 and we will try, although cannot guarantee, to seat everyone with their peer group – if you know of others attending with whom you would like to sit please name them.

Order form

The dinner has taken place and orders are therefore now closed.

What a fantastic afternoon! BGS Beach Party

Boston Grammar School Schuhplattler dancing at the Beach Party,
led by Richard Anderson

Boston Grammar School showed it was on good form, as it held its first Charity Summer Fete. Principal John McHenry was on hand to enjoy the fun with the staff, pupils (pictured below) and many guests including East Midlands Ambulance NHS Trust (EMAS) and L.I.V.E.S on a lovely summer afternoon.

There was no sign of a dampening mood following the flood that caused the school to close in December 2013. The future has never looked brighter.

Music provided by the school band accompanied the Schuhplattler; garden games; Magic Show starring ex-Head Boy, Mark Watson, Punch & Judy Show from Norfolk and all the delights of a summer’s day—ice cream, drinks and home-made cakes whilst fundraising for such worthy charities - Centrepoint Outreach, World War I Memorial and defibrillators for the local community. Local businesses helped the school by offering time to support such good causes and local superbike rider, Ben Wilson took time out to cut the black and amber ribbon at 12 noon.

BGS is sited at the heart of the Boston Community, steeped in history and the organisers, Richard Anderson and Suzanne McKeown are delighted to announce that the BGS “Beach Party” Fete raised over £1,000 for charity and wish to thank all who contributed to this splendid total.

Old Bostonian Association Annual Dinner 2015

The preliminary announcement of the 2015 annual dinner has been made today. The guest speaker will be Richard Anderson (BGS staff 1971-2014). This is the old Bostonian Association's way of marking the retirement of this long-serving and widely admired member of staff.

The dinner will take place on 28 March 2015, provisionally at the Boston and County Club though with Richard proposing the toast to The School, the demand for tickets is expected to be high, so we may outgrow the venue, a problem which, according to Peter Sharman, current President of the Old Bostonian Association, would be "nice to have".

There are a lot of details still to be sorted out but it is not too early to express your interest in ticket(s) to president@bostonian.org.uk. More details will be made available on the official OBA diary as they become available.

You do not need to be a member of the Old Bostonian Association to come along. If you are a former student of Boston Grammar School or a current or former member of staff, you are entitled to apply for up to two tickets (one for yourself and optionally one for a non-qualifying guest). The price of tickets has not been set at the time of writing but as a rough indication tickets to the 2014 event were £20.00.

Richard Anderson to retire

Richard Anderson has been teaching Modern Languages (French and German) at Boston Grammar School since 1971 and in doing so has inspired generations of Boston "lads" as he would call them. But his real lasting impression on those lads has often been from extra-curricular activities, having supervised clubs on topics from Cross Country to Subbuteo, and from model Railways to German.

It's difficult to choose where he has made the greatest impression but some of the highlights would be:

• Leading the Charity Club to raise thousands of pounds for all sorts of charities
• Leading the Schuhplattler Gruppe to perform its German style dancing at home and abroad over 700 times including appearances on television
• Leading lads to success in General Knowledge local, regional and national competitions
• Leading the Grammar Gazette to be what I understand is the longest running school student run newspaper in the country (I stand to be corrected if that is not the case)

And now, having easily passed the historical teaching retirement mark of 60 (thanks to government policy), Richard is preparing to put down his red pen for the last time, retiring on 31 August 2014, so the current term is his last as a teacher.

Some of us have contemplated in the past what Richard would do after retirement. Once when I asked his friend and former colleague, Ron Abbott, if he could contact Richard for me (before the age of school email addresses), he said that short of throwing a rock with a message attached over the school wall there wasn't much he could do. So dedicated has Richard been to the school, or really more accurately to "the lads" (although some are in fact now "lassies"), and the hours he has put in are surely matched by few in any profession.

In fact Richard's plans for retirement are to split his time between Boston, where he has made many friends, and regularly meets former students, who he calls "blasts from the past", the North East, his home territory and still home for one of his brothers, and Germany, where his other brother lives. Let's hope we continue seeing Richard around for many years to come and let's wish him a very happy retirement!

William Swain - British Schools Modern Biathlon champion

William Swain (photo Boston Standard)

William Swain admitted he was ‘delighted’ to be crowned the British Schools Modern Biathlon champion on Sunday. The Boston Grammar School pupil won the under 14 boys’ title after competing at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

"I was delighted when I found out I’d won," said William, who turned 14 on Friday. "I finished 13th last year, so my aim was to finish in the top 10. I exceeded all my expectations."

William finished the 1,600m run in 13th place before completing the 100m swim - in the pool which was used at London 2012 - in third.

After a nervy hour-long wait for the final standings to be released, William discovered he had finished in overall first place.

William, of Almond Walk, Boston, trains four times every week at Spalding’s South Lincs Competitive Swimming Club. He admits that swimming is his preferred sport, even if he does enjoy athletics training at school, under the watchful eye of teacher Richard Anderson.

After claiming 13th spot in the final at Crystal Palace last year, William booked his place in this year’s showpiece event after winning his heat in York. He began the final ranked in 13th, but finished the event on top.

"It was amazing to compete in the Olympic Park, especially in the pool," William added.

Richard Anderson commented to the OBA that "William has trained really hard, but this is a super surprise!"
.

2014 Old Bostonian Association Annual Dinner - report

Back row: Aaron Rymer (BGS student),
Harry Tebbutt (BGS student), Ellis Potter (BGS Head Boy);
Front Row: Catherine Wolfe-Smith (guest speaker's wife),
Richard O Smith (guest speaker),
Peter Sharman (OBA President)

The 2014 Old Bostonian Association Annual Dinner took place on 22 March at the Boston and County Club. As has become traditional, the evening started with about an hour in the bar, giving time for people to meet old acquaintances and make new ones.

Pete Milsom had brought a photograph of the Boston Borough Council taken in 1964. His father, who was a councillor and in the photograph, had listed most of the names but as was customary at the time, he had noted everyone as "Mr so-and-so". Pete wanted first names. Even I managed to fill in a couple of them, but Tony Austin provided the majority and I believe most of the rest were filled in by others.

The OBA President, Peter Sharman and I had a bit of a nail-biting time while we awaited the arrival of Richard O Smith (BGS 1975-1982), the guest speaker and his party: his wife Catherine, and Matthew Ledbury (BGS 1980-1985). They did indeed arrive in time and we were very relieved.

It  was good to see current BGS staff member, Richard Anderson at the dinner, together with his former colleagues, Ron Abbott, Rod Dunn and Nick Fitton.

OBA President, Peter Sharman

The Boston and County Club as usual came up with a very pleasant meal which was efficiently served. After coffee, Peter Sharman proposed the toast to The Queen, and we had a short break for refilling glasses.

Guest speaker, Richard O Smith
getting animated

Next came the speech by guest speaker, Richard O Smith. Richard was very entertaining, speaking about his lack of academic achievement at school, moving on to working in a pet shop, and then to writing obituaries for The Boston Standard, and on to his current work, writing books and script writing for radio and TV. Although he continued to speak for well over his allotted time, most people who expressed an opinion to me said they could have happily listened for longer. As is customary, Richard finished with a toast to The School.

BGS Head Boy, Ellis Potter

The response on behalf of the school is usually provided by a member of staff but this year it was ably handled by Head Boy, Ellis Potter. He spoke of the challenges of the year, including the flood of December 2013 and finished off with the traditional toast to The Old Bostonian Association.

There were 52 people present at the dinner. Unfortunately Bill Olle, who had also booked a ticket, was not able to be present due to last-minute family commitments.

Ron Abbott	Viv Hammond	Colin Pickwell
Richard Anderson	Andrew Hladun	Ellis Potter
Jill Austin	Lee Hoff	Reg Preistley
Tony Austin	James Hopper	Peter Rawlings
Mark Bruntlett	Derek Howard	Aaron Rymer
Ian Carrott	Stuart Hunt	Peter Sharman
Colin Clark	Luke Johnston	Don Sharpe
Colin Cumberworth	Andy Lawrence	Catherine Smith
George Danby	Stan Lawrence	Bill Stanwell
Pearl Danby	Matthew Ledbury	Bob Stanwell
Rod Dunn	Mark Locking	Harry Tebbutt
Jim Ely	David May	Paul Timby
Ben Evans	Simon Meeds	Pat Walters
Ian Fisher	Stan Meeds	Pat Welberry
Nick Fitton	Pete Milsom	Roger Welberry
Gus Goor	Sue Milsom	Adam Woods
James Greenfield	Richard O Smith
Chris Hammond	Trevor Page

Catherine Wolfe-Smith (guest speaker's wife), Aaron Rymer (BGS student),
Harry Tebbutt (BGS student), Peter Sharman (OBA President),
Ellis Potter (BGS Head Boy), Richard O Smith (guest speaker)
I'm not sure of the relevance of the t-shirt

Ron Abbott listening intently
to Nick Fitton

Rod Dunn at the centre of the action

Nick Fitton

Chris Hammond (BGS 1961-67)
brought his old school tie,
scarf and cap!

Guest speaker, Richard O Smith
and his wife, Catherine

Interested in playing cricket or other sports?

Old Bostonian Association Cricket Team 1965

As you should be aware by now, the 2014 football match between the "old boys" and Boston Grammar School will take place on 3 April at the school. See the relevant article for more details if you want to be a spectator - I believe that we now have enough players and officials.

Together with the annual General Knowledge Quiz, ably MC'd by Richard Anderson, and the Snooker Tournament, which, following the death of its previous organiser, Paul Mould, failed to take place in 2013, the football match makes up the group of recently held competitions between the "old boys" and the school.

In the past there were other competitions: cricket, tennis and golf come to mind but there were probably others.

The Old Bostonian Association President, Peter Sharman, tells me that someone has shown an interest in organising a cricket match. There's no date for it yet, nor even a guarantee that it will happen, but if you might be interested in taking part, please indicate you interest to Peter, either by email (president@bostonian.org.uk) or via his Facebook account - he is a member of the Boston Grammar School Alumni group at Facebook.

If cricket isn't your thing, or even if it is, perhaps you could think whether you might be able and willing to organise a competition between the "old boys" (under the name of the Old Bostonian Association, but not necessarily involving only member of the association) and the school. While it can certainly be a sporting, event, it doesn't have to be. Again, send any suggestions to Peter Sharman, you could add a comment to this post, or if you're a member of the Facebook group, why not start a discussion there and see if there is interest in your idea.

Just a footnote about the snooker, while, as indicated above, the death of Paul Mould put a spanner in the works of the annual tournament, a new organiser was appointed in 2013 and apart from running out of year, there was another reason for the competition not taking place: Nigel Wainwright was unable to raise a school team. A proposal was made to have a competition between "young" old boys and "more senior" old boys, so if this situation continues, we could be looking for even more snooker players than usual when this year's competition is being organised.

OBA Quiz 2013 - Results

The 2013 OBA Quiz took place on 27 November at the Boston & County Club. The quiz master was Richard Anderson. There was an excellent turn-out, with ten teams taking part, and the atmosphere was very competitive. The results were as follows.

National Junior Challenge Quiz - Semi-Final

The Boston Grammar School Junior Quiz A Team have been beaten by Haberdashers' Aske's School, from Elstree in Hertfordshire, in the semi-finals of the National Junior Challenge Quiz held at the Perse School, Cambridge. I understand that the BGS team put up a good fight but Haberdashers' Aske's, who have won the competition for the last three years, came out on top with 900 points against BGS's 620 points. This is the furthest a BGS team has got in the competition in over a decade.

700th Schuhplattler Gig

The BGS Schuhplattler Gruppe
on BBC's Blue Peter in 2001

Richard Anderson has had a letter published in the Boston Standard marking the 700th gig of the Boston Grammar School Schuhplattlergruppe.

The current troupe has had an amazing year, performing at all major Lincolnshire events including the prestigious Lincolnshire Show (where they were ‘sponsored’ by Lincs FM DJs), the Olympic Torch Relay in Lincoln, the Spalding Flower Parade, Carrington Rally, Sleaford Oktoberfest, numerous Jubilee events, the Boston Standard Centenary Show, and in December they were the only act to be invited to perform in front of Lincoln Cathedral as part of the opening ceremony for Lincoln’s famous Christmas Market. This was the remarkable 700th gig.