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

Richard O Smith - Banbury Literary Live (20/09/2013)

Richard O Smith will talk about UK's maddest, dangerous and funniest sports at Banbury Literary Live tomorrow
(20 September 2013). He says "there will be jokes".

Have you heard of gravy wrestling, F1 pram racing, 100m in high heels and dwile flonking? Just some of the weird and bizarre sports uncovered by Richard O. Smith, a writer for Radio 4’s The Now Show. His book, “Britain’s Most Eccentric Sports” reveals the madcap, hilarious and sometimes downright dangerous sports surviving in Britain today. Dr Lucy Worsley described it as a “jape filled jamboree of jollity”. This session may even persuade you to take part in the next cheese rolling, pantomime horse grand national, wife carrying race, extreme ironing or nettle eating event. You could become its next world champion!

Banbury Literary Live

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.

Richard O Smith bargain book

To quote the Boston Standard:

Former Boston Grammar School student Richard O. Smith has written a tome entitled Britain’s Most Eccentric Sports... 

Richard, who grew up in Freiston, 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, which led him to work with The Independent and When Saturday Comes. 

He later started writing for The Now Show - a news quiz on Radio Four presented by Hugh Dennis and Richard Punt.