In spite of all the rain dances and prayers for divine intervention to assist the England cricketers at the Oval, Brighton College was blessed with warm sunshine for OB Day, which was fitting because for some, it was their first visit in many a year.
OB Reunions
Attendance at these things seem so often to be reliant on the weather, and this year the sun certainly appeared to have delivered a good assortment of OBs to the College on a glorious September morning.
Headmaster Richard Cairns hosted an extremely convivial drinks reception at the China Club in Hong Kong on Saturday 22nd September.
Some of these evenings atract a huge gathering, others a smaller one. This was the latter... but I cannot remember laughing so hard and so long!
The Old Brightonian USA group held its fourth annual dinner at the beginning of April at the beautiful Lotos Club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Around 20 OB's and their guests enjoyed a first class 5 course dinner in the company of the Headmaster, Richard Cairns and the Deputy Headmistress, Jo-Anne Riley.
Twenty five years is a long time but what about the 1949 PE team? They were there too and so were quite a few of those who were only yesterday (as it were) walking across the quad without a (real) care in the world. For those of us celebrating a silver anniversary of leaving the College it was for most the first time we had returned for a great many years.
What an evening! If you don't believe me then just take a look the ‘photos on this website, you will see plenty of animated smiling faces which, for me, sums up the purpose of events like this. Mind you with a combination of Ann Widdecombe as guest speaker, over 150 guests and a large contingent of 1981’ers what more could one expect?
As we set off from Hereford I gave a little sigh and, when questioned by Isobel, admitted that I was wondering why I was setting off on a gloomy November day to drive two hundred miles across England for a dinner. Once we had arrived, however, all doubts were dispelled as we plunged into the happy hubbub of old friends.
The Association was delighted that this year's special guest speaker was Dr. David Bull, broadcaster (appearing regularly on "The Wright Stuff", "Radio Five Live", "Most Haunted", and "Richard & Judy") and Conservative candidate for Brighton Pavilion at the next general election, and diners were treated to an account of his rich and varied career to date.