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OLD ALLEYNIAN LODGE It has been another successful year for the Lodge. We welcomed several new members, with current membership now standing at about 43 and growing. As usual, we held our four meetings in the Old Library at Dulwich College and were privileged to dine in the Pavilion Salle on each occasion. The highlight was our October meeting, when we warmly welcomed Fiona Angel (Senior Deputy) and Will Lewis (Past President of the OAA) to join us for what was a superb dinner. Both delivered entertaining yet informative speeches, leaving members enthused to hear of the College’s vision for the future. Outside of the Lodge meetings, we have been equally active with regular informal get- togethers and rehearsals. A healthy contingent also attended the annual Public Schools Lodges’ Council Festival, held this year at the magnificent Stowe School. This was a true family event, and members were delighted to attend with their families and children to meet with other members of the Lodge and the wider Masonic public schools community. More recently, we hosted a table at the annual OAA dinner and were delighted to show our support for such a great event Whilst the Lodge is clearly in good health, we are always looking for new members and you can be assured of a warm welcome, whether you are familiar with Freemasonry or not. Membership of the OA Lodge is open to former pupils of the school as well as past and present teaching staff. This year alone we were delighted to welcome new members who had just left the College as well as members who left decades ago, all of whom chose the OA Lodge as a great opportunity to join Freemasonry and stay in touch with the College. With the support of the OAA we also continue to encourage membership and enquiries from those below the age of 25, for whom we offer a 50% deduction on subscriptions. Freemasonry is a national/international society, with English Freemasonry being controlled by the United Grand Lodge of England whose headquarters are in Covent Garden, London. Their website contains a great deal of useful information: www.ugle.org.uk. If you think that Freemasonry may be something for you or if the article has sparked an interest, then please do visit our dedicated website ( www.oldalleynianlodge.org.uk ) where you will find lots more about us. It is also the best way to get in contact. We very much hope to continue to build on our current success in the coming year and would be very pleased to hear from you. Do get in touch.
OLD ALLEYNIAN GOLFING SOCIETY The Old Alleynian Golfing Society (OAGS) has had a very enjoyable and reasonably successful year on and off the links. The team performed well in the Halford Hewitt, beating Wellingborough, Felsted and Merchant Taylors, before losing to the eventual winners, Loretto, who have won the Hewitt for the last three years and are profiting from their academy. Our youth policy was to the fore again this year as six of the players, Hugo Avshu (01-12), Felix Truckel (00-11), Jonny Waugh (04-15), Freddie Neden (10- 15), Felix Suther-Jones (11-16) and Guy Tillson (11-16), were under 30. They were joined by Chris Cowen (95-06), Alex Charawani (78-87), Ameet Patel (93-95) and Jonathan Swinney (77-84). There is a great spirit amongst the team, and they were, as ever, well supported by the SoDs (supporters of Dulwich) despite the appalling weather. The halfway hut at Deal did especially good business on the Saturday afternoon during torrential rain. Our over-50 team did extremely well in the Cyril Gray competition at Worplesdon, just failing to reach the final for the first time. We again benefited from a ‘youth’ policy, with one of our team only qualifying by a day and another by less than a month, so we have the basis for a great few years. Well done to the team of Roger Kelly (81-88) and Simon Anthony (86-91) (who were unbeaten), as well as Jonathan Swinney and Colin Webb (79-84), and Matt Aldous (84-91) and Jeremy Brewer (64-71). We qualified for the finals of the Grafton Morrish at Hunstanton and Brancaster again this year, but lost narrowly in the first round. It was another youthful team, with five of the six under 30. In addition, Jonny Waugh won the Spring Meeting at Deal and Nic Bennett (75-82) the Autumn at Tandridge. There were the usual friendly matches and society days during the year, including against old foes Whitgift, Alleyn’s, Tonbridge, Sevenoaks, Loretto and King Edward’s Birmingham, as well as a number of other schools. Many of these matches start through friendships made in days gone by but result in new and lasting friendships. We are also fortunate to play at some of the best courses in the South East, such as Royal St George’s, Rye, New Zealand, Royal Ashdown, Tandridge and Wildernesse. The matches are played in what I consider the true Dulwich spirit. We try our hardest to win whilst playing, but afterwards we really do not mind if we win or lose, it is all about taking part and meeting up with old friends and making new ones. The joy of the OAGS (and all OAA societies) is that we have one huge part of our lives in common. This seems to make the conversation flow easily when we meet up, and I was very pleased that we welcomed a few new faces to the society this year who have become regular attendees. The other great joys of golf are that you can play all of your life, and that with the handicap system it does not matter whether you are off scratch or 28, you can still play and enjoy yourself. We focus on helping our younger members to participate with financial assistance, but are also very keen to hear from all OAs. So, if you are just retired, or now work from home regularly and have more time, please do register on the website at www.oags.co.uk or email me at honsec@ oags.co.uk. We are a very friendly group and will make you feel most welcome.
Simon Whitaker (70-74), Secretary OA Lodge
Peter Foord (72-81) Secretary OAGS
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