Rhubarb 2024

Al playing for 1st XI vs Harrow on Upper 1.

Playing for Durham at Twickenham with Ben Fennell (Corfe, 1984-1989).

INTERVIEW

An interview with AL kane (Corfe, 1984-1989) New President of the Martyrs W e are delighted to introduce the new President of Talbot-Williams (1974-1979) whose passion and energy has helped promote and drive the Martyrs for more than 35 years as Martyrs Cricket Hon. Sec. and more recently as Martyrs President. Fortunately, Simon will continue to contribute and be an important part of the Martyrs as he takes on the new role of Chair of the Martyrs, overseeing both the sporting arm and the new MADD Martyrs that celebrates Music, Art, Dance and Drama. Congratulations Al on being the new President of the Martyrs.Why did you want to get involved with the Martyrs and what are your plans? Thank you. I’m very excited about the opportunity, following on from the outstanding work Simon has done as he rises to his new exalted position! Sport is very important to me and to my boys (Harry, Kendall 2019-2024, and JJ currently in Lower Sixth) and the Martyrs has always been a vehicle for connecting OSE through sport, the Martyrs, OSE and current parent Al Kane (Corfe, 1984-1989). Al is taking over from Simon

having a lot of fun, and bringing together a wide group of people. It provides an opportunity to link the generations – like our squash team where we have OSE in their 70s playing with OSE in their 20s. Other OSE I regularly meet on the touchline are watching their children play at Teddies or are new OSE supporting the school teams when they are in Oxford .

It is important that we continue to be ambitious and diversify what we do.

I’m keen OSE can come back and play highly competitive sport for a strong team in national competitions and excel, or just hook up with friends for a social game once in a while. We can do both and the Martrys have the opportunity to engage with sport on all levels. In a world where people have less and less time to dedicate to sport, providing a variety of forums across multiple sports, and for a variety of abilities, should be a major focus for us. But we also want to win! I would also like to concentrate on the development of MADD (Music, Dance, Arts and Drama) Martyrs so we can keep in touch with our OSE actors, dancers, artists and musicians, bringing everyone back together and celebrating all OSE in all they do and achieve.There are some exciting plans for 2025 which I’m looking forward to launching. We also need to connect with parents and former parents, after all they are the biggest supporters of Teddies sport and MADD! We want to provide more and more opportunities for everyone to get together, whether that be at the Martyrs golf days, tennis tournaments or just supporting the Martyrs matches. Alongside this there are a number of great events in the school calendar such as the ‘Friday night lights’ games for both the girls and the boys at Oxford Hawks and Iffley Road respectively.These are becoming major events for the School, parents and OSE and I thoroughly recommend them to everyone – mark them on your 2025 calendar. Finally, we want to continue to support traditional events such as Henley,

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