The team thoroughly enjoyed a weekend away at Bradfield which included the Old boys bearing witness to the increasingly impressive football programme at the school, as the U15’s took on a team from Reading academy on one of the world class pitches on Rectory. Clearly this programme continues to go from strength to strength.
 
The two night stay at the luxurious Mercure West Newbury Hotel was a change from the usual boarding house arrangements, which was well received by the squad who made full use of the hotel experience.
 
After two days of intensive training on the ‘max’ and ‘major’ school pitches, old stomping ground for many in the squad, the boys felt prepared to take on the school in a 90 minute game split into 30 minute thirds.
 
The first third was all OB football as the deep lying 352 formation gave 4 or 5 clear goal scoring chances on the counter. A delightful free kick after a dubious decision from the referee lead to a rippling of the back of the net that nobody from the OB faithful wanted to see which gave the 1^st XI a 1-0 lead. Soon some very tired legs started to spread amongst the Old boys, as even fittest and finest of the squad began to wane. It was not long until one became two and the match ended with the 1^st XI running away to a 5-0 victory.