After a week of very heavy rain in rural West Berkshire, we were thrilled that all the sporting events this year went ahead, but the conditions were wet and 'soft' for the Huxham Runs to say the least.

The Shooting was the first event to start at the College Shooting Range and we had two new Bradfieldians join us to shoot this year - Pete Jones (F 93-98) and Patrick Hewlett (E 92-97). Both now live overseas and had not been back to shoot at Bradfield for many years but had previously shot for the College back in the late 1990s at Bisley. We also had two pupil and parent pairings in Rory Mace (G 18-23) and his mother Lucy Mace nee Summers (I 91-93) and Rupert Breitmeyer (E 82-87) and son Max (currently in Faulkners) plus many regular shots for the Bradfieldian and the College teams.

It was a closely fought match between the College and the pupil team and in the end, it was a draw. Lucy Mace accepted the Tremlett Trophy on behalf of the OB team and Maya on behalf of the pupil team.

In the Huxham Runs, the first of the runners began to register at 11am. Hugo Donovan (C 15-19) having already shot for the Bradfieldians for the first time since he left the College, came along to run the Huxham X (10.4 mile) race as well as shooting. There were a range of the Bradfield community, current and former parents, pupils and Bradfieldians returning to college to run the races this year.

Many familiar faces ran from the OB community; the Pollock brothers Rob (H 81-86) and Richard (H 84-89), with their friends Anthony Gammell (H 84-89) and Patrick Woodrow (H 84-89) this year too. Tom Fortune (F 91-96) and his wife Milly (nee Bowen J 2000- -02) both ran the Huxham X this year together. Matt Green-Armytage (E 91-96), Charlie Williams (F 14-19), Jake Murray (E 21-23), Gabriel Salt (D 20-23), Rhodri Allen (E 08-13) and Giles Barrett (F 93-98) all won their first Huxham ties completing the course in under 90 minutes. Matt’s wife Katie who is a member of the College staff was the fastest female home in the Huxham V race.

The winner of the Huxham X race was Bradfieldian Hugo Donovan in 72 minutes followed closely by current pupil from Army House Peter. The first female home in the longer race was Bradfieldian Katie O’Hare (I 12-17) in 81 minutes who qualified for the coveted Huxham Pin. The winners of the Huxham V (5 mile) race were father and son Phil Murphy and his son at Bradfield Elliot with run times of 34 minutes and 36 minutes respectively. Congratulations to everyone including all the pupils who ran this year and finished the race to earn the coveted Huxham Ties or Pins.

The results were possibly slower than the runners had hoped for due to the muddy conditions, but everyone returned and enjoyed the race describing it as a 'fantastic event' with one runner describing the whole experience as “amazing”. The course it seems never loses its allure to runners and the views are spectacular if you can look up rather than down during the run.

Congratulations to current parent Jessica Raphael who said "Thank you so much for a fabulous Bradfield Winter day on Sunday.  It was my 9th Huxham run and I enjoyed it more than ever despite the mud and the rain and this year I ran it with my youngest son who will be in the college in 2025 and a friend who is an OB so all in all a very good day. We hugely appreciate all your hard work to keep this day going."

While the runners were on the course, the Hockey for Mossy’ Hockey Tournament‘ in memory of former member of staff and housemaster David Moss-Gibbons was taking place at the AWP, watched by David’s wife Nickie.

We had a wonderful turnout this year with 9 teams of OBs, parents and pupils alongside college staff in a keenly fought mixed 7-aside competition. In the final were the College mixed team ‘Wall Wanderers’ led by member of college staff Roger Wall and his family and friends against OB Adam Robinson’s (G 11-16) family team the ‘Fruit Shoots’ with Adam’s team winning the game 3-2. In third place was Ed Mundy’s (C 12-17) team who all enjoyed being back at Bradfield on the hockey pitches once again.

Other Bradfieldians bringing along teams were Tim Dellor (G 89-94), Thomas Creighton (H 17-22), Gavin George (A 77-82) and his traditional family get-together at Bradfield with some keen College parent/former parent teams including Katie Salter, Jane Carwardine and Kirsty Perkinson and their families and friends. Thank you to everyone for coming along for this fun and friendly tournament.

At the close of the day many from the Bradfield community enjoyed the Carols by Candlelight service and thank you to Felicity Brienza (M 05-10), Roger Vincent-Silk (B 54-57) and Matt Chambers (C 76-81) for reading once again during the service in Chapel this year.

Link to all the photographs of the sporting activities on the day here