Ben Lambert (F/AC 87-93) writes about the evening:
All in all a superb evening with a fantastic atmosphere and I, for one, left with a huge amount of pride and fond memories of the old place and of the real sense of community. I also have a renewed confidence in its future. Huge credit should go to everyone connected with organising the event and let’s hope Stuart is back up at St Bees with the Rugby World Cup in his hands in 2015!”
“How time flies. After what seems like only a couple of summers, but actually turns out to be twenty years, half a dozen leavers from 1993 donned their tuxedos and headed along to the Sports Hall for the much anticipated Old St Beghian Black Tie Dinner.
Some of us old men were creaking a bit, having played a bit of rugby on the Crease in the afternoon, alongside some of our (even older) heroes from Stuart Lancaster’s era - the legends who’d won the Rosslyn Park Sevens in 1986 had of course come back for their old mate’s dinner presentation. We’d narrowly lost to the pesky under 23s in the afternoon, but it was a superb match and the England Coach looked on eagerly, doubtless keen to see if he could bolster his Autumn international squad with some impeccably schooled, fat/balding old journeymen! Watch this space.
To cap off such a fun day with a superb evening was a treat.
The Sports Hall had been decorated and lit beautifully, like a stunning wedding marquee (of course only the finest wedding venues have basketballs trapped on top of cricket nets in the corner) and the room was filled with the intoxicating sound of chatter and laughter as old friends/foes and teachers caught up with each other. The current 6th formers provided exemplary service by handing out the champers and waiting on the tables throughout and they were an absolute credit to themselves and the school. Quite rightly the teachers would never have trusted anybody in our year with that level of responsibility and access to booze, but the calibre and integrity of the pupils has clearly come a long way in twenty years!
After a kind welcome from the Headmaster and a superb meal, Stuart Lancaster was up for the star turn and certainly did not disappoint. He treated us all to a very warm, personal and extremely amusing presentation which really focussed on how the skills he had learnt at St Bees had been used in his career to date. For example, ‘mental toughness’ came from having to survive CCF Parade Day! Remember that? In the sweltering June heat massed ranks of nervous cadets would be lined up on the Crease to stand rigidly to attention for hours. Whenever one fainted (and every year there would always be a handful) Major Francis would merely step over the motionless victim and the cricket scoreboard would be updated accordingly! On the theme of ‘keeping one’s feet on the ground’ what, we were asked, had fostered Stuart’s key philosophy that he and his players have to be brutally honest about their own shortcomings? Well, things like Mr (Pop) Robson’s very blunt end of term report into Stuart’s (in)ability at General Studies A Level. He showed us the report on the big screen. Stuart was hopeless beyond belief, stood no chance, and would get a terribly poor grade – which, so we heard, turned out to be entirely true!
We also gained an insight into the type of emotions that the England Coach feels as his team is just about to kick off in a big international in front of a capacity crowd. We heard that before taking on the All Blacks last year Stuart wondered where he had felt that exact same visceral feeling before - the heart pounding, the hair on edge, the knots in the stomach. And then he realised. It was the same jittery feeling that he had as a fearful first year on Boogie, when Top Dorm were barrelling down the stairs and just about to unleash a dorm raid on him!
Amidst all the humour there was also much evidence of the quiet, considered determination he brings to the role and some fascinating insights into how he is going about building this England team and its long term goals. After a standing ovation the focus then turned to a very humorous and lively auction of a huge number of donated gifts (holidays, sporting memorabilia etc), that must have raised many thousands of pounds for charity. In fact one of our table woke up on the Sunday morning and had to be reminded that he had spent about a grand on a signed England rugby jersey the previous night, which seemed to add a new dimension to his hangover!
After the auction the evening ended with a good old fashioned school disco in the Mem Hall, which then carried on into the early hours and was witness to some typically poor dancing but many a laugh, before old friends went their separate ways.
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The St Beghian Society, St Bees School,
St Bees, Cumbria, CA27 0DS.
Tel: (01946) 828093 Email: osb@st-bees-school.co.uk
Web: www.st-beghian-society.co.uk