Thursdays Thrills

Date: Thursday 2 October 2008

A lunchtime debate had to be postponed until next Monday, when the House will debate the motion that 'Capital Punishment should be abolished worldwide'. The postponement was made inevitable by a clash of lunchtime activities when Hockey House matches began at 2.00pm, and took away much of the audience.

Those House matches were played in an excellent spirit and resulted in Watson ending up in fourth place, having lost in the play-off to Baker by 3 - 1. The final itself saw Warneford go 1-up through Georgia Gurney, before Emily Oakes scrambled a Wagner equaliser in the second half. After the scores were tied at full time, almost ten minutes of 'sudden death' were played before, with just 35 seconds remaining, Warneford broke away and Annalise Williams netted what proved to be the winner. So first blood in this season's quest for the 'Cock House' Trophy goes to Warneford.

The last newsworthy event of the day was an Academic Music outing to the Royal Festival Hall to attend a concert featuring the Philharmonia Orchestra. This was a fantastic concert with a programme including a Wagner Overture, the Brahms First Piano Concerto in D minor, and Sibelius' Second Symphony in D major. Finnish conductor Leif Segerstam was completely at one with the symphony, but the Wagner was 'wishy-washy' with 'tame timps'! Soloist Boris Borotovsky was more au fait with the Brahms than the orchestra: his performance was phenomenal.

The next Music excursion is on Tuesday October 14th when Scholars will be going to the Cadogan Hall for a concert of popular classics - Mussorgsky, Bruch and Dvorak. I've booked my seat!