I can feel the sadness that Daniel Braden’s family must be feeling; the shock, unjustness, anger and deep love. Although I can’t imagine how it must feel to lose your brother or son, I did lose my mother very suddenly last year and a close friend was ruthlessly, violently and needlessly killed, so I can understand the deep sense of loss and all the other emotions that come with it.
So then comes the question of what is life all about? When people so young and full of life get snatched away from you. Who really knows the answer? But I believe the one big lesson I have learnt through all this is that life is for living on a daily basis and caring. Tell the people around you how much you feel for them and don’t delay!
To celebrate the life of Daniel we are dedicating a new award, ‘The Daniel Braden Award for services to 2nd XV rugby’. This is to demonstrate that it is not just about scoring the tries that makes you a good player but being able to encourage and motivate those around you. There will also be a Daniel Braden Memorial Rugby match on the Home Ground on Sunday 28 September, where we hope to welcome as many of Daniel’s family and friends as possible.
We are making a few changes to some of the dates traditionally held in our diaries. Well actually, that’s why we are changing things because most OBs didn’t appear to have the dates in their diaries! So we are bringing in a new day called the Old Brightonians Day. This will be held on Saturday 13 September and will be dedicated to boys and girls sporting events, some music and a dinner. Our aim is to gradually evolve to a day with more of the arts events to balance up the sport and maybe even other activities for those who just want to come back and have fun such as walks around Brighton or talks about the College and the Association.
We are also holding a dinner this year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the entry of girls at Brighton College in 1973. The dinner is on Saturday 29 November with a girls hockey and netball match taking place earlier in the day. Peter Withers has kindly taken the lead in organising the day and details will be sent out to all girls nearer the time so I hope to see you all there and I also hope we will see plenty of support from the boys!
Also as part of the girls celebrations this year the traditional cricket match against the College on Commemoration Day (Saturday 28 June) will be an all female affair with an old girls XI playing the College girls 1st XI on the Home Ground in the afternoon. Clare Connor (W. 1989-94) will be organising this so any old girls who are interested in playing should contact Clare.
Before going to New Zealand in December I wrote to all the known OBs over there to see if I could meet up with them. To my surprise most of them were not aware of each other. Richard Everton (S. 1934-40) and Sharat Kanthan (C/S. 1997-99) organised a night out for OBs living in Auckland and Sharat has agreed to be a spokesperson for OBs in New Zealand, which is great and very much appreciated.
I was asked to stay with Nick Bond (L. 1961-64) and his wife (left), Diane, whilst I was in Wellington. What a fantastic pair of tour guides and so hospitable. I only had less than 24 hours there but I don’t think I could have seen anymore. They really were superb and I can recommend both Wellington as a place to visit and the Bonds as the people to contact whilst you are there. Many thanks to them.
Well that's enough of me. I look forward to meeting you all at the various OB events planned for this year and especially at the girls celebratory dinner at the end of November. I hope you all have a lovely summer.
Jane Haviland (F. 1979-81)
OBA President