Dear Old Dovorian

Firstly, I am delighted to introduce, and welcome you to this new edition of the Old Dovorian newsletter, which I hope you will find of interest and enjoy.

You will notice that we have revamped the style and content within this edition compared to past editions. You will find within this edition that your club has done a lot in line with improving the way we as a club engage with you the membership, other groups within the Old Dovorian Club and the College. This new style newsletter will start to the focus on improving communication as I outlined at the last AGM held in June of this year

We are currently on an exciting journey of development within the club to take us into the 21^st century and beyond. However let me assure you that you, our members are the number one priority in everything we do. Therefore, as part of this journey I see this newsletter as being an extension of our ongoing relationship, with you our membership but also with the College

I hope you find this newsletter of interest, and any feedback that you might have or contributions you would like to make to future editions will be welcome.

You can email me at [email protected] or you can make contact with Lesley our administrator on [email protected]

Robert McAlpin M71 – 76

President – Old Dovorian Club

Old Dovorian Club News

This year has seen a lot of activity not only within the UK but also in Nigeria, and Singapore,

We have seen the building of The Clubs new website which is continuing to develop, also the development of the Club’s social media sites which are proving a popular way that OD’s are using to keep in touch, – The Club’s new website address and social media sites address can be found at the foot of the page.

All of this will enable the club to be more flexible, increase our routes of communication and above all be relevant and fit for purpose in the 21^st Century.

In October of this year a group of OD’s in Nigeria had a get together, which was organized by George Blackson, with the Headmaster who joined them for this occasion, as he was in the country representing the College at an event to promote English Boarding Schools.

 

They all had a good time by the looks of it as  Deborah Gispan posted the following on Facebook “ Thank you to the Salami brothers who made it, Anthonia Okpere who kept her word and popped in and to Gareth Doodes who covered the bar bill and to a current and new DC parent who I think was definitely impressed with how we’ve all turned out… so we played our roles well…. we hope more will come next time and maybe we will try to do an Abuja meet soon”

During Deborah Gispan’s trip to Lagos she finally meets up with Kehinde Salami for the first time after 29 years.  “Great evening…looking forward to seeing the lot of you in Naija on the 10th Oct in Lagos”

Also, in October of this year Mr. Michael Vanderhoeven of the College when in Singapore meet up with some OD’s who are currently living in Singapore. Yen Chin (SH) and Zoe Vanderhoeven (Belmont) meet up after 29 years, and by the look of it had a lot to catch up on since they last met

In September the College celebrated Founders’ Day.  We note 140 plus years on, the facial hair may have reduced, also that there are now ladies on the teaching staff hopeful means that the teaching staff are a little bit less scary………

Old Dovorian Golfing Society

The Society has 31 paid up members and organizes 9 (nine) matches per annum. The Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter matches are arranged in conjunction with the Old Lawrentians.

Both Colleges arrange their own Captain’s Day, which for Dover College is played at Tandridge in July. In addition, the Old Dovorian’s enter teams to compete in Triangular matches at Royal Ashdown in May against King’s Canterbury and St. Lawrence and at West Surrey against Eastbourne College and All Hallows. Members pay a small annual subscription and the AGM is customarily held at Knole Park in November each year but next year will be at Princes, Sandwich on 16^th April 2020

It is a pleasure to report that in October the Old Dovorian’s won back the trophy in our Triangular Match against Eastbourne College and All Hallows.

Once again it was held at West Surrey GC where the greens held up well considering the inclement weather we endured.

Our total of 214 Stableford pts. narrowly beat the holders Eastbourne College`s 210 pts….. with All Hallows a length away with 200 pts.

Hopefully this bodes well for our match next April against King`s Canterbury and St. Lawrence College at Royal Ashdown GC.

Our next meeting is at Princes GC, Sandwich on April 16 2020

Officers of the Society:

President                   – Graham Turner

Captain                      – Steve Alleyne

Vice-Captain             – Nigel Tubman

Treasurer                   – Michael Walter

2019 Fixture Card and Results  Day –

Meeting	Course	Trophy	Winner
Spring Meeting	Princes	Turner Plate	Tony Robin
Summer Meeting	Tandridge	Crescent Salver	Tony Robin
Late Summer Meeting	Huntercombe	Turnpenny Jug	Phillip Barry
Autumn Meeting	Knole Park	Dawes Cup	Tony Robin
Triangular	Royal Ashdown	Triangular Salver	Kings Canterbury
Triangular	West Surrey	Foresail Trophy	Dover College
Best Aggregate Score		BJ Salver	Tony Robin
		Devalia Trophy

New members are always welcome. Please contact the Captain, Steve Alleyne   [email protected]

Old Dovorian Lodge

The Lodge has held a Curry night, where a number of members, past and present, together with friends of the Lodge met at the Regency Club on Friday 27th September 2019. It was most enjoyable and was great to catch up outside the normal Lodge environment. The plan is that the Lodge will start to hold more of these events, with an option to hold one in the Dover area as well as in London.

The Lodge also arranged a tour of Freemasons Hall followed by a nice “Pie and Pint” afterwards in October for our new members and their families, which proved very successful.

The OD Lodge has now launched its new website in conjunction with the Old Dovorian Club, which now give us more control and flexibility to post and link the lodges social media sites together.

At our December meeting we joined Horites Lodge for a white table event, The Headmaster was represented by Mr. Michael Vanderhoeven  to show support and continue to strengthen the ties and relationship between the College and the Lodge , The Lodge also welcomed our new members and initiates Bro Edward Lewis , Bro Bob Winstanley and Bro Philip Abrahams  into the Lodge and Masonry  Infront of 80 members and guests including the Lodges VO W.Bro Ian Bendall  More photos can be found by clicking on the following link https://photos.app.goo.gl/CMvK2mXmkc3PnzUCA

The Secretary of the lodge , was seen supporting his local SSAFA “The Forces Charity” branch, where they had a Pitch at  the turning on of his local towns Christmas lights , SSAFA where using this occasion to reach out to veteran’s and there family’s , as the veterans who fought in the Koran war and those that did National Service are becoming the “forgotten Vets”

Following on from the very successful 2019 Dover festival, that was attended by 40 guests who were received with a Champagne Reception on the Close, followed by the Festival Diner, with the Headmaster as the Lodges Guest of honour, and attended by the Provence of East Kent’s Assistant Deputy Grand Master.  Where the Lodge presented a cheque for £500 to the Colleges nominated charity, “Young Minds”. The Lodges Dover Festival for 2020 has now been confirmed as Saturday 20^th June 2020, so please make a note in your diary’s, further information will be issued in the new year

The Old Dovorian Lodge had a meeting with the Grand Master and Grand Secretary of the HAFA at the College in July this year together with the Headmaster, as the lodge is currently exploring the possibility of an association with a Ladies lodge.

To give you some back ground into Freemasonry for Women (HFAF), the HAFA has been in existence since 1913 and they operate on exactly the same lines and have the same values as the men’s organisations.  Whilst they join together for social and promotional events, our meetings are solely for women as theirs are solely for men.

The Scheme with Schools and Universities is aimed to establish and enhance opportunities for ambitious young people as well as Staff and Alumni to explore and enjoy Freemasonry.   Speaking with young people, many are inquisitive as to what Freemasonry is; it’s history; what we do in society and how we do it. Some have family members who are Freemasons and several have no knowledge at all but most are excited that they, too, have the opportunity to be a part of something special.

Freemasonry provides direction and stability to its members and brings together those who support our three great principles – Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth.  In modern day language this means Friendship, Charity and Honesty: perhaps the perfect principles a student would need during her school and university life but also principles by which all of us should abide.

Becoming a member, they will be able to learn new skills and progress in a vibrant, face-to-face social network; meet members from every walk of life and make lifelong connections, even internationally, through social activities.  They will also be able to support charitable causes and communities and be part of something special, enjoying the exposure of ancient knowledge practiced in a modern world.

Old Dovorian Sport

The Old Dovorian Club sports teams, only had one game against the College, which was the OD Cricket team against a 1^st XI and Staff team.  The 7 a side Rugby game was canceled due to the Club not been able to raise a team, as match day was moved from the Sunday to the Saturday, also the OD football game against the College was also canceled, due to the recent events around safety and liability’s as a result of an incident that had happened at an Old boys game against the school where one of the pupils got injured.

However, the cricket game against a College team did take place, and the match report is as follows which has been kindly write by Nick Lockhart

Sunday the 23rd of July Dover College 1st XI hosted a very useful Old Dovorian’s side, with a whopping 6 returning captains, sprinkled with some enthusiastic cricketers. The OD’s won ‘the toss and elected to bat first. The OD batsmen showed pure skill and batted with a sense of freedom and gay abandon, a credit to the coaching staff of yesteryear. The Old Dovorian’s put on a fantastic total of 197 at a brisk pace with Jack Woods accumulating 64 and Matthew Jay also getting a wonderful 53 (mostly scored in boundaries as he is reluctant to run singles these days). After a brief tea and cakes the OD declared leaving the boys a good 40/45 overs to chase down the runs. The ever-imperious OD captain Joseph Woods rotated his bowlers well, giving every member of the team a couple of overs. The wickets were distributed evenly but unfortunately the boys just failed to chase down the score.

Special mention goes to Guy Cloake for turning up so enthusiastically and looking splendid in his whites and to the schools catering staff for laying on a lovely spread for lunch.

Many thanks to Nick Lockhart for scoring, John Widgery and Robert McAlpin for umpiring

Also the Old Dovorian’s played a mid-week 20 / 20 game, against, Alkham Cricket Club at Maxton, which the Old Dovorian’s secured an comfortable win. A great event with special mention to Joey Woods for his bowling and as always John Widgery as umpire.

Moving forward due to the changes around Old Pupils clubs playing sports against their old school, the Club has to look at different ways in which we as a club can continue to put Old Dovorian teams against the College. That said, the club’s committee have already been looking at other sports, for example, Sailing, Golf, Netball and rounders,  where we can put together a team against a combined College team comprising of pupils and members of staff, and offers opportunities where both sides can put together a mixed team, This year we are putting together a cricket team which will be the President’s XI versus the Chairman’s XI, one current member of the teaching staff and a minimum of 5 ODs .Sailing and Golf are been considered for future fixtures.

News from the College

The College hit the ground running, at the beginning of this academic year,  which has seen the launch of the new College website , the website address has not changed, www.dovercollege.org.uk.

The College has now become part of the Round Square organization, so what do es this mean for the pupils of the College? also what are the SIX Ideals? to find out more with our Round Square series, why not find out more by following us on Twitter or on Facebook

Sailing at College

Sailing has now reestablished its self again as an important part of the Colleges life, as shown by the Superb result for Shell pupil Phoebe who has won the U14 Kent Schools overall title in her first year of racing. Well done!

The College had the honour hosting the Kent Girls under 11’s presentation evening at the begging of October, Congratulations to all the award winners especially to Olivia who is a pupil at the College who received Players Player. She has also just completed a tough trials process has been selected to represent Kent Girls at under 13 next summer, Congratulations Olivia – A summer of cricket awaits!

Cricket star of the future

In May this year Olivia Kibler (Year 6), a Sports Scholar and Junior School Captain of Sport, Olivia has recently received her first Kent Under 11’s County Cricket Cap, which was presented to her by England woman’s cricket star Tammy Beaumont, who happens to be one of Olivia’s cricketing idols. Congratulations Olivia, we look forward to tracking your progress as the season progresses and into the future.

The refectory renovation

After 2 years of renovation the Colleges 12^th Century Refectory is now getting back to its former splendor, despite the challenges that have been encountered, – massive cracks in the end gables that needed specialist work carried out under the supervision of English Heritage,

All that is left to be done, is the hanging of the “Honour Boards”, together with the preservation work of the “ Last Super” Mosaic on the Effingham Cresent end gable ,  when this has been  completed, The Refectory will finally bring  the Refectory back to its splendid best.

Events and dates

 

Old Dovorian Club

Old Dovorian Club Cocktail Party – Friday 17^th January 2020 at The RAF Club London

Leamington House 100^th Anniversary Dinner – Saturday 23rd May 2020 at Dover College

Old Dovorian Lodge Dover Festival – Saturday 20^th June 2020 at Dover College

Old Dovorian Club AGM – Sunday 21^st June 2020 at Dover College

45^th Anniversary of Girls at Dover College – Saturday 4^th July 2020 at Dover College

 

Old Dovorian Lodge Meetings

Instillation meeting Tuesday 4^th February 2020 – Freemasons Hall, Gt Queen Street, London

Regular Meeting – Tuesday 7^th April 2020 – Freemasons Hall, Gt Queen Street, London

Dover Meeting – Saturday 20^th June 2020 – Dover Masonic Hall, Snargate Street, Dover

Regular Meeting – Tuesday 6^th October 2020 – Freemasons Hall, Gt Queen Street, London

Regular Meeting -Tuesday 1^st December 2020 – Freemasons Hall, Gt Queen Street, London

 

The Old Dovorian Golf Society:

OL’s Captains Day – Liphook – Friday 20th March 2020 (TBC)

Spring Meeting – Princes – Thursday 16th April 2020

Triangular Match – Royal Ashdown – Thursday 7th May 2020

Sene Valley Vs Harveians –      June (TBC)

Summer Meeting – North Foreland – Friday 19th June 2020

OD’s Captains Day – Tandridge –Thursday 9th.  July 2020

Invitational – Redlibbets – September (date to be confirmed)

West Surrey Triangular – Monday 12th October 2020

Autumn/Winter – Knole Park – Friday 6th November 2020