2022: Joy in the Journey

The Old Millfieldian Society is all about supporting a large and vibrant network of former students across the world – as well as supporting their future endeavours and sharing their fantastic achievements. With 2023 being just around the corner, we would like to take this time to reflect on the year and the wonderful achievements within the Millfield community during 2022. 

 

January

At the start of the year, January welcomed the exciting news that two OMs were awarded British Honours - OMs James Guy and Peter Openshaw were recognised for their outstanding public contributions. 

Standing for Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the CBE is the highest-ranking Order of the British Empire award (excluding a Knighthood/Damehood) and was awarded to Peter for his services to Medicine and Immunology.  

James was awarded an MBE, which stands for ‘Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire’ and is the third highest ranking award on the New Year's Honours list. James received the award for his services to swimming. 

 

February  

The following month we celebrated and supported Old Millfieldians competing in the Rugby Union 2022 Six Nations. The Six Nations is an annual, international competition between England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales, where the teams competed for six weeks. 

As well as a fantastic month of rugby, OM Jessica Oliver, and teammate, set a new world record for rowing across the Atlantic Ocean during the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Considered the world's toughest row, and with no previous experience of rowing, Jessica was one of the first women pairs to complete the challenge since 2012, racing against 35 other teams from around the world. The pair rowed 3000 miles from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to the Caribbean Island of Antigua in just 45 days, 7 hours, and 25 minutes, knocking five days off the previous female pairs record.    

 

March 

As we welcome the start of spring, March brought some wonderful news from the hockey pitch, with OMs Vicki McCabe, Becky Manton and Kitty Chapple all being selected to represent England U21s in April’s Women's Hockey Junior World Cup in South Africa, where they won bronze.  

 

April 

During April, the Old Millfieldian Golf Society competed in the BKB event at Burnham & Berrow. The team comprised of 6 OMs: Darryl McMahon, David Gregory, Max Broadfield, George Powell, Nic Elliot and Phil White. They won their Quarter Final match 3-0, the Semi Finals 3-0, and the final 2-1. 

After an impressive Junior World Cup in South Africa, Vicki McCabe received her first England call up and was rewarded with a well-deserved place in the full senior squad for the Hockey Pro League games away to USA. 

 

May 

As the warmer weather approached in May, here at Millfield we were gearing up for our Giving Day and first-ever Brilliance Dinner, which included the OM of the Year awards.  

We were delighted that on this year’s Giving Day we raised over £220,000 beating last year and continuing to raise the funds needed to discover and inspire brilliance for generations to come. 

At this year’s Brilliance Dinner, we awarded Old Millfieldian of the Year 2022 to four former students: Formula One driver Lando Norris, England and Premier League footballer Tyrone Mings, professor of experimental medicine Peter Openshaw and actress Rose Leslie were honoured this year.  

Also in May, following a move to Leander Rowing Club in 2021 and success at the GB Senior Team Trials this year, OM Annie Campbell-Orde was selected for the GB Women’s squad, travelling to Seattle to race in the Windermere Cup.  

Later in the month we heard the great news that several OMs attended Buckingham Palace to receive their Duke of Edinburgh Gold Awards! 

 

June 

June brought us lots of wonderful OM news and achievements. Elise Thorner was awarded the Mountain West Track Athlete Award, Mohamed ElShorbagy switched teams in the world of squash and decided to represent England, Hamish Steele wrote and produced ‘Dead End,’ a cartoon series for Netflix, Jonathan Warburton won The Grocer Cup at the Grocer Gold Awards and Max Waller became Somerset’s all-time leading T20 wicket-taker! 

The summer is a wonderful time to support our OM sports groups at all their tournaments and events. This year it was great fun to cheer on OMs at the Bournemouth 7s, as well as the netball and rugby teams during a three-day festival, where the rugby team played in the final, resulting in an impressive 19-10 win and being crowned Beer Cup champions!  

 

July 

In July we welcomed nearly 100 old and new members to Millfield for the 21 Club lunch, where OM and former members of staff, Dick Shilton and Roger Parsons, introduced new committee members, Sue Woods, Colin Ashman and Dennis Jones. 

July also marked the start of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, with 24 members of the Millfield community taking part and winning a total of 14 medals during the competition; three gold, five silver and six bronze medals. 

 

August 

OM Will Smeed made history in August by becoming the first player to score 100 runs in The Hundred, which was shortly followed by the news that James Hildreth was retiring after 20 years at Somerset CCC, where he was highly valued and Voted ‘Most Promising Young Cricketer of the Year’ in 2004 by the Cricket Society. 

On Sunday 7 August, the Old Millfieldian Cricket Team travelled to Arundel to compete in the final of the Nicholson Cricketer Cup and Benji Goethe claimed a sensational win at the 24 Hours of Spa at the weekend with Team WRT! 

 

September 

In September, we welcomed Andrew Cook to the team as Head of Alumni and Foundation. Andrew returns to Millfield having spent five years at the school himself as a student, leaving in 1992. 

Later that month, OMs Max Denmark, Ryan Denvir, Ken Kurihara and Alec Coombes started training for the Rugby World Cups Sevens, an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby. OM Rory Gibbs and the team England won gold at the World Rowing Championships, where Britain finished top of the medal table with seven gold, one silver and four bronze medals. 

 

October 

October was a wonderful month for OM events - we held our class of 2017 and class of 2012 five-year and 10-year Reunions. The evenings were a wonderful opportunity to catch up and reminisce with old classmates, to have a drink and toast to old times! 

In the sporting world, OM Tom Bevan received The John Derrick award for the best young player at Glamorgan Cricket Club, Mohamed ElShorbagy became three-time Oracle NetSuite Open champion at the Squash Championships in San Francisco, Daphne Schrager became World Champion C3 in the Women’s 3k Pursuit at the 2022 UCI Para-Cycling Track World Championships and Lauren Bell was selected to compete in the Team Sprint and the 500TT at the Track World Championships. 

Other OM news in October included ROFGO Junior driver, Benji Goethe, finishing his superlative GT World Challenge European Championship season on the top of the podium with Team WRT in Barcelona, and Robert Wade was appointed Chief Executive Officer of FOX Entertainment! 

 

November

As November approached, so did the FIFA World Cup, and we were excited to hear that OM Anthony Hudson was heading to Qatar as Assistant Manager for USA. Anthony joined Millfield in 1994, leaving at 16 to sign for West Ham as an apprentice. He started coaching in his early 20s and since then has been Head Coach of the Bahrain National Team, as well as the New Zealand National Team, and coached at Tottenham Hotspurs.

November also marked a great moment for OM John McFall, who was selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) to be the first disabled astronaut! John will be part of the Feasibility Project, which will develop options for the indivision of astronauts with physical disabilities in the future. A 12-month training programme will start in spring 2023. 

Other OM achievements included Mohamed ElShorbagy winning his 47th title and 500th win at the New Zealand Open Championships, and Rosie Smith announcing that she will be supporting Scouting for Girls during their UK tour in December. In the last year, Rosie has recorded her debut album at Abbey Road Studios, performed at the iconic Glastonbury Festival and supported artists such as Ronan Keating. 

 

December 

After a wonderful year of OM brilliance, we finished the month, unsurprisingly, with more OM achievement news. Oliver Goethe announced that he had signed with Trident for their 2023 Formula 3 season. This year, he made his FIA F3 debut, making two appearances at the Hungaroring, Spa and Budapest. The 2023 FIA Formula 3 season will comprise a total of ten rounds across three continents, including Melbourne, Australia, and Oliver’s home race in Monte Carlo, Monaco, with the first race taking place on 4-5 March in Bahrain. 

Ben Duckett gave an incredible performance for England Cricket with a historic clean sweep in Pakistan, wrapping up a 3-0 series win! This was Ben’s first Test series for six years, he hit 357 runs during the three-match series. His positive batting style helped him finish the series’ second highest run scorer and helped him secure a place in the Test team to face New Zealand in the new year.