One of the pleasures of residence in "Woodeaves" which enriches life in Hale Barns is reminiscence. Our Golden Jubilee year, in 1996, gave me many a good excuse to recall the past in the ongoing story of St. Ambrose College. There was one Saturday morning in November last year when I treated myself to a feast of recollection. It was halfway through the autumn term, a dispiriting and grey grizzly day. No, it wasn't raining; it was worse, a strong drizzle trying to bore its way through raincoat and anorak. As I looked out I could see cars making their way down to the College entrance and threading their way through family groups going in the same direction. I was wondering what on earth the attraction was when memory came to my rescue with the words "Open Day". Yes, this was the day when the College threw open its doors to parents who wished to enrol their sons in St. Ambrose College for 1998 and years following. I should have been proud at the number of applicants and the size of the family groups, outfacing drizzle and crowds with Deputy Head, members of Staff and College Prefects, directing traffic, finding parking spaces and answering queries. Later I remarked to the Headmaster that he was going to have a problem with school accommodation in September 1998. How different it all was from our beginnings.

My mind went back to our early days in Hale Barns when even our friends and well-wishers wondered aloud if we had been wise in putting up so many buildings. Let's say that it was an act of faith by the Brothers. But add to this the confidence the parents had in us and the loyalty of our pupils. The grape vine began to function, and powerful it was. And I lingered in grateful thought of the parents and the pupils [many of these now Old Ambrosians] whom I was now watching as they sought a college place for their sons in 1998.

As an ex-headmaster it is a joy to see the continuity of our school and its ideals exemplified by yesterday's pupils becoming today's Old Boys.

God Bless you all in 1998.

Brother W. D. Foley, OBE.

It is almost two years since an initial meeting was held at the school to attempt to form a committee to re-establish an Old Boys' Association. The response from those who attended was very positive and a "founding committee" was formed. The efforts of the former pupils involved resulted in the enormously successful inaugural dinner held at the College in September 1996. An Old Boys' mass and an Old Boys' Rugby Match held over the same weekend provided important contributions to the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the College.

Twelve months later, I am delighted to report that the initial enthusiasm for the Association appears to have evolved into an established interest. The membership has grown to in excess of three hundred and fifty, with representatives from each "age" of the College. Though they may follow very diverse callings and live many miles apart, these former pupils share a strong common bond through the Association and our links with the school.

We have enjoyed several social occasions during the last year including a "Murder Night" and a Golf Day. These events were well supported and we hope that the latter will become an annual event for the social diary. The main function however was the second Old Boys' Dinner held at the school on September 20th 1997. The evening was a fabulous success and I would like to express my gratitude for the considerable efforts of those who helped organise this occasion and the Old Boys' Mass and Old Boys' Rugby match held on the following day.

I would like to welcome Sean Fleming and Dr Colm Litting, the distinguished former Chairman of Governors of St. Ambrose as Honorary Life Members of our Association. I think it appropriate also to remember our deceased members as well as our former teachers, Mrs Harrison (French), Mr Chilcott (Geography) and Mr Dennison (Music) who died last year. The Old Boys to the delight of Mrs Chilcott thought it appropriate to initiate the Chilcott Geography prize for excellence in this subject. The Fleming Shield was also inaugurated and presented to the victors of our annual round robin cricket tournament, played between the Old Boys, the Staff, the School Ist XI, and the Parents with the Staff winning the first event in a closely fought final. Again my sincere thanks to all those whose efforts established the above.

The continued success of our Association will depend, to a great extent, on the enthusiasm and loyalty of the membership and in particular, the Committee. During the course of the year, several new members were elected and their contributions immediately appreciated. l would of course be happy to hear from any members wishing to become more actively involved in the Association and new ideas are always Welcome. There are still however, many Old Boys out there who may be unaware that the Association exists and I would ask everybody to assist us in our efforts to enlighten them!

I would like to thank the Committee for the large amounts of their free time devoted to ensuring the continued success of the Association, even when forced by school holidays to meet in a public house!

I would like to express on behalf of the Association, our collective gratitude to Mr.Hester and his staff for their support throughout the year and for putting the facilities of the College at our disposal whenever requested.

Finally, may I sincerely thank you all for your generous support and wish you and your families, health and prosperity for 1998.

John Kennedy

"While it is fatal to indulge in over-generalisation my kitchen sink psychology is that growing up in a Catholic school amidst such a rich collection of kids from different backgrounds created an atmosphere in which a number of common character threads were developed; primarily those of openness and straightforwardness and a distinct lack of arrogance or pomposity"

"There were the occasional arrogant or pompous pupils at St Ambrose, who were of course able to go off and pursue careers as Barristers".

Thus concluded Old Boy Shaun Grady during the closing section of an exceptional speech.

We had been taken on a whirlwind tour of St Ambrose in the 1970's. Indeed we had been taken on a tour of the 1970's. George Best, Donny Osmond, Watergate, Munich Olympics, A Clockwork Orange, Ted Heath, Brother Owens, CC75434 and the share price of leather strap manufacturers tumbled over one another in a web of intricacy and humour.

Altrincham Bus Station was vividly recalled as the centre of 1970's passion or rather angst for the St Ambrose adolescent while the various styles of corporal punishment utilised by the staff of the time were up for comparison. Delargy; "urbane" . The "run up" of Matt Carrol and the absolute "precision" of Dave Hallas with various offences incurring a "different weighting" when the stroke was delivered. All apparently part of the teacher training curriculum at Chester College.

This was a truly entertaining half hour and, like Kieran Moriarty's speech 12 months earlier, was the pivotal core of an outstanding evening.

Kieran Charleson

On a brilliant May day a field of thirty three highly tuned athletes rolled up to the Reddish Vale Golf Club to compete for one of the PGA tour's most prestigious titles, The St Ambrose Old Boys' Closed Championship. This demanding, undulating terrain was fashioned into a gem of a golf course by Alister Mackenzie he of Augusta National fame. By the end of the day most of the challengers had found their own Amen corners.

The competition comprised a four ball team game and the individual title. John Kennedy and his team led the way up the first fairway with the remainder of the golfers standing on the 1st tee asking each other "Where is the 1st fairway?"

A truly divine shot by Canon Dwyer on the 240 yard Par 3 sixth hole, finishing less than one foot from the pin, won the nearest to the pin competition by some distance. Meanwhile, against a background of heroic shots played from previously undiscovered parts of north Cheshire, a tightly fought game was being played to become the champion old boy golfer.

As the competitors sought solace at the 19th hole the final scores were totted up. An excellent dinner was followed by a prize giving ceremony. The team of John Kennedy, Paul Kennedy, Brother Sheehan and Steven Donavan were to come home as worthy winners of the team competition closely followed by Dave Shard, Pete Kelsey, Mike Coglan and Ian Mulholland. Brother Sheehan was particularly delighted with his set of tartan checked pyjamas until a cry was heard from his table during the winning golfers speech, "Jeez its a flight bag for golf clubs, what would I use that for?" Mike Tully, with an awesome 275 yard belt down the 17th fairway won the long driving competition and he also powered his way to becoming the first old boys champion golfer. Pete Kelsey and Mike Bee closely followed in second and third places.

By popular demand we will be going back to Reddish Vale again this year on the 15th of May. It is a great day out and we hope to see you there.

John Kelsey

The evening, presented by professional actors "The Murder Squad", proved to be a great success with the Old Boys and their partners. Each team of wannabe sleuths was treated to a fly-on-the-wall view of the events leading up to murder most foul!

The drama was centred around a music industry album launch. But, behind the glitzy facade of the event lay a murky background featuring ambitious female record producers, jealous, drunken husbands and petulant rock stars - resulting in murder!

Both through performance and the opportunity for each team to personally interview the characters, more clues were revealed (although it did appear that the more questions that were answered, the deeper the mystery became, as to killer, motive and even weapon).

All the Poirots, Columbos and Morses present thoroughly enjoyed the experience, although the creative criminality of some of the teams worried even The Murder Squad!

At the end of the evening, all was revealed and the teams were left amused by how near or far their investigations had taken them from the truth. My own team drew solve shocking conclusions from the evidence, which were unpublishable, even in the worst tabloid Sunday newspapers. We didn't win, however, despite fielding Old Boy Super Cops Chief Inspector Adrian Lee and Superintendent Tim Burgess (I think Tim was too busy worrying about Swampy!). The winning team was lead by Domenico Centeleghe ably assisted by super sleuths Mike Martin, David Binns and Chris Hawley.

The presentation by The Murder Squad was polished and delivered with great potential for humour, which, together with the excellent mix of attendees, led to a very enjoyable evening.

The Murder Night was extremely well received by the members so we plan to repeat this event in March 1999.

Mark Gallimore

Message from the Headmaster, Mr G E Hester

This term is always the busiest one in school. The combined roll of the Grammar School and Prep is 990 with 724 in the Grammar School and 266 in the Prep, the biggest number in the history of the school. Some old boys ask me about the entrance of their sons to the college and I am always glad to give advice. For the Prep School simply contact the Head Master, Mr. Lochery. The Grammar School now has written priorities. All boys must, of course, pass the entrance exam., then there are various criteria. Sons of old boys do not have a special criterion of their own and cannot take any overall priority. However, within each school criterion there is a priority given to sons of old boys. I promise not to look up the father's school record first.

We have been saddened this year by the death of three teachers: Mr. Chilcott; Mrs. Harrison and Mr. Dennison.

Mr. Sean Fleming gives a brief appreciation of these teachers elsewhere. Requiescant in pace.

The First XV are not having the best of seasons but the Under 15s are unbeaten. Old boys are always welcome to watch our sport which is, of course, almost every Saturday. Telephone the college if you would like a fixture card. Old boy Brian Parsons, who is reading Law at Keble College, Oxford, played for the University Under 21s against Cambridge in the game before the Varsity match. At the time of writing 8 students have received offers of places at Oxford or Cambridge for October 1998.

I am very grateful to the committee of the Old Boys' Association for their work.

Obituaries

Mr. Jeffrey Chilcott passed away in June 1997. He had taken early retirement in July 1996, but intended to continue teaching Geography in a part-time capacity. Unfortunately, he took ill in September, and was unable to resume teaching. He died in Christie's Hospital, Manchester, and was cremated at Dunham, Altrincham, in June 1997. Reverend Deacon Alan Morris presided at the funeral service in a packed church. Jeff came to St. Ambrose from St. Benedict's, Ealing, and quickly proved to be an outstanding and extremely popular Geography teacher. Many old boys will remember the field-trips in Derbyshire and the traffic-surveys in Hale Barns. Jeff also took rugby teams, and refereed at club level, before a knee injury curtailed his career. The Old Boys' Association will finance a "Chilcott Geography Prize" to be presented annually on Speech Day in his memory (to the best Geographer in the Sixth Form).

Mrs. Jacqueline Harrison passed away in September 1997 and her Requiem Mass took place at St. Vincent's, Altrincham, where Reverend Deacon Alan Morris spoke movingly of her life, work, and affection for St. Ambrose College. She taught French in a part-time capacity for many years at the College. Born in Belgium, she was a native French-speaker, and was a J.M.B. French Oral Examiner at 'A' level for many years. Her husband, Denis, was a University Lecturer in the Education Department at Manchester University. After taking early retirement he became School Librarian at the College for some years. He died two years ago. Both will be remembered by Old Boys with great affection.

Mr. John Dennison passed away in September 1997 and his Requiem Mass was held at Christ Church, Heald Green. John was Head of Music at the College in the 1960s, when he initiated what became our annual Christmas Carol Service. Indeed, he was an outstanding choral trainer. He moved on to St. Augustine's, Wythenshawe, where the late Fr. Frank McGuinness had become Headmaster. He later became Deputy Head of St. Elizabeth's R.C. Primary School. His uncle, Bob Dennison, was a well known football manager, who once had a talented striker by the name of Brian Clough in his Middlesbrough side. John took early retirement three years ago, but had numerous piano pupils to occupy his time. He had just returned from a three week holiday in the USA, when he died quite suddenly in his sleep.

Brother Patrick Theobald Owens passed away (aged 88) in a nursing home at Ince Blundell, near Southport. For many years he was Head of the Preparatory Department, before moving across to the main school where he was invariably Form-master of 1 Owens, where he taught French and R.E. He also ran a Catholic Repository. He was also a very knowledgeable and fanatical gardener' After his retirement from teaching, he continued to live in the Community at Hale Barns, and it was only a few years ago that he moved to Ince Blundell.

Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families. Requiescant in pace.

Sean Fleming

MARTIN MAPE (attended 1964-1969) has lived in Ontario for about 20 years, and now has four children. He has two sons at university in Waterloo, Ontario and his third son, while on a school trip to Switzerland and Italy with the concert choir, had the honour of singing for Pope John Paul II.

PETER WALSH (attended 1947-1955) went on to a degree in Chemical Engineering and then emigrated to Austral in 1975. Amazingly he managed to have both sons educated by the Irish Christian Brothers and his daughter educated by the Loreto Nuns in Australia! He now runs both a Management consultancy and is Chairman of a Manufacturing company. Peter attended the 1996 Old Boys' Dinner all the way from Australia, but will be very disappointed to learn that he was not our furthest-travelled diner. That honour went to MIKE CONBOY (attended 1974-81) who has attended the dinner from New Zealand in both 1996 and 1997!

JONATHAN WOOD (attended 1973-80), probably one of Mrs Handford's more successful mathematics pupils, went on to qualify as a Chartered Accountant. He moved to Italy in 1987 to work for Coopers and Lybrand, but by 1995 was tempted away when offered the job of European Chief Financial Officer for Gucci. He is married and based in Milan.

PETE LAWLOR, who left in 1980, found fame in 1996 when his band, Stiltskin, played music for an advertisement for Levi's Jeans. (The one where the cowboy walks out of the river with his jeans on). The record "Inside" went to no.1 in the UK charts. Some of us can still remember Pete playing a perfect "Sultans of Swing" on stage in the Assembly Hall in a school charity concert around 1979. Well done.

Along with Lonnie Donegan, this makes Pete one of just two Old Boys with a UK No.1 record! Unless you know better..

OLD BOYS EXHIBIT AT THE ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL.

MALCOLM GARRETT and PETER SAVILLE who both left St Ambrose in 1974 have progressed from painting the stage sets for school plays to exhibiting their work at the Royal Festival Hall. After "A" level Art with Mr Hancock and while at Art College, Malcolm Garrett was asked to design a record sleeve for rising Manchester punk band, the Buzzcocks. The successful result, "Orgasm addict" ensured that he would dictate all the band's artwork. Garrett went on to become art editor at New sounds, New Styles and later dressed the products of Simple Minds, Culture Club and Duran Duran. He now designs websites for Pulp and Oasis.

By 1978, Manchester's Factory records were also releasing records with sleeves by Old Boy Peter Saville. His first sleeve was for a Factory sampler featuring, Joy Division. He went on to oversee the new label's identity. His work is featured on the covers of New Order and others; he also performed facelifts for Yohji Yamamoto and the Whitechapel Gallery in the Eighties Suede recently lured him back from record-cover exile for their new album, "Coming Up". The work of Malcolm Garrett and Peter Saville will be featured in a new exhibition of Art from the punk era: "Destroy" at the Royal Festival Hall, South Bank from 5th February to 15th March 1998, and was recently featured on GMTV.

Andy Rourke, (b. Dec 1963) bass guitarist with the original and best Manchester Indie band, the Smiths, was rumoured to have attended St Ambrose until around 1980. We have been unable to verify this. However we believe that his brother, Phil Rourke, attended St Ambrose until 1981.

WE WANT TO HEAR OF OTHERS: If you know of an Old Boy who deserves to be mentioned in the SAOBA news for interesting achievements, please let us know.

Lonnie Donegan was a very influential member of the UK Music Scene in the 50s and 60s and is best known as the individual who launched the Skiffle movement. He was born Anthony Donegan in Glasgow in l93 1, but changed his name to Lonnie as a tribute to the American bluesman Lonnie Johnson. His career began as a singer in Chris Barber's Jazz Band. Between sets he played onstage with a washboard, a tea-chest bass and a cheap Spanish guitar and had a lot of fun. The style he developed became known as Skiffle music. He had more than 30 hits between 1958 and 1962. His style was imitated by many - including Tommy Steele, the young John Lennon and of course the Beatles. He has had several comebacks since his heyday in the early 1960s and, according to our contacts non lives in Gibraltar. His hits included Rock Island Line, Gambling Man and My Old Man's A Dustman.

Lonnie Donegan (then named Anthony Donegan) did attend St Ambrose at its original site in Dunham Road, Altrincham. We know this from first hand accounts and we have obtained an original Easter 1945 copy of "The Ambrosian" (the School Review at the time) showing that Anthony Donegan won the First Prize in Form III in 1945. He also contributed an article to "The Ambrosian" (We reproduce an excerpt from the article below). Finally, he appears on the 1947 School Photograph. We have a copy of this photograph, kindly donated by Mrs E. Stanton, which can be seen in the Old Boy's display cabinet it the School Foyer.

Tony Dixon

......ARTICLE FROM "THE AMBROSIAN", 1945:

With 357 members registered on our database we note that about 66% still live only a short distance from St. Ambrose, within the Greater Manchester and Cheshire areas. The remainder live within the UK but there are a few who live farther afield:

AUSTRALIA 2

BELGIUM 1

CANADA 2

FRANCE 1

HONG KONG 1

IRELAND 1

ITALY 1

MALAYSIA 1

NEW ZEALAND 1

NORWAY 1

SWITZERLAND 1

USA 1

A small number of ex-pupils discovered St Ambrose Old Boys' Association while 'surfing' the internet. The internet page has been improved since last year and it will be constantly updated when new events are arranged.

The Association has a constitution which is available on application. The following is an extract of the Aims and Ideals:

(a) Through meetings and functions of Old Boys and their families and friends, to keep alive the Christian Brother's ideals and social fellowship of those educated at St Ambrose College (both

grammar and preparatory schools).

(b) To preserve links between Old Boys

and the College.

(c) To maintain a register of Old Boys.

(d) To celebrate, at least once a year, Holy Mass for deceased Old Boys.

Membership is currently £5.00 per annum or £50.00 for life membership. Membership is, however, free to Old Boys who are members of a religious order. Please renew your membership for 1997 - 1998 using the enclosed application form and indicate any change of address or contact numbers since you joined.

Mike Martin

Held on the weekend of the summer garden party the first annual Staff/lst XI/Old Boys and Parents cricket match was a great success. The weather was unfortunately very unkind but this did not dampen the enthusiasm of all those taking part.

The Old Boys team played the 1st XI in the first game. We were narrowly beaten by the 1st XI after excellent all round team performances especially by Paul Finnigan and Peter Riley with the bat and Robert (Shane) Hornby with his leg spinners. We then played the parents in the play off narrowly losing after excellent fielding and strong batting performance, again headed by Riley and Duggan.

The Staff beat the 1st XI by 4 runs in the final in an exciting game, although some unpleasant allegations of match fixing, ball tampering and extra detention are still being investigated!

The Old Boys donated the prize, the Fleming shield, in tribute to all the work that Sean Fleming has done for St. Ambrose and Cheshire cricket. Mr. Fleming gave his usual excellent speech, including a review of the Renaissance and Reformation.

The match will be held again this year with a similar format on Saturday 27th June and is likely to be followed by an event in the marquee on that evening for fund raising for the boys tour of Australia (details of this event to follow).

For either soccer or cricket in 1998, interested Old Boys please contact Tony Moriarty (01606 74306) who will arrange the Old Boys' team and any Par

ents please contact Nigel Handy (School P.E. Teacher - 0161 980 2771) who will organise the Staff, 1st XI and liaise with the Parents captain.

Anthony Moriarty

It is hoped to hold a Staff/lst XI/Parents and Old Boys soccer match at the school on the afternoon of the Old Boys' Dinner (Saturday 12th September). Again a round robin tournament is envisaged. Enthusiasm rather than ability is the Old Boys' motto and there will be ample substitutions as weariness sets in.

Old Boy DYLAN O' GRADY earned his first full international cap for the Irish first fifteen when they played Italy in December 1997. The 26-year old Wing forward formerly played for Metrovics, and now plays for Sale 1st XV.

Dylan left St Ambrose in the mid-8Os; he had previously represented Cheshire as a School county Cricketer and had been a Goalkeeper for Trafford Schools. This is the first full cap to be awarded to an Old Boy in the history of school rugby and this represents an important landmark. Dylan is still training with the Ireland squad and is hoping to play in the Five Nations tournament.

MICHAEL WORSLEY is another Old Boy with International experience in Rugby Union - he represented England U21 against New Zealand in November 1997. He had previously toured Australia with the England U21 squad during the summer. While at St Ambrose he played for the England Schools side His home club was originally West Park (in St Helens) from which he moved to Orrell 1st XV; he currently plays for Bristol 1st XV as loose head prop.

SlMON VERBICKAS, A 23 year old winger and former School 1st XV Captain, went on to play for Sale 1st XV and England U21 side. He is now at Orrell 1st XV.

JOHN MAHONEY an Old Boy from the 1960s, remains the schools most famous footballer. After leaving St Ambrose in 1967 at the age of 16, he played first for Crewe, and later for Stoke City, and went on to play football at International level for Wales. Football has only recently been introduced as part of the Senior School Sports curriculum at St Ambrose. It will be interesting to see if the School can beat this record in future years.

Tony Dixon

The Old Boys had put together a strong team for this annual fixture with plenty of 'star' names playing from the past. The game was, as always in such an encounter, extremely physical. Neither team could force a breakthrough for the first half-hour until James Hester was put through by Mark Law to score the first try of the game. By half time the Old Boys had preserved their 7 - 0 lead and so it augured well for a tense, titanic second half battle.

Simon Raisewell started to have an influence on the game winning good line out ball and making his presence felt around the pitch. Unfortunately a break in concentration when the Old Boys ran a penalty saw Andrew Blacoe score an easy try under the posts. The school team came back with a try from Matthew Kerr who showed great pace to round his older brother Chris to score in the corner. However another try from Daniel Francis saw Old Boys home with the Brother Ring Memorial Trophy being presented to Old Boys' captain Mark Law by Head Master Mr Hester.

Paul Burns