Baker’s Beacon Blog – Week 6 2024

Dear Parents,

A great day at Wycombe Heights last Saturday for The Beacon Golf Tournament.  The 23 pairings and I agreed that this will be an annual occasion for all current and former boys, parents and staff so please diarise the first Saturday in October in the years to come.  A whole range of abilities on display and some excellent tutelage from fathers (and grandfathers), mothers and each other, as everyone hit shots they were proud of as they refined or started to develop their swing.  Tutelage of a different kind on Sunday as Joseph, recently turned 17, has started driving lessons.  As with Patrick, I took him to Hemel Station Car Park for a few introductory laps but having learnt my lesson of two years ago where I was repeatedly being told by son number one “that’s not what my instructor has told me to do”, I had to concede that I’m a teacher of geography and not driving, leaving the lion’s share of the job to Fred, Joseph’s eminently more capable and patient instructor.

Baker family ‘derby’ matches on Tuesday as the U9s played a triangular against Moulsford and Chesham Prep.  With my wife Brigid currently teaching Year 4 at Chesham, she had shamelessly given the boys in her class a bit of extra encouragement as a number of the opposition boys came up to me beforehand asking “are you Mr Baker?”  As coach of our B1s for the afternoon, Beacon Boys did me proud as they narrowly lost a tight game against Chesham’s A Team and drew against Moulsford As.  Not only was that a great effort but The Beacon A Team subsequently dispatched both Chesham and Moulsford to ensure that bragging rights stayed firmly with my side of the household that evening – thanks fellas, meant a lot!

I’m off to see ‘The Horne Section’, one of my favourite podcasts, at the London Palladium this evening.  If you are not familiar with the concept, it’s part game show, part comedy show, part musical theatre, and really good fun…but I’m thinking now I need not bother as we were royally entertained at the first heats of ‘The Beacon’s Got Talent’ this morning.  With events such as these, children will often need a bit of gentle encouragement to take part, but not the case here with scores of boys signing up with all manner of talents.  The final on 11 December promises to be a showbiz showcase and who knows, ‘Live at the Spinney’ this term might just turn into ‘Live at the Palladium’ sometime in the future…

Have a good weekend,

Nick Baker

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