YEAR 12 students, Nia Baird and Ben Collier, raced their way to victory in this year’s Hoop Trundle!
There are many traditions that make us #uniquelykings and our annual Hoop Trundle is certainly one of them.
Crowds of students, staff, families, dignitaries and friends of King’s gathered around Ely Cathedral’s East Lawn for the event, which took place after our Senior Prizegiving Service on May 27th.
The trundle is one of King’s most historic and fiercely-contested events. It sees our King’s and Queen’s Scholars, dressed in their distinctive scarlet red gowns, racing each other while bowling traditional wooden hoops.
Each year, up to twelve students in Year 12 become King’s Scholars (boys) or Queen’s Scholars (girls) on the basis of academic excellence. They become members of the Cathedral Foundation, strengthening the special link between King’s and the Cathedral, and they also qualify for other privileges throughout the academic year.
The Scholars are all great friends but their competitive side is always on display for the Hoop Trundle, which commemorates the re-founding of the school by King Henry VIII in 1541. Having dissolved Ely monastery, which had educated children for centuries, he gave the school its first Royal Charter and inaugurated the first 12 King’s Scholars.
One of the privileges he allowed them was to play games, including the bowling of hoops, in the Cathedral precincts. In 1970, the school admitted girls for the first time in its 1,000 year history, and three years later the King’s Scholars were joined by Queen’s Scholars at the request of Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to the school in 1973.
Well done to all King’s, Queen’s and International Scholars who raced this year – Will Biggs, Joseph Coppin, Freddie Hills, Jonny Iles, Ben Kittoe, Connor Marshall, Daniel Millard, Alice O’ Callaghan, Lauren Peck, Alice Wallace, Sam Barber, Madison Boldero, Charlotte Bradley, John-Oswald Crichton, Matthew Danes, Olivia Haynes, Eleanor MacGillivray, Annie Moore, Philip Papafilippou, Amelia Shaw, Phoebe Sutton, Sarah White, Judy Du, PiaoPiao Li, Hallie Ye and Blaine Zhou.
Congratulations to Nia and Ben, who were presented with their wooden tankards by our Principal, John Attwater.
Images by Jordan Day (Head of Media/PR) and Jess Harding (Year 12 student).