THE winners of today’s (24 March) Hoop Trundle at the King’s School Ely were definitely ‘on song’. Eighteen-year-old Bradley Fulford is a former cathedral chorister and 17-year-old Milly Green is a member of Ely Cathedral Girls’ Choir.
“I’m very proud to be the first girl chorister to win the Hoop Trundle,” said Milly.
Bradley added: “We’ve written a new page in the history of the Hoop Trundle because it’s definitely the first ‘chorister double’.
The Hoop Trundle is one of the most fiercely contested events in the school’s calendar. It commemorates the re-founding of school by King Henry V111 in 1541.
Having dissolved Ely monastery, which had educated children for centuries, he gave the school its first royal charter and established the 12 King’s Scholars (boys). 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 (girls) at the request of Queen Elizabeth 11 during her visit to the school in 1973.
Pupils are nominated as scholars in the Sixth Form for their academic achievement. They become members of the Cathedral Foundation and also qualify for other privileges.
In today’s warm spring sunshine separate races were held for the King’s and Queen’s Scholars over a course on the east lawn of the cathedral, with three heats preceding each final.
Bradley and Milly were presented with the Hoop Trundle commemorative wooden tankards by the Deputy Mayor of Ely, Cllr Will Burton.
The Deputy Mayor of Ely, Cllr Will Burton with Bradley Fulford and Milly Green.