Recita
On 11 November, twenty pupils competed in Recita, Winchester College’s recitation final: ten lower-school pupils for the Jack Parr Award / Simon Eliot Cup; and ten upper-school pupils for the King’s Silver Medal for English Speech. A capacity audience in School was treated to an evening of compelling poetry. What impressed was not only were the contestants word-perfect from memory, but their interpretations showed tremendous sensitivity and commitment. Our esteemed judge was the poet Carrie Etter.
Jack Parr Award / Simon Eliot Cup
Matthew Sneller (College) won the lower-school competition for his moving rendition of Eliot’s 'The Journey of the Magi'. The runners up were Arthur James-Duff (Fearon's) with a poignant reading of Manley Hopkin’s 'Binsey Populars', and Alex Winnifrith's (Turner's) excerpt from another Eliot poem, 'The Waste Land'.
Watch Matthew's performance below
King’s Silver Medal for English Speech
The upper-school competition was equally hotly-contested, with William Brem (Chernocke House) eventually triumphing with the blazing drama of Sylvia Plath’s ‘Lady Lazarus.’ Second was Brian Chan (Du Boulay's) with a heartfelt reading of ‘Immigrant Blues’ by Li Young Lee, with third place going to Sasha Del Mar's (Morshead's) exuberant recitation of Allen Ginsberg’s ‘A Supermarket in California.’
Head back to stories