Mertens Inter-House Swimming Champions 2013...

It has, apparently, been many years since the last Inter-House Swimming Gala so Mertens wasted no time in climbing back into the winners saddle with a fine overall performance in the pool. The Juniors (Shell/Remove) finished a creditable 3rd overall with Crosse taking out the title. Oscar HB was Mertens' star performer for the Juniors finishing 1st in the 25m freestyle and 2nd in the 25m butterfly while Max Pierce (25m backstroke), Konsti Krome (50m breastroke), and the 4x25m freestyle relay (Holman, Mangan, Krome, Oscar HB) all came 2nd in their events. A special mention must go to Constantin Ulbrich who put his hand up to do the 100m IM which is such a gruelling event.
In the Seniors (5th/6th), Mertens were dominant from start to finish! 1st places were gained by Dan Frank (25m breastroke), Benny Yu (25m butterfly & 100m IM), Viktor Nave (50m freestyle), Scott Bennington (50m backstroke) while 2nd places were gained by Marcus Monsell (25m freestyle), Freddie Kohlhas (25m backstroke), Viktor Nave (50m breastroke), the 4x25m medley relay (Yu, Bennington, Kreule, Dmitriev) and the 4x25m freestyle relay (Yu, Nave, Monsell, Bennington).
Of the 20 events overall; Mertens boys won 6, came 2nd in 9, 3rd in 2 and 4th in 3.
Well done to both Seniors and Juniors!!!

Academic Awards - Lent 1 Report

Another busy week has passed once more but it seems as if Mertens has found an adrenaline reserve hidden somewhere in the corner.

Although Evening School was disrupted on Wednesday night for House Swimming practice (for which Mertens had put a 15+ man strong team both for the seniors and juniors) the work ethic was excellent given the fact that there was only one week left. House Singing, organised by Laurence, Marcus and Dan, has taken on a strong format and the 3 smaller groups have united impressively, singing with volume and passion which Mr. Tester, knowing his musical background, has warmly welcomed.  

The week ended on a positive note when 3 boys from each year group received an Academic award for excellent attitude to studies. Their names can be found below. Congratulations must also go to Michael Tweedie-Smith and Patrick O’Brien for the most improved award.

The week has been tiring but good and we will wait what the next week has got in store for Mighty Mertens, in both House Swimming and House Singing.

Academic Awards – Lent 1

Thomas Tweedie-Smith (S)

Wilson Mak (S)

Patrick Jacobs (S)

Constantin Ulbrich (R)

Jacky Lai (R)

Moritz von Contzen (R)

Thomas Bell (5^th)

Henry Hinder (5^th)

Freddie Kohlhas (5^th)

Louis Maret (L6^th)

Laurence Haines (L6^th)

Sergej Radovic (L6^th)

Michael Tweedie-Smith (Most Improved Attitude)

Patrick O’Brien (Most Improved Attitude)

Moritz v. Contzen  

Mertens Chinese New Year 2013 - The Year of the Snake

Leo Ko and Timmy Chan, along with many other Mertens students organised an amazing boarders' social last night - Chinese New Year. It was even bigger and better than last year with a variety of stalls set up around the Under; there was painting, calligraphy, green tea, games with chopsticks, chinese costumes and plenty of traditional foods from Hong Kong. Among those involved were Mertens boys; Wilson Mak, Alan Suen, Anthony Yiu, Jacky Lai, Earnest Tang, Jason Ho, Ryan Tin, Hang Kin Kwok, Sam Ng, Justin Kreule, Ross Vasani and Sergej Radovic. Well done all on a brilliant evening. The photos tell the story....thanks Sergej!!

Tim Struven - National Indoor Hockey Finals at Wembley Arena

Tim Struven celebrates winning the final with East Grinstead!!
Photo: Ady Kerry/England Hockey

Now that we have come to the third week of the term­­­­, it is at that time for the teachers to write the 5-weekly reports, these should be coming out sometime next week much to the joy of the students, or not...

The middle of the term is not only the middle of the term but the transition period from where everybody is wide awake and up to date with homework and tests, to the other half of term where the tiredness starts to kick in. Although tired, Shell had to concentrate hard as the subjects they would be taking for their GCSE years had to be chosen this Friday. Following the cancellation of most Hockey fixtures a lot of boys had their Saturday free and decided to be active otherwise, Sam Sheridan managed to accomplish his weekly Steepo run with Maxwell Pierce. Indeed, Sam has now elected himself Chairman of the newly formed ‘Steepo Society’! The day was topped off by a barbeque with Aberdeen and Mertens after which most Mertens boys went upstairs for a good night’s sleep.

This was needed for some as early in the morning a hockey trip would be leaving to the Wembley Arena where the National Indoor Super Sixes Hockey Finals were being held. Not only were we going to watch Mr. Cheesman, the part-time Ardingly hockey coach play for Reading but we also got to see a spectacular performance by Tim Strüven (Mertens – L6^th ), who despite his age played brilliantly in both the semi final and final for the East Grinstead 1^st team. The ending was perfect with East Grinstead completely dominating their opponents Reading to take out the title.

The hockey spectators were then treated to a McDonald’s meal on the way back to Ardingly!! A great way to finish the week…..

Moritz von Contzen



The Weekly Report by Moritz von Contzen

The second week of the Lent term has proven to be quite a bit more action packed than the first.! During Monday break time the entire house was called together for a Callover, although this was way out of the usual Callover/Sign-in routine everybody attended. And rightly so as this was not something minor. We are always very honoured to have Matron as our Matron, but this week just topped it all. The Bursar called a House Meeting and awarded Matron the Employee of the Month award, an award that, all agreed, was very well deserved not only for what Matron did in the House but also what Matron has done around the school.

 On Monday everyone experienced the first hour of their new chosen activity of whom a lot of the Mertens boys decided to take on Russian. Tuesday was quite relaxed rightly so Wednesday proved to be the highlight of the week. With the Junior Talent show setting standards, the whole house was entertained by the ‘Talented’ Shell and Remove. James Ritchie and the Rowan Atkinson sketch dominated most of the audience’s hearts.  

After a snowless winter the weather seemed to be eager to impress. Without warning snow fell, and fell, and fell for a good two days straight, this resulted in the school being closed for most of Friday. The left over boarders were taken into one of the departments and watched movies or just relaxed. After lunch a backwards Steepo, also called the Snow Walk was put behind with Hot chocolate cake and toast for after. The remaining time was spent sleeping and just chillin’, quite literally with temperatures dropping to the -3 & -4 outside. A short evening followed by a round of football in the Sports hall ended the second working week.

Last but not least is the new installation that Mertens is lucky to have, a twitter account. Yes, as well as a Blog we have now got a Twitter page which will go prospectively go Online near the end of the week. Be sure to have a look as the Twitter account will be the webpage to visit if you prefer updates regularly.



Snow Days...2013

Junior Talent Show - 16th January