What a wonderful evening was enjoyed by all those attending the South Africa Rugby Tour dinner in March, fundraising for Inspire Children & Youth. 

The Sports Hall was transformed into an elegant dining hall, where 175 guests enjoyed an evening of delicious food, music and dancing.  Dinner took the form of a traditional South African braai, supplied by Nyama Catering – the roasting smells in preparation tormented staff and pupils all afternoon! Josie Lunnon, Moulsford’s fabulous singing teacher, and her band, The Josie Florence Quartet, provided wonderful musical entertainment and prompted much energetic dancing!

The touring boys provided the highlight of the evening with dance entertainment led by their tour leader, Mr Albon and school matron, Mrs Gipson, and boys and guests were treated to a superb video featuring photos of all the boys’ individual sponsorship achievements and exciting images of what’s in store for them in South Africa. 

The boys also participated in an enlightening Q&A session, posing excellent questions to our panel of Old Moles who kindly joined us for the evening.  Charlie Bradbury (2015), Monty Bradbury (2016), Archie Friend (2015), Hector Elrington (2015), Finn Taylor (2014), Henry Stone (2018) and Ollie Corbett (2015) all spoke from the heart about their own touring experiences on the various Moulsford SA Tours and gave the boys plenty of top tips on how to get the most out of this life-changing experience.

Former England and Bath rugby player Adedayo Adebayo engaged guests with a talk about touring values and the benefits of teamwork and encouraged the boys to look after their fellow tourists while away.

Dinner was followed by an animated live auction of some very generously donated prizes, providing the final major fundraiser for Inspire, with a further £15,000 raised on the night, bringing the overall total raised for Inspire to a staggering £98,000 over the course of the year.

Huge thanks to everyone involved in the organisation of the dinner, particularly to Alex and Simon Bonney, Molly Crosse and Sarah Toolan, as well as Lauren Bateman and the touring staff who ran the bar on the evening, and to everyone who came and supported the event.