Spiderman's girlfriend, Kirsten Dunst, was among the spectators at Lord's when Brighton College alumnus Matt Prior became the first English wicketkeeper to score a century on his test debut. He is the second Brighton College pupil (and the first male one) to represent his or her country at cricket this century.
David Nash whose wood sculptures are on display at Lewes Town Hall, is another Old Brightonian. In the notes accompanying the show he pays generous tribute to Gordon Taylor, the Art master during his time at the school. A slightly sententious entry in the visitors ' book reads,
'Excellent, but hope you replace all trees'.
Underneath this comment David Nash has riposted,
'Planted 1000 oaks!'
It is a wonderful exhibition but how shaming it is for Lewes that an additional sculpture entitled 'Big Bud' was vandalised in Grange Gardens within days and has had to be removed by the artist. A footnote, perhaps, to recent acts of vandalism against the trees themselves.
However, a reminder that the wanton destruction of trees is nothing new comes in St James' park where the deckchairs have been decorated with various texts. One reads,
'There was a grove in Kensington Gardens devoted to the rooks; it contained some seven hundred trees forming a piece of wild nature, a matter of delight and astonishment to those who walked among them and listened to the endless cawing that blotted out the city's noise.'
The passage is not identified but it comes from Peter Ackroyds' 'London' (page 417). In the book Ackroyd continues,
'But the trees were torn down in 1870. The rooks have never returned.'