ANNUAL REPORT 2007
Acorn Antiques - The Musical
Thursday 15th February
For the first time for a long while we visited
the Theatre Royal in Brighton for a production of Victoria Woods' Acorn Antiques
The Musical! with an all new cast that followed the fortunes of all the familiar
characters from the much loved TV series. We saw Miss Babs struggling to keep
her antiques business open as shop after shop in the High Street was forced out
by faceless chains - could she afford to turn down the offer from The Guilty
Bean? Mr Clifford was worrying over memory
loss and Mrs Overall was attempting a tap dance tribute to the joy of the
macaroon - whilst holding a tea tray!
With numerous one line gags, the show was a hit with our 35 members and guests, albeit the sound was a little on the loud side. (perhaps they had heard our complaints about Eastbourne that was too quiet!)
Following the show, we walked the short distance to the Royal Pavilion, where we had a 'Sussex Tea' in the Queen Adelaide Tea Room.
Here you can see some of our members enjoying the cream tea.
AGM
3rd May 2007
At the Clubs Annual General Meeting held at Langfords Hotel in Hove, Mr Robin Frost handed over the books to the new treasurer, Mrs Toni Dowds. Our Chairman, Mr Buster Ashdown thanked Robin for all his hard work over the previous 6 years.
Nearly 60 members attended the AGM and the lunch that followed. The pictures below show members enjoying the occasion, including one of our members, Mrs Marjorie Rawley who celebrated her 87th birthday on the 5th May.
The Committee
Robin Frost, Toni Dowds, Graham Clark, Buster Ashdown, Jean Clarke, David Nott and Don Semmons
Golf Day - Dyke Golf Club
Thursday 10th May
The first golf competition of the year was held at the Dyke Golf Club, Brighton, and attracted 24 members.
It was a miserable day, with a brisk wind, showers and low cloud that kept the temperature and the scores down. After the compulsory 'bacon butty' and coffee, the 20 men and 4 ladies set off hoping to keep dry and not get lost in the mist.
The earlier starters had a some advantage as the weather deteriorated during the afternoon and several members chose, quite wisely, to head for the warmth of the clubhouse before completing their round. The food served up after the golf was excellent and Graham Clark thanked the caterers for putting on such a good meal. As always there was plenty of good humoured banter and leg pulling during the 'awards ceremony'.
Graham welcomed Wayne Peacock on his first appearance, and also thanked Don Semmons and Derek Duncanson for checking the scorecards.
The winners, Gavin Elliot and Pat Thorogood show off their prizes.
The picture that Gavin is holding was painted by and presented to the Society by one of our favourite members, Mr Ted Scalé.
Thanks went to Robin Frost, who incidentally was away on holiday, and Graham Clark who had combined to make the day another success. Ted had also painted two other miniatures and presented them to Graham Clark, one for himself and one for Robin.
The picture shows Graham with the two paintings and his expression suggests he rather likes the one Ted presented to him....the one on the right!
Second in the mens competition was John Heather and third was Richard Box. The prizes for 'Nearest the Pin' went to Don Semmons and John Heather and the 'Men's Longest Drive' went to Chris Hudson whilst the 'Women's' award went to Carol Hoare.
For the record the following took part in the competition:
Derek Allchorn, Gerry Arnold, George Baty, John Bishop, Richard Box, Graham Clark, Derek Duncanson, Gavin Elliot, Arthur Elliott, John Heather, Carol Hoare, Ron Hoare, Chris Hudson, John Jago, David Kaye, Shirley Mainwood, Wayne Peacock, Ted Scalé, Don Semmons, Doug Thompson, Pat Thorogood, John Tucknott, Maurice Watts and Saimi Wright.
Lunch at the Coral Stadium Hove
Wednesday 23rd May
On a lovely afternoon, 66 members and their guests attended a very informal lunch at the Coral Stadium Hove and were treated to an excellent lunch with the usual liquid refreshments.
The Coral Stadium is also better known locally as the Greyhound Stadium, so whilst eating and drinking, we were able to watch 14 greyhound races. A race was named after our Club and was won by 'Sunshine Rosina'. After the race we made the presentation to the winning trainer.
The picture shows our Social Secretary, Don Semmons (far left) making the trophy presentation to the winning trainer, Wendy Short. Also in the picture, from left to right are club members Dorothy Frost, Marjorie Rawley, Rose Semmons, Our Secretary Jean Clark, with Robin Frost far right. The dog, nicknamed "Rosie", is with her owners Mr & Mrs Smithson.
Once again a syndicate was formed prior to the day, and some of the members entrusted a very small part of their hard earned pensions to Don Semmons, the Social Secretary to place bets on their behalf during the afternoon. Last year we broke even, but we weren't quite so lucky this time around, with members receiving a dividend of £7.00 for their £10.00 investment, not ideal, but better than nowt!! This had at least, given them an interest in the races during the afternoon, and only for a few pounds!
The pictures below give a flavour of the afternoons enjoyment and this will now be an annual event.
The picture on the left shows Peter Hayes, Mike Eldridge and John Heather with their better halves!. The picture on the right shows a general view of the event with Rosemary Singyard, Les Hamilton and Shirley Oades on the nearest table.
Trip to Houses of Parliament and the London Eye
Monday 25th June
In the middle of the worst weather that we have seen in this Country for some while, 45 members and their guests braved the conditions and departed from Hove at 8.45am to make the journey up to London. Traffic was unusually slow and we arrived just in time to start our tour round the Palace of Westminster. After going through the airport type security and X-Ray machines, we were divided into two groups and shown round the building.
The layout of the Palace is intricate, with its existing buildings containing nearly 1,200 rooms, 100 staircases and well over 2 miles of passages. Starting from the House of Lords, which is extravagantly decorated with a red theme, we were shown many famous features including the Wool Sack and Queens Throne, through the Central Lobby and on into the House of Commons that was much plainer with a Green theme. Various anecdotes were told to each group including my favourite which was the exchange between Lady Astor and Winston Churchill, when it was reported that Lady Astor said to Churchill "If I were your wife, I'd put poison in your tea." to which Churchill responded, "Nancy, if I were your husband, I would drink it."
House of Lords House of Commons
The tour round the Palace of Westminster lasted until 1 o'clock that gave us ample time to walk to Chez Gerard on the South Bank for lunch. We were very lucky with the weather as although there was a shower whilst walking across Westminster Bridge, earlier it had been tipping it down. The picture below shows how the skies looked.
The three course lunch was superb and enjoyed by everyone. The French style food was expertly presented and served to very high standard. The odd bottle of wine helped to complete the meal.
After having been fed and watered, our members made the short walk back to the London Eye for the 35 flight aboard London's most popular tourist attraction.
Rose, Justine, Les and Marjorie enjoy the view. Palace of Westminster
The rain continued as we made our way back to the coach for the journey back to Brighton after another memorable day out.
Mid-Summer Lunch
Thursday 26th July
The 2007 British summer continued into the end of July and the 66 members and guests had to dine and socialise indoors at Wickwoods Country Club. Following a late change of date due to problems at Wickwoods, those who were able to attend enjoyed a refreshing glass of Pimm's on arrival followed by a delicious two course buffet meal.
'Pictures speak louder than words'.
Tony and Joyce Comber Buster Ashdown
Just to add to the enjoyment of the day, a free bar was well received by all the participants and a fair amount of alcohol was consumed. Robin Frost produced a quiz sheet on which were "Hidden Towns and Villages of Sussex", the pictures below show how much effort and concentration was put in by everyone.
Included in the above photos from top left are:
Christine Muggeridge, Marian Hancock - Phillip and Judy Cheesman, George and Glenys Heath -
Robin Frost (reading out the answers to the quiz) - Barbara and Kevin Major and Guest -
Claude and Mavis Brimelow - Barbara Panton with Guests, Paul and Una Osmond,
Judy and Bill Mepham with their daughter.
The quiz had 56 'hidden' villages and towns, and the joint winners with an amazing 51 were the teams lead by Audrey Chapman and by Justine Hamilton. To give you a flavour of this quiz, you needed to identify places in Sussex from cryptic clues. Here are just a few of them; the answers appear below.
Old Clothes
Arsenal 1 Chelsea 4
Trees in a line
Crossing the river at Shoreham
Pig by the beach
Wide & wet
A raffle completed the day with some fine prizes.
Answers:
Warnham
Winchelsea
Forest Row
Three Bridges
Shoreham
Broadwater
Trip to Denbies Wine Estate, Dorking
Thursday 16th August
With the unpredictable weather that we had experienced this year, it was a pleasant surprise to make this trip to Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking on a sunny, if a little cloudy day.
Only 29 members and guests made the short journey into Surrey, but all enjoyed an extremely interesting and full day. In the morning we were treated to a tour of the vineyard on a comfortable 'land train'. The 45 minute ride took us to the top of the 265 acre estate with magnificent views of the vineyard, Box Hill, Dorking and the North Downs.
The picture on the right shows our rather aptly named guide, Graham Portwine, pointing out some of the landmarks on view. The picture below shows the Denbies buildings that includes the winery and restaurant.
Then to lunch in the Garden Room with a splendid 'Denbies Ploughman's Lunch' followed by a delicious slice of Apple pie and cream. The odd glass of wine was also consumed followed by the more sobering cup of coffee!
This shows one group enjoying their lunch, Jean Prior, Fred and Joyce Ball, Mary, Pat & Pete Rose and Ken Solly.
The afternoon tour started in the unique 360° circular cinema where we saw a 20 minute surround vision film full of amazing special effects that on occasions made you need to hold on to the rails that had been strategically placed to prevent you from falling over. The story of the vineyard together with details of how wine is made from the planting of the vines, to selling the bottles of wine made for a very interesting film.
No visit to a vineyard would be complete without the compulsory 'wine tasting' and this took place after a short trip through the working winery on a rather quaint 'people mover'. Again the commentary explained the process of how the grapes are pressed, then stored in fermentation tanks and eventually to the bottling line.
It goes without saying that our own resident wine expert, Marjorie Rawley, was in the forefront when it came to the tasting, and we all enjoyed tasting three different wines. The talk given to us by the lady shown on the left of the picture, Mona Koenig, was fascinating and she clearly knew a tremendous amount about both the vineyard and the wines that it produces.
There was just time to pop into the shop to buy a memento of the day, not surprisingly the clinking of bottles could clearly be heard as we made our way back to the coach for the return trip to Hove. Another successful trip enjoyed by everyone.
Trip to Milestones Museum
Wednesday 12th September
It was a warm and sunny day when 46 members and their guests made the journey from Hove to Basingstoke in Hampshire to visit Milestones 'Living History' Museum. This is an open-air museum inside a massive modern building with a network of streets with shops, a village green and even a pub, dating from Victorian times to the 1930's.
The picture on the left shows a general view of the Museum and shows how the exhibits are laid out. The picture on the right shows how coal and other goods were delivered in times gone by...anyone admit to remembering them!!
When this tram was first built in the 1890's it was designed to be pulled by horses, but was later converted to be driven by an electric motor that received its power from overhead power cables.
There were all sorts of shops that you could visit from toy shops to car showrooms. John Lockyer almost bought a Morris 8 from the car showroom as it had reminded him of a similar car that he owned 'a few years ago'.
Lunch was provided in a modern canteen, although a few folks enjoyed a pint of real ale and a game of dominoes in the Victorian Pub.
From Milestones we made our way to Bosham for yet another absolutely splendid WI cream tea.
Here are some of our members enjoying the tea. Notice Peter, our driver, also joining in the fun.
After a short ride round Bosham, we made our way back to Hove after another successful excursion.
Autumn Golf Day at Ham Manor Golf Club
Thursday 27th September
On a sunny yet blustery day, 28 members and guest made their way to Rustington and to Ham Manor Golf Club. Some old acquaintances were renewed as the the participants made their way to the bar where bacon butties and coffee were at the ready.
After being fed and watered the first groups set out in the hope of getting loads of points for the fantastic array of prizes on offer. The course was in immaculate condition, but the fast greens and the 'fluffy' semi-rough made scoring quite difficult.
The sun stayed out during the whole afternoon and soon the golfers were returning to the clubhouse with their tales of woe and excuses for why they had only scored a few points.
When everyone had completed their rounds, we sat down to a splendid meal of chicken and ham pie followed by apple and blackberry crumble, and here are some of our members enjoying the fayre.
After the meal Robin Frost thanked Graham Clark for his assistance in organising the event. He also thanked Don Semmons for checking of the scores and Derek Duncanson for helping with the arrangements. Robin then announced the results of the competition with the winner of the ladies event being Saimi Wright, with Bob Russell winning the mens, by a clear margin.
The winner of nearest the pin was Mel Sims, and nearest the pin in 2, was Michael Huggins.
Here is Robin giving his after dinner speech with Graham listening intently (or is he asleep?) and a picture of the winners, with from left to right, Peter Elliott (3rd), Robin, Saimi Wright, Bob Russell and John Heather (2nd).
Robin also mentioned that Bob Russell was donating two cups to the Society and these would be played for next season, with one cup being for the Spring Meeting and the other being a combined score from the Spring and Autumn Meetings.
For the record the following took part in the competition:
Tony Alcott, Graham Clark, Derek Duncanson, Arthur Elliott, Peter Elliott, Patrick Fish, Brian Fitch, Robin Frost, John Heather, Mary Hopwood, Chris Hudson, Michael Huggins, John Jago, Brian Jeffries, David Kaye, Graham Knight, John Lockyer, Jim Lorimer, Royston Price, David Rubinault, Bob Russell, Don Semmons, Mel Sims, Doug Thompson, John Tucknott, Maurice Watts, Peter Wright and Saimi Wright.
Trip to "The Sound of Music"
Wednesday 31st October
The London Palladium was the venue for the much awaited London Theatre trip that took place a little earlier this year and 46 members and their guests boarded the Pavilion coach to make their way to London. We arrived in good time to allow everyone to have a bite to eat or just browse around a few shops in Regent Street or others nearby.
The show was fantastic, and although 'Connie Fisher' was not playing 'Maria', the understudy 'Aoife Mulholland' was just as good and the entire cast were excellent. The familiar tunes and songs filled the auditorium and our members were all joining in (some discreetly). The way the scenery was moved and changed was incredible.
Like all good things, it quickly came to an end and we boarded the coach for the short trip across London to Knightsbridge and the Rembrandt Hotel were we had a superb 3 course Carvery dinner. It was then back to Hove to end another successful day out.
Hobson's Choice
Wednesday 21st November
John Savident, pictured above, was the star of the show at Eastbourne's Devonshire Park Theatre, where 36 members and guests enjoyed that wonderful comedy, Hobson's Choice.
His performance, as bullying, drunken, eponymous Henry Hobson, was immense.
All the actors put in stunning performances and we all were spellbound by the storyline and the way the cast fitted in so well as their characters. The nervous bumbling Will Mossop, superbly played by Dylan Charles, had everyone laughing at his antics. His exultant 'by gum!' at the end of the show, as he finally surveyed Hobson's shop which then owned, might also be a suitable epithet to sum up the feelings of all of us fortunate enough to have seen this memorable production.
A short coach ride to The Pavilion Teas Rooms and a cream tea big enough to satisfy the hungriest sole helped to end the day on a high.
Christmas Lunch
Thursday 6th December 2007
For the third year we again went to Deans Place Hotel in Alfriston for our annual Christmas Lunch and 130 members and their guests enjoyed another wonderful occasion.
The free coach that started in Lancing and made its way across the County through Hove and Brighton was full, and an additional taxi had to be hired to get all our members and their guests to Alfriston.
In the main room the surroundings were beautifully decorated with festive adornments and the 14 tables looking the Christmassy and neatly laid out. Yet again the food was excellent and the service was good. There was certainly plenty of food and it was well cooked.
The picture above shows David Waddington and John Lockyer enjoying the occasion and the other picture shows Norma Lockyer with David and Bernice Fairs.
Two games of "Irish Bingo" were played and a 'Heads or Tails' quiz, won by Joan Rogers, helped to make the lunch even more enjoyable and with the raffle prizes being distributed amongst the congregation, everyone left either clutching a prize or just a happy memory of the day.
We hope to go back to Deans Place again next year, although the date maybe different.