Reunion July 2008

Werneth Golf Club

on Friday 18 July 2008

Again, arranged by Val and Pam, this time with a great deal of help

from Steve Walton and John Barlow, whose good offices were central

to making this latest venture so enjoyable and such a success.

Our grateful thanks to them all.

Pam's Account of the Evening:-

The three reunions that we had previously organised had been timed to coincide with visits by Jacky, who comes over from Turkey about twice a year. This time, we chose the date because Jenny was up from Devon, and we were all very anxious to meet her again after all her contributions to the site.

She brought with her an engaging young man, who we understand is a non-Polish builder called Ace, and has recently had something of a make-over.....

It was great to see them both.

Our previous get-togethers had all been at the Roebuck, but as the numbers had gradually crept up, people had said that they'd prefer to do less eating and more talking. This time, therefore, we opted to try a buffet evening.

john susan steve For this, Werneth Golf Club proved to be ideal - a very pleasant bar, superb views over the course, and a private room for the buffet, which was excellent thanks to Sue, the caterer.

Steve Walton was a great help in advising us and booking it for the evening, and no doubt having John Barlow as the club secretary helps when it comes to references! We're so glad that we invited his wife, Susan. She thanked us later for the personal invitation, saying she'd had a great time, but wouldn't have dared come if we hadn't telephoned to ask her.

P1010592b may We organisers arrived at Steve's house a little after 7.00 so as to be at the club when everybody arrived at 7.30. Steve had said "..right next door to the golf club", but we hadn't appreciated until we arrived that he meant it quite so literally - his drive is separated from the clubhouse by a low hedge, and he looks out over the course; a beautiful garden and a great view. The added advantage of picking Steve up en-route was that we were able to persuade his wife May to join us for the evening.

Once we were at the club, everybody seemed to arrive with a rush, and it wasn't long before everybody was chatting to everybody else. Some folks who had been at previous reunions hadn't been able to make it this time of course, but on the other hand we had a number of people attending whom some of us had not seen for nigh-on fifty years!

trevor beryl pat The very best part of the evening for me was when Trevor and Beryl arrived looking so healthy and happy. It was so good to see them well-recovered after a year of scary happenings.

It was great to see everyone else, too. We even got some good pictures of Pat. I'm sure she enjoyed herself in spite of Vincent being abroad in Sweden, following his passion for shooting.

DSC01164a This was the first time Allan had attended a re-union. I don't think that anyone but Pat had seen him in the last 45 years. We couldn't believe how unchanged he was. He really didn't look any different. We think he must have a picture in the attic!

iris Iris looked gorgeous as usual. She writes:

"Really enjoyed meeting everyone again
- it was a great evening
- can't wait to see everyone again
- keep me posted on any future get togethers."

carol Carol Whitehead came with Iris. Carol was a pretty, dark haired girl at school; now she is a very pretty silver surfer. She also wants to know about future events.

joan Laurie and Joan (Bent) Feeley finally made it to a do of ours - something had come up on all three previous occasions, and this was a case of "fourth time lucky" for us. Again, with both of them, it's yet another case of the older they get, the less they seem to have changed.

Barbara Andrew was yet another "newcomer" who we hope will become a "regular". Again, it was almost 50 years since some of us had last seen her, and there was a lot of catching up to do. We had a bit of a chuckle; the poor girl had been under the impression all this time that she had had a lucky escape when Ken "chucked" her (at the age of 14!), but Ken was able to reassure her that she had been the authoress of her own good fortune, in that he was able to quote the words she had used when she "chucked" him !

morse Inspector Morse was yet again in attendance, doing his best to keep us in order, and yet again demonstrating his forensic training by supplying us with several excellent photographs of the evening. As far as the photographs are concerned, the good ones are his, the rest are ours! As usual he tried to pass himself off in his disguise as Stuart Vaudrey of course, but none of us was fooled.....

JMTS We were very pleased that Jeremy (JMTS) could join us this time, and he seemed equally pleased to be with us. He has recently retired from political life, of course (or so he says!), and claimed not to have read a newspaper in three months. Knowing Jeremy, we are rather sceptical that such a state of affairs will continue for long, and the impression that he gave us was that he is simply in the process of making the transition from politician to statesman.

It was great to see him, and we hope that he enjoyed himself enough to be persuaded to come to future get-togethers. It didn't go without comment that he stayed to the very end, sharing the Last Taxi Out of Werneth Golf Club after a very convivial evening.

So many lovely people. We must meet up many more times.
There just weren't enough hours to get to know them all better.
How about another one round about the Christmas holidays?

(Click Next below to go on to the photographs)

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The Venue - Werneth Golf Club

Werneth Golf Club proved to be a perfect venue for this sort of informal get-together, and we were greatly helped in arranging things by Steve Walton, who is a member there (and lives next door!), and John Barlow, who is the secretary.

The Club celebrates its centenary this year.

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We did have a chance to peruse the honour-boards, one of which comprises sets of photographs of Captains over the years. One of those at least didn't need much introduction to us!

captain