The 11th annual reunion was held at the
The Savoy Hotel in Bournmouth.
In this brief correspondence I am dealing only with the
AGM which was held on Saturday morning at 10am. I will update you all
on the actual weekend later on.
AGM:-
Minutes of last meeting was read out and agreed.
The main business to hand was the election of Committee Members.
Trevor Morris who was the Treasurer resigned during this year and until
this weekend Gordon Phipps had took on the Treasurer’s job as
well as being Secretary.
As Gordon felt he could not do both jobs for health and personal reasons,
he resigned as Secretary, and was voted back in as Treasurer.
Adrian Ward, otherwise known as Sharkey, was voted in as the new Secretary.
Those present at the AGM voted that we should try to go back to Coventry
next year at the end of October. It will be Sharkey’s first job
as Secretary to organise the weekend.
Committee members present: -
President - Dougie Pike Chairman - Ron Speakman
Treasurer - Gordon Phipps Secretary - Adrian Ward (Sharkey)
AFTER THE OFFICIAL AGM WAS DECLARED CLOSED
Sue Phillips held a meeting for those interested in a week’s
holiday again next year.
Sue has, in recent months, enquired about hotels in Jersey but, unfortunately,
the hotels could not quote her any prices for next year as they don’t
give their price list out till November.
Many of them do not do all inclusive deals. Also, members would have
to find own way there.
In response to this, most members decided that maybe it would be better
to go either to Mainland Spain or Majorca.
Sue will be getting in touch with holiday companies and getting prices
and dates for all inclusive deals for April or early May.
She has a list of people who have been away before and will let everyone
know as soon as possible.
If anyone else is interested
please let us know.
More information about Weekend/Holiday to follow:-
Cheers Shipmates
Bill Wright (Wednesday 18/10/06)
Continued..............
Update on previous letter:-
First of all Sue Phillips has managed to book the holiday for Sunday
20th May to Sunday 27th May 2007 at the Hotel Gardenia Park - Funguela
in Spain.
Information of this Hotel is on page 87 of the Summer brochure:-
If you are interested details for booking they are as follows:-
Direct Holidays - Phone No. 0141 559 7000 ask for extension 3042
The girl dealing with Duchess group is called Marie.
Please make sure you say you are with the Duchess Party.
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Sick Leave
Unfortunate both Ed Bonnick and Tony Charles were unable to come on
Sunday after the St.Vincent AGM as Ed wasn’t well and needed to
go straight home - hope you are feeling better now Ed.
Trevor Morris is also unwell and was unable to make the trip down.
S/m Kimber’s wife is ill and he also couldn’t make the weekend.
Phoned Sammy Noyse on our return home and his wife has had a heart attack
and therefore he felt he could not leave her to come to the reunion.
Now for the weekend as I saw it
This year the trip down south was great as I acquired a chauffeur.
The Rev. Les drove us down would like to think it was an age thing but
as he can give me a couple of years I guess we were his charity of the
week case. Joking apart it was great having someone else do the driving.
The Savoy Hotel was a very good venue ( at least I thought so ) only
a couple hundred yards from the beach with one of those funny lifts
which cost you more to come up than go down. Food was very good and
the service was excellent nothing was too much trouble for the staff.
One snag maybe was having only one lift which held three people &
bags at most. There again as we are fit and prone to be athletic types
were based on first floor. Town centre was 10 or 15 minutes walk away
and catered for all tastes with many shops and bars etc. Weatherspoons
did a good liquid lunch for weary travellers and an excellent all day
breakfast for those having lies in.
Friday evening was spent on catching up on everybody and seeing if farmer
Geoff’s pusser’s holdall had survived another years global
travelling. By heck Geoff has certainly had his money’s worth
from it. Listening to his broad Lincoln accent shouting Smiths or Worthington
is a treat.
John Jones was on his best behaviour and only had to be put back to
bed once all weekend ( sorry John know your back is bad).
The AGM was held on Saturday morning as previous said. Sharky (Adrian)
Ward will make sure he gets up early next time - he came in late at
the time volunteers were being asked for - as he was abit hung over
his hand was taken to be agreeing to the Secretary’s job and not
looking for a chair to sit on. The evening banquet was held in the back
part of the dining room as there was no separate dining room but the
food and service was great.
The raffle raised about £75 and as yours truly was in charge of
the box holding the tickets and giving them a good shake could not honestly
say it was fixed when members won several prizes. The prizes as usual
were supplied by various members . The evenings entertainment was a
singer. Sheila and Arthur brought their dancing shoes and showed us
all how it was done. Jonno got his twinkle toes on and when he could
find a partner who didn’t how good he thought he was led them
on the floor. Don Forcey mustn’t have been too well because most
of the weekend I was able to nearly keep up with him on the liquid intake.
Sharkey seemed to be in shock or was treating his elevation to high
office very seriously and on his best behaviour. We had two new members
and their wives attending the weekend / Tom Wheeler who has more photos
of the Duchess which he has promised to email to me for the web page.
The other member shall remain nameless at the moment cause he was a
Stoker PO on my commission and didn’t remember me. ( To be honest
I am having a senior moment and cannot remember his / sorry mate). Pat
Swift managed to look his immaculate self just as if he had come out
of Burton’s window - maybe he’s a male model or something.
Next time Pat try not to make me look so untidy perhaps by loosening
your tie or something. The elusive laundryman (Topsy) together with
his lovely daughter Jane appeared again for the weekend are you sure
no one has any photos proving that the laundry did exist. Bob Baxter
made the trip over from Spain for the weekend on route for a family
gathering. Watch this space he could be moving back to the UK. The Terrible
twins (Marie & Monica) were in fine form. Monica organised one of
her famous tours around the town. Marie took on a more leisurely task
of escorting Dougie Phillips to a bench overlooking the sea and enjoying
an ice cream.
To finish on a light note Janet (Jonno’s missus) told those of
us left on Sunday evening a great story that had been told to her by
Sue ( Sharkey’s wife ). Must remember to get her to tell us it
next time complete with actions.
If I have not mentioned anybody please forgive these senior moments
I keep having . Anyone with any information you would like put on the
web site please let me know.
Cheers Shipmates
Bill Wright ( Monday 23/10/06)
