Chairman’s Update

Since the AGM, the committee have agreed that Beth Downs will take on the role of Vice-Chair and we have co-opted Dawn Fazey onto committee.

Myself and Helen have attended some excellent weekend rallies. Top Barn Farm, which was a very chilled out weekend run by Aidan and Sian Probin. We did a long walk from the site along the river and back via a pub for lunch. Also Hampton House Farm where we celebrated Halloween in style with fancy dress costumes and two very entertaining socials in the Stewards Awning. I still have not worked out who won the quiz but I am sure that Phil Davis will continue claim it was the men.

Unfortunately due to work commitments we could not attend the half term holiday rally in Trevarrian, but it sounds like everyone had a great time.

Having been unable to have a holiday in October, we headed off for a week in Madeira in November, so could not attend Astley VH which again sounded like an excellent weekend.

December saw the centre head to Stratford Racecouse for our Family Christmas Party. With Mike Downs, our flamboyant Social Secretary at the helm, what could possibly go wrong! For those who did not attend, I can only quote Frank Spencer from Some Mother’s do Have Em!, “The donkey did a whoopsie in the corridor!”  Mike and Beth put on a selection of games to entertain the children before a visit from Santa. Our technical guru, Daniel, sorted a TV and projector for the England v France match during the early evening. I hope this was appreciated although England did not get through to the semi-finals. The later part of the evening was occupied by a variety of very entertaining  party games. This was followed by an alternative rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas, starring Mike Downs and his caravanning brother Damian Campbell. To round off the evening, Mike , together with eldest boy child and former junior chairman William and a couple of his mates joined forces to put on one song for us, why Mike thought he could get away with only one song, beats me!

Sunday morning we awoke to several inches of snow covering the racecourse. Needless to say our Santa Fe earned it’s keep, pulling out several units that could not get of the grass. Really glad Dan picked up an Aldi tow rope a couple of years ago.

Over the past couple of months we have been in discussions with Drayton Manor Hotel about our 2023 Dinner Dance. Sadly we have been unable to agree to the price increases that they want to charge us for the meals and the hotel rooms. (£40pp for the meal and £110per room). Yes we understand costs are going up, but Drayton Manor seem to be increasing the cost by more than we feel is reasonable. We have therefore for taken the decision to cancel the Dinner Dance at Drayton Manor.

However, Mike, Beth, Di and Kevin have decided to put on a cost of living dinner dance at Astley Village hall at the end of January. This will be open to all family members but we would still like it to be a posh evening on the Saturday night. The team are budgeting to do this for £20 per person for a three course meal and live entertainment.

We are now exploring alternative venues for our 2024 Dinner Dance, we still want to have this Black Tie event on our rally program.

What to say about the New Year Rally, other than one word! Fab-u-lous! Kev and Di, Mick and June, Mike and Beth and Phil and Lindsey pull out all the stops. When the Vice-chairman of the club remarks that it is the best New Year Rally he has been on for a very long time and then rebooks for next year before leaving, there is not much more to say. The rally is already fully booked for next year, and we are apparently going on a cruise! How the stewards will create a cruise ship in the hall at Stratford Racecourse is yet to be seen, but I am sure it will be amazing.

Apologies for the delay in posting but I went down with a rotten cold before Xmas, and we have discovered a leaking pipe in our bathroom in the new year so now into repairing floors, tiling and installing new sink and toilet. 

Finally I would like to update all members about the vote on the urn and teapots at the AGM. It was decided that these would be made an optional part of the weekend rally equipment. Rallies Stewards should contact the committee in advance of their rally to ensure that they are available for use if required. As a centre we are still very keen that Rally Stewards should endeavour to hold some form of welcome on a Friday evening (Pimms, bring your own drink etc) so that centre members can meet  up and new members can be made welcome.

Chairman 

Gordon

Monthly Prize draw Winners

August                          Aidan & Sian Probin

September                   Barry & Sandra Hodgetts

October                        Phil & June Davies

November                    John & Jean Emms

Tote Winners