Monday 7th July. The DG accompanies me to Ashford Rotary Club. This was not the official DG visit to the club, as that will come later in the year, but it was to
confer the honour of a Paul Harris Award on one of its members. Ashford is not
a large club, but is always enjoyable to visit, as they are very friendly, the
food is usually of very good quality, and it is a very easy trip for us, as
Ashford Manor Golf Club where they meet is only a couple of miles down the road from us.
Ashford Manor Golf Course
I was brought up near Ashford Manor Golf Club, and I have
fond memories of sneaking in there as a child hunting for the fruit of the horse chestnut tree, with which we would play conkers. In fact one Sunday morning,
on our way home from church, we were all in there, my brothers, sister
and myself and our Mum, throwing sticks up at the trees to try and dislodge the
horse chestnuts (this was in the days before Health & Safety was invented), when a cross-sounding man chased us all off. Poor Mum couldn’t
run as fast as her kids, and was admonished by the man with the withering words
‘madam, you should be ashamed of yourself.’
Whenever the family get together we still laugh about that incident.
Ever since that day I have wanted to return to Ashford Manor, enter through the main gate with my head held high, and play a round of
golf there. However I have always understood that it is an exclusive club,
where you need a handicap certificate to play, so the opportunity has
never arisen. Well, that may change soon. At the Rotary meeting, I was sitting
with my old friend and Barclays colleague Kevin Butler, and he told me the club
was planning a Charity golf day during the current year. The price has not yet been decided, but if reasonable, I would definitely like to take part.
The DG with Simon Kroner, who shows off his Paul Harris Award
Anyway, back to the meeting. The beneficiary of the Paul
Harris award was Simon Kroner, who had absolutely no idea that he was about to
receive this prestigious award, the highest honour a Rotarian can receive. It
always works best when the recipient does not know what’s coming, and it is also a good idea to try
and get the District Governor to present the award, which further underlines
its significance. At the appointed time, the DG announced that someone was to
receive an award this evening, and started to read quite a long piece the club
had put together about Simon (without mentioning his name), and all the good
things he has done as a Rotarian, and before that as a Rotaractor. I learnt that he had even met his wife
through Rotary. It was amusing to watch
his face as it suddenly dawned on him that this was all about him. He received
the award with the humility that those who know him would expect, but from what
had been said about him, there is no doubt that he personifies the Rotary ideal
of Service Above Self.
With Simon Bhadiye, new President, and Vernon Leader, Immediate Past President and President Elect
At the meeting, we also had the presidential handover
between outgoing President Vernon Leader, and new President Simon Bhadiye. What
came as a surprise, however, was that when the time came for the new President
to hand over the President Elect gong to next year's President, he handed it to Vernon Leader! This
is very unusual, for you would normally expect others in the club to have a
chance at being President before the outgoing president has another go.
However, we were informed that next year will be the club’s 50th
Anniversary, and they particularly wanted Vernon to lead them through that year because he
is (I think) their longest serving member. I didn’t ask whether he was actually
a founder member, but it is certainly possible.
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