District Sports - 10 Pin Bowling

22 March.  Our Rotary club has always supported the District ten pin bowling competition, and this year I volunteered to organise Aurora’ participation. I quickly learnt that organising this event  was quite complicated, and not without some financial risk. I also learnt that it’s a good idea to read the instructions beforehand.

10 pin bowling

The competition works like this: individual clubs organise teams of four bowlers, who then go along to a bowling alley to play two games, and their scores are sent to the District co-ordinator. He then invites the 12 highest – scoring teams to contest the final later in the year. When I asked members if they would be interested in forming a team for the competition, I was delighted to find that 16 expressed an interest. That’s four teams. So the next thing was to find a date that was convenient for everyone. This is where my problems began.

                                                    Bowling done properly

Tolworth Bowling Alley is the most convenient venue for most of us, so I went on to their website, to establish the best nights to book lanes.  I was aware that 10 pin bowling clubs are popular, and will often block-book several lanes for their competitions, and ideally I wanted to find out whether there were any evenings when these clubs were not present, as we would have a better chance of getting lanes at convenient times. Also, it can be a bit intimidating when your average score for a frame is about 5, while the guy on the lane next door to you is scoring strike after strike.

                                                                Tolworth Bowling Alley

I didn’t find the website very helpful, because I had to actually try to book lanes before I found out if they were available that day. That was no good for me, as I couldn’t book anything  until I knew if people were OK to attend. One thing on the website that disturbed me a little was an announcement that the lift at Tolworth was out of order ‘until further notice’. Obviously, the DG, who wanted to attend, would be unable to do so if she couldn’t get into the premises. So I decided to phone them and talk to someone. This is when I discovered that the bowling alley, for years known as ‘Charrington Bowl’ is now owned by a leisure group called Hollywood Bowl, who seem to own bowling alleys all across the country. The telephone number got me through to a central switchboard, but the woman I spoke to couldn't advise on the best times to book, as even she didn't know if lanes were available until a booking was attempted, for which I would have to pay the whole cost up front (no group discounts for us). Furthermore, she didn’t seem to know about the lift at Tolworth being out of order.

I felt that I was getting nowhere with this, so resolved to go along to Tolworth in person and speak to someone there. So, on the day of the Shepperton Charities Fair, after dropping off the DG at the Village Hall, I drove over to Tolworth in my new car. The traffic was dreadful, in fact I had to turn round on the Hampton road, as roadworks were going to delay me by an hour or more, and instead went via Walton bridge and East Molesey. That was also problematical, as the right turn near Hampton Court bridge took over 20 minutes to execute. All this was happening as I tried to bond with the new car, which was turning itself off every time I stopped (and sometimes when I wasn’t stopped) and would only re-start when I pressed the clutch pedal. How can this save fuel? Surely the action of starting the engine uses more fuel than leaving it on.

                                                                Hampton Court bridge

                                 

Eventually I got there, noticing the lift was still out of order, and went upstairs to speak to the assistant on the desk. She was very helpful, and explained that there was club bowling most nights, but weekday evenings usually had plenty of availability for booking lanes, so provided I gave a week’s notice, there shouldn’t be any problems. I would still have to pay in full when booking the lanes, the only alternative being to turn up on the off-chance, which seemed far too risky. She couldn’t confirm when the lift would be fixed, and suggested I check when booking. She gave me a direct phone number to call when I knew what date I wanted.

                                                     Retro - the cafe at Tolworth

Now I felt I was getting somewhere so I circulated our 16 people to try and find a date suitable to everyone. I gave three separate dates, on different days of the weeks, and 15 of us opted for  Monday 22^nd March, with only Janet Matthews being unavailable that day.  Ron Enticott, after minimal arm twisting from me, agreed to take the vacant place, and I booked the bowling alley, telling everyone that if they dropped out they would still have to pay, as the bowling alley were adamant that they don’t give refunds. In the event two did drop out, and even though the lift was working the DG decided to watch rather than play, so we actually had 13 players on the evening, enough for 3 teams plus one extra person. At my suggestion we shared cars to get to Tolworth, and I went with the DG, Ken Howe and Brian Holt.

                                                        Shepperton Aurora teams A, B and C

The bowling alley have relaxed many of their rules over the years. I used to go to Tolworth as a teenager in the early ‘70s, and I distinctly remember a ‘no jeans’ rule applicable in those days. The reason I remember it so well, is that I was refused entry one day because I was wearing jeans. The school friend I was with, who decided to argue about this ruling, was physically thrown out by a large man in a dinner jacket and bow tie, who I assumed was employed as a bouncer.  I left more quietly than my friend. Tonight however I noticed no such rules about dress code. Not wishing to be ejected on this occasion, I had ensured I was not wearing jeans myself, although almost everybody else in the building was wearing them. 

                                                           Should it be allowed? 10 pin bowling in jeans

Furthermore, although there were bowling shoes available to use, the girl on the desk said we could wear the shoes we came in if we wanted. I was surprised at this, as surely the reason for wearing proper bowling shoes is to prevent damage to the lanes. Later in the evening I was amazed to observe, a few lanes down from us, a young lady in stilettos (I kid you not) walking down the lane to retrieve her ball which hadn’t returned to her automatically. Another surprising relaxation of rules was that we were allowed to take our drinks on to the sitting area by the lanes, which would never have been allowed a few years ago.

                                                      Bowling shoes

We divided ourselves into teams, with Ken volunteering to be ‘spare’ and then we started the search for a suitable bowling ball. In order to find a ball with holes big enough for my fingers, I had to go for one that seemed to weigh a hundredweight. I found bowling it to be quite an effort, but boy, did it knock those pins flying! After a few practice bowls we got our game under way. We only had two lanes between us, although I was sure I had ordered four.  This made it a bit crowded in the bowling area, but wasn’t really a problem as we had a good laugh during the evening, and I think we all enjoyed ourselves. There is another notable change from my earlier days of ten pin bowling, in that scoring is now electronic, and its all done for you. No longer do you have to try and find someone who can count to do the scoring, and then spend the rest of the evening arguing over who scored what.

                                                            Choose your ball

Our scores were modest, with our top scorer being John Dumbrell, who scored 130 in his first game, although his next game is probably best forgotten. Chris Arnot scored consistently, and finished around 120 per game, as did I, with David and Brian a little way behind us. On another day, I think I will put the four best players in one team, as it would give us a greater chance of reaching the final. Best lady was Sylvia, who scored 134 across the two games.  Most of us achieved at least one strike during the course of the evening, but the biggest cheer of the evening was for Pauline who, after scoring zero in the previous two frames, managed a strike in the seventh frame of her second game. 

                                               Strike!

The few lanes to our right were taken up with club bowlers who were racking up enormous scores. I admired their style, as most of them bowled the ball with quite a flourish. Several of them, I noticed, wore a kind of wrist support apparatus, which obviously helped in some way. One particular chap had strikes virtually every time he bowled. The top score in ten pin bowling is, I think, 330 and he must have come very close indeed. I felt a bit sorry for him and his colleagues, because if you score a strike with your first ball, you don’t get to throw your second ball. I feel that at least we got our money’s worth out of the evening as we mostly used both balls in each frame.

                                                                           High tech - Wrist support

Our ‘A’ team, comprising Sylvia and David Courtney, with Peter and Ann McDonough, returned with an aggregate score of 585 over their two games. The ‘B’ team, John and Jean Dumbrell, myself and Gill Fawcett, scored a fabulous 676, and amazingly the ‘C’ team (Brian, Pauline, Ron and Chris) also scored 676. In the unlikely event that we reach the final, we should have two teams that qualify.

When I got home, I had to send our scores off to the District organiser, with our fee of £5 per team. It was only then whilst reading the instructions that I noticed I was supposed to register the teams with him before the end of February. I had missed this small matter completely so phoned Tony Townsend to ask if I could belatedly register our three teams at the same time as sending in our scores. At first he was unwilling, but when I told him our scores he seemed happier to accept them. From this I am assuming that none of our teams have made the final, but we should find out officially soon.

                                                                        Ball juggling -  Peter's party piece

District Quiz

Saturday 7^th March. Today is the day of the District Quiz, which I have helped in a small way to organise. Our Rotary Club, Shepperton Aurora, won the District trophy in 2007 and have retained the winner’s shield ever since. I should point out that the reason for our eight year reign as District Quiz champions had nothing to do with our prowess at quizzing, rather that there has not been another competition since 2007. Until then it had been a tradition that the holders of the shield organised next year’s competition. Well, we tried, but there seemed little interest around the District for another quiz, so the competition was abandoned and we just kept the trophy, bringing it out occasionally to adorn our meetings.

                                                        The District Quiz Trophy

As District 1140 will no longer be in existence after this year, the DG thought it would be a good idea to resurrect the District Quiz for one last time, so a date was agreed at the Holiday Inn Surbiton, the venue for our District Council meetings. Des Mulvany, who has quite a track record as a quizmaster, volunteered to set the quiz, and a price was agreed with the Hotel for hire of a large room, with bangers and mash to be served up during the evening.  The only problem was that once again, clubs in the District did not register for the event in the numbers expected. The costings for the evening depended on 100 people attending, but with 4 weeks to go we only had 8 teams of 4 (i.e. 32 people) which would cause the event to be cancelled if numbers didn’t improve.

                                                                       Bangers and Mash

Further reminders were sent out to clubs, which resulted in another 4 teams registering, then the DG got me (of all people) to personally phone 20 clubs to drum up some more support. This resulted in another 4 teams registering, which meant our shortfall was not so bad. We now had 64 people registered, plus 8 organisers, which the DG felt was a respectable number. In a departure from my usual role of lighting up the event purely by my charismatic presence, I decided to take part in one of the Shepperton Aurora teams. Our club  supported the event very well by fielding 3 teams, although one of these actually comprised members of Des’s family, who were very welcome, provided they didn’t win (only joking!).

                                                        Quizmaster Des Mulvany

I was actually in the Aurora ‘C’ team, which surprised me somewhat, as I would have expected to be automatically in the ‘A’ team.  My team was, however, quite strong, I thought, with some good specialisms between us.  I, for instance, would be good at any questions on Rotary celebrities. Then we had Sylvia and David Courtney, experts at line dancing (or is it American square dancing? It’s one of those anyway), and Janet Matthews who would be very good with any questions on sailing in Corfu. We would play our Joker if there was a round dedicated to one of these specialisms.  On balance I thought we had a good range of topics covered between us, with a corresponding good chance of winning. The DG, on the other hand, didn’t want any of the Aurora teams to win. In her view, the shield had been blocking up our storage cabinet for seven years, and she wanted someone else to look after it henceforth. Tonight’s winners would, in fact, hold the trophy for ever, as it was to be the last Quiz ever to be organised for District 1140, as it merges with District 1250 at the end of the Rotary year.

                                                                American Square Dancing

As the day of the quiz approached, I think it only fair to describe an incident which will henceforth be called Shieldgate, in which I didn’t cover myself in glory. At our club meeting in the Bridge Hotel, Chertsey on the Wednesday before the quiz, the DG asked me to get the Shield out of our storage cabinet. Off I went, to the cupboard next to the Hotel Reception desk where the cabinet is, but I couldn’t see the shield anywhere. I went back to the meeting room and asked Ken Howe, normally a font of knowledge about everything, if he knew where the shield was. He suggested I ask John Dumbrell, who had recently cleared a lot of stuff out of the cabinet to keep it tidy. John wasn’t sure if he had removed the shield, but if he had, it would be stored in his garage, where much of the Club’s equipment is stored. I agreed to meet him there later in the day to collect the shield and our large display board, which was required for a different event.  The display board was easily found but extensive search of his garage failed to locate the elusive shield.

                                           Bridge Hotel Reception - our cupboard is to the right of the desk

So the next morning I was back at the Hotel, determined to have everything out of the Hotel cabinet, in case the shield was still hiding somewhere. We use a lot of plastic boxes to keep things in, and I took all of these out of the cabinet, looking inside all of them, underneath them, behind them, and still found no sign of the shield. To tell the truth, I didn’t take everything out, I think there were a couple of plastic bags that I left in. So with a heavy heart, I locked the cabinet up, and went home to report to the DG that in two days’ time we were holding the first District Quiz for eight years, and the shield was missing. I also told John, who said he would have another look at home, but thought it unlikely that he had it. I also sent an APB (All Persons Bulletin – I think I watch too much Kojak on TV) to all club members, marked red for priority, asking if anyone could shed any light on the missing shield.  A few hours later, just as the DG and I were thinking about buying a new trophy so we had something to hand out at the quiz, John e-mailed. He had been to the Hotel and found the shield in our storage cabinet! With some degree of embarrassment, I wrote back to all club members, telling them to call off their search, adding that I should have gone to Specsavers.

                                                                        Who loves ya baby?

On the evening of the event, the DG and I arrived early at the Hotel, although not as early as we planned. Our normal route through Hampton was not a good option, as there were roadworks causing havoc to traffic. We knew about this, so instead we went over Walton Bridge, and through Esher to get to Surbiton.  Unfortunately we had been unaware that there was racing at Sandown Park that day. Our journey past the main gates of the Racecourse coincided with racegoers leaving the car park, and it consequently took us over half an hour to get through Esher.

                                                                     Sandown Park racecourse

We still arrived in good time at the Holiday Inn. The DG is well known here and it seemed that nearly all staff and management came out to greet her. They had also laid on a red carpet between the main entrance and our function room. At last, I thought, someone recognises the presence of the Consort to the District Governor. In truth, the Hotel staff couldn’t do enough for us. Our every need was catered to, including two additional tables as soon as we indicated a need for them. I was brought a hot chocolate by a waitress as I directed operations in setting up the room. Shortly after us, our quizmaster Des arrived with his lovely wife Moira, and also John Dumbrell with his wife, the equally lovely Jean. John was to keep the scores this evening on a spreadsheet which would be permanently displayed on a big screen. Other organisers to arrive shortly after were Gill Fawcett and Peter and Ann McDonough. So with the management team in place we were ready for the quiz teams to arrive.

                                                          The red carpet is rolled out for us

In the event we were one team down on the evening. Two teams who had registered did not turn up, and one team did turn up which hadn’t registered.  My team (who called ourselves Jamydasy using the first two letters of each of our names) found ourselves sitting opposite the Aurora ‘A’ team, (the team I should have been in) which comprised Ken Howe, Doreen and Tony Pipe, and Pauline Hedges.  We decided to suspend normal friendly relations with them and treat them as enemies for the duration of the quiz, and  so we communicated in whispers so the enemy can’t overhear us.

Aurora 'A' team, Ken Howe, Pauline hedges, Doreen and Tony Pipe (John & Jean in background)

When everyone was settled the quiz got under way.  The DG, acting as MC, got things started, before handing over to quizmaster Des Mulvany. There were 8 rounds in all, and teams could play their joker before the start of any round. This had the effect of doubling their score in that round. Our team didn’t find any of our specialist subjects listed, so we opted instead to play our Joker in the first round, which was History and Geography. We have all travelled, and between us had lived  through a lot of history, so we thought this round would be our best chance of a good score. We were mistaken. With only 5 out of 10 scored in this round, we felt our Joker had been wasted. However, we did rather better than the Shepperton Aurora ‘A’ team sitting opposite us, who only scored 1 on their Joker round, Quotations.

                                                       The scoreboard after the first round

It was a good quiz, with the right balance between difficulty and ease. The way Des organised it was to give out printed sheets with the questions at the start of each round. We were then given 5 minutes or so to write the answers down, before passing our answers to one of the other teams to be marked. We learned some new things that evening, including the word ‘Pollex’ which is apparently the anatomical word for ‘Thumb’. I don’t think anyone in the room got that one. As usual, Sylvia amazed us with her encyclopaedic knowledge. One question had everybody foxed: What do the following have in common – Hell, Intercourse, and Normal? Well it didn’t fox Sylvia, who said that Intercourse was a town in Pennsylvania, and she had been there! She also knew that Normal was another US town. We therefore came up with the correct answer to the question, which was that they were all US place names.

                                                      The Aurora 'C' Team, David & Sylvia Courtney and Janet Matthews (plus me)

Half way through the quiz, food was served, and we all had sausages and mash, excepting vegetarians, that is, who had vegetable lasagne. There were even seconds available, and Tony Pipe had a complete new plate of sausages and mash. The rest of us on the table got a few sausages to share between us. I was naturally furious at this outrage, where the Consort, being the highest-ranked person on the table, was overlooked in favour of Tony, who wasn’t even a Rotarian! I know he would have been embarrassed about that error by the serving staff, but was certainly very good at not showing it.

                                                 Some of the organising team - Jean Dumbrell, DG, Gill Fawcett

As the competition progressed we got some better scores, with a couple of 7s, but also some worse ones, including a 2 and a 3. You may think, therefore that we didn’t do very well in the competition, but Jamidasy actually finished third overall in the competition, just 3 points behind the winners. So if we had played our Joker on a different round, we could have won, and brought the trophy triumphantly back with us.

The final scoreboard shows us pipped into third place

The two top teams tied on 49 points after the final round, and so a tie break was required. The captains of New Malden and Camberley had to face a final question, and the first with the right answer was the overall winner. Peter Skinley of New Malden was quicker on the draw, and his team went off with the trophy, which they will keep in perpetuity.  In presenting the shield to them, the DG also gave each member of the winning team a Smarties Easter egg. The runners up got, I think, smaller Smarties eggs, and the wooden spoon winners, Walton on Thames also received a consolation prize of a single mini-egg. The DG had been searching for a ‘Dumbo’ Easter egg for the last placed team, but had been unable to find a supplier.

                                                           The winning team from New Malden with the DG

It had been an entertaining evening, with a lot of hilarity, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. That, after all, was the main point of the evening. As we left along the red carpet, we reflected on how nice it was to leave the venue without having to clear up afterwards.

Charities Fair - Shepperton

7th March.  I decide to grace the biennial Charities fair with my presence. This Fair has been organised by Shepperton & Sunbury Rotary Club for many years and has grown in size and popularity during that time. The club hires Shepperton Village Hall for the day and invites local charities to set up stalls inside. The idea is to increase public awareness of the work that the Charities do and hopefully recruit some volunteers. It is well supported by local councillors, and the local MP was expected during the morning.

                                                                   Shepperton Village Hall

As I am responsible for PR at Shepperton Aurora in addition to my Consort duties, I offered to deliver our display stand to the hall. This would be shared between the two Shepperton clubs to display material about our work in the community. Firstly I had to collect the Display stand from John Dumbrell’s house, where it is stored, so I left home early to make sure I wasn’t late. My new car was on my drive, and I was looking forward to driving it into town, as I had hardly been anywhere in it since I collected it from the garage the previous Wednesday. I have always been like this with new cars, for the first few weeks I don’t really want to go anywhere in it in case it gets damaged. This feeling wears off eventually, and I start to treat the car with my usual carelessness. The vehicle was a Renault Grand Scenic Limited Energy 1.5 dCi 110 Stop & Start (remember the good old days when cars had simple names like Ford Escort?) and there were just 8 miles on the clock when we collected it. We chose the Grand Scenic because it has a lot of luggage space, which we need for the wheelchair, luggage, golf clubs, the dog, and of course shopping. I had the advantage of test driving a Grand Scenic last November when the DG’s fellow District Governor John Waddell allowed me to use it to drive the Consortium* to a shopping trip in Stratford Upon Avon.

                                         My Renault Grand Scenic Limited Energy 1.5dCi 110 Stop & Start

Anyway, I was just about to set off to John’s house to collect the display stand.  The car is ‘keyless’ in that you don’t use the key (which is actually a big plastic rectangle) to get into the vehicle, or even to start the motor, you just need to have it on your person. How cool is that? Also there is no need to turn off the parking brake, as it releases as soon as you engage gear to drive away. At least that is what’s supposed to happen. Today it refused to release, and I couldn’t drive away without stalling the car. I switched the engine on and off a couple of times. It still wouldn’t release. I tried manually releasing the brake, but that wouldn’t work either. So I got out of the car and walked away (it locks itself automatically as you walk away) and then went back and tried again. This time it worked fine. I have no idea why that happened, but it made me late at the Hall, despite my best intentions.

                                                      My car 'key'

I needn’t have worried. When I got to the Hall, things were a bit chaotic, as 20 or 30 charities were simultaneously trying to set up their stalls, unloading cars, tripping over each other etc.  Eric Painter and Peter Routley from Shepperton & Sunbury Rotary were havens of calm in turbulent waters, as they patiently dealt with any problems the stallholders may have had. I chatted with a few people I knew, and after several attempts, a place for our display stand was found in the foyer, and it was time for me to go home and fetch the DG, who was making an official visit to the Charities fair today. After dropping her off at the Hall, I went off on an errand to Tolworth, which I will describe another time.

                        Peter Bailey and Pat Burrell from the Sunbury and Shepperton Local History Society

I arrived back at the Village Hall a couple of hours later in time to meet the Spelthorne MP, Kwasi Kwarteng. He greeted me like an old friend, although I sensed it was one of those situations where he knew he had met me before, but couldn’t remember who I was. It’s understandable that he can’t remember everybody he meets in the course of his job, but a little homework on his part would have told him that the Consort to the District Governor was going to be present today. I joined him in a wander among the stalls, and we both stopped at the Sunbury Flood Volunteers charity. This group was formed as a result of the terrible floods last winter along the Thames, in which Sunbury homes suffered a lot of damage. The MP was particularly interested to know if the volunteers all lived in Sunbury. He seemed disappointed to learn that some of them were from Hampton (i.e. outside his constituency) but seemed satisfied that the majority of them were from Spelthorne. I had been impressed with their work in the floods last year, and I resolved on the spot to join them. At some point in the next year they will send me on a rescue course. Next time there are floods in this area, I expect I will be able to dash around in one of those rubber dinghies with a powerful outboard motor. I shall call it the Cruising Consort.

                                         Spelthorne MP Kwasi Kwarteng (coat over arm) chats to exhibitors

Outside the Hall I came across Douglas Dick, who had brought along one of the sailing boats used by the charity Sailability at Queen Mary Reservoir. Sailability provide opportunities for disabled people to sail at the reservoir, either in small Access dinghies or in groups aboard the Long Boat, which he had brought with him today. Also outside the Hall was a man who was making bird boxes out of blocks of wood, and giving them free to children. I think he was asking for donations to charity. It seemed everywhere I looked there was another charitable endeavour being displayed.

                                                    Douglas Dick with the Sailability long boat

As I walked round I came across the optician Ian Squire on his Mission for Vision stand. I am hoping to organise a Rotary Global grant for his Charity, which is opening  a Vision centre in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of  Congo, that will train local people in Optometry. He has designed a lens-cutting machine that operates on solar power, so will be very useful in remote corners of the DR Congo. Ian said he met some local Rotarians when he visited Kinshasa recently, and they told him they knew me. My fame is truly International these days.

                                                      The DG tries to recruit a new Rotarian

After spending a little time admiring the fine array of home made cakes in the refreshment area (all made by the ladies of Shepperton & Sunbury Rotary, I was told) it was time for the DG and I to leave.  I wouldn’t be surprised if this turned out to be the most successful Charity Fair to date. Besides the hall being packed with worthy causes, there were large numbers of people wandering around and talking to stallholders, so I hope they gained a few more volunteers as a result.  

                                                        A fine array of home made cakes on offer

*Consortium – Collective word for a group of Consorts

Youth Speaks District Final 2015

Friday 27^th February.  I am invited to the District Final of one of Rotary’s many national competitions for Young People, namely Youth Speaks, which is a public speaking competition for schools. Our club, Shepperton Aurora always organises the first round of this event for schools in Spelthorne. If a team is successful, they go on to Round 2, and if once again they prevail, then they are in the District Final. That is why the DG and I were battling through the rush hour traffic this evening to get to Heathside School in Weybridge, who were hosting this year’s District Final.

A number of members of Shepperton Aurora were also in attendance tonight because a Spelthorne school had made it this far in the competition, and the club wanted to support them. I of course would have been expected to attend regardless of what teams had made it to the final, in view of my position. Nevertheless, it was pleasing that Halliford School’s senior team had made it this far, as they had been very impressive when I saw them in the first round. Altogether six schools were competing tonight, 3 Intermediate teams and 3 Senior teams. Officials this evening would be 3 independent adjudicators, a timekeeper to ensure that speakers kept to their allotted time, and a questioner, whose job was to put a question to each speaker about the subject they had just spoken on.

                                  Winning Upper Halliford team after the first round, with individual senior winners

On arrival, we met the lovely Betty McClure, District 1140 Youth Services Chair, who was responsible for organising this event. Herself a former District Governor, Betty is a great Rotarian, who works very hard every year in organising the various Youth activities undertaken by our District. Helping her set things up tonight was John Brewer, who was also doing the important job of timekeeper. The DG took up a position near the stage, as she was to hand certificates to all participants, and Neil Carter, an old friend of mine from BNI, sat with her to help organise the certificates. Betty had overlooked a special seat on stage for me, but on this occasion I was happy to mingle with the public, and I took my seat amongst the audience.

                              Aurora members Sylvia Courtney, Lyn Derrington and Pauline Hedges wait for things to start

There was a bit of a delay, as the adjudicators hadn’t arrived by the scheduled start time of 6.30. As the clock edged towards 6.40 I could see that Betty was getting a bit edgy, because they still hadn’t arrived.  I started preparing myself for the prospect of being called upon to judge the competition. As arguably the most senior person in the room, I was determined not to accept unless I could be chairman of the adjudicators. Anything less would not be fitting for the Consort to the District Governor. Looking around the room, I was starting to think about the two other adjudicators I should select to join me, when a cheer went up as the judges arrived. Actually only two of them arrived as one had been taken ill. This situation was resolved by the questioner joining the judging panel, and Andrea Cameron from Hounslow Rotary Club was co-opted to be questioner. I was momentarily annoyed at not having been asked to be questioner, but then I remembered  what a difficult job it can be, so I was happy to let someone else have a go.

                                       The adjudicators - June McCullough, Amanda Zwarts and Doug New

As I waited for the competition to get under way I chatted to a man sitting next to me who turned out to be the father of one of the contestants in the Intermediate section. He said his daughter was inclined to be a bit theatrical when speaking in public and he hoped she toned this down when she spoke tonight. I wondered if he was being a bit over-critical as after all, each school has come through two rounds of competition to get here tonight, so they had clearly shown themselves already to be excellent public speakers. When I spoke to him later, he was very pleased with her presentation

                                                  theatrical speaking

First up were Woking High School Intermediate team. I thought the chairman showed great composure when, after her team had been called up on stage, she took time out to pour her team a glass of water before starting. Their chosen subject was Watching Society Waste Away, and was a plea for less food waste in the world. In answering the questioner, the speaker gave an excellent reply, I thought, telling us that her family often eat food that has passed its sell-by date, and she didn’t see any harm in cutting mould off cheese before eating the rest of it. I could hardly believe my ears – a teenager advocating scraping mould from food before eating it! To be fair I would do that myself, not that cheese very often lasts long enough in my fridge to become mouldy. But would I have done it as a 14 year-old? I don’t think so. 

                                                             Don't waste food 

Next up were Claremont Fan Court School speaking about inequality in sport. One killer statistic stood out: A male footballer playing in the team which wins the English Premier league will earn £24 million or thereabouts. A woman footballer winning the equivalent female competition will earn……nothing. Following them we had the Old Palace of John Whitgift School in Croydon speaking about whether technology is making us lazy. I loved the quote ‘Technology is taking over the dog’s role as Man’s Best Friend.’ The point was illustrated in the Vote of Thanks, where we heard that ‘if your friend is having a birthday, you don’t need to ask her what she wants, you just open up her Amazon wish list.’ The argument was well made that technology is not only making us lazy but uncommunicative as well.

                                                                               Unpaid? Women footballers

The Senior section began with the Halliford School team of Eugene Smith (Chairman), Ben D’Alton (Speaker) and Jacob Kelly (Vote of Thanks) talking on the subject of What makes us British? They were confident, articulate and humorous from the start, and Ben concluded that it was our humour which set us apart from other nations, giving many amusing examples from Monty Python, Mr Bean and others. Following them were Gunnersbury CatholicSchool, whose subject was Music and the Mind. This was a more cerebral presentation about the science and emotion of music and its effect on our brains. I thought their speaker gave the best answer I heard tonight to our questioner. Finally Woking High School senior team gave our second presentation this evening about Inequality in Sport, which had the intriguing title ‘You Throw like a Girl’. Their speaker made the telling point that only 30% of girls participate in sport outside of school, and they need more role models to persuade them that sport can be cool.

                                                                                   British humour? Mr Bean

Without wishing to sound patronising, they really were all excellent.  I did think that Halliford had edged the senior competition, but I may be guilty of bias. Fortunately I played no part in adjudicating. The adjudicators sat on stage to deliberate on who the winning teams were. Unlike the first round, only two awards would be made tonight, best Intermediate Team and best Senior Team. The winners would go forward to the Regional Final in Maidstone in April. Whilst the adjudicators deliberated, the rest of us partook of the tea (or coffee) and biscuits on offer. It’s interesting that when our club organises the first round, we put on a substantial spread of refreshments afterwards, as well as awarding additional trophies for best Speaker, best Chair, best Vote of Thanks. The reason for this is that individual Rotary clubs can choose to allocate a reasonable budget towards the costs of one evening, whereas the District has to make its limited funds stretch across all Youth competitions. Consequently the District Finals are typically run on a shoestring.

                                                 The DG presents certificates to one of the Intermediate teams

Whilst waiting for the judges verdict, I chatted to a man called Maurice, whose wife  was one of the adjudicators. Apparently the adjudicators all belong to an organisation called Toastmasters. This is a group that organises clubs up and down the country, giving members an opportunity to practice public speaking in a safe environment. I told him that I went along to a Toastmasters meeting once in Camberley and thought it was terrific. I was only an observer, so didn’t speak, but I was impressed with the supportive atmosphere, where every speaker was encouraged and received positive feedback from their fellow members. The meeting started with everybody being given (without any prior preparation) an object which they had to describe in a certain way. On that evening, people were given everyday office equipment (staplers, sellotape, paperclips etc) and had to describe the object they were given in an incredulous voice. Later people were able to speak on a subject of their choosing. Because of the support given from their colleagues, nobody was frightened to speak. I thought it was great, and I decided then that if a Toastmasters club opens locally to where I live, I would join it. That hasn’t happened yet.

                                                         The DG with Betty McClure and John Brewer

Eventually we all took our seats again to hear the adjudicators verdict. They started by giving some excellent general advice to speakers about such things as the use of notes and voice projection. Then came the announcements we were all waiting for. The Intermediate section had been won by Old Palace of John Whitgift School and the Senior section by…… Halliford School. A big cheer went up from my Aurora Rotary colleagues, but I thought it best if I didn’t show any enthusiasm as the Consort should be neutral in these things. So there is a chance I may be attending the next round in Maidstone to support Halliford School.

                                              The winning Halliford team - Eugene, Ben and Jacob with trophy.....

After photos of winning teams had been taken, I had a chance of speaking to one of the adjudicators, Doug New. We have known each other for a number of years, having been together in the Weybridge Chapter of BNI a while back. I had a similar conversation with him about Toastmasters as I had had earlier with Maurice. He said that if a new Toastmasters group were to start up in Staines would I help get it off the ground? In a weak moment I said yes.

                                                           .... and with teachers and parents

The DG and I, with John Brewer, were the last to leave, and we were the embodiment of the Rotary motto of Service Above Self, by staying to clear litter from the floor, and generally try to leave the school hall as we had found it. The caretaker was a very obliging man, but of course we want to be welcome at the school next year.