The Queen's 90th Birthday

I was delighted to receive an invitation to attend an event at TS Black Swan, home of the Sunbury and Walton Sea Cadets to mark the 90th birthday of Her Majesty the Queen.  Although I have seen the Queen on a number of occasions, I have never been introduced to her before, so I was looking forward to being able to have a chat with her, and wish her a Happy Birthday. I did actually speak to her once, many years ago, but I don’t think she heard me, as she was being driven past me in a car at the time.

It did seem rather remarkable, that given all the invitations she must have received, she would choose to come to Shepperton to spend a few hours on her birthday.  So remarkable, in fact, that it wasn’t true. I had misunderstood – her birthday was being celebrated at the Black Swan in her absence.  Nevertheless, there was a busy programme of events this evening,  including the raising of the colours, the lighting of a beacon in honour of the Queen’s birthday, and a demonstration of some drills. I was accompanied by a small group from the Rotary club, including Gill, Ken, Doreen, Tony, Janet and Peter  Matthews as we arrived  at the clubhouse, which is hidden down the end of Penny Lane, near Walton Bridge.

Unit HQ

It was a chilly evening and we were glad of the chance for a drink inside the clubhouse (which I think is correctly called the Unit HQ), where I met Gail Cramp, chairman of the Sea Cadets.  What I hadn’t realised until now, was just how much the Sea Cadets appreciate the support we have given them over recent years. On a wall was a ladder showing the progress the Unit has made towards their ultimate goal of rebuilding their HQ.  Shepperton Aurora Rotary is included in the list of major donors.

Boat on the river

Soon it was time to go outside, where the Unit has a Parade Ground alongside the river. Here various dignitaries gathered ( e.g. The High Sheriff of Surrey, Mayor of Spelthorne, local councillors, me) to witness the raising of the colours and lighting of the beacon. Unfortunately I had forgotten to bring my gong, which made me feel a bit left out, as all the other dignitaries, resplendent in their chains of office, were shown to the front seats, whereas I had to sit a couple of rows behind.

The front row - where I should have been

The lighting of the beacon wasn’t quite what I had expected. Before the event I had in my mind a vision of a beacon being lit on top of a hill, forming part of a chain across the country, each within sight of the next one. What a grand spectacle that would have been.  The reality, however, was a little less dramatic, although no less public-spirited.  Whilst there were indeed hundreds of beacons lit that evening, they tended to be in the middle of communities, outside churches, schools and such public places; in fact anyone who wanted to light a beacon could apply for permission to do so.

The mayor's hair seems to be on fire

In this case the beacon was gas lit, so lighting it was very easy, and was accompanied by a rendition of Happy Birthday from the 100 or so people present.  Following  speeches from the High Sheriff of Surrey Elizabeth Kennedy, and Spelthorne mayor Mark Francis, we were treated to a demonstration of marching from the cadets as they performed intricate drills without appearing to put a foot wrong. The drills had a naval sound to them, as cadets were instructed to turn ‘inboard’, ‘outboard’, ‘fore’ and ‘aft’. We learned that the Unit has had great success with drilling, having won National competitions. On the face of it, they just appeared to be marching back and forth, but in fact they were following very precise orders and I didn’t see them put a foot wrong.

The High Sheriff addresses the throng

It was an enjoyable evening, and I think we were all impressed with the Ship’s Company. All the adult organisers were unpaid volunteers, and the young people were certainly trained in Naval disciplines to a very high standard. It was also nice to hear that they were planning to change the name of their Unit soon to incorporate ‘Shepperton’ into the title.

Marching hither...

....and marching thither

Birthday celebrations

Skittles

10^th March.  I have decided to re-introduce a former tradition in our Rotary Club. We used to have an annual Skittles evening which everybody enjoyed, but for some reason this lapsed a few years ago. So I thought it was time we started up again, and persuaded our Admin Committee (of which I am chairman) to organise a skittles evening. The IPDG checked out the venue we used to go to, The Greyhound pub in Eton Wick, and found the skittles alley was still there, so a date was decided upon, the alley was booked and buffet food ordered.

Skittles

To make things a little more interesting we invited local clubs to join us, and we ended up with David and Geoff from Chertsey club with their wives, and Kevin and Charles from Staines. It’s a bit of a drive to Eton Wick, particularly on a dark evening at rush hour, but everyone seems to have Sat Nav these days, and I didn’t need to create a map for anyone. The pub is actually hidden down a side street, not immediately visible from the main road.

The Greyhound

As it was several years since we were last there, I didn’t really know what to expect. The first thing I noticed, that hadn’t been there before, was a smoking area just outside the entrance to the skittles alley. Accompanying a few smokers sitting there was rather a large Rottweiler dog, which we had to get past in order to reach the relative safety of the bar. Not only that, he was staring at me in a way that seemed aggressive. However, he turned out to be one of the soppiest dogs I have met and only wanted to be patted.

Rottweiler

Once into the Skittles alley, I was pleasantly surprised to find it very well appointed and tidy, in fact smarter than I remembered it. Ken, as usual, had got there first, and the rest of us arrived gradually afterwards. I was pleased to see Karen had managed to come along, even though we hadn’t expected her.

Skittle Alley at The Greyhound

At this point, the IPDG demonstrated her weakness at mental arithmetic, which cost us a few quid. There was no charge for hiring the venue, we just had to pay for the buffet food. As we numbered 19 altogether, the IPDG sent me into the bar to pay for the food. At £12 per head the total cost was £228 which I duly paid. Only later did she say that it was a pity we didn’t have one more person, as the cost was just £10 per head if there were 20 or more.  If I’d known that before, I would have paid for 20 people, which would have cost only £200!

Skittles is an ancient game, probably the forerunner to the ten pin bowling played today. The big difference, of course, is that ten pin bowling is fully automated, so the skittles are re-erected mechanically and scores are worked out in an instant. I never really covered myself in glory playing 10 pin bowling. In fact someone once commented, after yet another ball had failed to hit a pin, ‘I always knew you would end up in the gutter’.

10  pin bowling

With skittles, the work is all done manually, although at least there is no gutter. To make things more interesting, the skittles are wooden, and not exactly uniform. Sometimes they are difficult to erect as they wobble, or lean to one side. Furthermore the ‘ball’ is also made of wood, and isn’t exactly spherical, so it dances around a bit as it rolls toward the skittles. All this means that great skill, or a lot of luck, is required to regularly achieve good scores.

The bar at The Greyhound

Seventeen of us were actually playing the game tonight, with Ken being ‘ball-boy’ and the IPDG doing scoring (well, no-one else offered). All players had a practice round and then 3 scoring rounds. Everyone gets to bowl 3 balls when it’s their turn. Therefore the skittles would have to be reset 68 times during the evening, and more often than that if somebody knocks them all down after 1 or 2 balls, as I did regularly of course. When organising the event I did ask if anybody could bring along a teenager to do all the picking up and re-setting of the skittles, but my request fell on deaf ears. Instead the task of setting them up after each turn was shared between Chris, Ron, Brian, Tony, Doreen and myself, as we were the only ones able to bend over, reach the floor, and get up again.

Mid-way through the evening we stopped to enjoy the buffet, which was excellent, and good value, even at £12 per head. When we came here in the past, the food was always a highlight, and I had been concerned whether tonight’s offering would live up to those memories, but it did.

Welcome refreshments

As far as the competition went, we divided ourselves into two teams. I tried to keep it competitive by setting husbands and wives against each other on opposite teams. This seemed to work well, as my team ran out the narrow winners, despite Karen scoring two strikes with two balls for our opponents in her last round. I didn’t consider it necessary to check the scoring, which I’m sure was accurate.

Now pick them up

Looking back on the evening, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and it was good to socialise with members of two other local clubs. I think I will try and make this an annual event once again, but to try and enlist a couple of youngsters to undertake the picking up and setting down of the skittles.

End of a successful evening (for my team)