23rd June -"A Food Quiz"
The Chairs first real night in charge following a dismal start of being on holiday for the last meeting (standards must be maintained!) and he cracked on with an effort not to be missed.
Robert gave a poor show on his first attempt at grace, followed by a much more Robust effort!
Due to a last minute hitch, no speaker was available for the meeting (that is what we were told anyway!) and Les stepped in to provide some entertainment in the form of a food quiz.
Now consider this, a room full of pampered individual alpha males, some of whom would not know a sardine from a sausage - the evening descended into chaos as menfolk surrounded a table trying to guess fresh and dried herbs, identify fish and guess the price of fillet steak per kilo (come on Les, some of them have not stopped using pounds shillings and pence, never mind metric!).
A brilliant night, well hosted by the Chair and the House Chairman.

Clipper Round the Year
Another talk from one of Simon's chums, Richard Brook. Richard, a retired GP, gave us a talk on one of his bucket list items; his part in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.
Richard became one the crew of the Swiss Sailing (the boat was not his choice, he was put on board as a crew member) entry for the race on 2 out of 8 legs. Sailing in The 4th leg around Australia and taking part in the Sydney - Hobart Race and also the final leg 8 from New York to end via Derry, Holland and then into London Tower bridge.
The talk went down really well with both sailors and landlubbers alike, with only Les being disgruntled that there seemed to be little animosity on board!
Many Thanks to Richard and we wish him many a warm summer in his new Clipper Conservatory (you needed to be there to understand the relevance.)

28th April A.G.M.

Well another year past and it all comes down to this. An A.G.M. no confirmed taker of the helm, only a slight interest from the floor and many expectant (in the eagerness terms, not the child bearing way, god forbid!) people await the outcome.

Meal eaten, reports read and torn to shreds by onlookers, some stout rebuttal from the officers and that's it. All done!

I have enjoyed my 2 years in Office and my thanks go to all members for the continued support given to me (Iain) and the officers, (John, Les, Tom (for a time) and Graeme) in the work they have done to keep the club afloat.

Mention should also be made of the input from the staff at Runcorn Golf Club, Dave and Helena (I/ We wish you both well over the coming months) and the most recent efforts from Sue in the kitchen.

So to end, its now time for a new Chairman. A vote taken, passed without any against (a volunteer is worth a very large number of pressed men) the new Chairman appointed is Mr Daryl McKay.

I wish him well for the coming 2 years and will give him every assistance possible, as will all the members of Runcorn 41 Club.

I will continue to write the blog, for those interested - and those who are not, to ensure an online record of whatever sorts is kept up during the "Daz Years". I hope they hold a bright future... (Geddit?)

24th March Speaker the esteemed John Leslie Aston - something about football

Due notice given at the beginning of the 2014/15 season, Les had spent his time wisely sifting through his collection of memorabilia to bring us his views on Football then and now.

As a young boy, his first match with his dad, kicking a ball in the street with a well known footballing neighbour looking on and taking absolutely no notice, to his time spent travelling to away games to wherever his dad got tickets.

A selection of memories carefully crafted into a tale of love for the glory days of football, versus the the namby pamby game of today. A story of football folk, plumbers by day, on the 5pm bus to the game after work. Tears of joy and sorrow rolling down the expectant crowds at Runcorn Golf Club as Les weaved a story of yesteryear and his love of times gone by.

An excellent talk and one that will go down as one of the best ever.

24th February Eric Lynton Trophy v Lymm @RGC
An invite duly sent, Lymm 41 Club arrived with a motley crew of invaders to see if they could retain the Eric Lynton Trophy following a disaster by Runcorn at the previous meeting.

The air was tense, more so because some of the Runcorn members had no idea what Les, the house chair, had in store.

The meal progressed with some heavy banter and much gnawing of raw meat. Les then declared the game for evening would be "Would I Lie to You? Runcorn members each were given a crumpled note with some written text, and escapade from the past. Was it a lie or was it the truth. Members fo Lymm had to decide.

Lymm decided that they would try and work as a team, but it was fruitless, Runcorn emerged victorious and reclaimed the trophy which no-one has seen for may a year. One wonders where it is.

However, a good night enjoyed by all, and by the way, Runcorn won fair and square!!.

.

Town Names -why and how
27 January 2015
The new year and The Chair decided that this one was his.
Having an interest in language and history, he investigated the way in which local and national town and village names had come to be. From the invasion times where Anglo Saxon and Vikings named places following the roman invasions, to modern day names which have been made from land features and location as the premise for the name.
Much discussion followed regarding names of places (and people for that matter) deriving from trade and meeting places. A success, I hope so, a good night, yes it was.

Postboxes - an opening for everyone perhaps?

25th November Speaker Chris Evans

Chris, a chum of a 41 Club member, came along to give a talk on postboxes through the ages, with some insightful information regarding local (Merseyside) postboxes and those long gone.

He spoke about times long past when boxes and deliveries were not run by a  single national operator and showed examples of how the boxes have transformed through time and necessity (to stop people stealing the mail for example) 

A very good evening was had by all and of course, reminders about last post before Christmas was one of the questions!!

28th October 35th CharterThe 35th Charter got off to a shakey start with the Chairman thinking he was at a Round Table meeting rather than 41 club, but thats age for you!A packed house with esteemed guests from far afield enjoyed a lovely meal accompanied by many stories of old times and supplemented by beer and wine aplenty.The speakers for the evening did not disappoint. The well known dentist from St Helens, Andy Ball, had come out of retirement to enable the chuckle buttons to be pressed as stories (old and new) were told ending Holloway-esque  leaving the audience wanting more.We were then entertained by former circuit Judge Richard McCullagh who, true to his Liverpool roots, continued the humour throughout his talk. Richard, who is a retired District Judge told us of his wonderful time in cricket whilst at the same time carrying on a career in Law and gave us his vast experience in dealing with the norm in the courts and cricketing tales villains and acquaintances.