Events - Write Ups and Reviews
Art Group
The Art Group would like to thank all who turned out in the awful weather on Monday 28 May 2007 to view their efforts, and even buy some. Sales and donations mean £140 was collected for the East Anglian Air Ambulance. Thanks also to all who helped, Elinor, Ann, Vera, Alan and Keith, to make it another successful and joyous event - Kathleen Dawson
Ashwren Players
The Annual General meeting was held on Wednesday 16th July 2008
Panto 2008 - See pictures in the photo Album. By popular demand and with much hard but, I hope, happy work, Ashwren Players performed "Aladdin" at Wreningham Village Hall from Thursday to Saturday the 14 to 16 February 2008. It was a splendid entertainment and certainly played to a packed house on the Saturday evening; the first-ever Saturday Matinee performance was also a success and I hope the Thursday and Friday evenings were well-attended too.
All the actors, especially the children singing and dancing, and their costumes, made the performance as entertaining and enjoyable as it was and although I probably shouldn't single one person out, I will. To me the costume and stage presence of the Genie of the Lamp were memorable - lustrous and sumptuous his costume; splendidly lively and innovating his performance.
The proceeds of the Wreningham Witch and Wren Festival of 30 June/1 July 2007 are to be split three-ways, with the Ashwren Players being one of the recipients.
Panto 2007 - Having been a happy spectator of the phantasmagoria that was Little Red Hiding Hood – the Panto, I would like to congratulate the players and dancers, the back-room crew and the production team for a most enjoyable entertainment. We certainly were caught up in the spirit of the tale with “boos” and “hisses” in the right (and sometimes wrong) place and “oohs” and “aahs” as heart-strings were plucked. Thank you very much!To see photos from scenes of this Panto, have a look at the Photo Album page.
Shuffleboard Club
JULY COMPETITION NIGHT
The July Competition Night was held on Wednesday 30th with 9 present, namely:-Annette Bunting; Kath Dawson; Alan Dawson; John Doughty; Shirley Moss; Gordon Robbie; Mark Linsdell; and Christine Wooster, with Jennifer Robbie organising things and keeping the scores on the doors.
Numbers and time constraints dictated that doubles be played, and the pairings that were drawn out of the hat were:- Gordon and Alan; John and Annette; Christine and Mark; Shirley and Kath.
Once again, nobody had it all their own way and all the teams won at least one of their matches, with nobody winning all three. On match points (2 for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss) Gordon and Alan tied with John and Annette on 4 points. That meant points scored in each game being totted up to resolve the situation. By a stroke of good fortune, combined, no doubt, with a little talent, Gordon and Alan had scored 119 points in their last game and this exceptional score secured their victory on the night.
Looking at results since the first Competition Night in February, I find that Alan has been on the winning team every time we played doubles, but has fared less well on the 2 occasions we played singles, when the winners were John and Jennifer. I’m sure there are all sorts of other interesting facts I can dig out, and I will aim to produce a rigorous statistical analysis at the end of the year. The next monthly competition night will be on Wednesday 27 August. Hope to see you then.
Gordon Robbie
JUNE COMPETITION NIGHT
The June Competition Night on Wednesday 25th marked the Shuffleboard Club’s first anniversary and, in view of this special occasion, there was a cup, kindly donated by Kath Dawson, and £5 to be won. The highly competitive field included:-Annette Bunting; Kath Dawson; Alan Dawson; John Doughty; Lin Packer; Jennifer Robbie; Marie Weiner; and Christine Wooster, with Gordon Robbie doing the administration and generally keeping order.
The regular 2-hour slot sets a limit on the number of matches that can be played, so doubles was the order of the day. The pairings drawn out of the hat were:- Marie and Jennifer; Alan and Annette; John and Christine; and Kath and Linda.
Competition was fierce and scoring was tight, with teams in 2 of the matches being separated by only 1 point, with the largest winning margin a modest 28. All the teams won at least one of their 3 matches, but 2 teams won 2 matches to give them 4 match points each. The tie was resolved by a count of the actual game points scored, and Alan and Annette ran out the winners with 145 points to the 135 of Marie and Jennifer. So congratulations to Alan and Annette who each won a fiver and are joint holders of the Dawson Cup until it is played for again in June 2009.
Looking less far ahead, the next monthly competition night will be on Wednesday 30 July. Hope to see you then.
Gordon Robbie
APRIL/MAY COMPETITION NIGHTS
Since I filed my last report, the Shuffleboard Club has held another two Competition Nights on the last Wednesdays in April and May, which, with the increasing organisational experience, ran with the efficiency of a well-oiled machine.
On 30 April, the field comprised:-Annette Bunting; Kath Dawson; Alan Dawson; John Doughty; Shirley Moss; Jennifer Robbie; Gordon Robbie; and Christine Wooster.
Given the numbers, the matches were played as doubles and the 4 teams drawn out of the hat were – John and Christine; Shirley and Jennifer; Alan and Gordon; and Annette and Kath. The highest score of the evening was 89 points scored by Shirley and Jennifer against the 56 points of Annette and Kath. At the other end of the spectrum John and Christine had the misfortune to score only -1 (yes, minus one. Shuffleboard can be a cruel game!) in their game with Alan and Gordon, who ran out the evening’s overall winners with 6 match points to Shirley and Jennifer’s 4. John and Christine won only one of their matches to score 2 points, while Annette and Kath drew a blank despite scoring quite well in their 3 games.
On Wednesday 28 May, it was decided to play singles with 6 players, including:- Kath Dawson; Alan Dawson; Shirley Moss; Jennifer Robbie; Gordon Robbie; and Christine Wooster
Although a game according to the Rules is the first to 75 points, it can often take a long time to get there, given Shuffleboard’s opportunities for spoiling play and negative scores, Accordingly, the Club plays 8-end games so that everybody is getting about the same time on court with not too much waiting time; which explains why Alan had scores in 2 games of 118 and 135 points. On that form, he might have emerged the May winner, had he not lost the evening’s lowest scoring game by only 11 points to Jennifer’s 12. Jennifer, despite that low score and narrow winning margin, won all her other games as well to give her victory on the night with a perfect 10 match points to Alan’s 8. Kath, Shirley and Gordon wound up with 4 match points each but Christine scored a duck. And a good time was had by all!
Next Competition Night will be on Wednesday 25 June. Since it’s the Club’s first anniversary, the winner will be awarded a cup and a fiver. Hope to see you then.
Gordon Robbie
NEWS FROM 26 MARCH 2008 - 2ND COMPETITION NIGHT
The Shuffleboard Club held its second monthly competition night on Wednesday 26 March in the Village Hall. Competing on the night were:-
Alan Dawson; Kath Dawson; John Doughty; Jennifer Robbie; Lin Packer; and Kelvin Packer.
With only 6 competitors, it was decided to play singles. Everyone playing everybody else once over 8 ends meant 15 matches to play, which filled up our usual 2-hour slot comfortably. As before, my non-playing role was as match referee and scorer. League points were allocated on the usual 2 for a win and 1 for a draw, with a tally also kept of the actual game points scored to resolve a league points tie at the end of the evening.
The form book was confounded by Kelvin Packer, who was in the winning team at the February competition night, coming tail of the field with only 2 points scored, from one win against Lin. Coincidence, or was Lin feeling sorry for him?. Lin Packer herself was next up with 3 points, her odd point coming from a tie with John Doughty. On 6 points were Alan Dawson, Kath Dawson and Jennifer Robbie, but clear winner on the night with 7 points was John Doughty.
As it turned out, even though he although he only had 3 wins to John's 3 wins and a draw, Alan Dawson actually scored the most points over the evening, with a total of 311 to John's 281, largely because one of John's wins was in a very low-scoring game which he won with only 18 points to his opponent's - 5. All this goes to show that Shuffleboard has one of the major ingredients for any popular sport - the production of statistics! And the more competition nights we have, the more statistics I will be able to produce. Nice!
The next competition night will be Wednesday 30 April, starting at 19.30 with the usual charge of £2 per head. 15 Matches are the most we can comfortably fit in to our 2-hour slot, so numbers on the evening will dictate whether we play doubles or singles, but, either way, the more the merrier. See you then.
Gordon Robbie
MONTHLY COMPETITION NIGHTS
1. The Shuffleboard Club will hold its monthly competiton nights on the last Wednesday of every month. The charge will be the usual £2.00 per head.
2. The format of the evening is intended to keep things simple, informal and self-contained. Anyone wanting to play can just turn up without any need to make any prior arrangements. As players arrive, their names will be put in the hat, and when everybody has arrived, the competition draw will be made.
3. If there are 8 or more players, then the names will be drawn in pairs and the matches will be doubles. The order in which pairs are drawn will also determine the order of the initial matches. In the event of there being an odd number, I will drop out and concentrate on running the event and keeping scores.
4. If there are fewer than 8 players, then the matches will be played as singles, and the draw will just determine the initial order of play.
5. The competition will be on a league or round robin basis, i.e. everybody will play everybody else once. Each match will be played over our usual 8 ends. The winners of each match will score 2 points, with each team or player taking 1 point in the event of a tie. The actual scores in each match will also be recorded.
6. The team, or player, with the greatest number of league points at the end of the evening will be declared the Competition Night Winner. In the event of there being a tie on league points, then the winner will be the team with the greatest number of points scored in all their matches.
7. The prize will be a refund of the evening’s charge of £2 to the winning player or players (This is just for starters to see how it goes – if the Competition Night looks like being popular, more substantial rewards can be offered.).
Gordon Robbie
NEWS FROM 6 FEBRUARY 2008
At the end of November 2007, questionnaires were given to all 18 Shuffleboard Club members and there was a 100% response.
To the question of keeping a “contingency fund” for the purpose of purchasing new equipment/replacement etc., there were 17 in favour with a further 1 defining a requirement for a “surplus” to be used for this purpose.
To the question of how much this “contingency fund” should be, there was 1 choice for £100 to £150; 4 for £100; 3 for £50; 1 for £15. The other 9 members did not choose a specific amount
To the question of whether the fee should be lowered and to how much – 12 voted for a lower fee and 6 said it should not be lowered. Of the 12 who voted to lower the fee, 10 wanted £2 per two-hour session; with 2 others suggesting £1.50 to £2.00.
To the question of whether surplus funds, if any – in excess of the hall hire fees and contingency fund – could be donated to the Village Hall and/or to other charities, 12 voted for the Village Hall only with 4 others in favour of the VH or other charity, 1 in favour of neither and 1 unclear.
To the question of competition, and bearing in mind some of you voted for more than one option, 16 wanted competition of some kind with 8 opting for once a month and 8 opting for year end; 3 for once a quarter and 2 for once every six months. 11 would like competition against other local clubs if any exist.
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Village Hall rent for the 2 hours is £12.00 so at present we need 5 people to break even – since we started on 4 July 2007, there has been only one session where a loss was made with three other sessions where a minimum 50p profit was made. The Hall rent is paid when billed by the Village Hall Committee at the end of each quarter but the £12 is put aside immediately after each evening’s hire in readiness for the Bill. All rent has been paid up to and including the quarter ended 31 December 2007. The rent due at 31 March 2008, a 12 week hire period, will be £144. As at 31 January 2008, there is already a surplus (or contingency fund) of £80 over the 4 weeks rent due up to that date.
It seems therefore that the Session fee can be lowered to £2.00 per two-hour club meeting as from 6 February 2008; this will mean that 6 players are required to break even each Wednesday; that the above surplus should be allowed to rise to £100; and that any amount over £100 in hand at the end of a quarter, after the payment of the Village Hall rent, should be donated to Village Hall funds.
Regarding competition – there are no other local clubs at the moment but we can monitor that situation. As regards competition nights at the club, this will be looked at with the possibility of something at the end of this month to see how it goes.
Jennifer Robbie
Women’s Institute
The East Coast Truckers Charity was Wreningham & District W.I.’s charity of interest during 2007. These are the Truckers who organise various events to raise so much money to help children and their families. They also organise the famous Children’s Convoy held every year during the August Bank Holiday; this year's event taking place last Sunday, the 26th. Some 84 trucks, with excited children as passengers, progressed in convoy from County Hall in Norwich to the seafront in Great Yarmouth. The children then went on to spend the afternoon on the various rides at Pleasurewood Hills - all on a perfect summer's day.
GIGS
Spikedrivers Concert March 2008
The following is a report by Brian Mondin the organiser of the concert
I first heard the Spikedrivers approximately two years ago at the Assembly Rooms in Norwich and was so taken with their music that I bought two CD’s (even though it was not a buy one get one free offer). I then went to see them again in Cromer and then a third time in Billericay in Essex. I had by this time decided that they would be an ideal band to appear in Ashwellthorpe at our third gig to raise money for the East Anglian Air Ambulance, as not only did they sound good, but they also looked good which I thought would come over well in our small traditional style hall. The band comprises Ben Tyzack from Charleston, South Carolina, on lead guitar, vocals and harmonica, Constance Redgrave from Hollywood, California, on bass guitar vocals and percussion, and Maurice McElroy from Belfast, Northern Ireland on drums, vocals and percussion.
The Spikedrivers eventually appeared in Ashwellthorpe on Saturday 1st March in front of a packed hall (nobody failed to turn up, although one or two people had difficulty finding the hall) who enthusiastically received each song and at conclusion of the encore in which the audience were invited to “shake with the band” gave the Spikedrivers a standing ovation. The evenings commenced with a great solo guitar performance by Dean Powell who played for about half an hour. He was also invited to play with the Spikedrivers on two numbers in the second set. The evening was greatly enjoyed by both performers and audience alike and raised £456.13 for the Air Ambulance. With very many thanks to everyone who made cakes, gave raffle prizes and/or helped on the night, particularly those who were ‘roped in’ at the last minute.
You can see more about the group on their website www.spikedrivers.net
Some pictures of the concert are on the Photo Album.
