Newsletter of the Great Ayton & District Conservative Club

Issue 15 MARCH 2016

G entlemen Welcome to issue 15 of Blueprint, your Club’s newsletter. It seems like no time at all has passed since I was putting things together for the November issue and here we are already into March -

the end of yet another Club year and the beginning of a new one. Within the last year, almost all of the activities, events and outings took part as usual, but sadly the 2015 Lit Coverdale Competitions failed to go-ahead due to the lack of entries.

As most of you will have noticed, the Bonus Ticket Scheme was in place again this year, this is mainly paid for by the efforts of the Sports Committee holding the Friday Night draw. It’s thanks to all of you of course for buying the tickets which makes it possible to run all of the various events. The Bonus Ticket Scheme certainly seems popular with our regular Members. The highlight for the fishermen last year was that Geoff had a hole in one of his wellies so he got his foot wet (never mind Geoff). The Sports Committee isn’t the only ones who have been busy, the Building Committee, Chaired this year by Harry Woolf, have also been busy having some roofing work done, guttering replaced, a new smoking shelter erected and the final phase of the window replacement programme, with the installation of the three Bay Windows in Paul & Karen’s accommodation. This of course all has to be paid for and as you will see by the Annual Accounts and Balance Sheet, our Treasurer John Chilton has done a sterling job looking after the Club’s finances. The Bar Committee is constantly talking, successfully I may add, to our suppliers in an effort to keep our prices as keen as possible. The Membership Committee enrolled 35 new members last year, so all together, everyone involved with the Club has made some contribution towards making it the success that it is today. Of course, the highlight of the year for me was winning the John Edwards Trophy - I think I did well, considering I know nothing about horses or racing!

Looking forward to this year - if you, the Members, support the various activities, events and outings - they will go ahead, so please come along and get involved. This year is the year of the Village Fete and once again the Parish Council have asked us to get involved by hosting the Children’s Sports on the Low Green on the morning of the Fete. They have also asked if we are entering a float in the Parade this year. If you would like to be involved with these events please make contact with your Committee (see also page 6).

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those people who are, or have been, involved with the Club. I’m sure I speak on behalf of all of you when I say the biggest THANK YOU is reserved for Paul, Karen and their staff for the extra effort which they put in to look after us all so well.

View from the Chair

Phil Quigley, Chairman

Annual Accounts The Club’s Annual Accounts for 2015 have now been audited and approved. If you are reading this newsletter in its digital form, the Accounts are contained on the last 7 pages. If you are reading a paper copy of the newsletter, printed copies of the Accounts are available in the Club for you to peruse.

The Club’s AGM will be held at 8.00pm on Wednesday 23rd March

Congratulations! ... to Bill Harbottle

who has been a Member of the Club for SEVENTY years!!

Bill became a Member on Wednesday 13th March 1946, and has been a staunch supporter ever since. I suspect this is one milestone which may NEVER be surpassed.

STOP Paul disturbed two young men on the Club fire escape on the night of 1st March.

PRESS It is suspected that they went on to burgle the Buck Hotel later - make sure your cars are locked in the car park !

FREE Members’ Draw

The Free Members Draw (into which all members are automatically entered) is drawn every Saturday night between 9.00pm and 10.00pm, and has still been won only ONCE.

The prize fund for the draw on Saturday 5th March has reached

the dizzying heights of £750 !!

Don’t forget

- you must be in (the Club, on the night) to win!

Bar sub-committee I’ve been chairman of the bar committee on and off, for many years. It’s not the sort of job you would take to crave popularity (hell, I was a dentist for 40 years) and, anyway, Rod Thrower, Barry James and Paul do all the hard work.

What are my qualifications? Well, I was brought up in a pub for my first 16 years and have been one side or the other side of a bar ever since.

In my opinion it’s the bar committee’s job to set prices as low as we can without the Club going into the red.

Although we haven’t raised our bar prices for three years, we are up against the drinks suppliers who consistently come up with imaginative reasons to raise their prices. No wonder four pubs are closing every day of the week.

Our other nemesis is our hard working building committee where every penny of profit we are left with is used in preserving the fabric of our old building.

And don’t get me going about George Gideon Oliver Osborne and his alcohol duty.

Hopes for the future? Well, it would be great if we could afford a summer give-away as we used to in the good-old-days.

How do we do that? I’m afraid it’s a matter of bums-on-seats and beer sales, so it’s all up to you thirsty members doing your bit.

See you at the bar.

Bill Neville

We now have a total membership of 525 (including 19 Country Members), made up of:

273 Full Members 209 Senior Members 11 Honorary Members 31 Life Members 1 Joint Life/Honorary Member

525 Total Membership

Laughter

- the best medicine

1st PRIZE No. 6 Brian Bartram £245

2nd PRIZE No. 27 Brian Hodgson £ 50

3rd PRIZE No. 35 Robert Wright £ 33

100 CLUB

The last draw was made on Thursday 31st December 2015

The following Members had a bright start to the New Year

The next draw will take place on Thursday 31st March 2016 Please ensure that your subscription is up-to-date

before the draw is made! There are still numbers available if you would like to join

the 100 Club - simply ask any Committee Member !

A few wise words from Tommy Cooper’s store of one-liners

'Doctor - I can't stop singing 'The Green, Green Grass of Home'. 'That sounds like Tom Jones syndrome.' 'Is it common?' 'It's not unusual.'

A man takes his Rottweiler to the vet. 'My dog is cross-eyed - is there anything you can do for him?' 'Well,' says the vet, 'let's have a look at him' So he picks the dog up and examines his eyes, then he checks his teeth. Finally, he says, 'I'm going to have to put him down.' 'What!?! Because he's cross-eyed?' 'No, because he's really heavy'

Happy Birthday (belated) to Jody

Jody was, to say the least, a little

surprised when a group of Sunday

lunchtime regulars decided that the

occasion couldn’t be allowed to pass

without her having a suitable addition

to the stock of snacks she keeps on

hand!

TOP OF THE WORD is a brand new board game that has just been launched by local

Club member, Keith McGuinness. The game is in fact intended for the 2016 Xmas market, but Keith decided to have a trial local launch at the end of November 2015.

The game has been really well received locally, with a number of members buying a copy of the game and we’re told it has been really enjoyed by all age ranges.

The game is now being launched nationally, and is already being played in Board Game Cafés in London.

Any members interested in getting their own copy can contact Keith on 01642 722077 or by email - keith_mcg@Hotmail.com

Keith has kindly donated a copy of the game to the Club, so that members can try the game for themselves.

Website is - www.topoftheword.com

The bikes are coming!

On Sunday 1st May 2016, The Tour de Yorkshire will include Great Ayton in its itinerary for Stage 3. We intend to open the Club to ALL on the day - there should be an excellent view of the competitors, as they race down through the Village, over the Stone Bridge, and past the Buck towards Stokesley.

More details will be posted on the Club’s noticeboards nearer the day.

Hatched, Matched and Despatched

All our yesterdays

Sadly, since issue 14 of BluePrint last November, the following three members have passed away:

Ray Berry 28th January 2016 aged 78 years, a Member since 2006

Les Jones 23rd February 2016

aged 86 years, Les was born on Christmas Day 1929 and had been a Member since 1970

Bert Fraser 26th February 2016 aged 82 years, a Member since 1974

Since November, we have welcomed the following new

members to the Club:

Geoffrey Keeley

Andrew Dunn

Richard Dunn

Neil Hodgson

Stephen Bennison

Chris Hart

We hope they will make the most of their membership and enjoy the facilities we provide.

A few more photos of Club Members, scanned from my archives (otherwise know as a large cardboard box). Many years ago, as well as having a cricket team which played regularly on a Wednesday night, we staged a Members’ XI vs The President’s XI every Summer. These photos must be of a canny age - you only have to look at the colour, and amount, of hair that some current members are sporting!

The first photo (top left), with John Edwards and Donald Ward as umpires, is from the very first of those annual games.

Ernie Taylor

President’s Perspective

Gentlemen, again I find myself paying tribute to the teamwork of the Officers of the Club, the General and Sports Committees and our employees in what has been another good year. In particular I would like to highlight our Chairman Phil Quigley who deserves a special mention. Phil has, despite ill health throughout the year, not missed a single Committee meeting, and has shown the utmost professionalism at all times.

I don’t intend to mention the team by name, but all involved from the Officers, the various Committees, Sub- Committees, the Steward and Stewardess, the bar and cleaning staff, all have my, and I hope your, appreciation.

On behalf of the membership “I thank them one and all”.

2016 is Village Fete Year & the event will take place on Saturday 11th June. A longstanding part of the Fete are the themed & decorated floats which set off from the Low Green in procession to the High Green. Our Club has a long history of entering floats, even being judged in 1st place many moons ago! The theme for this year’s floats is “Royalty Through the Ages” and we intend to enter again - BUT - we need YOUR help. Whether you’re a creative genius, good with a paint brush, saw, hammer or drill - we’d love you to volunteer to help. The float will be assembled at Chris Thompson’s farm at Pinchinthorpe, so we can work on it even if it’s not the best weather.

If you can help, please have a chat to Ernie Taylor, or any member of the Committee.