On Thursday 6th October, over 15 members of CDWS had a cultural evening – we went to see the an ‘as live’ showing of ‘Jack Absolute Flies Again’ from the National Theatre at the Everyman in Gerrards Cross.
It is based (very loosely) on Sheridan’s play ‘The Rivals’, but set in the 1940’s Battle of Britain. The play features the famous Mrs Malaprop – played brilliantly by Caroline Quentin, whose use of the wrong words was particularly risqué in this rendition.
Friday 19th August was a fine day for playing golf. It is fair to say that the golf played on that day at Oaklands Park Golf Club by the members of the Chiltern Welsh was rather less than fine, but it was enjoyable nevertheless.
Nine players arrived in good time to enjoy coffee and a bacon roll, and to be allocated into three teams of three for a competition over the 18 holes. As the last team holed out on the 9th green before moving on to the 10th tee, we were joined by Gwyneth Herrington who completed the last nine holes at Oaklands for the first time. Gwyneth managed to outscore two of our team over the back nine, but we were unable to count those points unfortunately. Not that it would have made a difference to the overall team results.
The first team home, of Jane Morris, Brian Evans and Rob Britton, were the clear winners recording 93 points. The other teams, of Pam Britton, Eryl Morris and Alan Longshaw, and of Alun McCarthy, Rob Brett and Gwyndaf John, scored much the same with 80 and 82 points respectively.
Individual honours fell to Rob Britton for the longest drive, and to Alan Longshaw for nearest the pin.
Alun recorded the day’s highest individual points score, with Eryl also recording an above par individual score of 37 points.
This was Alun’s first round of 18 holes on a full-size course. He only started playing the game upon his retirement last year, and had only played on a short “par 3” course previously. But his high score ensures that he will not enjoy such a generous handicap at our next Golf Day!
After the playing exertions, 18 gathered for the lunch afterwards and tucked into a main course of salmon followed by dessert of lemon tart. It was a particular pleasure to see Helen Hall there, on a trip out from the Care Home she has recently moved into at Chorleywood. She was brought along by Ann Lawrence, who was herself looking remarkably well after her recent operation.
The winning team were congratulated on their triumph and presented with a prize of three bottles of wine. Rob thanked Gwyndaf for organising the event, though Gwyndaf pointed out that Rob himself had been the key contact with the Golf Club.
Gwyndaf John
Sunday 3 July 2022, Chiltern Welsh Society: Summer Lunch.
Venue: Di & Colin Thomas’ Windsor Road, Gerrards Cross.
Yet again the weather made its usual contribution to a most convivial get together. The gazebos were all in place and looked their sturdy best- thanks to Alan Longshaw and his team. Some 45 guests were quickly catching up on the major issues of the day – especially how Wales were robbed by an over zealous Georgian, – yes Georgian, referee, in their opening Test Match in South Africa. Covid continues as a subject of note, & indeed there were a few casualties on the day, – including our President- Ann Evans; get well soon Ann.
Colin Picton welcomed everyone, including a few new members. Good to see new faces and that they were all such help in the removal of tables and chairs- thank you & well done. As usual the meal was excellent and provided with a smile from the Company of “ To Dine For” ; in your absence Stephanie- they all did you proud. Colin & Di were enthusiastically thanked for hosting the event and looked most pleased with gifts of bouquet of flowers (for Colin) and a bottle of Barolo ( for Di) – only joking !
The rustic garden with mulberry tree, – plus apples and pears gradually ripening from their infancy added an appropriate background to a relaxing afternoon. The camaraderie was wonderfully evident and was most suitable for the 22nd Summer Lunch of the Society. The day was a real success as it was efficiently managed, in both preparation and delivery, by Kay Day .
The Committee is to be congratulated . Da iawn.
Gwyn Owen
Pictures – courtesy of Colin Picton – there are more to see here.
22nd CDWS AGM on Friday 20th May 2022
People started arriving from about 7pm and in total there were 31 members in attendance.
Chairman Colin Picton started meeting at 7:30 with apologies for absence. There were 16 in total including committee members Ann Evans, Ann Lawrence and Kay Day. Colin expressed the feelings of all members in sending best wishes for a speedy recovery to Ann Lawrence who is in hospital.
The approval of the Minutes of the 21st AGM was proposed by Barrie Reece and seconded by Sue Jones.
Chairman’s Report
Colin gave his Chairman’s report, starting with saying how good is was to be able to greet everyone personally this year rather than having to rely on a Zoom meeting as occurred in the previous 2 years.
Colin then introduced a slide show of photographs illustrating the history of the society over the past 22 years, with almost 900 photos, which continued to roll over the whole evening. It was a little disconcerting to some to see themselves age by 22 years over the course of one night!
Colin reviewed the events of the past year, starting with the Summer Lunch, which in 2021 occurred twice. The first occasion was held in July at Peter and Beth Sykes-Johnston’s home in Gerrards Cross, but due to Covid restrictions, the numbers were limited. So, in order to give more people a chance to attend, a second lunch was held in September at Ernest Morris’s house in Chesham Bois. We have to thank the generosity of our hosts in letting their home be used for these occasions.
At the end of August, Gwyndaf John and Rob Britton organized the annual golf day at Oaklands Park, won this year by Pam Britton.
In December Ralph and Margaret Broomby hosted our Christmas Drinks event at their home in Chesham Bois. Again, due to Covid, we were not sure that this event would go ahead, but in the end, it was a convivial and cheering event with canapes provided by ‘To Dine For’.
January saw a return of Jonathan Pegler’s Quiz Evening. Unfortunately, due to a rise in Covid numbers, this had to be another Zoom based event, without the usual food, but it was still up to the usual standard in terms of fun and difficulty.
This was Jonathan’s last quiz as he is stepping down from the committee to concentrate on his musical pursuits. Colin thanked Jonathan for the preparation and hard work he has put into his quizzes and trips over the years.
March saw a return to normal with our St David’s Day Dinner being held at Gerrards Cross Golf Club. Over 70 members enjoyed a delightful dinner in the refurbished venue, followed by a great selection of operatic and Welsh songs performed by the first-class mezzo soprano Angharad Rowlands.
In April Gwyndaf and Janet John led our Spring Walk to explore the wild flowers around Coleshill. As they are such experts in the matter, we learnt a lot and finished the morning with a pub lunch at The Red Lion.
Colin then said that the next event will be the 2022 Summer Lunch, returning to the kind hospitality of Diane and Colin Thomas in Gerrards Cross.
Barrie Reece proposed the acceptance of The Chairman’s Report, seconded by Kate Picton.
Membership
Colin said that Membership numbers stand at 110, a slight drop over last year.
Financial Report
Jonathan Pegler presented the Financial Report for the last time. For the year ending 31st March 2022, assets were approximately £3,000. Jonathan explained that annual income from subscriptions comes to between £1,100 and £1,200 and that our main costs are for about £800 in insurance, printing and the web site, leaving about £400 to be used as subsidies for our events, but, as a whole, events are self-funded. He concluded that the Society is financially sound.
Colin appealed to the membership for a person to fill the role as our new treasurer, with Jonathan explaining that the work was not onerous and no financial qualification was necessary. In the meantime, David Powell will stand in for the role.
Election of Officers
Colin then came to the election of officers to the Society. Ann Evans is Life President and as such is not elected. Election of the other officials was as follows:
| Position | Name | ||
| Chairman | |||
| Vice Chairman | |||
| Minutes Secretary | Merle Davies | ||
| Treasurer | Vacancy | ||
| Membership Secretary | Ann Lawrence | ||
| Secretary | |||
| Committee Members | Kay Day David Powell Ruth Huckle |
Colin presented a bottle of wine to Jonathan. Sue Jones proposed a vote of thanks for all the work that Jonathan has contributed over the years. Colin said that Jonathan has contributed an awful lot to the Society, not only as Treasurer, but compiling and hosting quizzes, the organization of trips to Wales and other places, and his stint as past Chairman.
As Colin brought the formal part of the evening to a close, Ann Tennant appeared through the serving hatch to announce that the evening’s supper was ready.
There was a choice of cooked ham & broad beans or chicken & mushroom as the main course followed by a selection of deserts: rhubarb fool, orange tart, chocolate mousse or a plate of cheeses. As usual, Ann’s food was delicious and generous.
Throughout the meal we were entertained by the continuing backdrop of photographs of events through the years.
The evening concluded with Barrie Reece taking to the piano to play some well-known Welsh songs and to lead the singing.
The evening finished at around 10pm.
Well done to those who helped organize the event, especially to Kay and Ann who could not attend in person.
Friday 4th March
It was so lovely to see everyone in the flesh again! All those Zoom meetings that we’ve had since St David’s Day 2020 were a good way to stay in touch, but not like the real thing, and what a turnout! – There were 79 of us in total and it was lovely to see new members and guests as well as old friends. We had all been warned beforehand, that due to Covid we should all have had Lateral Flow Tests before we went.
This year our St David’s Day Dinner returned to Gerrards Cross Golf Club. The club house has had a real face lift since we were last there – the interior has been renovated and it looks very smart. The bar and the dining room were festooned with Welsh flags. People started arriving at 6:30 and were greeted with a drink, giving people time to circulate around the bar, meet old friends and catch up.
Martin Hillary, the GX Manager was very helpful in making suggestions and putting up all the flags.
By 7:15 people were ushered into the dining room, where a table plan assigned them to their places. The tables were decorated with lovely floral displays of daffodils created by the ladies of the committee. Barrie Reece had printed the place names at the table to include the menu choices that people had made – just in case we’d forgotten – and had produced a programme for the evening.
When we had all found our allocated places our Chairman, Colin Picton, welcomed us to the evening and Gwyndaf John said grace.
Then the food started to arrive. For starters we had made the choice between tomato and garlic soup, smoked salmon mousse or asparagus with poached egg. I had the asparagus and was pleasantly surprised that the poached egg was just right with a really runny yolk, which was quite an achievement when catering for so many people.
Main course was a choice of seabass, lamb shank, or a traditional Welsh cawl. My lamb shank was substantial and very tasty. While we were at the tables, Barrie Reece was touring the room with his camera taking lots of pictures (see more photos here).
Dessert choices were spiced oranges with orange sorbet, chocolate torte with fresh raspberries or a selection of Welsh Cheeses. I went for the cheese option and the cheeses were excellent and so generous that I could not finish them, though I had heard that the spiced oranges disappointed.
After coffee, Colin introduced our guest singer for the evening, Angharad Rowlands a Welsh Mezzo Soprano, accompanied by Iain Ledingham.
Angharad is at the Royal Academy of Music, studying on scholarship for a Master of Arts in Performance. A native Welsh speaker, Angharad grew up singing in the Welsh folk tradition, competing regularly in the National Eisteddfod of Wales. She made her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 2019, and this year Angharad will join Royal Academy Opera.
Iain Ledingham is a familiar figure to many of us, a professor in the piano, vocal and opera faculties at the Royal Academy of Music, and founder of the Amersham Festival of Music. We are very grateful to Iain as the source of so many of the very talented musicians who have performed for us over the years.
Angharad spoke quite softly, but that all changed when she started singing and she could really produce some power to her voice.
Angharad’s repertoire included a number of traditional songs with arrangements by Benjamin Britten, followed by works by Mozart, Bizet and Handel. The music then turned to a Welsh theme with Mae Hiraeth yn y Môr and Gwynfyd, and lastly Calon Lân, for which everyone joined in.
Jonathan Pegler then took to the keyboard and played the National Anthem, led by Angharad.
Colin thanked our performers and Ann Evans presented Angharad with a bouquet, while Iain received a bottle of wine from Jonathan.
Due to Covid restrictions, the committee decided not to finish with our traditional singing, but turned to our friends to say goodbye. Hopefully we shall have another opportunity for singing in the near future!
Thanks to all those involved in the planning and execution of our St David’s Day Dinner!
Barrie Reece took a lot of pictures at the event – see more of them here
Our 2022 Quiz Night was held on 21st January, and as with last year, it was a virtual event. Unfortunately, this meant that there was no fish and chips.
Jonathan Pegler had devised the quiz and hosted it over Zoom all the way from Porthcawl. 
In total there were 5 teams of either 5 or 6 members battling it out to try to answer some pretty fiendish questions set by Jonathan. I think that in terms of difficulty I would put this quiz somewhat between ‘University Challenge’ and ‘Only Connect’.
Jonathan started the quiz at 7pm. First, we were divided up into 5 teams each named after a colour in Welsh. I noticed that the members of last years winning team were split up to give other teams a chance!
Jonathan had already given us the questions and answers, but the files were all password protected so that we couldn’t access them until he gave us the code.
Each team was given a separate virtual ‘breakout room’ so that they could discuss the answers without being overheard by the other teams.
There were 6 separate rounds of questions with themes such as trying to identify obscure European languages (I didn’t even know that there was a Galician language), Science, opening lines from books, plays or music, Geography, Miscellaneous and General Knowledge – 70 questions in all.
From the start it was clear that Team Glas (Blue) was the team to watch, as they won each of the early rounds, and as the evening progressed their lead increased. The team comprised of Lloyd and Pamela Jones, Liz Seely and Rob Brett and Ruth Huckle.
We finished a bit later than expected, and Jonathan revealed the scores – Team Glas were the runaway winners scoring 102 out of a possible 115, but the other teams had all done creditably, with an average score of 78 or about 68%, so it was not Jonathan’s toughest quiz (apart from Round 1).
The results are shown below (note this is for the 2022 Quiz not the 2021 one)
We congratulated the winning team (no prizes this year) and thanked Jonathan for his hard work in preparing, hosting, scoring as well as acting as chief technician in running the Zoom meeting and breakout rooms.
Let us hope that we will be able to meet in real life for our future events.
PS I have attached the Questions and Answers below, so if you want to either take the quiz yourselves or just check some of the answers, please click on this pdf file:
Christmas Drinks 12:30pm 12th December 2021
No-one was absolutely sure whether our 2021 drinks party would go ahead, due to rising numbers of Covid.
In the end after some careful thought about precautions the day went ahead. It was decided that we would have the windows open, have hand gel on hand, ask all the all guests to have taken lateral flow tests, and lastly that there would be no singing this year.
Ralph and Margaret Broomby were there to welcome us through the door, as people started arriving. The Broomby’s have hosted so many events in the past and we are very grateful to them.
In each room there was a welcoming fire, fueled by mulberry logs from a tree that used to grow in their back garden, a victim of honey fungus.
Numbers were down when compared with previous years with just under 30 people attending, but this gave us lots of room in which to meet and catch up with friends.
It was good to see many old friends again. We hadn’t seen Maldwyn Pugh for a while and it was nice to hear about how he is enjoying living in his new flat. Graham and Anthea Beavan came from Wokingham to catch up and tell us how their new house is going and it was good to see Graham Lewis and Anne Pierce Jones again.
Canapes were provided by ‘To Dine For’ who circulated with plates of interesting and tasty treats.
There were many examples of Ralph’s handiwork around the house.
Many of us looked out the window to admire Ralph’s new Summer House – he explained that not only had he designed it himself, but he had also built it during the summer lockdown. One would never have guessed – it looked so professional, large, sturdy and stylish.
The occasion wound down by late afternoon, with people leaving to get home before it got dark. Thanks to Ralph and Margaret for their hospitality, ‘To Dine For’ for the food, and to Kay Day for organizing the event.
Sorry for the lack of photographs!
As I sit down to write this, it is Sunday September 12th. After a scenic ride from Amersham to home in Maidenhead, there’s no time like the present to write a report of my splendid afternoon with the Chiltern Welsh Society. I think most of us ladies had an eye on the weather that morning. We had ferreted around in our wardrobes for a special summer dress to wear; after all there have not been many opportunities over the last 12 months to dress up. This was only my second physical event with the Society, having joined a year ago. I did enjoy meeting people on Zoom. However, there is nothing like a real life experience!
I had given myself plenty of time to explore the streets of Amersham and locate a parking spot. I walked down to number 16, to find Kay Day waiting at the gate to greet me. She said, ‘You must be Ruth, as you are the only person I don’t recognise from the list.’ As we chatted, Sue Jones and Rose Alkins arrived and kindly invited me to join their table; it’s always important to feel wanted on your first or second event with a different group of people. There was lots of catching up to do before the formal part of the afternoon. We were a group of 30 on tables of five, all sheltered under gazebos. In fact, I was really impressed when I turned up and saw the garden laid out in front of me.
Bright blue matching chairs and, cheerful garden flowers adorned the crisp white tablecloths. At this juncture, our thanks to the ‘flower girls’ as they were referred to. The guests had come laden with their own wine, fruit juice, beer and fizzy water and people on the tables introduced themselves. I maintain that Welsh is my first language and, was fortunate enough to be educated through the medium of Welsh from the age of 3 to 21. I was especially pleased to catch up with a few people who spoke Welsh and spent a while chatting to Bill Jones about the delights of Amlwch and Anglesey in particular!
Table by table, we were invited to the serving area, where the To Dine For ladies had set up a veritable spread. Our food had been pre-ordered, I had salmon, others had chicken and there was a vegetarian option, all adorned by a variety of salads, I have to say it was very tasty. We had olive and chilli bread, which you could wash down with the drink of your choice. Extra food was available if you wanted a top up. Chatter, covering a multiple of varied subjects, was constant. David Powell managed to pop round each group to photograph everybody deep in conversation. For dessert there was fruit salad, tiramisu, chocolate tart with lashings of cream, should you want it. To round off the meal tea and coffee were served with some lovely chocolate mints. All in all, I would say the afternoon was a massive success, everybody was pleased to catch up, after such a long time of being at home.
I would like to give a special mention to Ernest Morris, whose delightful garden we enjoyed and for the loan of the gazebos by Alan Longshaw. Thanks too to David, Gwyndaf, Alan, Peter Johnston and Colin Thomas for erecting these and, getting the furniture in situ; hopefully it was dismantled a bit quicker than it went up. Thank you very much to Kay for her organisational skills and making the afternoon such a success, we all know that these events, don’t ‘just’ happen.
Along with several other people I talked to, we are all looking forward to the next diarised activity, Christmas drinks. In the meantime, enjoy the autumn sunshine, while it lasts.
Ruth Huckle