OUR festive meeting of 2014 on December 18, with a musical montage by Dennis Hallett, and joined by wives and partners for a splendid Christmas lunch, was a fitting end to another hugely successful year for the club.

We have had excellent speakers, presentations, visits and lunches this year, thanks to the hard work of Peter Penney, Grenville Burrows and Clive Allen. All of these have provided us with ample opportunities to meet and experience new settings.

Once again, we were impressed with the technological talents of our Dennis. With comedic asides and Christmas cracker jokes, he led us through a wide range of music and films over the past 80 years or so that were familiar to us. He included many of the stars and celebrities of yesteryear, like Gene Kelly and Judy Garland, as well as the more recent ones like Elvis and he even managed to include pieces from Bollywood! However it was his wizardry with his computers, despite some initial teething problems, that again impressed us as our own IT expert. But the greatest laugh came when he suggested that own President Jim Cox looked remarkably like James Cagney.

Jim thanked Dennis for his input and thanked all members for making this year so memorable. Our thanks also go to Sue and John, and Dave and Tor at The Boathouse for the splendid buffet lunch and for making us so welcome.

Sadly, we heard that Mary Bunker had died and we extend all our thoughts and heartfelt sympathies to fellow member Derek and his family.

We next meet on January 8, starting at 10am, when Ann Blagden will demonstrate belly dancing, and we all look forward to another stimulating series of meetings. We wish everyone a happy new year.

CHRIS DONOUGH