Farnham Probus hosted the annual golf match against Probus ‘83 at
Clandon Regis Golf Club on 28 June 2019. Unlike last year’s match,
which coincided with the tail end of “Storm Hector” and recently
tined greens, this year we had delightful summer conditions, with a
pleasant cooling breeze and a course in excellent condition.
Due to a mixture of holidays, injury and hospitalisation, we could only
muster five players, which was just as well as Farnham managed to
raise six, including a lady who was the widow of a former Farnham
Probus member.

We played the match on an individual Stableford basis, with eventually
five players on each side, after the lady retired early due to injury.
(Not as one wag suggested, because of the chauvinistic company!)
As usual, the match was played in a competitive spirit – but our
Captain thought we had taken things a bit too far when the Farnham
Captain was hit on the back of the leg by a ball struck from the tee on
the Par 3 second hole – thankfully, the culprit was one of his own
players!

The Probus ‘83 team comprised Peter Brown, Ian Rutter, David Mayne,
John North and John Coleman (Captain).

Largely thanks to the sterling performance of John North (Overall
Winner of the Stableford competition) and Peter Brown (Stableford
Runner-up), Probus ‘83 were the overall winners of the team prize,
which was donated by the Farnham Captain, Ian Myers. (To be called
the “FAG’83 Cup” !)

Unfortunately, no one managed to get on the green on the sixth hole
to win the “Nearest the Pin” prize – so by mutual consent, the prize
for “Nearest the Green” was presented to a member of the Farnham
team. The prize for the “Longest Drive” on the 15th hole was won by
John North.

This was the last match of the season, so the Probus ’83 Golf Team
will now get into serious training for the next match in Spring 2020!

Our speaker in July is Club Member and Past Chairman, Neville Lyons, who will be giving his third talk to the Club. His presentation is entitled ‘British War Artists of the Second World War’.

Neville’s military background, coupled with his long-term interest in 20th Century Art encouraged him to make wide research on this subject.

The early days of the Second World War saw the setting up of the War Artists Advisory Committee by the historian, Sir Kenneth Clark, with responsibility for selecting and organising the activities of the many artists who were to undertake the recording of the war from 1939 to 1945.

Neville will be dipping into the coverage of the war by a wide selection of the well-known War Artists, employed on the Home Front and Overseas theatres, as well as at sea and in the air. There will be copious illustrations of their work, accompanied by information about the artists and the organisation of the whole project.

Speaker Secretary Ian Rutter reports:

Our speaker this month was Vic Quayle. 

When asked for a brief CV before the meeting, Vic provided a few enigmatic notes, which included, inter alia; ‘Won a Gold Medal in Rio’, ‘Broken a World Record’ and ‘Been attacked by a Cheetah and a Gorilla’.

However, his presentation to us was a little more prosaic, as his talk was entitled ‘Three Legs and No Tail by a Manxman’, and was an account of the history, the people and the engineering of the Isle of Man, his birthplace.

The island is self-governing and its legislature, the Tynwald, is the oldest continuous parliament in the world, having been established in 979 AD, (or thereabouts – the actual date is not known). On July 5th, Tynwald Day is ‘celebrated’ on the Isle of Man, being the day when all laws passed by the Tynwald during the previous 12 months are read to the population, so that no-one can claim ignorance of the law as a defence.

I have quite a few IOM stamps with Manx cats on them, but I was surprised when Vic told us that they were quite rare, (the cats, not the stamps!). Similarly, it was sad to learn of the plight of several of the little railways on the island.

Club member, David Mayne, gave the vote of thanks, expressing the members’ general appreciation of Vic’s talk. With a diverse range of talks in his portfolio, (and living in Guildford), we might well be seeing Vic again in the next year or two.

The gold medal in Rio? No, not the Olympics – a South American car rally. The world record? Another car rally, this time from Southern Spain to Northern Norway.  The animals were in a private zoo in Weybridge, which Vic was inspecting in his role of Environmental Health Officer.

Cranleigh have invited Probus ’83 members to join with them for this trip. Time is short – last booking date is Friday 24th May – so please book directly with Derek Bonham. His contact details are on Mike Sinclair’s email: 19th May, 1206. If you’ve lost that then Mike will help.

Full trip details are:

Wednesday 5 June 2019 (trip 2019/5) – Exbury Gardens near Beaulieu, Hampshire.

The inspiration of Lionel Nathan de Rothschild to create one of the finest woodland gardens in the country. It is described as “a garden for people young and old, horticulturalist or enthusiastic gardener or just a lover of beautiful places” and is sited near the Beaulieu river. There are 20 miles of pathways, 3 woods, riverside walks and abundant parkland to explore plus a ride on a steam train for 20 minutes after which we can visit the roomy Engine Shed with graphics, videos and memorabilia that line the walls recalling steam’s heyday and the construction of the railway.

The plan for the day can be anticipated as follows:-

10.30am – arrive for coffee/tea (included)

11am – garden tour for about 2 hours with the Head Gardener

1pm – lunch at Mr Eddy’s Tea Rooms. There are 2 options here, we can either have a set meal of 2 or 3 courses for around £15 or £20 p.p. respectively all together or use the café/restaurant individually for a snack without a specified area being put aside for us. Mr Eddy update – menus for all 2019 food purchases will not now be available until April! When booking please produce your cheque excluding lunch and indicate whether you are interested in the set meal which can then be invoiced separately.

2pm or 3pm – train ride – our choice on the day. Thereafter free time.

4.30pm – leave for home.

Leaving Cranleigh at 8.15am and returning back to Cranleigh at around 6.30pm. Cost £40 p.p. excluding lunch assuming at least 30 participants. Arrangement Probus B. Cheques please with bookings to Derek Bonham in favour of Cranleigh & District Probus B Club. Last date for bookings 24 May 2019. Your cheques will be banked on 28 May 2019.

Our Speaker in June will be Vic Quayle.

Vic was born on the Isle of Man and now resides in Guildford. He is well-known on the Probus, Rotary, W.I. and similar speaking circuits, with a portfolio of more than twelve talks.

He started his working career as an Environmental Health Officer and has a fund of stories about life ranging from dirty restaurants and blocked drains to venomous snakes and gorillas. He has put these all together to form the basis of his talk, appropriately called ‘A Life of Grime’.

In his spare time, Vic is a bit of a petrolhead, with a particular passion for car rallying, which has taken him all over the world and provided source material for more presentations.

The many railway enthusiasts among us might be interested to know that Vic also has a fully illustrated talk about the origins of the Ghan Railway in Australia.

However, for his talk to us, Vic will be going back to his roots with a presentation entitled ‘Three Legs and No Tail by a Manxman’.  The ‘Three Legs’ refer, of course, to the national Coat of Arms of the Isle of Man – the Triskelion – the three legs covered in armour, each with gold spurs. The motto accompanying it, ‘Quocunque Jeceris Stabit’, means ‘Whichever Way You Throw It, It Will Stand’.  ‘No Tail’, of course, relates to the tailless Manx Cats. 

No doubt, Vic will mention these amongst many other interesting facts in his presentation, when he talks about the island, its history and its people.

Speaker Secretary Ian Rutter reports:-

We welcomed as our speaker/entertainer this month, Julie Beaven, who gave us a delightful presentation about The Hammer Dulcimer. This instrument, the forerunner to the piano, originated in Persia, way back in the 11th Century. Although Julie’s dulcimer appeared to have only about 15 strings, the base and treble bridges effectively tripled that number to 46. (No, not 45. That’s what Julie says and she is a Maths teacher in addition to her musical talents!).

Apart from her Hammer Dulcimer, Julie also owns a Mountain Dulcimer, which we had hoped she would bring, but unfortunately it was in a musical instrument repair shop undergoing some restoration. However, for good measure, Julie also owns a variety of other instruments, over thirty in all.

She is a very accomplished, professional musician – a member of the (National) Nonsuch Dulcimer Club, a mentor to the National Youth Harp Orchestra of Great Britain and, more locally, timpanist and trombonist with the Cobham Brass Band.

After telling us about her Hammer Dulcimer, its history and how it is constructed from five different woods, Julie then gave a short concert, playing several pieces, some of which she had composed herself. As befits its name, the instrument is played with wooden or metallic ‘hammers’, which resemble flattened spoons. The resulting sound of the strings being ‘hammered’ varies according to the shape of the hammer and its covering, (leather, felt, velvet etc.).

In his vote of thanks, Club member, Steve Palmer, commented that he had not heard of a dulcimer since his school days, when in English Literature lessons, he had studied the poem,’Kubla Khan’ by William Taylor Coleridge, containing the lines ‘A damsel with a dulcimer in a vision once I saw’. He now knew what a dulcimer was!  Steve voiced the great appreciation of the gathering for Julie’s presentation and hoped that it would not be too long before she visited us again to entertain us with her Clarsach (or Celtic) Harp.

The next meeting of the Family Finances Group at Weybourne House will be on Thursday 16th of May.

We gather from 9.45am for tea & coffee, prior to starting the meeting at 10.00am. The theme of the meeting will be “Travel Insurance”, which can sometimes be a minefield; particularly if you have a medical condition or are over 70 years old. The Chairman for the day will be Philip Watson, who will talk about arranging travel insurance based on his many years of experience working in the insurance industry. Philip will endeavour to explain the following key issues and answer any questions you may have on the subject:

• The scope of cover available – what cover should you buy and why.
• Arranging cover with pre-existing medical conditions being disclosed. How to go about it and what you need to disclose and why.
• Single trip and annual covers and obtaining cover when over the age of 70 and 80.
• How to go about dealing with a claim and information you need to gather whilst on holiday.
• Things to remember before going on holiday relating to your travel cover, home insurance and medical records.

So if you’ve not been to an FFG meeting before, why not give it a try? (Before you go on holiday overseas and need to buy that expensive Insurance Policy!)

The annual golf match against the “Other” Guildford Probus took place at Clandon Regis Golf Club on 11 April 2019 – ironically, this coincided with the opening day of the US Masters golf tournament – but, unfortunately, the similarities ended there!

Thankfully, the Weather Gods were kind – with glorious spring sunshine and mild temperatures. The Clandon Regis golf course was in good condition for the time of year and, mercifully, the greens were not as fast as at Augusta! On arrival, all the players had an unexpected bonus of a free bacon bap prior to playing and the lunch of pie and chips went down well in the afternoon.

The “Probus ‘83 Team” of 10 players (Peter Brown, Barry Calder, David Bott, David Mayne, John North, Ian Rutter, Leslie Cowie, Chris Greening, David Pugh and John Coleman) battled it out against the opposition led by their captain Mike Collins. The final result was close, with the Guildford Team winning the match by 3 games to 2. The “Nearest the Pin” competition on the Par 3 Sixth Hole was won by Guildford’s Peter Chapman (36 handicap!) and the “Nearest the Pin in Two” on the 10th was won by John Coleman. The “Longest Drive” competition was won by Peter Brown – who was a close second last year.

The Probus ‘83 Team winners of Peter Brown/Barry Calder and Leslie Cowie/Chris Greening deserve congratulations but our Captain lost by a “Dog Licence” – 7 and 6! (Somewhat shamefacedly, our Captain pleads that no excuses are required when one of the opposing players with a handicap of 36 scored 26 Stableford points after nine holes, was five holes up after six had been played and, to rub salt in the wound, won
the “Nearest the Pin” competition.)

The prestigious (?) Guildford Probuses Cup was presented to Mike Collins the Guildford Captain – but why in the attached photograph does he look glum, whereas our vanquished captain (who won the “Dog Licence”) looks like Tiger Woods last Sunday evening? Anyway, despite the final result, all the players had an enjoyable day and we look forward to our next match against Farnham Probus in June.

John Coleman, in paying tribute to Don Flack, founder member of FFG’s predecessor, the Investment Group, mentioned that under the new “banner” he was delighted so many (about 20 of us) had attended last month’s meeting.
He’s encouraging all of us to give it a try – so come along to Weybourne House on Thursday, April 18th, 09-45 for 10-00.

Ted Humphreys will chair and we once again welcome Andrew Withey, a former HSBC fund manager, as our speaker.