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.

John Coleman reports that he has a full team to play against our local rivals, Guildford Probus, at Clandon Regis Golf Club, on April 11th. We wish the team well, and continued success after last year’s successes.

At our April Lunch all members delighted in Don Flack being made an Honorary Member, joining John Glanfield, David Griffin and David Hemsley. John Coleman and guest David Leech, Chairman of Weybourne House, spoke about Don’s contribution to both the Club and to Weybourne House. A huge contribution to both and an honour well deserved.

 John Glanfield presents Don Flack with the badge of office.

Our speaker this month is Julie Beaven, who has spoken to and entertained many Probus Clubs, W.I.’s and U3A’s over a period of several years.

Julie is a very talented musician and plays several instruments, including the Hammer Dulcimer and the Clarsach (or Celtic) Harp.  She is a member of The Nonsuch Dulcimer Club and is Mentor to the National Youth Harp Orchestra of Great Britain.

Apart from her music, Julie also gives talks on her previous careers as a teacher in a Middle East Arab School and as a Sub-Lieutenant Naval Reserve Officer.

However, on 2nd May, Julie will be concentrating on her Hammer Dulcimer and two recently purchased Mountain Dulcimers.  She will talk about the instruments, their history and how she discovered them. She will, of course, also play the Dulcimers in a short concert.

Julie’s presentation promises to be very entertaining and informative.

Speaker Secretary Ian Rutter reports:

We welcomed as our speaker this month, Dr. Colin Summerhayes, who gave his fourth presentation to us in as many years.

Colin is a marine geologist and oceanographer, an Emeritus Associate of the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University and currently a member of the Anthropocene Working Group of the International Commission on Stratigraphy.  He is also a member of the ‘other’ Guildford Probus Club, but we don’t hold that against him! 

His talk was entitled Welcome to the Anthropocene. 

Most geological epochs have timespans of millions of years, (e.g. Cambrian and Jurassic), but what about the Anthropocene – the age of human activity – how long has that existed?  Since the time of Homo Sapiens around 200,000 years ago?  Well, not according to Colin, as he would put the date nearer to 1950 AD!  He gave us a wealth of statistics, which all showed how much the climate, the oceans and, indeed, the geology of the Earth were being affected by the need to feed a rapidly increasing population and to satisfy the ever-growing demands of the consumer society.

However, it is not all doom and gloom.  Some trends are reversing, such as the beneficial effect on air pollution in UK cities brought about by the Clean Air Act, but, as we all know, much more needs to be done very soon if we are to win this battle.

In his vote of thanks, Past-Chairman, Christopher Way, reflected the great appreciation of the members for another excellent presentation.

Have we booked Colin again for next year?  Of course, we have!

Thanks to the efforts of Colin Dorling, we are fortunate to have the opportunity of listening to the views of Charles Stanley at our next meeting of the FFG on Thursday 21 March.

The theme of their talk is “How and where should one allocate assets at this time?” – which, given the present uncertainty over Brexit, the ongoing China/USA trade negotiations and even the potential instability of the UK Government, is a challenging theme for their talk.

Charles Stanley, which is one of the oldest leading “Wealth Managers” in the UK, will be represented by George Coster, Nic Clarke and John Devine, who are all Investment Managers at the local Guildford Office.

It will be an excellent opportunity to hear the views of experts on the current investment scene and a rare chance to raise any queries that you may have over the appropriate investment strategy in the present turbulent times.

We gather as usual at Weybourne House from 9.45am for tea/coffee and biscuits for a 10.00am start of the meeting, which will end around noon. All are welcome and we look forward to seeing a few new faces at what promises to be an interesting meeting.

Speaker Secretary Ian Rutter reports:

Our speaker for March, Paul Whittle, had previously given us two very interesting and enjoyable presentations about railways. This time his subject was completely different – a short history of St. Petersburg from its founding in 1703 by Peter the Great – and, once again, Paul did not disappoint us. His relaxed style of adding a professional commentary to a Powerpoint presentation had his whole audience enthralled and many compliments were paid to him at the end.

To the many photographs taken personally by Paul of modern-day St. Petersburg, he added ancient and current maps of the city, together with images of the Romanov royal family and other personalities, who figured prominently in the history of this World Heritage Site. What could have been a straight travelogue metamorphosed into a wonderful re-telling of the story of St. Petersburg, illustrated by the many excellent and relevant slides.

Past-Chairman, Leslie Cowie, gave the well-deserved vote of thanks and members will be pleased to note that Paul has already been booked for another presentation next year.