Fairlop Woodturners Monday 25^th April at King Solomon High School.

Greg Moreton – our favorite demonstrator – good banter and

Boring centre for mandrell mounting later – unseen but set up with a hollow centre that does not damage auger bit when it breaks through!

Ram chuck with gaffer tape!

Wet end grain diablo shape – we could not identify the species.

Off centre weed pots, makes good use of small bits of Yew, Laburnum – anything with a good contrast in heart and sapwood. 

Our next demo is the 12^th June at the school with Gary Rance.

Things are looking up since Health & Safety condemned our lathes which stopped our hand on. With a bit of luck we will be back in business in the very near future.

Bancroft RFC Colts reunion dinner at Chigwell Golf Club Essex 6th May 2017

Well I never played for the colts but did teach one or two of them. Later on I played with many (probably all) of them in the senior teams on Saturday afternoons.


Malcolm, Paul and Gabby. I can remember being a passenger in Gabby’s beautiful Mercedes sport car, with the concave roof (he still has it!), going to the many Old boys clubs that we played in the early days before the leagues destroyed the game we all loved. Some clubs had no tills and the money just went into buckets behind the bar.

For my money – their hero was Russ Tustin the coach. What an inspiring coach – a few of the player also turned into great coaches.

Did have a soft spot for the Welsh accent.

 

 Many old faces here – Russ Tustin, Carl Panday, Janine and Julian Swayne, Nick Yealds, Sean Hurley, Gabby Ayres, Joe Preston, Gary Edelman, Charlie Wallace, Bob Ayton, John Dadd, Colin Guite, Malcolm Fleet – apologies for the names I have not mentioned.

Well one thing is for sure – they have not changed, still the very special group of rugby players I had so much fun with for many years. 

 Food and Folk festival – Weald and Downland Museum Singleton Sussex 29^th April – 1^st May

 

Aiden was part of the medieval  group, a friend of James Pumfrey  I delivered the personal message to James.

He is Mr Poo and has great setup showing how it was handled in the past. He has fake poo to hand out!

The traditional My Day parade – the front

And the back

Our Ball co-ordinator Mark Allery – he often runs courses from the museum, you will however have to book up very early in the season if you want to get on one.

 

I bumped into Ben Fairlight again a storyteller, I think we first met at Bredhurst wood a couple of years ago.

He showed me his ‘tingo’ a banjo made from his mother’s cake tin (actually a Huntley and Palmers biscuit tin).

 

Well food for thought here, it sounded very good as well












I missed the label on the rim that was hand written by Ben's Mum - how sweet is that!

One or two of his other instruments looked home-made – well that does not mean that they were a little rough since Ben has worked in piano making with a very well-known name.

Even the local ducks were showing a keen interest in what we were doing. (I think someone hand feeds them).

The choir outside another one of their spectacular timber framed buildings.

All in all an excellent Bank holiday weekend. A very interesting setting - good toilets with heating and hot water, easy access with loads of room. The spectacular buildings, the new visitors center and I could go on and on and on, but the best thing is that it may be the venue for the next Ball 2018