Area 46 - A year in the Area Chair

Foxy Boxing

2009-07-24T23:30:00.001+01:00

If you missed this - then you missed out!

More pictures in the new area website - coming real soon!

Middleton - Mid Fest

2009-07-19T21:01:00.001+01:00

What a crying shame - after 12 months of planning and hard work from the lads at Midd the rain Gods decided that today was the day to let rip!

Less Mid Fest and more Mud Fest!

I turned up at around 11am to offer a hand and was greeted by a couple of cold wet faces on the main gate. After a quick chat it turned out than just over a hour earlier the entraced had been more suitable for a canoe race rather than the entrance to a family day out. The lads had made the best of things and once past he gate and onto the field itself there was still plenty to see and do. A large area in the center of the field had been fenced off for the quad bike stunt display team - I think the amount of mud and water made it more spectaular!!!

below are some pictures

Bolton - Summer Ball

2009-06-19T23:52:00.001+01:00

Myself and Lorraine headed upto Bolton on Friday 19th June to support Bolton's Area Summer Ball host the Graig and the lads at Bolton RT.

I must admit to being a bit disappointed at the low level of turn out from Tables around the area - despite lots of emails and phone calls it was only myself and a couple of the lads from Macc that made the journey with our partners to support the event,

The location was exellent - my only minor gripes were the high bar prices but i suppose no more than other out of the way hotels. The food was excellent and after the meal Craig wheeled out a cracking 70's sould band complete with brass section.

Unfortunatley we had to duck out early as we were jetting off before dawn on our holidays to lands far away.

Royton & Chadderton - final meeting!

2009-06-11T23:22:00.002+01:00

Last Friday night saw myself and Lars heading counter clockwise around the M60 and upto R&T to attend it's final meeting as a table. The eveing saw many old faces returned to join in reminding us all of the many achievments this table has to it's name and to tell one or two very funny stories of members and days gone by.

I was glad to some fellow tablers from the adjoing tables were present and i think we numbered around 25 for the meal - which was in 'The Baum', Rochdale. Keith and the guys put on a splendid evening and made sure that the night, although a litlle sad, was a celebration of the all the good things that being a table is about.

Bury - Euromeeting

2009-06-08T23:56:00.000+01:00

After seeing a couple of emails from Paul Moorecroft up at Bury regarding their up coming Euro Rally I could not resist finding out more and invited myself up for their meeting.

Hosted at the Garside in Bury I was also treated to a very informative talk by a couple of local magistrates. I had no idea they were all volunteers and that anyone (almost) could apply to be one. Following on from this was a decent roast beef dinner - there was also a game pie but not many takers for it.

As we had the cheese course the meeting got into full swing and I learnt that Bury regularly host fellow tablers from Germany and vice-a-versa. Their next big rally would be in the new year and they were looking for houses to host some of the guests. I, of course, offered mine but as I'm all the way in South Manchester it was not going to be practical! But if they had a couple of au-pair types going spare i did offer to drive them up to Bury for any events!!!

Hadfield Carnival

2009-06-07T23:42:00.000+01:00

David Oldham (chairman of Glossop RT) invited me over to Hadfield today to help man the Round Table rugby challenge stall at the annual carnival held there.

It was rather a damp day with only a few breaks in the rain but luckily one of the guys had brought a couple of gazebos with him so we had a bit of shelter.

The game was straight forward enough - throw a rugby ball through one of three (roughly) rugby ball shaped hole in the 8' high board that had been made. Just a £1 for 3 goes - we thought we had it all worked out till the first punter came along (aged about 9) and threw the ball straight through the hole - so 5 minutes in and w were £4 down already. A hasty rethink culminated in smaller prize for winning and making sure people were further back from the board before throwing - this was much better with only 1 kid managing to get the nack and fleecing us for £12.

Alongside us were a couple of old fashioned campsites where a bunch of civil war re-enactors were camped out ready to do battle at 3pm. Cannons, guns and horns were the order of the day as the assault began.

Despite the rain it was still a good turn out from the locals - but if I get invited again i hope some one fixes the weather first!

Saddleworth Beer Walk

2009-06-06T18:30:00.000+01:00

Big day today - early start (well for a Saturday).

I'm guessing most people are familiar with the beer walk - if not then it's basically 1500 or so people (mostly in fancy dress) walking a route around Saddleworth villages and stopping at various points to top up on beer. This year was it's 36th and it has got more popular each year with people attending from far and wide to join in the fun.

The event which is organised and run by Saddleworth round table and is their main charity fund raiser for the year.

This year was my first and boy was it fun, after a bit of lifting and shifting in the morning setting up the registration area and start field we hunkered down in the tents to avoid the rain and await the hordes of drinkers we knew were close by. The beerwalk website had taken over 1300 bookings online in the weeks leading up to the day and I'm guessing we must have processed at least another 500 on the day (I'll let Richard fill me in after they finish counting). Even with the rain falling people seemed oblivious and in full on party spirits. The costumes were all fantastic - of particular note were the 100 mime artistes (complete with mime ropes and stairs!!!), the Virgin Atlantic girls and Banana Man and his bananas. I also lost track of how many x-men, hulks, smurfs and pirates i saw. I think the bravery award must go to the girls who came in Rocky Horror outfits i.e. stockings & basques - it was a cold day and raining, they must have been freezing!

Just an awesome day all round!

Buxton Race night

2009-06-06T18:20:00.000+01:00

I travelled down to Buxton last with with Kevin, Doreen & Lorraine for Buxtons race night. For anyone not aware of what a race night is then it's like horse racing but with pre recorded races on a big screen. Horses are numbered and you get to bet on which horse wins. The compere makes sure there is some banter and a bit of racing atmosphere as well as 'geeing' up everyone to place their £1 bets.

The buxton lads are a top bunch of tablers lead this year by Simon Mason - who i met at their excellent charter night back in April (day after the Area AGM).

We left around 10:30 as it's almost an hours drive back to the bright lights of the big city and as usual in the peak district it was pissing down!

Cheers Lads - see you at your Charity dedication night in a few months.

Rally - it's back !!!!!!

2009-06-05T11:47:00.000+01:00

I've emailed everyone in Area 46 this morning to let them know that Rally is back on next year - subject to people booking in and supporting it. We have a location and are talking to a hotel about hosting us for the last weekend in January. Costs are being kept down to make sure more people attend - but it's just basic maths that the more people booking in then the more we can spend on entertainment.

Certain people were very vocal at the AGM about Rally not happening - i recall the words clearly and i hope that the first booking forms throught the door have their names on it.

The Rally is being organised as a team by the Area Exec with Myself and Mike shouldering most of the work - we need around 70 people + to make the event work, but the more the better it will get.

Oasis Gig

2009-06-05T11:40:00.000+01:00

Not really a Table event but a cracking gig all round, despite the power cuts!

70,000 people in one place was quite awsome, and a refund of the ticket price - i'm tempted but I think they gave their best in difficult circumstances.

2009-06-04T11:39:00.000+01:00

Off to the Oasis concert this afternoon, if your going as well then look out for me - i'll be singing Wonderwall at the top of my voice.

2009-06-04T11:26:00.000+01:00

Clay Pigeon Shooting night at Worsley.

Last night myself, Mike Garner and Kevin Lovett attended an Ormskirk Table night at the clay pigeon shooting centre just of Worsley rd. Lee Collier (Area 8 Chairman) invited us along as an inter table/area event and we jumped at the chance.

The setup was down a very dusty road - but at the end we were welcomed by a modern facility all kitted out for loads of shooters at any one time.

Lee had negioated a discount so we paid our £25 and we were off with Harry (the instructor) to our first 'trap'. We were firing 12 bore shotguns at the wee clays and scored out of 5 shots / 5 clays, after completing all 5 traps that would give us a score out of 25.

I've shot clays once before when i lived in Scotland but that was about 7 years ago! But it turned out I remembered more than i thought and scored a cracking 5/5 on the first two traps. Mike Garner was obvioulsy no stranger to firearms as he blasted away to stay only 1 point behind me heading into trap 3 - The Rabbits!!!. Now I recall the rabbit traps from the last time I shot - they are rock hard to hit as they bounced along the floor at speed. Needless to say i bombed at this point scoring a big fat 0 - Mike got 3 and sped into the lead.

Our Final scores were Mike 18, em 17 and Kevin 11 (he had a slow start but got his eye in on teh 4th and 5th traps) - As the winner overall had 19 - i think we did pretty well.

New Area website

2009-06-03T10:39:00.000+01:00

Almost forgot about this little project.

As you may recall we voted through at the last area agm monies to update and revamp the area website. This process is about 50% complete with a test site up and running which I'm currently populating with any text i can rip off other sites.

The site is looking really good with a lot more features and useful areas than we thought we could get for our money.

We'll have:

A private members area
Public & Private galleries
Private discussion area
Private pages for uploading of minutes/notices etc...
A public page with a positive image and advert for us
A central events/diary page for all table events
Each table will have it's own page for contact details, links etc...

Hopefully this should be live within the next couple of weeks - once it is I'll drop everyone a txt or email to let them know.

Welcome - i hope you don't get bored!

2009-06-03T10:19:00.000+01:00

Well - this my fist 'blog' so it might be a long one as i've about two months to catch up on.

I took over the Area Chairmans role from mark Haynes in late april 2009 - It was a decent event which was hosted at the Gately Golf (because I ended up orginising it and it was around the corner from my house). Many thanks to all who turned out - we had over 60 i think for the night with some coming from as far as Buxton and Saddlewoth.

During the evening the usual amount of banter went back and forth from the top table and the the rest of thetablers in attendance. Some comments do stick in my mind - mainly about capitation and membership.

However at about 3/4 of the way through the night and after Mark's techincal failure with his presentation the chain was passed over to me and i took the reins for 12 months. With this in mind i made efforts to get stuck in straight away.

How? you might ask - well the next day I set off with Lars to attend Buxtons excellent charter night. We jumped on a train and spent an hour mixing with country chavs drinking cans of stella, not that I minded - no - it was an excellent way to travel.

The night was a top night with good food, good company and a decent comic for a change - so well done Buxton!

Since then I've been to my own AGM at Cheadle & Gatley, this was a typical, reserved, night for the usual lads - some light drinking and then some discussions till around 4am. Not sure but we might also have the latest RTBI from an AGM - I think it was 1:51am!

I've been to the excellent Macc beer festival where myself and Area president Mike Garner spent a splendid evening in the company of the Macc lads, Poynton and Wilslow tablers.

I've also performed an mini 'intruptionette' for Ladies circle - there AGM was near Ashton and myself and Mike made a swift visit to ensure their incoming president Julie had a 'nice' memento for the evening.

Middleton had a cracking mayday celebration on the Bank holiday, the weather was a bit cool but that didn't seem to dampen the spirits.

Tonight I'm off clay pigeon shooting in Worlsey - although with a different Area - courtesy of Lee Coolingwood from Area 8. I'll let you know how I get on tomorrow.

Of course the big one this month has to be the Saddleworth Beer walk this Saturday, I spoke to Tom last week as well as to 'Tickle' and found out they were expecting close to 2000 people along for the day - lets hope the weather sorts it self out.