The Rotary Club of Corringham Thameside

The club held a “Quiz Night” at Bulphan Village Hall on Saturday 6th February 2010. 54 Rotarians, together with family and friends batteld it out over ten rounds. In addition to these, there was a running question that required a good knowledge of the states of America. There was plenty of fun and some friendly rivalry amongst the teams. The questions were set by David Fenn who was ably assisted with the scoring by Doug Nash. Whilst Brian Price organised the raffle. It turned out to be an enjoyable evening for all and our thanks must go to Andrew Brogan and his committee for organising the event.

Last nights club meeting was held at The Orsett Cock for an evening of competition of darts and pool. We did not expect any competition from an overloud rock band that battered our ears for most of the night. Nevertheless, the Rotarians enjoyed an evening together playing darts and pool. The competition was fierce but friendly as one would expect.
In the darts, a one leg format of 301 finishing on a double, saw the clubs darts players move into the second round without too much trouble. From there on it was every man for himself with Andrew Brogan defeating Clive Yallop to meet Brian Munroe who beat David Fenn to the double to reach the final. Andrew took the honours in a hard fought final.
In the pool things were a little less obvious as only three of the players that represent the club in the district competition were playing. The format was just one frame to decide the winner. In the second round, Clive Yallop saw off his “B” team partner, Brian Price. It has to be said that Brian had one of those days we all dread, he couldn’t do a thing right. So the semi-final line up was Peter Mestanek against Clive and Brian Munroe against David Fenn. This is where the form book took over with Clive, who plays with the “B” team defeating Peter and David who captains the “A” team going through. The final was a bit one sided with the favourite going down, leaving Clive to take well earned honours.
Despite the unmusical noise from the band (to give it the benefit of the doubt), we had a very enjoyable evening.

On Thursday 21st January the club members extended a warm welcome to five prospective new Rotarians. Instead of the regular formal meal, the meeting was informal and included a buffet meal.
Those present were shown a short DVD highlighting why people want to join Rotary, and were then shown exhibits of some of the work the club has been involved in including the creation of the open space at Corringham Primary School.
Most importantly our guests were able to talk to the members in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere about the club in particular and Rotary in general. The evening gave our guests the opportunity to find out more about the club and to consider if they would like to join us in the future. Judging by the comments of our guests as they made their way home, we are confident that we might well be welcoming some new members in the not too distant future.

In the second round of the District 1240 Darts competition, the club was drawn away to our old friends at Rochford, who incidently had beaten us in 2008. So with the opportunity for revenge, we fielded a relatively strong team.
In the singles, Peter Matthews and Peter Burfoot both lost their matches whilst David Fenn and Terry Finnegan both recorded wins to keep the scores level. The games were hard fought with both sides having difficulty in obtaining the elusive double to seal their wins. David’s opponent somehow managed to knock the dartboard off of the wall, much to the amusement of the others, who delighted in informing him he would be fined at the next club meeting.
In the doubles the two Peter’s managed to claw us back in front, leaving David and Terry the honour of clinching the tie. Despite having a winning lead, we played the foursomes for fun, and again we took the honours – JUST!
It was a most enjoyable evening, good company, good beer and plenty of laughs. We would like to thank our hosts for their hospitality, the healthy competition and of course their friendship.

On Saturday 11th December Rotarians and their families descended on the home of club president Robert Waite and his wife Mikaila for the now traditional get together. Each rotarian provided a plate of food for the party and it was a remarkable array of goodies, – sandwiches, sausage rolls, salmon canapes, mince pies cakes of all varieties which made a very nice spread.
By some strange influence the early part of the evening found the men at one end of the room whilst the ladies sat together for a natter. As soon as Mikaila produced a game of Pictionary things changed. Everybody had a go, although most of the art work was hard to fathom, but it was all good fun.
As usual, there was the usual banter amongst the boys with Eddie Hardiman receiving more than his fair share. Peter Mestanek soon found a musical top, which lit up and played “We wish you a merry Christmas”. Not only did most of the men get involved in getting the top to “light up” it soon descended into a technical discussion on how it worked. Not content with that, Peter soon had Rob’s daughter Jessica’s pet rat out of its cage and allowed it to crawl across his shoulders. Nobody else wanted to indulge, although Brian Price did feed it some chocolate from a cocktail stick. Much to the amusement of the others, the rat soon grabbed the stick from Brian’s grasp and beat a hasty retrat to the safety of his nest.
Once again, the club displayed their well known talents to enjoy themselves and to display the sort of behaviour that got them christened “The Fun Club”.
We would all like to thank Rob and Mikaila for their hospitality, everybody enjoyed the evening and we all look forward to a very happy Christmas with our families and to a New Year that promises a lot for the club.