The Rotary Club of Corringham Thameside

The club held a fund-raising Quiz Night at The East Thurrock Community Association’s Hall on Friday 11th March 2011 in aid of Rotary charities.
A packed hall of eighty family and friends battled out a very close and keenly fought competition. Question master Terry Finnegan, tested their general knowledge with questions of a wide range of subjects, cunningly disguised to confuse the teams. All of the questions were multi-choice answers which at least gave the contestants a one in four chance of obtaining the correct answer. In the end only three points covered the top three teams.
Our thanks go to all those who supported us and to the Rotarians and friends who gave of their time to organise the event which raised in excess of four hundred pounds.

At the club meeting held on Thursday 11th November, the club members competed for the Reg Edwards Trophy. The trophy is presented in the memory of a former club President, and started as a darts competition. In recent years this has been broadened out to encompass virtually any competitive game contrived by the members. In previous years we have competed for the trophy by playing such diverse activities as “Remote controlled Sumo wrestling,” “carpet golf” and “miniature darts”. The competition winner is expected to arrange the following year’s competition. 2009 winner, Danny Lawrence was unable to attend, so club President David Fenn took on the responsibility for this year’s competition. Returning to the original concept of darts. Only this was to be “Brain Darts”. Each segment of the dartboard was allocated a subject, and points were awarded to those who answered the questions correctly. The scores were exactly the same as for darts, with singles, doubles and trebles – the higher the score the more difficult the questions. Competitors had to score 301 and end with a double. Competition was fierce with natural competitive instincts to the fore. Finally, Doug Nash emerged as the winner, and was presented with the trophy and with the dubious honour of having to come up with a new game next year. In true Rotary traditions there was much fun and merriment, and as usual the overall winner was the fellowship of our fellow members.

Thursday 23rd September was hastily rearranged to be a “Friends and Family” evening to accomodate a visit from one of our past members who was visiting from Ireland.  Rotarian Roger Jordan and his wife Jennifer were in England on business and took the opportunity to visit the club where they had enjoyed many a happy time.  Having moved to County Mayo some four years ago, Roger has since joined an Irish club. After dinner, he entertained the assembled group with a mixture of humour and odd scenes appertaining to their new life in Ireland.  Showing some of the beautiful scenery adjacent to his new home.  Such was the interest in his talk, the evening went way over schedule, but nobody seemed to mind. Also attending the meeting was another ex-member odf the club, Dermot McGoldrick and his wife Karen.  It was great to welcome them, Dermot soon made himself at home and it was not long before he was crawling around the floor assisting Roger with his presentation. It was amost enjoyable evening which was supplemented by the opportunity to talk to old friends.

On Thursday 29th July thirty friends and family together with rotarians met at Ye Olde Plough House for a Friends and Family evening. After enjoying a meal of roast turkey the guests were entertained by Mr Tony Bartella who read a number of poems he had written.
First up was the verse he composed for the opening of the school garden in Corringham, and this was followed by a succession of other verses he had written on such diverse subjects as Women shopping for shoes, National service, the Olympics, School,and the pleasures of Fatherhood.
Tony’s verse kept his audience spellbound, and his sharp wit brought forth much laughter. In proposing the vote of thanks, Rotarian Terry Finnegan paid tribute to Tony’s skills as a poet and his great observation skills as well as his sense of humour. Everybody present had enjoyed a most interesting and entertaining evening with the BARD FROM BASILDON.

As a change to our normal club evening, Rotarians and friends visited the Combined Military Museum at Maldon on Thursday 10th June 2010. The visit begun with a short talk about the origins of the museum by the Curator, before those present enjoyed a finger buffet prior to studying the exhibits. There was a huge collection of firearms to study, and some of those present who had served in the armed forces quickly identified the ones they had used during their service. There was also an array of shells and ammunitions from both world wars and beyond, together with uniforms, medals and other forms of equipment. The only surviving “Cockleshell” kayak was on view as well as an engine from the TRSL aircraft. The area devoted to the spying side of life was extremely interesting with gadgets that James Bond would have been proud of. On the ground floor, one could observe the vast array of sword, axes, pikes etc. used in the Tudor and Stuart eras as well as many items of armour.

The tour took a full hour and all 22 who attended, all went home having enjoyed the evening with a better understanding of our role of our armed forces. It’s a museum for all to visit.

Our thanks to Gerry Buggle for arranging this most successful evening.

The Combined Services Museum can be found by clicking here.