The Rotary Club of Corringham Thameside

First round ties in the District sports competitions have now been completed with some very mixed results. As already reported the club’s cribbage team went down to Wickford. This week saw our members take on local clubs at darts with our “B” team losing out to South Woodham Ferrers “A” with only Clive Yallop managing to get in a winning game. It was the first time we have held a match at The Orsett Cock and it was a friendly occasion and the buffet was far bigger than expected so Captain Brian Munroe offered the left overs to other customers. In the meantime, the “A” team advanced into the second round when Leigh on Sea were forced to concede the tie due to the fact they were unable to put a team together.
In the snooker, the “B” team of Brian Price and Clive Yallop lost out to Benfleet, after winning the first frame quite handsomely, before losing the second on the black ball and then being played off the table in the final frame. Again it was fellowship that won the day and it was nice of Benfleet to extend a club invitation to visit them at their club meeting. Meanwhile, the “A” team progressed to the second round where they will meet Rayleigh Mill “C” team, after their first round oponents conceded the tie.
Last year’s indoor bowls runners-up, Frank and Brian Price travelled to Benfleet to play their first round match only to find that their oponents had not understood the rules and therefore could not compete.
Although the club can claim to have teams in the second round of the darts, snooker and indoor bowls, all the teams would have rather progressed because they beat their oponents not because they were unable to play. All the club members involved would like to thank their oponents for the friendship and sportsmanship and wish them all the best in the coming rounds.

The club was extremely proud to have been presented with a Rotary International Presidential Citation for the third time in four years. The award was made by RI President 2008-9 D.K. Lee and recognises the substantial achievements of the club in the various avenues of service during 2008-9. The citation specifically mentions the club’s outstanding efforts to reduce child mortality and MAKE DREAMS REAL for the world’s children.
During 2008-9 the club raised substantial ammounts of cash to support the eradication of polio, relief efforts in Dharfur, Sudan and the work of the Ghurka Welfare Trust in providing medical facilities and schools in Nepal. Locally we purchased dictionaries for the children at two Corringham Primary Schools, organised a fishing day for handicapped and special needs children and collected tins of food for the homeless.
The club is rightly proud of their achievements and is working hard on a number of similar projects for the year 2009-10.

On Thursday 12th November the club organised the annual competition for the coveted Reg Edwards Trophy. The trophy is awarded in memory of Reg Edwards who was a past President of the club who sadly died of cancer. It is customary for the previous year’s winner to arrange the competition, but this year things went a little haywire due to the hospiatalisation of last year’s winner, Clive Yallop. It was great to see Clive back at the club but the competition was organsied by vice-president David Fenn. A number of childrens, yes childrens games were played – Ludo, Snakes and ladders, dominoes and Grand National. The club members were divided into groups to play the individual games and the winners of each game played out the final to decide the ultimate winner.
As usual, there were the normal bending of the rules as each rotarian vied for position, this of course added to the fun, as old hands were aware that the winner has to organise next year’s event. So perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised to find our newest member, Danny Lawrence taking home the trophy. The final game of Ludo, was watched by the members of the club who had been knocked out in the preliminary round and vice-president David was hard pressed to retain a modicum of order as plenty of advice on tactics was offered to the four remaining contestants. It seemed that every time either Brian Munroe or Peter Mestanek got in to position to challenge for the lead, Danny or Andrew Brogan would send them back to the start. Danny ended up winning as he had more counters over the line when the umpire called time. It was a most enjoyable evening which enabled all present to return to their childhood for a couple of hours. President Rob Waite presented the trophy to a bewildered Danny at the end of the evening.

Corringham Thameside, represented by Eric Stanbury and David Fenn, met the Wickford Rotary Club represented by John Davies and Richard Candler in the first round of the District Cribbage competition. Neither team had managed to get past the first round before so something had to give. David managed to gain the initiative for Corringham by beating John Davies in the first rubber. During this game David was dealt two identical hands in two consecutive deals, despite the cards being shuffled. He was dealt three jacks and a five and even had the luck to cut another five allowing him to score an impressive 21 points on both hands. Eric didn’t fair so well, losing to Richard in a hard fought leg.
When the second round rubbers were played David lost the first rubber by the tiniest of margins. David , requiring to peg just one point to win with Richard requiring twelve. Richard almost conceded, but decided to recheck his hand to find he was holding the required dozen and therefore able to claim the leg. Richard also won the second leg. In the meantime, Eric battled back from one down to level his match but unfortunately got trounced in the decider. By now it was 10.30 p.m. and everybody was relieved we did not have to pay the deciding pairs. We would have probably been still at it well past midnight !
Both teams enjoyed the game and particularly the fellowship, we wish Wickford all the best in the next round. Whilst Corringham still await that elusive first round win.