The Rotary Club of Corringham Thameside

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.

The “A” team of Robert Waite and David Fenn entertained the Rayleigh Mill “C” team in the second round of the District 1240 Snooker competition. Rayleigh Mill shaved a closely fought contest and will go forward to the quarter finals where they will meet the winners of Rayleigh Mill “A” and Basildon “A”.
The first frame began with Rayleigh taking a commanding lead as Martin Hodson made a creditable break of 22, but Corringham edged to within 2 points of their opponents before Martin cleared the blue and pink to take the frame.
The second frame started Corringham’s way with their opponents losing their way slightly and giving away twelve points. At one time Corringham led by more than 20 points until the wheels began to come off. David took on a fine cut into the middle pocket for the yellow, and although the object ball fell into the pocket the cue ball carried on into the top pocket. At his next two visits to the table, David managed to repeat the process leaving Corringham just a couple of points to the good. Rob then played safe (or so we thought), leaving the cue ball tight against the baulk cushion with the deciding black near the pink spot. To our utter amazement, and to bouts of hysterical laughter, Carl miscued his shot. Striking down on the ball, his cue slipped and the cue ball started off in the direction of the far left hand pocket and would miss the black by several inches, then to everyone’s amazement, it arced around in a curve and struck the black ball and sent it into the pocket giving Rayleigh their win. All four players were splitting their sides with laughter at the unlikely outcome, but defeat was taken in good heart and we wished our opponents all the best in the next round.
This was a close fought tie played in the true spirit of Rotary, in which all concerned thoroughly enjoyed each others company. Fellowship was again the winner.

This year’s “Give-A-Can” collection was held on Saturday 5th December at Morrison’s store in Corringham. It was our first time working with Morrison’s, and the support we received could not have been better.
The rotarians, working in shifts, asked shoppers to donate a can of food which would be donated to the homeless and needy by the Salvation Army. The response could hardly have been better. The number of cans donated was 1678, that was over 10% up on last year’s total and a new record for the collection.
The club would like to place on record their sincere thanks to all the members of the public who gave so generously in these hard times. We would also like to thank the management and staff of Morrison’s without whose help the event could not have taken place. And last but by no means least we would like to thank the Salvation Army for taking charge of the donated cans and ensuring that they go to those who have hit hard times in this festive season.
In addition to the “Give-A-Can” appeal, the club made a street collection in Corringham town centre in aid of Rotary charities which raised a creditable £316.34. We would like to thank all those who gave so generously to support the work of Rotary in our community.

At the club meeting held on Thursday 3rd December the club welcomed three of the students from the Stanford Le Hope & Corringham Sixth Form Centre who completed the radio course at Gateway FM in October. Each student in turn was invited to tell the club members about their experiences and then answered the members questions. President Robert Waite presented the trio, Shaun Crisp, Elliott Rosoman and Ben Stroud with an OCN Certificate in radio broadcasting and additionally, an Essex Arts Award which was signed by Dame Helen Mirren.
Ms. Sue Weston, Director of the Sixth Form Centre thanked the club for their generousity in funding the course, in which the students gained new skills and enhanced their self confidence. She expressed a wish for further co-operation between the school and the Rotary club in the future.
On Friday 4th December Vice President David Fenn attended the assembly at Billericay Mayflower School to present similar certifcates to Charlie Winch who also participated in the course.