64th Dereham & District Round Table Annual Dinner

On Tuesday 21st February, members of Dereham & District Round Table and Dereham & District 41 Club gathered together at The Lodge, North Tuddenham for the 64^th Dereham & District Round Table Annual Dinner. The current Chairman, Terence Burleigh, welcomed all those present and extended an especially warm, “but turning wet later”, welcome to the guest speaker for the evening Jim Bacon. Terence went on to list some of his personal highlights from his year so far as Chairman, being a recent Fellowship weekend in York and laying the wreath in the market place on Remembrance Sunday.

After the welcome, Steve Jackman, Dereham & District Round Table’s Vice Chairman, went through the Roll Call of the eleven Past Chairmen of Dereham & District Round Table that were present at the dinner. Charles Norris said Grace before the meal of roast beef and vegetables were served.

After the meal, Steve Jackman formally introduced Jim Bacon to the gathered members. Jim, who is the Managing Director of local weather forecasting company Weatherquest (www.weatherquest.co.uk), spoke for just over an hour about his life and his passion for meteorology. Jim explained that has interest for all matters weather was inspired while working as a young lad on a farm and being impressed by the old farmers being able to predict the days weather by just looking at the sky. In addition to describing how weather is forecast nowadays with powerful computers, Jim went on to talk about the importance that certain businesses place on weather predictions. He highlighted that he has provided weather predictions to energy producers in order for them to better meet the country’s energy needs without over generating power or even not enough. The result of power companies using weather predictions had managed to cut the number of power statiions by up to 25%, which helps towards keep our energy bills down.

Jim also relived some of his experiences while working at BBC Television Centre in London and meeting Morecambe & Wise, The Rolling Stones and a particularly memorable encounter with Marti Caine in a lift.

After his talk Jim answered a number of questions from Tablers ranging from “Are we will be getting a ‘BBQ Summer’ this year?” to “Can you give me Alex Dolan’s mobile number?” to the inevitable questions about Michael Fish and the hurricane of 1987.

Unfortunately Jim wouldn’t give out Alex Dolan’s mobile number though when asked. Shame…!

Terence thanked Jim on behalf of Dereham & District Round Table commenting that it was a most ‘enlightning’ [deliberate pun] talk. Mark Older, Dereham & District Round Table Community Officer, then presented Jim with a cheque for £210 for The Quidenham Children’s Hospice, which is among a number of charities Jim and Weatherquest support locally.

At the end of the dinner Dereham Round Table’s Master at Arms and Lifetime Honorary Member, Jeremy Reeve read out a list of ‘mistermeaners’ committed, such as asking silly questions of Mr Bacon, people checking their mobile phones and taking too many potatoes,  by those present during the dinner and fined the offenders accordingly. A total of £40 was collected by The Master at Arms which was added to the donation for The Quidenham Children’s Hospice.

The Chair formally closed The Annual Dinner, following a toast to Round Table Great Britain & Ireland.

The next event that Dereham Round Table will be holding will be a tin-pin bowling night next week at Strikes in Dereham. The evening is part of a Round Table area (Norfolk) meeting with 60-70 anticipated to attend.

A new venue for Dereham & District Round Table

17th January 2012 – Business Meeting

Since the sudden closure of The George Hotel in Dereham, Dereham & District Round Table have been made homeless as it was our official meeting venue in town. All members of Dereham Table were saddened to hear that Allyson and Steve Marlow had decided to ‘call time’ on The George Hotel. Dereham Round Table had held numerous business and social meetings there since presenting Allyson Marlow with our brass plaque which was proudly mounted on the wall by the front door. One notable meeting held at The George Hotel was our annual dinner at which we had world record holder Mick Gault talk to us about how he managed to win 17 Commonwealth medals for shooting, but never represented England in the Olympics.

So, currently we are a ‘nomadic club’ with a new official venue yet to be decided upon. Our Club Secretary, Charles Norris, had to arrange a local venue for our first formal Business Meeting of 2012 and decided to contact Jessica Smith at Coco’s Bistro in Dereham (http://www.coco.gb.net/) to see if she would be able to accommodate our needs.

Terence & Jessica outside Coco Bistro

As Jessica is the daughter of former Dereham Round Table Chairman John Smith, she certainly knew what she was letting herself in for. Jessica said “I can remember helping Dad many years ago with the Santa Sleigh and it was great fun” Knowing how Tablers love to sample the odd beer or two at meetings Jessica especially ordered in a cask of real ale for the night. The ale was complemented by a very tasty 2 course meal followed by a ‘proper sized’ cup of coffee. Note to Jessica; Don’t forget the after dinner mints next time…!

Terence Burleigh, in his capacity as Chair, started the meeting by welcoming all present and thanking Jessica and her staff for their kind hospitality. During the course of the meeting items such as donation requests, a family camping weekend and the Chairman’s Ladies Night Ball to be held at Barnham Broom Country Club were all discussed.

Life Time Honorary Member, Jeremy Reeve, was the Master at Arms for the night and read out a list of ‘mister meaners’ committed during the meeting by those present for which they were fined.

A night of quality food, in a great location with good friendship.

We were so impressed with the standard of the food and surrounding that we have already booked Coco’s for our Wii Night in April. The Wii night will consist of connecting two Wii’s to projectors and battling it out to see who can do the longest Ski jump, drive the fastest around a Mario circuit or shoot the highest number of baskets.

Our next event, which is Kayaking,  is on Tuesday 31st January. Lets hope Spence decides not to try to drink the contents of the pool this time.

Once again, thanks to Jessica and her staff.

Autumn 2011

Dereham & District Round Table moves forward into the autumn with a fantastic programme and set of activities.

We start October off with a trip to Whitlingham Ski slope to go Tubing followed by a museum trip.

Over the summer a select few have been assisting Santa modernise his sleigh ready for the December collections, hopefully Santa will have organised some better singers this year!

Please look through the pages and links, if you are interested in joining us please make contact!  Also contact us if you are aware of a good cause or charity around the Dereham Area, we are always interested no matter the cause.

Dereham Round Table’s Seal Of Approval

Dereham & District Round Table have been holding formal and social meetings in Dereham since their charter in 1948. During their latest meeting on Tuesday Chairman, Spencer Burrell, presented an official plaque to the new owners of The George Hotel, Allyson & Steve Marlow. The plaque is to confirm that The George Hotel is now the official meeting place of Dereham & District Round Table. Mounted by the front door, the plaque now has pride of place.

“It is so important for us to have a dedicated meeting place at the heart of Dereham with a stable long term future.” Mr Burrell added “The George Hotel is the perfect venue for us. It’s centrally located, which is important as not all of our members live in Dereham. We just felt the need to not only acknowledge our gratitude to The George Hotel for hosting us, but also to advertise the fact that we meet there.”

Allyson and Steve have over the last 20 years run similar establishments, but never one that has been an official meeting place for a Round Table club. “When Steve and I first found out that Dereham Round Table met at The George, we were not sure what to expect.” Allyson added “I must admit, I thought that their meetings were going to be rather sombre affaires.”

“Having met the lads at their AGM last month” Steve commented “and hearing the wide range of exciting activities they get up to, we certainly have a completely different opinion now. Our staff rather look forward to working when we have Round Table meetings here, as it’s always such a good atmosphere.”

Allyson said “We were so delighted when the lads from Round Table asked if they could make us their official meeting place.”

Spencer Burrell presents the plaque to Allyson at The George