Dinner Weekend 2006 - Warwick, 3rd-5th February

Photos by Rhyan Probert, Paul Parker & Stephen Penney (and others that used his camera!)

The annual dinner weekend this year was held in and around the Warwick area and incidentally happened to be my first dinner weekend. This brings me to an apology; Unfortunately this report is a little thin on names as I don’t know many but I’m sure I’ll get to know them all in due course! In fact, I may not be the best person to be writing this, but due to an incident involving a large ball, a light on a small chain, Mini Me and my lack of football skills, oh and my right foot, I feel I shouldn’t argue too much!

The weekend (like most) commenced on the Friday evening when we all met up in the local pub for a few pints and to catch up on the gossip since the autumn tour. As last orders were called we wondered back to the hall to settle down for the night. A few of the Welsh college rouges decided to kick a ball around the hall but this soon became boring so we settled down for the night in anticipation of an exciting days ringing.

After the catering officers provided us with their last gorgeous breakfast we hit the road bound for Leamington Spa and our first tower of the tour. After ample ringing here by most, we headed of towards the second tower of the day. Arriving late at Claverdon (due to trying to drag Malcolm away from the coffee shop), I was greeted by a rather crowded tower. Forcing my way into the belfry I was allowed to ring a quick touch of Bob Minor before realising the next stop was the pub. I persuaded Mini Me (my chauffer for the day) that we should send an advanced party to the pub. This plan actually back fired on us as we had to wait half an hour for the pub to serve us.

Soon we were refuelled and raring for the last tower, although people’s attention was starting to turn to the excitement of the evening’s entertainment. We arrived at the last tower, a ground floor 6 at Hatton. After observing the ringing up and becoming quite concerned about the amount of movement from the rope guide I gingerly had a ring before returning to the hall to find a radio for the rugby.

As England coasted towards yet another victory, the rugby was interrupted by the ringing of the Master’s bell indicating the start of the AGM. After the meeting where Becky Shipley was voted in as Master and Jeanette Lord as Social Secretary, people went their separate ways to make themselves beautiful (harder for some than others)! About 15 of us were left in the hall to fight over the communal showers but amazingly we were all ready a few minutes early and headed off to meet the rest at the hotel.

The evening began with a few pints of Abbot before we were kindly asked to take our seats for dinner. After the meal we were treated to some Bob triples rung in hand by Stephen Penney, Christopher Mundy, Matthew Tosh and Malcolm Murphy. The performance finished with the firing of the bells much to the audience’s amusement. The guest speaker this year was Andrew Lansberry who entertained us by explaining the different types of ringers there are whilst we all tried locate ourselves and others around our tables. Andy added that how anyone could stand at the end of a rope for three hours was beyond him but there was a group of ringers who did this, and they are known as the “mad peal ringers”.

Next, the romance officer Jeanette Lord entertained us with her speech and she explained that as the dinner approached, people’s willingness to gossip became less and less. Due to the lack of material she was provided with she decided to look at song titles. She match some song titles to Welsh College couples, with my personal favourite being ‘Digital Love’ for that special love Iain has with his camera. Jeanette concluded by congratulating this years new couples, Aberystwyth’s Andy and Eleanor, Cardiff’s Simon and Lisa and finally Percy and Becky.

As Jeanette concluded, the anticipation for the Master’s (Gail Evans) speech reached unbearable levels, we we’re not to be disappointed. The start of the Masters speech took many of us by surprise with Gail’s impressions making me think I had somehow wondered into the Big Brother House. The Master went onto explain that she had been a little short of cash this year so had sold the rights of our tours to a new reality TV show, who has secretly been following the society all year. With the speech being interrupted with phone calls from Simon Cowell and the producer of this new show we soon quickly understood what had been going on. The viewers had been voting for what they wanted to see with a disturbingly large number of people wanting to see Percy naked. The Speech ended with the box being opened in true Noel Edmonds style to reveal far too much of a very toned Percy.

The evening’s entertainment continued with a disco and dancing, which was led mostly by Penny, Sue and Karen. However soon a rather over excited ‘someone’ decided it was time the boys joined the girls on the dance floor. This saw Pete (the Dancing Queen himself) showing us his moves. The music slowly deteriorated until it reached a new low when the same ‘someone’ decided to request the Music Man, which I must admit went down much better than I had expected. After a few more songs we returned to the hall for a little whisky focus before hitting the sack.

Sunday Morning saw us split for service ringing with those staying in and around Warwick ringing in Warwick and those of us staying in the hall making the short trip up the road to Snitterfield. After being reminded by a polite notice that ‘every pull is a public performance’ we proceeded to struggle to ring with a sally miss-location being reported, it then became time for us all to say our goodbyes and setoff for home.

A huge thank you must once again go to Ross Hartley for organising yet another extremely enjoyable tour and a great 2006 dinner, here’s to next year.

Paul Parker

Lunch The Kevin cup

Lisa, Jeanette & Simon enjoy lunch Daniel & Iain do the same

Jeanette Lord & Jenny Malin Sarah Tadman & Becky Shipley

The new master gets excited about the dinner Jeanette Lord, Lisa Hinton, Simon Hills,
Sarah Tadman & Becky Shipley

Ross Hartley & Simon Hills George Barratt, Karen Williams & Chris Mundy

Richard Holt, Penny Clarkson and Simon Jones

Martyn Owen, Peter Hampson, Paul Parker & Roger Grieve Simon Hills & Lisa Hinton

Andrew & Jayne Lansberry The guest speaker, Andrew Lansberry

The master, Gail Evans People dancing

Eleanor Payne & Andy Barnes The new master with Cader & Idris

More people dancing Paul Parker & Sarah Tadman with Rhys the Fflys.

Ross Hartley & Gail Evans

Dave Powell & Karen Williams

Becky Shipley & Stephen Penney

It all gets too much for dogger.