Dinner Weekend 2013 - Stafford, 15th-17th February

"A report by Poppy Wheeler will appear here soon."

As the above sentence has been published on the website for nearly 2 years and Poppy Wheeler is now busy establishing her reputation as a Queen’s University Fresher in Belfast (whatever happened to the idea of a Welsh University?) I began by drafting a report from a few vague recollections of my own. However, it was a rather scanty effort so I took a collaborative approach by appealing to the memories of the Welsh Colleges Facebook group!

This dinner was organised by Sue around the Stafford area, and it was a rainy weekend. For the first time ever Poppy was chauffeur as she was old enough to drive and young enough not to be drinking at lunchtime. This made a number of us feel rather old, but seemed also to be the ideal solution to the “who drives today?” debate. Pat tells me there was a near-miss incident with a tree in the hotel car park but I’m wise enough not to remember this one!

On the Friday night a QP band met at Sandon and Ainsley achieved his first QP inside – congratulations! I don’t remember the pub on Friday night but I’m sure it happened, and was almost certainly followed by toast & marmite. On Saturday ringing was at Haughton (6), Gnosall (8) and Eccleshall (8) before lunch at The Greyhound Inn in Yarlet. The obligatory meeting happened late afternoon and for some reason (I’m not at all sure quite why, and I blame it on the distraction of simultaneously trying to do exam revision) I ended up as Master with Paul as Social Secretary. This was to be the reverse of the 2009 committee!

The dinner was held at Tillington Hall Hotel and was a great success, although Iain Scott did recall that we ran out of beer before the end of starter. To put a positive spin on this, there was certainly no wastage! The guest speaker, Dickon Love, made reference to Rhiannon’s choice of outfit which showed off the Chain of Office to perfection and had clearly captured Master Mundy’s attention. And then it was time for the romance officer’s speech. Alex “Tiger” Haynes excelled himself with a truly enthusiastic but entirely incoherent speech, which was in many ways the most and least memorable moment of the weekend!

We followed this with a lot of dancing to a 3 piece band and caller, and had a thoroughly good time. Sunday morning consisted of some rapid tidying up, followed by an unfortunate incident of mistaken identity as both Ross Hartley and the family Probert were driving Skoda Estate cars…. All in all, this is the reason tour reports should not be written nearly 2 years late. May this be a lesson to us all!

- Sarah A Tadman

Sandon, Staffs. All Saints Friday 15th February 2013 1280 Plain Bob Doubles Timothy C Hine 1, Martyn J Owen (C) 2, Iain D Scott 3, Ainsley M Gilbert 4, Rhiannon M Meredith 5, Victoria L Evans 6, First 'inside' - 4. Rung on the eve of the Society's Annual Dinner weekend as a compliment to the outgoing committee. 25th quarter peal rung by the Society under the Master's term of office.