Dinner Weekend 2014 - Stevenage, 7th-9th February

Grateful to Paul Parker for arranging the 2014 Annual Dinner right on my doorstep, I set out on the 25 minutes’ drive to the Friday evening pub. Fortunately the severe flooding that affected Britain at the start of 2014 hadn't had too much of an impact on those traveling a greater distance, but this was of little comfort until I arrived at The Pig & Whistle in Aston (Stevenage) two hours later. However, good beer, a curry and somewhat inebriated company around the pool table made it worthwhile.

The following day I decided that a lie-in was in order, so missed the first two towers of Hitchin and Stevenage, arriving just in time for a ring a Watton-at-Stone and lunch. Unfortunately our quarter of Bristol S Major at Bennington in the afternoon was unsuccessful, but a better result was achieved at All Saints Hertford where a quarter peal of Grandsire Caters was scored.

Those of us on the top table at the dinner realised we all needed a comfort break at the same time, and so vacated the room en-masse, much to the bemusement of the other diners. On deciding to repeat the (not especially amusing, except to us) joke later in the evening we shouldn’t have been as surprised as we were to find that on returning our table had been rotated by the other diners, leaving us somewhat confused as to where we had been sitting!

The guest speech was eschewed this year in favour of a performance by Roy Falder’s handbell group, with ‘volunteers’ from the audience demonstrating their own skill (or lack thereof). Further entertainment was provided by a band who provided an eclectic selection of music, which while Mr Murphy was unappreciative of the volume, Messrs Mundy and Haynes were certainly approving of the numerous merits of the lead singer.

After hunting down some glasses in the hotel lobby completely devoid of staff, those of us left drank whisky until the early hours with the members of the band.

- Percy

Hertford, Hertfordshire. All Saints. Saturday, 8 February 2014 in 53 minutes (25–0–25) 1259 Grandsire Caters Helen Foster 1, Caroline B Stonham 2, Sarah K A West 3, Sue Rainsbury 4, Catherine E Ockwell 5, Kevin J Rogers 6, Matthew D Greenway 7, Paul J Lewis 8, Timothy M Payne (C) 9, James M Stonham 10. Rung on the weekend of the Welsh Colleges Dinner in celebration of the wedding of Becky Shipley & Hal Drysdale on 1st February 2014.