March 2022 Meeting

We met on Tuesday 1st March for the popular Skittles Evening with Supper, at the Royal British Legion, Limpsfield. 21 members arrived to compare their skittle skills. 

Names were picked randomly and 5 teams were quickly organised, namely: Solomon, Rehoboam, Balthazar, Salmanazar, and Melchior (wine aficionados will recognise that these are bottle sizes). After 4 rounds, Solomon and Melchior were tied on 90 points, closely followed by Rehoboam, so a playoff was required. 

That was very close too, and the two teams were only separated by a point. The eventual winner was Melchior (Ian, Jane, Kent, and Graham H & Caroline). The players with the highest individual cumulative score were Janet and Kent, who tied on 26. The player with the highest score in a round was Pam with 9, which just goes to show that age is no barrier. Graham B also won a prize for propping up the scoreboard.

Many thanks go to the British Legion, for a warming and plentiful supper, Janet for organising the evening, Graham and Caroline who scored very well, Val L who organised the teams and the prizes, and Graham B for some of the transportation on a rather wet and windy night.

February 2022 Meeting

Twelve members gathered for our wine tasting evening on the 1st February. Chris and Graham B introduced their favourite red and white wines from South America, Australia and England. Each member was asked to mark (out of 5) each wine for colour, bouquet and taste.

After much discussion and quite lot of sipping, the Wine Club’s members voted a 2021 red wine from Argentina (Jam Shed, a Malbec, £7.00 from Sainsburys, but £6.00 from Morrisons) as their favourite wine, selected by Graham. 

This grape is sourced from selected vineyards in the hills of Argentina’s famous Mendoza wine region. This Malbec has rich, opulent plum and blackberry flavours, rounded off with a hint of cocoa and vanilla and is, I quote, “Seriously Shareable, Seriously Delicious, Seriously… give it a go”.

Many thanks to Chris and Graham for sharing their favourite wines.

Our next meeting on Tuesday, 1st March will be a skittles evening at the Royal British Legion in Limpsfield with food included.

January 2022 Meeting

Twenty members of the Wine Club met on 11th January at the Haycutter, Hurst Green, for a New Year dinner. In January 2021, we were not able to meet because of Covid restrictions, so it was particularly enjoyable to meet this year. To provide some protection, we all did a lateral flow test before meeting at the pub. 

The Haycutter provided a very imaginative menu. The consensus was that the food, ambience, and service were all excellent. A roaring log fire kept us all very warm. Many thanks to Janet and Graham for organising the dinner, and also providing some transport.

The next meeting is on Tuesday 1st February, and is a wine-tasting of members’ favourite wines. Please contact Janet (Ph 01737 822333) for further details.

December 2021

Twenty-two members, most wearing Christmas themed items of clothing, attended our Christmas Party on the 14th December. Val Large, our chair, had laid down a challenge of a prize for the best-dressed table. 

Members had grouped themselves by table, and rose admirably to this challenge, with various themes, such as “Afternoon tea at the Ritz” and “Ten Green Bottles”, and all with copious Christmas decorations. Competition was fierce, all tables were very festive and imaginative, and a prize was awarded to the winning table. 

Mulled wine was available (thank you, Ian and Francis), and members had brought various savoury and sweet nibbles, including Val’s famous platted meatloaf. Many thanks go to Mary and Derek for an excellent raffle, and all who helped make the evening so much fun. It made up for our Christmas party in 2020 (held on Zoom).

We look forward to catching up with everyone at our New Year Dinner on the 11th January at the Haycutter, Hurst Green. Please contact Janet Bailey (822333) or Francis (822495) for further details.

November 2021 AGM Meeting

Our AGM on the 2nd November 2021 was held “live” in the Christ Church centre, due to the relaxation of Covid restrictions (unlike 2020).

Our Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer duly presented their reports and then we moved on to the Election of Officers and Committee. Most of the members of the Committee were prepared to stand for a further year as we had not had meetings until June, and the line-up is as follows:

Chairman : Val Large
Secretary : Janet Bailey
Treasurer : Graham Bailey
Committee : Heather Charman, Mary Freeman, Derek Freeman, & Kent Sandiford

The planned programme for 2022 was discussed and agreed, and highlights are likely to include: Members’ favourite wines in February, Skittles at the British Legion (Limpsfield) in March, Tipplers Stroll in June, outing in August, and wine-tasting in October. We concluded with some light-hearted games. The out-going secretary showed his Zumba moves unfortunately.

Isobel Taylor was made a life member of the club, for her services over the years, particularly for her sterling leadership as secretary and publicity officer during 2007-17.

The 2021 Christmas Party has been moved to 14th December, 8.00 pm, where we will be giving a prize for the best-dressed table. New members are welcome. Please contact Janet Bailey (Ph 822333) or me for further details.

October 2021 Meeting

Our October Meeting was a wine-tasting evening kindly organised by our Kiwi member, Francis, based on the theme New World vs Old World.

Sixteen members duly arrived armed with the all important nibbles, 2 wine glasses (for comparing wines), side plates for the nibbles and a pen for scoring each wine!

There were 9 wines for tasting – two white wines and the rest red. For the scoring of each wine, we had to guess the grape (3 points), the country/region (1 point) and the year it was made (1 point). So a total of 45 points was up for grabs. The grape varieties ranged from Grüner Veltliner, Grenache, Shiraz and Malbec and the countries/regions from New Zealand, France, Australia and Austria, to name but a few. However, after working our way through the 9 wines, the members’ favourite wine was a Grenache, bought by Francis from the Wine Museum at Chateauneuf de Pap in 2012 – a sweet dessert red. The top scorers of the evening were Graham and Caroline.

A big thank to Francis for choosing and bringing along the wines, which were purchased from Majestic Wines in Redhill and also to Mary and Derek for organising the raffle.

Our next meeting will be our AGM on the 2nd November.

September 2021 Meeting

Our September meeting saw us back in Christ Church Hall for our ‘Night at the Races’ – dog racing. Everyone was given a betting slip and £5,000 in ‘monopoly’ money. 

There were 8 races in total and we were able to own and/or train as many dogs as we wanted. However, only 1 person could own or train each dog, so you had to make your selection early to avoid disappointment. 

It cost £100 to own a dog and £50 to train and if they should come in either 1st or 2nd, as an Owner you win £200 and as a Trainer £100 – in addition to any monies that you had placed on the dog as a bet.

Betting slips were completed and handed in before each race and returned with winnings or not! At the end of the evening, Isobel and Pat were awarded the bottles of wine with winnings totalling £8,400 and £7,600 respectively, with the wooden spoon awarded to Chris, who finished the evening with £100.

A big thank you to Graham H, Caroline and Kent for organising a thoroughly enjoyable evening and to Mary and Derek for organising the raffle.