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Recent happenings

Fascinating presentation by Andrew Ormiston on Wednesday 17th September 2025 at The Mayfield Hotel, Seamer.

As an Ex CID officer with West Yorkshire Police, I was interested to learn about his work.

Andrew is a retired Det Sgt in the Metropolitan Police and for a number of years he was seconded to the Undercover Unit of the Met Police, which entailed building relationships with people suspected of being involved in serious crime including robberies, burglary and drug trafficking. As a result of this he had to change his appearance e.g. grow his hair like a ponytail and look the part of a criminal. The most important thing was to gain the confidence of these people.

Andrew gave an example of being asked to drive for T.N.T which is a large transport company and some of their drivers were suspected of trafficking drugs from Spain and other continental countries. He found that job quite strenuous and did not envy the work carried out by normal HGV drivers. He spoke about his work for approximately 40 minutes and was very knowledgeable about how the underworld work. He had to be careful how he presented his evidence to the courts and at the same time keeping his identity secret.

At the end of the presentation, he was asked about where the drugs were distributed on the continent. He admitted his job was very dangerous and he did claim that he had received commendations for his work.

I thanked him for his presentation on behalf of Scarborough Cavaliers. Alan Haigh

Defying Dr Beeching 

We enjoyed a very impressive in depth presentation by Lisa Williams, a qualified train driver and General Manager with her husband Alan as the Chair; of the Esk Valley Community Rail Partnership.Additionally, Peter Myers, Chair of the Yorkshire Coast Community Rail Partnership gave an equally high standard presentation of his area of responsibility.

The Esk Valley Railway, Middlesbrough to Whitby, is funded by the Dept. of Transport and enjoys a £7M donation from the areas potash mine. Many improvements have been made at the stations along the line, including the toilets at Glaisdale. A major success is the Forget me Not Train aimed at people experiencing dementia, who can travel with their Carer. Activities during the journey include live music and hand massage. Along with other services there is a New Years Day Special. Dogs travel free, which has encouraged use by walkers and high media coverage has enhanced this with a 9% annual increase of passengers.The partnership employs as volunteers Station Adopters who carry out local maintenance and improvements. Lisa concluded by stating their ambition to commence a 2 hourly train service.

 Jim Martin  10 Sept 2025

Meeting 26th Aug: Alan Banks introduces us to Boccia Boccia, a ball game suited (but not exclusively) to the elderly and disabled is played from a sitting position on an upright chair. It is an adapted from a combination of Lawn Bowls and the French game Boulle. Two Teams of a varying number. supervised by a mobile umpire sit in a row facing each other some 20-30 feet apart. There is a white ball, the jack, and each player has two leather balls approximately 4 inches in diameter filled with firm heavy material such as sand. Team A has red balls and Team B blue balls.Equal numbers of both teams sit on alternate seats at both ends.(A.B,A,B etc);the game commences when a member of team A tosses the Jack to a favoured position in the area between the two rows of teams. The Jack tosser throws their red ball to get it as near as possible to the Jack. A team B player then throws a blue ball, followed in succession by blue ball players until a blue ball becomes stationary nearer to the Jack than the initial red ball. When this occurs the red ball players in turn throw balls until one rests nearer the Jack than the blue ball or they run out of balls. When one side runs out of balls leaving at least one of the opponents' balls nearer the Jack that team can continue if they wish to throw their remaining balls to try to increase their score or accept the score they had already achieved winning the game. If whilst trying to increase their score their ball is dislodged to leave an opposition ball nearer the hole the win changes to the other team. Several games can be played to constitute a Match.                                                                                                                          Alan Banks , an expert nationally recognized player  introduced the Club to the game of Boccia and supervised a exciting keenly contested match, a first for the Cavaliers Rotary Club. Alan's Boccia group Scarboccia organise games at several centres in Scarborough and it was gratifying to be able to introduce the support group Moving Forward and also a prominent nursing home to Alan and Scarboccia. We wish him well with the excellent work he is undertaking.

ORANGE THE WORLD

On 16 Aug Christine Hines from Scarborough Inner Wheel gave us an insight into the international UN supported campaign to raise awareness about violence against women and girls. The campaign “Orange the World” runs from 25th November until 10th December. Inner wheel members will be supporting the effort by walking on 25th November to raise awareness of the violence many women and girls are subjected to.

Water Wheels in the forge valley

On  23 July we had a highly entertaining and erudite talk from Brian Mulvana. He presented an in-depth account of the water mills in the Forge Valley, and nearby, supported by great images. Water mills dated from over 1,000 years ago and were prolific in the 19^th century – some of them remaining in use until the mid 20^th century and a few  are being revived nowadays.

Mills throughout Forge valley included  Allerston, Brompton  (2), Ayton (2)  with 4 mills at Thornton dale and farther afield with 4 at Scalby beck – and to the north Ramsdale Mill (under restoration). Nearly 30 mills serving the local communities by grinding wheat for flour for the people and grain for the cattle and latterly generating electricity. Thanks Brian for an entertaining and informative evening.

President Handover Occasion July  2nd 2025

This is the time of year the resident President, Kavita handsover her annual duties to the President Elect, Roy. Pauline becomes President Elect for 2026/7. All a bit confusing, however we as a club celebrate this occasion and this year we met at Wydale Hall, Brompton. It was a glorious evening and the guests enjoyed light refreshments whilst taking in the wonderful views across the gardens and wolds in the far distance.

Following a tasteful meal served by hotel staff, the proceedings of the evening began. The photographs show Kavita presenting President Elect, Roy, with the traditional chain of honour. Roy, then inaugurated Pauline as President Elect.

Kavita was kindly gifted with a bouquet of flowers by Pru Butterworth as a gesture for her service to the club over the past year.

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"The Disappearance of Agatha Christie"

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Seven areas of Rotary focus and support

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