Club Chronicle

25 September 2025: That’s Entertainment

Today we welcomed Warwick Aldham. an Australian Rotarian who recently emigrated to this country and is now living in an apartment near the canal basin. Now retired, he was as university in the UK and obviously liked the place.

The speakers were our members Keith Dabbs and Peter Kemp. The photograph shows some of our members being entertained by them.

They spoke separately to tell us about some of the live entertainment they had experienced. In Peter’s case that included observing, in his capacity as Environmental Health Officer, a performance by a well-known hypnotist in London. One of the conditions that the local authority imposed on granting a licence for the performances was that each one should be attended by a Council representative to ensure no members of public were exposed to risk. After each performance the hypnotist was supposed to speak to everyone he had hypnotised to check that they were OK. At the performance Peter observed one young lady who had been hypnotised left before the end, so Peter had to report that the hypnotist had not spoken to her later.

Another performer mentioned was the late comedian Ken Dodd. Contrary to the image he often projected, Ken Dodd’s performance was not risqué but he did go on for rather a long time.

Senior Guests’ Summer Party

We held our Summer Pary for Senior Guests on Saturday, 26 July 2025. As usual, it was held at the Chapter House.

It also followed the usual format:

• A non-alcoholic “cocktail” for each guest on arrival.
• Afternoon tea served at the tables by some of our members.
• Musical entertainment while people were eating.
• An interval with a quiz.
• Cake and tea/coffee with a musical accompaniment.

As has become traditional, the musical accompaaiment was songs the guests would have known, sung by Steve Moriaty, the husband of PDG and 1st Vice President Anne Moriaty. He is usually joined by their daughter, Pippa, but unfortunately she had to call off earlier in the morning.

Francis Whitbread was the quizmaster. Each table formed a team. There were twenty questions. Two tables tied with a very creditable score of 18 correct answers. Francis gave them a tiebreaker, “HOw long, in miles, is the Great Wall of China?” The two tables gave answers of 450 and 550. The team giving that second answer won because they were nearer the true figure of over 5,000.

W good time was had by all. Each guest was sent home with a goody bag.

Our thanks to all the Rotarians who gave guests lifts from home and back again or helped with the party in other ways. Our thanks, too, to Steve for once again singing for us and to the Cathedral and their Vergers for facilitating our use of the Chapter House.

Young Musician Regional Final

The Regional Final of Rotary Young Musician was held in Chelmsford Cathedral on the evening of Saturday, 8 March 2025. Two of our members handed out programmes. Other members of our Club attended, as did other Rotarians. The Region covers Districts 1080, 1090, 1240 and 1260, taking in much of Central and Eastern England. As Youth Lead for District 1240, Peter Dowse organised the Regional competition.

There were eight competitors, four instrumentalists and four vocalists. Our Club sponsored Amelia Yang, the sole violinist among the group, who won both the Chelmsford heat we organised and the District 1240 Final. The adjudicators were Liz Childs, a flute teacher at the University of East Anglia, Are Wangcharoensab, Assistant Director of Music at New Hall School, and Elyse Maugher, Music Lead at Isaac Newton Academy.

At is to be expected at this stage of the competition, we were treated to an evening of great music. Each competitor performed two or three pieces. The music they selected ranged from classical to modern. None of us envied the adjudicators the task of choosing winners and runners-up.

After all the competitors had performed there was an interval while the adjudicators deliberated and those who wished drank tea or coffee, stretched our legs, chatted with friends or did all three.

Art Wangcharoensab gave the adjudicators’ feedback. He said the competitors were “all winners”, which at this stage of the competition is literally true. The winning vocalist was Oscar Riley (District 1080) and the runner-up Nina Ayling (District 1090). The winning instrumentalist was clarinetist Fred Blackshaw (District 1080) and the runner-up our own Amelia Yang. The winners will now go forward to the National Final in Romford.

Quiz Night

Report by President Francis

The Wilderness Foundation quiz, was held at the Essex Young Farmers building at Chatham Green on 28 November 2024. We provided the quiz, quizmaster and admin on the night, leaving the charity to find teams, supply prizes, venue etc. We did a quiz on these lines for the Wilderness Foundation last year. They kindly asked us back as a result, and again the evening was a great success, with plenty of positive feedback. Nine teams took part, with the winning score 76 out of a possible 92, and more importantly, over £800 was raised for the Wilderness Foundation, which is a charity we are very pleased to support, not least because it is a District 1240 corporate member.

I had only one piece of negative feedback, from a quizzer who didn’t think I should have described Richard Osman as a comedian, but despite that I think we might be invited back next year to do another quiz, which we will be very pleased to do.

My thanks to fellow members Angela, Geoff, Graham, John, Anne and Bob, who were there to help with the quiz on the night and made sure it ran smoothly. Thanks also to Anne’s husband Steve for again providing the audio equipment and Bob’s wife Jean for being part of the team our club entered.