The WCC 50th Birthday, at the Sir Christopher Wrens house hotel in Windsor, saw a large number of past club members get together and celebrate the clubs half century. Joining us as After Dinner speaker was Stuart Turner, ex-Boss of Austin Rover Sport and Ford Motorsport.
The evening opened with drinks at the bar. After an hour or so of chinwagging between the many past members who had not seen each other in many years, we moved to the dining hall for the four course meal.
Everyone managed to take their seats before chairman Roger Davidson gave an opening speech, introducing Stuart Turner. Ali was presented with a bouquet for all her efforts in organising the event.
Normally when food is put in front of most car club members, silence is guaranteed. But in this case, the reunited past members managed to keep the conversations going through the delicious food.
In between courses, some found time to read the commemerative edition of the club magazine, with excerpts from most years of the club history.
As with all of the major club events this year, the club had laid on a special cake for the members.
The cake was cut in between courses (by Stuart, of course), and served after dessert.
Whilst coffee and cake were served, Stuart Turner did his thing, and held us all in a trance as he recounted his days at Austin Rover and Ford.
The final task of the day came as a surprise to Roger and Ali. The club has a trophy called the Merit Shield, which is awarded on an ad-hoc basis to club members who have contributed to the club and it's members above and beyond the "call of duty". Normally it is not awarded to board members, but we felt that since Roger and Ali have made such major contributions to the running of the Swan (road) Rally, the CARnival Autotest and the 50th Birthday, as well as normal board duties, we would make an exception. We'd managed to keep this secret from Roger and Ali, who were presented the shield by Stuart.
After the formalities had finished, some chose to continue nattering at the tables or the bar, whilst others perused the display board containing photos and cuttings from the clubs fifty years.
[We shalln't go into the drinking which continued amongst the board members, since (luckily) there weren't any cameras to record the events...]
The evening proved a great success, and you never know, there may even be a 51st...
Here's to the next 50 years.
