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Venue
Hanover International Hotel - Hinkley, Leicestershire
Date
6/7 October 2001
Attendees
35 of the guys, a dozen wives and one daughter!
Midday, Saturday, and the bar starts to fill up. "Who on earth is that?" wispered every now and then, but most
of the faces looked kind of familiar.
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By six the bar is buzzing with the chatter of old mates catching up. Jeepers, what happened to your hair? How long did
you spend in jail? How many kids?
A good group of wives were gathering by late afternoon, but as far as I
remember only Sonja Hooper took advantage of the pool, the rest happy to make the bar a prettier place. A bunch of us disappeared
for a while to watch the world cup qualifier, only Taff (sorry, Rob) Stone was rooting for the Greeks. At least he enjoyed
the half time score.
Good to see everyone made a bit of an effort, with DJ's the order of the day. That was Neil Peacocks idea - honest. But then
he was paying the croupiers.
A few more of the guys turned up at the last minute to make it a healthy attendance
of 35, plus a bevvy of better halves. Good to see Jonny Goodall making the trip from the top of a mountain somewhere.
Having been given four thousand quid each from entry funds, the serious work of loosing it all started with a vengence.
The roullete wheel seemed to be a good little earner (for someone, I'm sure).
A tense moment here, as Dave Harrold
loses another 400 quid. Funnily enough Dave did best when he was acting croupier for a little while.
That's Andy Wrights daughter passing on a beer spot prize, but the winners bottle of Champers went to Paul Aughton, who somehow
managed to amass thirty grand, although we are told that Taff (sorry, Rob) Stone made a minor investment in Pauls victory.
It was good to see so many of us together after so long. As you can see, a good time was had by all, and we have been asked
not to leave it another 20 years ! Perhaps we should mark the quarter century since joining up.
Hopefully even
more of us will make it in 2003 ?
Steve Hopkins promises that it isn't Grecian 2000 (Yeah, right)
A couple of final notes. Thanks to Andy Hoads son,
and Paul Mossoms dad for turining up - Paul said his dad had a great time. (Sorry Paul)
Thanks also to Tony Pool
and Mike Wain for the photo's, and to one and all for making it a memorable weekend.
Lastly, the following absentees
passed on their best wishes, and regrets that they couldn't join us on this occaision; Chris Blight, Mark Bray, Steve Butler,
John Callaghan, Andy Coffin, Mark Jacklin, Rab Larkin, Andy Paterson, Gary Pearce, Carl Redding, Kev Rushby, John Straiton,
Swatty, Dick Atkinson, Mike Duddy and Ralph Richards.
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