Lorraine McGlone receiving the Rotary Badge from Joint President David hood at the meeting of on Thursday 6th Oct. The presentation marked the election of Lorraine as Honorary Member of the cluber. Lorraine thanked the Club, saying how much it will help as she continues to accompany  Gordon on his many visits to clubs as our District Governor.  

Lorraine had to leave the meeting shortly afterwards to attend a meeting of Alfreton Inner Wheel of which she is President. 

Our meeting on 20th October was held jointly with Matlock at the Temple Hotel in Matlock Bath.  This was DG Gordon’s visit to the two clubs, the opportunity for the Presidents to receive banners  and for Gordon to present the District golf trophy to Roger Hardy. 

From our District web site
Rotary Race Meeting at Southwell Racecourse

Following negotiations with the Clerk of the Course at Southwell Racecourse there will be an evening of jump races on Tuesday 15 May 2012 to raise funds for Polio Eradication. It will be designated in the national racing calendar as a Rotary Race Meeting.  This is a unique opportunity to enjoy an evening’s racing and see all of the races which are being sponsored by Rotarians and other commercial supporters.  It will be a fun evening with everyone welcome and there is a number of different food outlets available ranging from fish and chips to a restaurant serving four course meals. We will be selling discounted admission tickets for just £5 each and all of the funds will go towards Polio Eradication in addition to a portion of the race sponsorship monies.

Further details will be circulated in due course but please put the date in your diaries. District Governor Gordon has rearranged the District Team meeting to avoid a clash of dates so that he can be there! Why not designate this as your club meeting for that week?

A coffee morning on Saturday 15th October  was well attended.  Bring and Buy items flowed in, and a lot of merriment was created by the donation of Kath's wonderful mechanical toys - particularly the snoring pig!  He is currently causing a lot of laughter and entertainment at Di's house.
 £137.30 raised for Cancer Research UK.
Di is planning to hold another fundraising coffee morning in the spring. 

At our meeting on13th October Alison Foster, the new Wirksworth Festival organiser gave an enthusiastic presentation about the 2011 Festival and future developments  To learn more visit their website at
wirksworthfestival 

On Thursday 6th October Past President Martin Cruttenden gave a presentation on his trip to Vietnam with fascinating photographs of the places he and Carol visited and an insight into the peoples' way of life and psyche.

LAZING ON A SUNNY AFTERNOON.

Perhaps not “lazing” exactly, but certainly the 37 Club members, their wives, partners and guests had a splendid summer’s  sociability and BBQ at the splendid setting provided by Sue and David Haspel of their delightful Pittywood Farm garden on Sunday 28 August.

With JP David Hood acting as maitre d’occasions and his good friend, Ian, as our chef, a delicious and varied BBQ buffet with desserts was provided to the pleasure of all.  Team games were devised, resourced and circus-mastered by Rtns Ian Dolby and Chris Bunting.  Prizes were given to those who distinguished themselves, whether by skill or their talent to amuse.  Other prizes  (mainly of the bottled variety) were raffled – some tables seemed to be more favoured in this regard than did most!

Whether winner or loser mattered little.  A thoroughly good time was had by all, and the event even managed to raise an unexpected £162 profit. Sue Haspel nominated the Stroke Association to be the recipient charity of this sum, and Club voted at its monthly business meeting the following week to round this up to £200.So, not a lazy day after all.  Just a great event, enjoyed by all on a summer’s afternoon.

John Dolan 

Willersley Walk  Sunday Sept 11th
A good party of enthusiasts set off from Margrette and Ken Wilkin’s home in the grounds of Rock House at Cromford for a guided walk to Willersley Castle and Gardens.
Our accomplished guide was David Lane and we were very lucky because David has a great knowledge of this location and he gave us a real treat.  David was amusing, sometimes mysterious and always very informative.

On 22nd September Keith Bradshaw and Kemal Shaheen  gave a presentation on the Bakewell- based charity Village Aid Africa which works with local community-based partners in West Africa (Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Cameroon) to find sustainable solutions to their problems. To learn a little about what they said, visit their web site at www.villageaid.org

On Thursday 15th September Rosemary Blenkinsop  gave an interesting talk about the origins and development of Transition Towns nation-wide and the progress being made by ‘Wirksworth Transition Initiative.’ To learn more about developments in our town visit the group’s web site by clicking on 'Transition' hyperlink below:
Transition. 

The District Bowls was held at Hucknall on Sunday 4th September.District Governor Gordon, Derek Rice and I represented the Club. Although we did not win at least one member of the team managed to get his hands on the Trophy, District Governor Gordon presented the Trophy to the winning team which was The Rotary Club of Hucknall. The weather was not very good but it did not hold up play. We enjoyed a pleasant day of fellowship and competition. Sorry to report that we did not win perhaps we will do better at Ten Pin Bowls!!!
  John Wright 

  THRILLS AND SPILLS WERE PROMISED.....After a very long absence Penny Farthing racing returned to Matlock on Sunday 11th September  to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of  Hall Leys Park.  The event was organised by Matlock Cycle Club and sponsored by Maazi Indian Restaurant.I hope that everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.  Richard and Dawn did a magnificent job and the event must have raised our profile in the locality.
John Holden 

Past President Ian presented £500 cheques to Betty Foster,  representing Air Ambulance and Colin Underwood, representing RNLI.  The money for the cheques had been collected during Ian’s year as President 

On Thursday 18th August Peter Wild entertained us with his experiences as a driver for Slack’s Coach Holidays, starting with   a brief history of how ‘inns’ evolved to modern hotels to meet the demands arising from advances in the transport system. Whether in  Ireland, Whitby, Scarborough or elsewhere one common factor was those who grumbled and gave Peter the material for his amusing talk..

On Thursday 11th August Keith Orford brought along an impressive collection of ‘Dinky-type’ model buses and gave an impressively informed talk about the development of buses in various parts of the country. 

On 11th August we welcomed Mike Bridges from Anchorage Alaska USA who was visiting a family member from Belper.  He went to the Steam Rally and got details of our Club meetings from Iris Laud who was acting as a steward at the event, where she incurred a painful broken wrist. Norman reports that Iris had the heavy metal brace removed today (23rd) and now has a much lighter splint and is progressing well.
 

Andrew originally joined Rotary in 1971, being  introduced by Guy Spriggs.  The President in that year was Barrie Griffiths.  (Barrie sadly died in the year when he was District Governor Elect).  Andrew served as President 1985/86.  Andrew resigned 1995 because of work commitments but has now returmed to the fold. 

He is married to Elizabeth (Liz).

On Thursday 28th July Ron Duggins, a past member of our Club gave a fascinating PowerPoint presentation  entitled  ‘The 1960s as I Saw Them’ with a collection Of photos he had taken as a a professional photographer .  Members who grew up locally were called upon to identify faces from sports teams and incidents involving the emergency services.  It was an enjoyable evening and one that Ron said could be repeated for the 70s, 80s …...

YOUNG SPEAKER AWARD

Young Laurie Butler, a Year 9 student at Anthony Gell School was presented with the award  of our Club’s Young Speaker of the Year, by President, Ian . Laurie won the competition, for which 8 contestants, all to a very high standard, entered. He followed his entertaining talk about his musical interests by singing his ‘way to success’ a song which was about Ken’s Mini Market, composed by himself, accompanied on his ukulele!

COMMUNITY AWARD

Chris Whittle was presented with the Community Award for 2011 for his work as  the Chairman of Wirksworth Colts Football Club,  The 2010-11 season has been a season of celebration as the Club will be 25 years old this year. Chris is a founder member of the Club which started with one team and has since grown to a club of 250 registered players with 20 squads training each week between September and May.

 The Club has the FA kite mark as a Community Charter Club in recognition of its growth and quality of provision. Apart from the time spent at the Club Chris is also on the Wirksworth Town Council.  The Wirksworth Rotary Council was unanimous in its choice of recipient although the other two candidates were also very worthy entrants. The Award was presented at a meeting of our Club  in June.

In response to the presentation of the Award by Ian , our Club President, Chris Whittle said that he was very humbled to receive the Award but stressed that he accepted it on behalf of Wirksworth Colts where many people are involved.

63rd CHARTER ANNIVERSARY

President Ian was able to sit back and enjoy a memorable Charter.  The venue, the Matlock Golf Club provided a good atmosphere and the food was of a  high standard although the service was rather slow. The toasts were expertly proposed by JSVP David Hood (Rotary International),  and JVP John Dolan (Our Visitors and Guests).  PDG Peter Swinscoe gave an entertaining response to the toast of ‘Rotary International’  and a warm toast to our Club to which President Ian responded.  The highlight of the evening was the presentation by Captain Simon Cupples CGC, Adjutant of the Mercian Regiment  who took us so effectively into the challenging and difficult terrain of Afghanistan.  The evening moved smoothly thanks to the Toastmaster SJVP Mike Tomlinson.  There were 43 visiting Rotarians, 23 Wirksworth Rotarians, 5 Round Tablers and 20 other guests, partners and friends: a total of 91 diners.

 PICTURE GALLERY