On Thursday 20 February 2025 32 members, guests (former club member Brian Pidd and his wife Julie) and partners joined Chairman Dom to celebrate the start of the Chinese New Year of the Snake at TOPS Chinese Restaurant on Falsgrave Road.

Several members and partners had availed themselves of the invitation to start the evening across the road at the Tap and Spile to enjoy a pre-dinner drink including one partner who was so anxious not to leave her drink half finished that she brought the glass with her!

Chairman Dom had clearly come straight from work although when he subsequently revealed that he had just spent 10 hours driving a fare to Oxford and back he was probably entitled to be cut some slack regarding his sartorial appearance.

The meal started with the obligatory prawn crackers while orders for main courses and any dietary requirements were taken.

As everyone tucked into their mixed starters the hubbub died down and what had previously sounded like a manic plumber spasmodically hitting a water pipe with a monkey wrench was revealed to be a sound track of Chinese music playing over the restaurant’s sound system.

The starters were followed by a main course of one’s own choice which some shared with their partners accompanied by individual bowls of fried rice. It was noticed that no one asked for their cutlery to be replaced with chop sticks no doubt fearful of being called out as poseurs.

While most settled for beer or soft drinks to accompany their meals member John P tried to impress his partner by ordering a bottle of Chateau Falsgrave which when it arrived sported a label with a picture of a wombat and bore the name “Peculiar Mr Pat”. Perusal of the label on the back of the bottle (do bottles have backs? – editor) revealed that Mr Pat was the name given to an orphaned wombat who had had to be saved from being bullied by other wombats and was found a home at the Ballarat Wildlife Park where he was transported about by wheelbarrow because of his enormous size but who had a 50,000 on line following and a dating app!

At the end of the meal Chairman Dom gave a brief speech in which he succeeded in making both our Catering Officer and Treasurer look somewhat anxious when he announced that next year the January and February meetings would be combined to save money before delivering his punch line that the meeting would be known as the Chinese Burns Night!

With partners present there were no reports from the various officers and having welcomed the guests and partners the Chairman closed the meeting with the usual toast to RTBI.

Chinese Burns Night Reporter

The first meeting of the New Year saw the return of an old favourite a Burns Night Supper. As in previous years the Supper was held at Restaurant Nineteen09 at Scarborough TEC on Filey Road. In honour of the Scottish Bard the dress code for the evening was Black Tie or suit and tie.

A respectable 28 members and guests attended the Supper where we were met at the door by students from the college who directed us to the bar area for a pre-dinner drink or two.

The evening opened with an address by Chairman Dom in “Trumpian” style using his best American accent followed by the Selkirk Grace from Brian Davidson in his best Scottish accent.

The peace was then broken by the skirl of the pipes and the Great Chieftain of the pudding race was paraded around the room on a silver platter carried by a somewhat embarrassed student proceeded by the piper.

The procession over the piper addressed the haggis in time honoured fashion with a faultless rendition of one of Burns most well known poems before cutting it open with his dirk to expose its entrails.

There followed an excellent if heavy meal starting with haggis, neeps and tatties followed by a beef casserole complete with herb dumplings and ending with a cranachan dessert which appeared to have consumed a bottle of whisky all on its own.

The meal was followed with a brief account of Burns life and works from Brian who appeared to be on commission from the Scottish Tourist Board the number of times he recommended visiting the country before ending with a toast to Burns with a further toast this time to the lasses proposed by Chairman Dom who thankfully did not inflict his Scottish accent on us.

There then followed the high point of the evening for some members a whisky tasting hosted by former 41 Club member and genuine Scot Ian Cocker who after starting with a very good Burns joke introduced us to 6 different whiskys starting with a Talisker from the Isle of Skye followed by an Old Poultney from Wick, a Bunnahabhain from Islay, a Jura from where else but Jura and finishing with a Glen Scotia from Campbelltown on the Mull of Kintyre. The only disappointing note was that not all the contents of the 6 bottles had been drunk by the time the evening ended.

Chairman Dom thanked Ian on behalf of some very replete and satisfied members for his informative introduction to the joys of whisky tasting.

The meeting closed with the usual toast to RTBI.

Burns Night Supper Reporter

Secretary Mike reports that starting in 1985 the Round Table’s Sleigh has toured the streets of Scarborough and surrounding districts for 10 nights every December except when this was not possible because of the nationwide lockdowns in the time of Covid.

The sleigh has for many years been used to collect Santa from the harbour and deliver him to Boyes Store in Queen Street and to take him to visit the primary school in Barrowcliff to give out presents to the school children donated by the school authorities.

The sleigh has been rebuilt and continually maintained initially by members of Round Table and more recently by members of 41 Club who also paid for the last rebuild 5 years ago.

Sadly this year due primarily to the dwindling number of members in Round Table it was decided to operate for 5 nights only but still collect Santa from the harbour and visit Barrowcliffe school. Despite the reduction in the number of nights the sleigh was operational even in these high cost of living times Santa’s Elves still managed to collect £2,151. A record result!

Thanks to those members of 41 Club who gave up their evenings to enable the sleigh to operate and as a result had the chance to witness the happy smiling faces on the hundreds of children who came out to see Santa many of whom handed him their Christmas list of presents they hoped to receive.

Like all successful events the sleigh requires a lot of hard work behind the scenes the majority of which has been done for the past 25 years by our own Ben Kitto (or Rudolf as he is known to Santa).

Merry Christmas
Santa

In a reprise of a Trafalgar Night meeting held a few years ago our Catering Officer John organised this month’s meeting to celebrate the stunning victory of the Royal Navy (27 ships of the line) commanded by Lord Horatio Nelson over the combined might of the French and Spanish navies (33 ships of the line) without the loss of a single ship on 21 October 1805.

The meeting was held appropriately enough at the Scarborough Yacht Club on the 17 October with a traditional roast beef dinner followed by spotted dick and custard. What better way than such a meal to celebrate Trafalgar Night. Although it was a shame that the promised port did not materialise due to a lack of time!

In the absence of our Chairman the meeting was well chaired by Vice Chairman Richard who in the absence of Dom was observed enjoying double helpings of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

With a guest speaker business was conducted before the meal and started with the Vice Chairman welcoming 3 guests to the meeting. Secretary Mike thanked the Yacht Club for hosting the meeting and made a plea to those members with standing apologies to inform the Catering Officer if they were going to attend and not simply turn up which made estimating numbers extremely difficult.

In an attempt to address the problem of diminished donations to the Charity Box the Club has acquired an electronic card playing device to accompany the charity box to enable members to make a donation either in cash or by card. The new technology was explained to members by David Henderson and appeared to be an outstanding success with over £100 donated by card and cash during the course of the evening.

The guest speaker for the evening and former 88 member Nick Taylor introduced himself and invited members to make donations to the RNLI before giving a knowledgeable and fascinating account of the Battle of Trafalgar complete with images of maps, ships of the line and the weaponry used. At the end of his talk Nick was able to answer several questions which reflected well on his own knowledge of the subject and of the members asking the questions.

All in all an enjoyable and informative evening.

The meeting was closed by Secretary Mike at the unusually late time of 10.30pm with the usual toast to RTBI.

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