The 75th anniversary of Carmarthen Round Tables’ charter was held at the Ivy Bush in Carmarthen. Chairman Tony Currell, 6 Swansea Tablers and two guests made the journey to celebrate at this prestigious dinner. Guest speaker of the night Rick O’Shea (rugby raconteur) entertained us with an ‘imaginative’ after dinner speech.
Carmarthen Round Table 80 was chartered in 1934 having been sponsored by Swansea Round Table 57 and other clubs. All at the club wish No.80 the very best of tabling for the next 25 years.
With a 09:30 hrs start, six eager volunteers made a start at the Friends of the Young Disabled.
TEAM Swansea Round Table Comprised of:
Craig, who had organised a giant wood skip for all the timber to be recycled into.
Adrian, who had brought along a spade.
Andrew, who had brought along a wheel barrow and brush.
Jamie, who had brought along a shovel
Harri brought his good self
Koert, who forgot his electric BBQ but made up for it with some hedge sheers!
In just under three hours they had managed to shift in excess of two tonne of timber, grab a quick coffee and sweep and clean the entire yard. The existing garage was also cleared and swept clean in preparation to replace the existing roof structure. It is planned that on completion Swansea Round Table will house its Christmas Sleigh in this building.
Updates to follow will include the construction of the replacement roof.
Pictured: Harri, Koert, Andrew, Craig, Jamie. Photographer: Adrian
Swansea Round Table will be involved in community work for the Friends of the Young Disabled. On the 14th of November members will be helping the local charity group clean the outer areas of the HQ facility in Cwmbrwla.
Vice Chairman Koert Pelders said “This is a good community project for the club to be involved in. Its always nice to be able to give up some of our time and man power as well as money to a worthy cause“. Swansea Round Table will also be involved in organising the re-roofing of the minibus garage at the centre. This it is hoped will add security to the facility and provide much needed additional storage space.
If you would like to contribute to this worthy project you can donate using the button below.
Members will be meeting at 9:30am on the morning of the Saturday, 14th of November.
Extra volunteers more than welcome. Contact us
Maggie’s South West Wales, is part of the Joy of Living campaign, and is located at Singleton Hospital, Swansea.
Currently running an interim service in temporary accommodation led by Debbie Horrigan, a highly experienced cancer nurse specialist, they seek to raise £3m to build a new centre which will open in 2011. Some 20,000 people are living with cancer in the region, with 3,000 new cases diagnosed every year. The South West Wales Cancer Centre will be a place for everyone affected by cancer in the entire region, a population in excess of 900,000.
Chairman Tony with team members and support vehicle
To support Maggie’s, fourteen local men, many from Swansea’s business community, have set off on tough cycling challenge. “Rome to Home” organised by Richard Smith, owner of Action Bikes, and Mike Evans, owner of A&M Installations, and which will see the riders cycle 1,300 miles from Rome back home to Swansea in just 10 days. The riders will fly to Rome on Wednesday September 23 and return to a welcome party in
Morgans Hotel on Friday October 2. They hope to raise more than £55,000 for Maggie’s through the ‘Rome to Home’ challenge. Each rider has personally raised at least £3,500 to participate. The 1,300 mile trip back from Rome will be the longest and toughest challenge they have attempted. It will mean completing 130 miles per day.
Cheque being presented by Chairman Tony Currell
Chairman Tony was pleased to offer support from Swansea Round Table and presented a cheque for £500 to Maggie’s fundraiser Vicki Jones before the Monday September 21 breakfast departure of the Swansea Audi supplied support car driven by Simon Parfit. Vicki says the charity is extremely grateful for the efforts of the cyclists. “These guys will make such a difference to our appeal,” she says. “There are also many other people supporting this effort we owe thanks to. They will help us build a new centre for Swansea, as well as keep it running in the future.”
Despite reports of high water and a fast flowing river (all proved), Swansea Round Table remained unperturbed and decided to paddle the River Wye in two canoes.
The five adventurers, Chairman Tony, Past Chairman Minty, Marcus, Neil and Daf, set off at 8am on a sunny Saturday and following a “Big
Breakfast” in Monmouth were ready to face everything the River Wye could throw at them, subject to two concessions!!
1: Our two canoes would be lashed together – perfect for that on-the-river relaxation.
2: We would be monitored by a guide for the first fifteen minutes downstream to gauge our competence!
Competence? "Oh dear"
Provisions and tents (two – check) safely barrel stowed, Minty and Marcus in one canoe and Daf, Tony and Neil in the second (to evenly distribute the weight!), we were off. Warmth of the sun on our backs, delightful scenery, good friends, a stong current carrying us along and a little light refreshment to ease the conversation into art and culture. Soon the world was put to right and we made the campsite, near Symonds Yat, in record time. Tents (two – check) pitched, firewood collected, kettle on, a little more light refreshment and it was time for a gentle
stroll to the Saracen’s Head. Great meal, few beers, game of Pool, simples. Until someone says…
“Did you know that when you drop a shot of Amaretto into a half pint mixture of cola/lager and drink it down in one it’s like drinking Doctor Pepper?”
Flaming Sambuca’s all round barman? And the rest, as they say, stays on tour. Finally back at camp Marcus & Daf took on responsibility
to get the camp fire going – good job it was a warm night – no Daf you are not blowing out birthday candles! And so to bed (tents, two – check)!!!
Nothing like a night under canvas, the smell of the fresh country air – thanks Minty – and the gentle alarm call of a Bull in full bellow! Breakfast duties with Neil and oh look its Dafydd, bacon buttie Daf?
Where the hell did Minty go?
Day Two
We head for the rapids at Symonds Yat. Keep left, head for the V, paddle like hell and hope for the best, oh and make sure Daf points away from the boat when he feels unwell. Survived, albeit a little wet and the canoes full of water. Onward to Monmouth where our efforts were rewarded by a huge reception comittee and entry into the annual Monmouth Raft Race.
The reception committee
Members of Swansea Round Table met on Sunday for an informal BBQ with friends and family. Vice Chairman Koert Pelders (The only man in Swansea with an electric BBQ!) laid on a delicious meal for all. Whilst the ladies chatted members kept a close eye on the Cricket score only to be rewarded with a 2009 Ashes Win.
Chairman Tony then out classed everyone by bringing along Sea Bass marinated in ginger paste and onions followed by Langoustines (never heard of them before). Next meeting is the canoe weekend on the river Wye. Why not?
August sees Swansea Round Table supporting local charities in and around the City. The following donations were made:
Friends of Ysgol Crug Glas
£1000
Cyrenians Cymru
£500
Money is generally raised through our social activities such as the Annual Golf day held at Pennard Golf Club and the Christmas Sleigh collections.
Members and guests of Swansea Round Table recently dined at the Wasabi Japanese restaurant in Uplands, Swansea. Tablers got stuck into Spider crab, sushi and that very hot paste ‘they’ call Wasabi!
Chairman Tony Currell said “I especially like the deep fried Aubergine!” in what turned out to be an excellent night of fun and fellowship
A party of 14 Round Tablers and partners from Swansea went to attend the 2009 World Meeting of Round Table 57 on the 23- 25th May. Swansea has been twinned with the following Tables for some years:
Ølen 57 – Norway
Reims 57 – France
Dillenberg 57 – Germany
Dendermonder 57 -Belgium
Pisa 57 – Italy
Gotheberg 57 – Sweden
Valby-Vesterbro 57 – Denmark
Cawnpore 57 – India
Kaunianen 57 – Finland
Witbank 57 – South Africa
The weekend comprised of an early visit to the beautiful town of Haugesund where one Tabler was caught licking a statue of Marylin Monroe. There they quickly found out that beer was £5 a pint (with discount). In the evening Swansea Round Table was treated to a special video display of a two dimensional helicopter flight over the surrounding countryside. This can only be described as a breathtaking view of the fjords, glaciers and scenery.
The next day the party continued in Ølen itself where they happened to bump into some Shioni from Trap, Ammanford (What are the chances of that!?). An informal gathering gave all the Tablers a chance to meet their old international friends and regail stories of the fun had down through the years. It is reputed that some elements managed to get to bed before 4am but this was only put down to rumour. All of the party were treated to the utmost hospitality shown by our Norwegian friends where they were home hosted.
Saturday saw everyone catch a lift on a flotilla of boats to an island in the middle of the fjord for the Official World Meeting. The World President 57 elect could not attend so naturally it fell to the Vice President (Swansea Tabler Jamie Gwilliam) to take over the proceedings. However Jamie offered the prestigeous opportunity to the long standing Dutch Tabler Eric Gomes of Bergan-Op-Zoom who gratefully received the challenge.
The meeting was folllowed by an excellent shrimp meal for all where Membership Officer (Dr Dafydd Griffiths) appeared to have overdosed on shrimp and went mad. Swansea Round Table then promptly lost the tug-of-war competition (Jim Knoyle trophy) to the German contingent who went onto steal the Norwegian Round Table flag and hoist it above their castle back in Dillenberg (let the games commence!).
The flotilla once again then set sail back for Ølen to prepare for the Gala dinner where they had prepared (10 minutes before hand) to demonstrate how to party surf style in front of a crowd of onlookers. In true predictable style Swansea lost the Crab trophy to the Germans who rocked out to ACDC (they blew everyone away and swooned the judges by undressing!).
Sunday saw most people thinking about going to bed around 5am and looking back down the fjord from our hosts windows we could see that the sun & fun never quite went down in Ølen!
Next year we visit Bergan-Op-Zoom with our very own Dutch Chairman Koert Pelders leading what will be descibed as “Year of the Clog”
Swansea Round Table and Mumbles 41 Club will be escorting Father Christmas over the next few weeks.
They will be covering the following areas:
- Bishopston – Monday the 9th December
- Tircoed Village – Tuesday the 10th December
- West Cross – Wednesday the 11th December
- Mayals – Thursday the 12th December
- Brynhyfryd & Manselton – Friday the 13th December
- Mumbles Farmers Market – Saturday 14th morning only
- Derwen Fawr – Monday 15th December
- Hendrefoilan – Tuesday 16th December
- Newton – Wednesday 17th December
- Caswell – Thursday 18th December
Santa will be out and about between 6pm and 8pm
