Alnwick Meet Report

28 units enjoyed this 5 day meet at Alnwick RFC. Stewards were Keith Turnecliff and Meg MacDonald with assistance from Dave and Dorothy Morland.
It was a very friendly meet with some new members camping with us for the first time. Many stated that they felt welcomed and enjoyed the experience.
Thursday evening saw members meet up for a general social in the small meeting room at the Rugby Club.
After coffee morning on Friday, members went off to explore the area and Keith led a party of 9 in 2 cars to the Farne Islands on boat Serenity II, a twin hulled boat with extraordinary stability and turn of speed.
All reported filling their memory cards with images, but there were only about 100 puffins seen during the day and none on the ground on the island apart from a few landing in deep undergrowth.
On Friday evening Keith showed images of his previous visit to the area in 2005 together with today’s images, but the setting sun cast its rays on the screen onto an already poor image from the clubs old projector.
Saturdays coffee morning was brought forward to 930am to allow Meg to escort members into town to make the most of the Alnwick International Music Festival and procession starting at 1030am.
There were lots of interesting faces and costumes to photograph. Saturday evening saw Becky Hitchcock give a talk on her 4 years of photography and show some excellent images.
Ian Ferries won the bonus ball lottery with his selection of ball number 48.
Members visited Holy Island and Cragside, the latter being a National Trust property some 10 miles from the campsite, Alnwick Gardens and others.
Sunday evening saw Meg and Keith organize a sporting evening consisting of boules, lawn darts, rocket chuck and a balloon and tray race.
The events went on for 2 hours and light stopped play resulting in the semi finals and final of the lawn darts being held after coffee morning on Sunday.
Joan Taylor reached the semi final of the darts, was losing finalist in the boules and winner of the balloon and tray game and was crowned ‘Sportswoman of the Year’.
Michael Rawson won the rocket chuck with a throw of 142 feet.
The only reported injury was to Muriel Smith whose ribs were aching after laughing so much at the evening’s entertainment.
You can also find the answers to the anagram and drawing quizzes here.
Frances and John were the best at identifying the Places to Eat from the drawings in the caravans. They scored 15 1/2 out of a possible 22.
Two couples managed to solve ALL 25 anagram place names. The couples were Sylvia and Keith Hughes and John and Vivien Hartill.
Monday morning saw Albert Phillipson crowned ‘Sportsman of the Year’ after winning the final of the lawn darts, having won the boules competition the previous evening.
Monday evening saw members meet up in the main clubroom again to view everyone’s images taken during the meet,
but these had to be limited to 10 images per person due to the sheer number of images taken by members during the meet.
Tuesday morning saw the last coffee morning of the meet before the meet closed at noon.

Keith Turnecliff