Events

24th October - Annual Club Dinner

The 31st annual club presentation dinner was held at the Essex Barn in Wickford on 24th October, and with over 70 tickets sold the place was packed! It turned out to be an excellent evening and a lot of those who attended have already commented on how they enjoyed the festivities. 

The menu was excellent - our guests were able to choose from a varied selection of starters, main courses and sweets, and the service was fast and efficient. During the meal a number of our members took the initiative and performed table magic for our guests, which all went down really well - thanks to those who participated.

After dinner, the fun started with the usual tombola style raffle where over 20 great prizes were distributed quickly and fairly - well done to Wally and Audrey for organising this. We also have to thank Audrey for her usual superb work on the table decorations which added a touch of sparkle to the occasion.

Once the raffle had been finished, it was on with the presentation of the trophies. Well done to all our winners this year: Daniel Brookes, who won the senior close-up competition; Richard Graham who took the Senior stage magic title; Audrey Heddon who deservedly took the title for best non-magical supporter for the 11th year running (!); James Holdsworth who was awarded the MacMillan Wand for the most promising newcomer; and Ray Simkins who earned the title Clubman of the Year. The junior close-up competition is being held at the November meeting so the trophy could not be awarded; and the junior stage competition didn't run this year due to an insufficient number of entries.  

Once the trophies had been awarded, it was on with the entertainment, in the shape of our guest Mark Shortland with his comedy magic cabaret spot. In spite of having lost his mobile phone earlier in the day, and a somewhat subdued audience, Mark's performance was top notch with some great effects, some well organised audience participation, and plenty of fast one liners. My favorite effects included the drawing board peronality reading, the TV card manipulation routine, the burned and restored banknote (with the banknote ending up being dispensed form a gumball machine), and of course Mark's well known comedy bullet catch.   

Following the cabaret, Richard and Angela had put together some excellent music choices for our guests to dance the rest of the evening away to - thanks for your work on that you two, it sounded great.

So another superb annual dinner came to a close - a landmark evening in the club's calendar which was one of the best yet. If you were there, we hope you enoyed it as much as we did.