Monthly Archives: February 2019

The Yorkshire Dales – a Resident’s View

For the Forum’s meeting on the 27th of February 57 members attended, the largest turn-out for the current season.

The guest speaker was Geoff Queen who had travelled from his home in Kettlewell in Wharfedale. The title of his talk was The Yorkshire Dales – a Resident’s View in which he concentrated on his home village and the immediate neighbourhood.

He listed the advantages and disadvantages in living in such an idyllic setting.

The main advantages are the scenery, the peace and quiet, the community life and care for the elderly; the disadvantages are the weather (twice as much rain falls here as falls on Leeds), the poor transport facilities and the midges.

The village has 150 dwellings although half of these are holiday homes which are empty for long periods resulting in a resident population of only 140.

Geoff then showed a series of slides showing the area in summer and winter conditions and also the two main events of the year, the Scarecrow Festival and the Plastic Duck Race.

Forum Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks to Geoff whose speaker’s fee will be donated to the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.

Formula 1 British Champions

On the 13th of February the Forum welcomed Graham Read as guest speaker.

Graham is a motoring writer and Formula 1 correspondent who has entertained Forum members a number of times speaking on motoring topics.

This time his subject was Formula 1 British Champions.

There have been nine World Formula 1 champions from Britain but Graham also included a tenth name Stirling Moss who won 16 grand prix races but never the world championship, one year failing by one point. The list began with Mike Hawthorn who won in 1958 and ended with Lewis Hamilton, the current champion. Graham gave us the life and career history of each champion.

One champion John Surtees had also been a motor cycle champion and Graham included in his presentation a video of part of the Isle of Man TT from a bike-mounted camera travelling at full speed around the circuit.

At the end of his talk Graham gave us a list of three young British drivers, any of which could be a future world champion.

Members then questioned Graham about various aspects of the motor racing scene before Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks enthusiastically supported by Forum members.

Sammy Cahn

Before the meeting on the 6th of February the Forum’s speaker finder John Spinner discovered that the scheduled speaker would not be available. At short notice he arranged for an old friend of the Forum Stuart Atkins to speak and his chosen subject was the songwriter Sammy Cahn.

Stuart has a special relationship with the work of his subject having, in 1991 written a show called There Goes That Song Again featuring Sammy Cahn’s songs which ran at the Leeds Civic Theatre before going on tour throughout Britain.

Cahn was a lyricist who worked with many partners but mainly Jules Styne and James van Heusen. Frank Sinatra recorded 87 songs written by Cahn and Stuart played a number of these as well as performances by Barbra Streisand, Nat King Cole and other equally talented singers.

With four different partners he wrote 26 songs nominated for Oscars including four which received the award. Stuart had telephone discussions with Sammy Cahn when writing his show and arranged to meet him on his next visit to Britain, but he died before this could happen.

Mike Earle thanked Stuart for a morning of nostalgia.

A Question of Sport

The Forum’s meeting on the 30th of January began with the members standing in silent tribute to the late Fred Bingham, until recently a regular Forum attender.

The guest speaker was John Clithero who was visiting for the fourth time to talk about the television programme A Question of Sport.  John’s presentation required audience participation to test its sporting knowledge by identifying the pictures of the various sportsmen and women shown and Forum members joined in with gusto.

A Question of Sport began in 1968 when its presenter was David Vine and its two team captains were Cliff Morgan the Welsh rugby international and Henry Cooper the heavyweight boxer.

The first guests were footballers George Best and Tom Finney, England cricket captain Raymond Illingworth and international athlete Lilian Board. There have been over 650 programmes but only three presenters, David Vine, David Coleman and Sue Barker.

Team captains were changed regularly until 2008 when Matthew Dawson and Philip Tufnell were introduced and remain captains to this day.

The most frequent guest has been Steve Davis who has made more than 20 appearances.

John finished his presentation with a picture board quiz and his version of What Happened Next?

Forum Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks for a splendid morning’s entertainment.