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1000 miles around England on a pony!!

On the sixth of January the Forum resumed its meetings after the Christmas break.

Our first speaker of the New Year was Janet Neipokojczcka who had travelled from Hemsworth. Janet previously lived in Kendal where she became a tourist guide specialising in walking tours in both the Lake District and Scotland and had undertaken a number of long distance walks around the Lake District.

In 1991 she decided to walk 1,000 miles around England accompanied by a pack horse in aid of the Winged Fellowship, a charity which organises holidays for the physically handicapped.

Her talk entitled Beyond the Far Fells described this journey. Accompanied by a Lakeland pony called Roy she started out from Kendal and in ten weeks visited, among many places, Nottingham, Cambridge, London and Snowdonia using, where possible, ancient bridleways and pack horse trails. Janet’s talk was illustrated by some excellent colour slides showing places and people of interest and the varied conditions which she and Roy experienced. The Forum members were delighted to hear that Roy, at 28 years old is still going strong living at Addingham near Ilkley. Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks which the members supported with warm applause.

The Life of a Jockey

During our meeting on the 11^th of November the proceedings were interrupted at 11 am for the members to take part in the Remembrance Day two minutes silence.

Our guest speaker, introduced by Duncan Verity, was Dale Gibson, a retired professional jockey, who titled his talk The Life of a Jockey.

During a career spanning 23 years Dale rode 529 winners with at least one winner at each flat racing course in Britain. He had his first and also his last ride at York and was interviewed on Channel 4 TV on each occasion. He divided his talk into three sections, how he started, the day-to-day life of a jockey and his present day career as the Executive Director of Racing at the Professional Jockeys’ Association. Dale passed round three items from his equipment, a whip, a pair of plastic riding boots and a protective vest. He credits a vest with saving his life during a dangerous fall at Beverley.

The statistics of the life of a jockey brought it home to the Forum members the dedication necessary to succeed – starting the day at 6am, two hours riding out and a typical 400 miles each day driving to and from meetings.

All this for an average annual income comparable to the average professional footballer’s weekly income. A lively Question and Answer session brought up the subjects of horse doping, weight control and the differing personalities of flat and jump jockeys.

“It Shouldn’t Happen to an Engineer”

On 21^st October 2015, 45 members attended at the Church Centre to meet our guest speaker Richard Gibbon OBE who was introduced by John Spinner.

Richard had enjoyed a varied career in engineering, culminating in the much envied post of Chief Engineer at the York Railway Museum.

He started by posing an engineering problem to the members involving a tumbling box which none of us managed to solve. His talk was titled “It Shouldn’t Happen to an Engineer” and covered various amusing incidents he encountered at the museum.

As a civil servant Richard was expected to answer letters from the general public within three days and he shared some of the more unusual with us although some were spoofs sent by members of his staff. His duties at the museum included acting as duty officer to deal with visitors’ problems and these supplied a fund of anecdotes. Questions from Forum members at the end of the session revealed how the Japanese Bullet Train and the giant Chinese locomotive reached the museum.

Forum Chairman Mike Earle thanked Richard for his amusing and informative talk. Richard donated his speaker’s fee to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

Life’s a Hoot!

At the Forum’s meeting for the 7^th October 2015 John Spinner introduced our guest speaker Pat Smith from Upper Poppleton who titled her talk “Life’s a Hoot”. The title was inspired by her membership of the Owl’s Trust but the content was drawn from Pat’s experiences of life in general.

She spent her working life as a school teacher in Wakefield and York, her specialist subjects being mathematics and science. In addition she was a store detective at a well-known supermarket for a short time, a member of Weight Watchers and an active member of the Women’s Institute. All these interests have provided her with a rich fund of embarrassing incidents, malapropisms and cute children’s exploits for her talk.

Our Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks saying that Pat had brought a ray of sunshine into our lives on a miserable rainy morning.

Ethiopia – The Historic Route

On the 17^th of September we welcomed our speaker Pat Alkern from Denby Dale. Her talk was titled ‘Ethiopia – The Historic Route’ and described two trips to the country taken by Pat, one as a member of a group from the Huddersfield Geographic Society and one accompanied only by her husband Philip.

They are members of a charity supporting a school in the town of Dukem 25 miles from the capital Addis Ababa and from Pat’s pictures we saw the difference the support has made. However the bulk of the talk described the locations on the Historic Route which is a pilgrim’s trail in Tigre province in the north of the country. Ethiopia is a Christian society, one of the oldest in the world, and Pat described the very different rituals and customs in the churches there. We also gained an insight into the day-to-day life of the villages of the region such as what constitutes a home and how the population survives. We learnt of the courting rituals of the young men and girls (who may marry as young as ten years of age). Robin Jarrett proposed a vote of thanks for an amazing talk about such a different culture.

Duncan Verity – “The Murder of John Speed”

On the 18^th of March the speaker who had been booked to talk to the Forum was unable to attend. Speaker Finder Duncan Verity keeps a number of video presentations in reserve for these occasions and he produced one for this meeting. It was entitled “The Murder of John Speed”.

The video was put together by the BBC Crimewatch programme and used actors and real policemen to reconstruct the crime of the shooting of a Police Sergeant in Leeds in 1984 and the subsequent enquiries which resulted in the arrest of the murderer. A colleague of Sergeant Speed, PC John Thorpe, was also badly injured in the incident but he recovered to provide vital information to the crime investigators.

The investigation followed a number of false leads in a two and a half year period which resulted in the arrest of 224 criminals and the solution of a number of unconnected crimes. Eventually the murderer David Griceworth, a career criminal from Middleborough, was involved in a police chase when he accidently shot himself in the stomach and died shortly afterwards. His girlfriend admitted that he had killed Sergeant Speed and the police were able to arrest his accomplice.

The Forum members were stunned into silence by this excellent video and left in a reflective mood.

Bill Baker – “The Lighter Side of Banking”

On the 4^th of March we welcomed Bill Baker as our guest speaker.

Bill is well known locally as a regular presenter on Tempo FM but his chosen subject for his talk reflected his long career with the Yorkshire bank and was titled “The Lighter Side of Banking”.

On leaving school in 1961 Bill joined the bank after a series of five interviews, including a visit to his family, and became a junior clerk at the Head Office in Leeds. At that time the most sophisticated piece of equipment used was an adding machine with a paper roll. He worked in many of the small branches in and around Leeds and he told us about some of the characters he came across, both customers and colleagues.

He was the first manager in the Yorkshire Bank to be held up at gun point and he told us about this and other botched robberies from the Bank. Bill was promoted to open a new branch in Newcastle which he enjoyed after he had learnt the dialect and had survived a brush with the Geordie Mafia. He moved back to Leeds as the bank’s marketing manager which was his least favourite role and was involved in the setting up of an insurance unit.

Questions from the members included the mis-selling of PPI and the takeover of the bank by the National Bank of Australia.

Our Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks to Bill for keeping us amused on a cold morning.

Training Guide Dogs for the Blind

On the 4^th of February 2015 the Forum welcomed representatives from Guide Dogs for the Blind for a presentation entitled Training Guide Dogs for the Blind.

We welcomed Belinda Hunter and Andrew Dixon accompanied by Eaton and Sam who are both Golden Retriever Labrador crosses and are guide dog puppies in training. Belinda and Andrew are both voluntary guide dog walkers and their function is to take prospective guide dogs into their homes at seven weeks old and provide basic training to the age of 14 months. The dogs then go to a full time training establishment before meeting their blind owners who take over the dogs at two years of age. They stay with their owners for six to eight years before retiring to become family pets.

Around 70% of dogs successfully complete their training, those unsuitable can become hearing dogs for the deaf, help dogs for disabled people or buddy dogs for young people with special needs. Belinda described how dogs are selected for breeding and told us of the histories of the dogs she has had in her care. She demonstrated with Eaton the stage of training that he has reached which involved responding to basic commands and the receipt of lots of treats. Guide Dogs for the Blind is a charity completely funded by donations and two thirds of the dogs are funded by legacies. After a lengthy question and answer session Colin Gaden proposed a vote of thanks and a collection was taken for the charity.

RAF Linton on Ouse – Alan Mawby

At the start of the Forum’s meeting on the 14^th of January we stood for a moment’s silence in memory of member Frank McGuiness and former member Geoff Ward who had both recently passed away.

Our guest speaker was former Wing Commander Alan Mawby whose subject was “RAF Linton-on-Ouse” where he is the honorary curator of the RAF Memorial Room. The establishing of the airfield was bound up with the lead up to the Second World War when in 1937 it was opened as a base for two bomber squadrons to combat the build-up of the Luftwaffe. One of the first station commanders was Air Commodore Arthur Harris who went on to lead Bomber Command.

Alan related the war-time history of the station including the different types of bomber and various people who served at the station. The first raid from Linton was a leaflet drop over Germany but many more destructive raids followed involving many fatalities to both aircrew and those on the ground.

After the war the station was handed over to Fighter Command which saw the first jets to fly locally and in 1957 it became a Flying Training School which it has remained to the present day.

Mike Cook proposed a vote of thanks for a most interesting talk.

Rex Stott – Magic Mirth and Mystery

On the 7^th of January 2015 the Forum re-gathered after its winter break and we started our meeting by standing in silent tribute to one of our members, Paul Lerch, who had sadly died during the Christmas break.

Duncan Verity then introduced our guest speaker Rex Stott who had spent his career in education but whose interests now centred on British Music Hall, music and sport and he is a member of the Hull and York Magic Circles.

His talk was titled “Magic, Mirth and Mystery” in which he described his childhood in Birstall. When a young boy he received a Rupert the Bear annual which included how to make a paper boat and this gave him an interest in origami which expanded to include magic tricks. Along with his younger brother they devised a magic act which toured the Church Hall circuit in his home area and the Forum members were treated to a selection of his tricks, some of which he explained. Although he abandoned magic during his working life he has recently renewed his interest principally for the benefit of his grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Geoff Curd proposed a vote of thanks for a thoroughly entertaining presentation.

During our meeting on the 11th of November the proceedings were interrupted at 11 am for the members to take part in the Remembrance Day two minutes silence.