ThamesMog
Secretary's Report December 2007

I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Tony Hempel, in a sense it is another link to the heritage of our Centre lost to us. Tony knew the late Arthur Neal and Chris Rowe, all founder members of our group. He competed regularly with his great friends Pat Hadley and Richard Somerset, always under the banner of Grogmog, as we were called then and of course Thames Valley as we have since become known. Tony competed courageously, always giving more than one hundred percent. He was a talented Morgan competitor. He would always help people if he could and as a result Tony had many friends in the Centre. In recent years of course he was well known as a sales executive at FH Douglass. It was Tony that inspired and designed the FH Douglass Mileage Challenge Trophy that members of the Centre compete for each year. Tony will be sadly missed. On behalf of the Centre, I would like to send our sincere condolences to Viv and family at this sad time.

On a happier note, Bert Oslar has received a good level of interest for our planned trip to Sennen Cove, staying at our favourite haunt - the Old Success Inn right after MOG 2008. Please contact Bert if you would like to join us, it should be an immensely enjoyable holiday.

Don’t forget we shall be at the Cross in Eversley this month, following on from advice received from two of our new members Roger and Kathrine Nickes, on the first Sunday noggin. I hope you will be able to come along - it looks like a promising venue for us.

As this is our December Centre report, I would like to wish all the readers of this column a very happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year with above all, good health! To celebrate, as normal, we have a Christmas lunch at the Hampden Arms organised by Anita Pullen, while I shall be running our Christmas Dinner at the Poacher. These events are very special and set us up well for the festive season. Please contact Anita or myself depending on which event you fancy, and we will tell you if there are any places left at this late stage. Of course you can be like me and go to both! I look forward to seeing you all there.

With all these festivities it is just as well we get a lot of exercise!

This month we shall be going for lovely walk in and around Devil’s Dyke as a Christmas special and on New Year’s Day for a ramble in the Seven Sisters National Park both with Hopmog and the Brighton Centre. Details are on our events page.

STOP PRESS

I have just learnt that Richard Thorne will be holding his annual Christmas party on December 6th, the evening of our first Thursday noggin. We are all invited, so I suggest we hold a special Christmas noggin at the party! I would like to thank Richard for his kind invitation.

Take care & see you all soon