STOURBRIDGE OLD EDWARDIAN CLUB

ED-WORDS NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2025

Well done and thank you to everyone.

Our next formal gathering, the 112th Annual Club Dinner, is almost upon us. I hope it will be as enjoyable and fulfilling as our August gathering.

Thank you all for your support; attached at the end of this newsletter (hopefully as a bonus) is an appropriate "ramble".

Arnold

FORTHCOMING EVENTS are visible on our Events Calendar>>. That section has been updated to clearly identify those occasions that are open to Club Members. Please phone the Club directly on 01384 395635 for details of any event (do not respond to this email as responses will not be monitored).

A comprehensive list of all bookings (including venue hire) may be viewed within the Events Calendar section>> . 

PAST EVENTS write ups are on the website HERE>> but specifically the following are worth a mention since the last newsletter:

Our "now famous" lunchtime talks with buffet have been outstandingly successful - some have been sold out within 24 hours of advertising! The more recent talks are as below:

To ensure, you don't miss out, please consign the following dates to your diaries for future lunchtime talks with buffet and look out for (and act upon) the booking advice about a month in advance:

• 31st October: The Poppy and Unknown Warrior (Barry Picken)
• 30th January: Mary Bodfish (topic TBA)
• 29th May: Kenneth Wright  (Evolution of Motor Car Design)

This is to respectfully remind you that memberships are due for renewal on or before 1st October for the coming membership year 1st October 2025 - 30th September 2026. CLICK HERE>> for online renewal registration. 

You should have received your reminder with full details by either or both email or in the post (for those who did not opt to receive their notifications by email). Please help the Hon. Membership Secretary by registering your interest in renewing by completing the appropriate form (so we can check your current details) and paying promptly to secure your upcoming membership.

Any members who have not renewed and paid by December 31st ( by then 3 months late) will be removed from the membership database and any car park fobs duly deactivated.

Any enquiries should be addressed to the Hon. Membership HERE>> . Do not reply to this email as responses are not monitored.

We are sometimes requested to provide information on previous newsletters. You my access these simply by going to the website www.oldedclub.org.uk  then click on the Newsletter Archive subsection of the "About" tab in the top level menu bar. For rapid access CLICK HERE>> and then just click on the date of interest.

In recent weeks we have sadly lost some long serving members and good friends:

• Past President Rob Hill
• Past President John Edwards
• John Hand

• Roy Mucklow
• Brian Hughes

Our thoughts are with all families and friends.

Click for more on this initiative and winners >> which could be good for you and helps the Club funds.

Prizes are one £100 and two £50 wins monthly.

With less than 100 numbers, and 3 wins per month the chance of winning is probably the best of any regular lottery.

Our venue hire bookings continue to grow thanks to the excellent catering facilities provided by our stewards Tim and Tracey.

Contact Tim or Tracey if you know of any organisations who would gain from booking the Club.

In order for you to keep abreast of the news of KEVI College Stourbridge, then rather than ask them for specific articles to spoon feed to you,  we have thought it is best for you to explore their latest missives directly as relevant. Their website is included at the foot of this email but for convenience CLICK HERE>>  .

This is another  reminder that some months ago, we  have responded to the request to make it easier to get in touch with the Committee and have issues addressed.

Please consult the CONTACT section of the website where you will see clear directions of which electronic from to complete under which circumstances to get responses addressed in the fastest and most efficient way. In particular, ensure any issues affecting membership (fees, fobs, applications etc) are addressed by completing the Membership Issues form and they will be sent directly to the personal email box of the Hon. Membership Secretary for prompt response.

Please do not reply to this newsletter email directly as responses will not be monitored.

Rita having celebrated her 90^th birthday on 15 November last year, it seemed that despite being immobile, she would go on forever being well looked after by our friends “The BIllinghams” at their Grange Care Home in Halesowen; remaining as alert as ever and continuing with the further  education  of her carers not only generally, but particularly in the Cricket, Football and Rugby Union areas on which she was so knowledgeable.

One then began to see a steady decline such that by the end of February she had begun to lose interest in all those things that had been so important to her, with her then fighting for her breath over a couple of days and the end coming in the middle of the night of 2/3 March such that in a moment the painfilled eyes had become those of the girl I first knew 80 years ago and she was at peace.

It was several hours later before I realised the enormity of what had happened with the burden of the last ten years making itself felt within the trauma of those last few hours.

Then the tears flowed incessantly upon Richard and Bernie returning from the respite from their vigil which had been shared with me over those last few hours.

The support at and around Rita’s funeral was sufficient in itself for all to see the love for her and the respect in which she was held; with the Commemorative flowers being placed by the Sight Screen at Old Hill Cricket Ground., where she and I had first met as children and which had played such a pivotal role in our lives together.

The period up to Rita’s funeral service on 31 March was expectedly busy, after which we were immediately into the cricket season helping the ensuing five months to seemingly fly by; such that now, with the cricket almost over for five or six months I prepare myself for the season of Autumn Mists and mellow fruitfulness before a winter (hopefully not of discontent) and then Spring with all the perennial anticipation of summer and cricket once again.

The cycle of life has been ever thus with its aspirations, possibilities, probabilities, doubts, hopes, disappointments and certainties.

The summer months have been a constant reminder to me of the value of love, friendship and companionship in so many areas enabled by my circle of friends, participation within the Stourbridge Old Edwardian Club (SOEC), Lichfield Cathedral and the Rotary Movement whose motto “Service Above Self” has been of so much help to me, the whole encapsulating the love, sacrifice and understanding of others.

My taking on the Presidency of the SOEC from 1 December 2024 was only enabled by Rita being in care with my being able to coordinate my daily visiting with the demands of that position and professional commitments.

It is a joy to be leading the SOEC with the recent President's Evening having left everyone with outstanding memories.   I was able to secure Su Pollard as our celebrity speaker through my colleague Adrian Jackson.   She was a delight, engaging with us all and sharing anecdotes of an outstanding career in show business.

Su has since written to me saying how privileged she felt to share the evening with us and her delight in being embraced so comfortably within our wonderful fellowship.

Having already secured our speaker for the Annual Dinner on 3 October and then continuing in office for a second year my thoughts now turn to those who might honour us with their attendance next year – Watch This Space!

Forgive my reverting to Cricket but it has played an enormous role in the transition occasioned by Rita’s death, my once again able to be actively involved and its having cushioned me throughout the summer months.  

It has been some 40 years since Old Hill fought their way into the final of the National Club Cricket Championship at Lords having lost out at the semi-final stage in the previous year.

Both semi-finals were against Scarborough, the first being at the excellent Scarborough County Ground with its First Class cricket atmosphere within the North Shore of that splendid seaside resort.   There was no need for the Scarborough ground to be checked out for that first semi-final; it is one of the finest County Grounds in the UK; whereas the Cricketing Authorities understandably felt that a small ground within the Birmingham League should be “sussed out” for so important a cricket match, with (one suspects) a sneaking hope that despite Old Hill being the home side there would be a chance of switching the final to Scarborough where Old Hill had been beaten the previous year.

Old Hill had a “man for all seasons” in Amos who did the odd  jobs; helping on the ground and collecting the admission money from non-members whenever the Birmingham League side was ‘at home’.

Amos was a legend, its having been worthwhile sitting amongst the crowd as he made his way with the takings from the gate off Barrs Road to the treasurer in the Pavilion . . . “. . .  ‘ere e comes; he’ll be a telling we how he built the Pavilion single ‘onded. . .  and for God’s sake doh let him start on about what he did in the War . . Ess a wonder there ‘s ere a German left alive . .”

So: enter the representatives from Lords from whom affirmation was required that the Old Hill ground was suitable for such an important game as a National Semi-Final; to be met by Amos who asked for their entrance money.

Their astonished explanation that they were ‘from Lords’ elicited the response, “I doh care weer yome frum yone gorra pay”.   The gentlemen from Lords obviously realised that they had come to a tough part of the country; the semi-final WAS played at OLD HILL who WON and were on the way to lift the trophy at Lords.

The Old Hill Club this year got as far as the Regional Final (which embraces The Midlands, Yorkshire and The Lake District so a very diverse grouping) but lost to a very strong side from the Yorkshire League.

Those Regional Finals were held at Denby in Derbyshire, where I enjoyed a thoroughly entertaining day among a strong contingent of Old Hill supporters with a happy family atmosphere.

There was a sting in the tail, which left me wondering whether it would have happened at the Old Hill ground - - -for the last couple of hours of a long day, a small but voluble section of the crowd was singing/chanting incessantly a monotonous chorus where every other word was “f*****g”.

What an example for a family day out, demonstrating the inadequacy of their vocabulary along the way.   And in answer to my own question; I don’t think so; and I sincerely hope I am correct.

I am reminded of the words of Daniel Defoe –

‘Were I required to define the perfect style of language, I would answer ‘that in which a man addressing five hundred people of common and various capacities, idiots and lunatics excluded, should be understood by them all’.

AJH / 05/09/2025.