H2

Costa Blanca 41 Club

Rules are rules, but can they be changed?

Membership had ‘now reached 25 resident members with another 30 non-resident, although a few may drift away once the subscription rule comes in. We welcomed new residents Paddy and Cynthia O’Callaghan, who are hoping for a telephone by 1998. Council has already been hard at work on the new programme. Council meets at 11.30 am for coffee. Not a drop of wine touches their lips until after the mid-day chimes have struck. After the third or fourth glass, we all have better ideas than anyone else. Chairman Derrick stops the meeting promptly at 1.30 pm when lunch is served, and usually about 4.00 pm we all rush back home to sleep it off. It’s a hard life!’

At a Council meeting, it was suggested that the Club should dispense with the formalities at the Charter Anniversary, get rid of the long and boring speeches and replace them with a dinner dance. `However, a few of the founder members feel that the Charter is sacrosanct and should be preserved. In true 41 Club spirit, the matter will be brought before the next monthly meeting’ to decide whether or not to preserve the status quo or give the new format a whirl.

...to be continued...

At the AGM, Denis Vincent became chairman, with Peter Will vice-chairman, Tony Ogden Secretary and Len Peacock Treasurer for 1988/89.

The Club made a donation of 20,000 pts to the Javea Red Cross towards a heart resuscitation machine. Subs were 500 pts, and attendance at meetings varied between 6 – 22. Tony took over writing the newsletters with a promise to produce them quarterly,

and observes that he saw ‘two members wearing trousers, a sure sign that autumn is with us. The 41 Club’s bowls on Thursdays had to be cancelled because so many members were involved in tournaments and matches with their own clubs, but on Sunday mornings, members could still just turn up at 9.30 am at Javea Green Club for a game’. Unfortunately for him, the unseasonal inclement weather was preventing him, and others, from playing golf.

National Vice-President Solly Seaton attends the Club’s 2nd Charter

The main concern was communication. Tony writes that ‘Denis has a pole and I have a signed letter from Telefonica’s ‘El Presidente’. We both have directories, but still no telephone’. Some 10 months later, ‘exciting news! We are on the telephone and have a fax machine. With only one line, it’s different to say the least. We often switch the wrong setting on, and our friends just get a funny whistle sound. New chairman Derrick Tearle now has a telephone with the help of a neighbour.

We’ve applied for a second line for the fax machine, as some of our pay ‘phone callers say that all they get is a fax squeak as their pesetas disappear into the coinbox. You might be forgiven for thinking that the second line would come the same way as the first. Not a bit of it. They have put up three new poles on the other side of the house, with much more wiring’.

The Club Council proposed an amendment to Club rules for approval at the 1989 AGM, which was passed, ‘that membership is cancelled for members whose subscription is overdue for more than 15 months’. Subs were increased to 1,000 pts (5 pounds). ‘12 of us are going to Berlin in May to join the 20th anniversary celebrations of the German 41 Club. Fritz, (our German member), is the Event Treasurer, and on receiving the programme, we are not sure if we still have the stamina for this sort of thing! True to form, Iberia altered all their schedules for the summer, so we can’t get out of this area until the afternoon, some via Heathrow and others via Frankfurt’.

Berlin 41 Club 20th Charter Anniversary

‘We were very well entertained by the Berlin Club, and in particular, Fritz and Erna gave a wonderful party at their home. We all came back with

one or two memories. One of the most striking was the Berlin Wall which seemed to leap up at every corner, with it’s tremendous graffiti on the western side. When we went through Checkpoint Charlie to the eastern side, it was the contrasting clinical cleanliness of it all, (not forgetting their machine guns).

On Sunday morning the Club took us for a boat ride on one of the many lakes in Berlin. On the western side it was crowded with lakeside picnickers, people sailing, ski-ing and wind-surfing, together with lots of boats like ours charging up and down with the occupants having sausages, sauerkraut, beer and listening to music. On the other side, there were just two machine gun boats and gun towers.’

Boating, swimming and picnicking at one of Berlin’s lakes

Note

This is the second of a series of articles on the history and development of the Costa Blanca 41 Club. It is being compiled from a large number of newsletters recovered from files held by Tony Ogden, who played a major part in the development of the Club and later in the development of an annual get together of clubs from the region now known as the ‘Iberian Cluster’ All the text above in italics is directly quoted from newsletters published at the time.

Ted Homewiood/Bob Oxley

Ted Homewood

Chairman 2005-06

Bob Oxley

Chairman 2011-12

The Berlin Wall from the West