Leonard Stanley Wine Circle with speaker, Willam Reddaway

NEW Chairman – David Pearce welcomed everyone and was pleased to see a good turnout despite the cold weather.

He took the opportunity to thank Bob Britton for all his hard work in various posts over the years, and particularly as Chairman last year and also Chris and Sue for the hard work they had done on the committee.

Unfortunately no Vice Chairman had been appointed and this position needed to be filled by the beginning of the New Year.

Also, although Chris had completed the 2017 programme, she will be stepping down at the next AGM, therefore someone is required to take over from her then.

Members were reminded to let Chris have their Christmas Dinner menu choices and to let Sue have their money of £18 per person.

He also stated the annual subscriptions of £22.50 each were also due.

Entertainment for this year’s dinner is music from the 60s (which some of us can still remember) and he asked members to bring along their singing voices and dancing shoes!

Volunteers were asked to help cook and serve for Burns night and also make puddings. – David thanked everyone who volunteered.

Noel Baker announced that he and Brenda would be downsizing and moving to Cheltenham in January.

We shall miss his homemade bread and keeping our website up to date.

David then introduced our speaker, Willam Reddaway who talked about riding his horse called Strider around England covering all four corners.

William was an excellent speaker and soon had us spellbound in listening to why he decided to do this and how motivated he was, not being a professional rider.

We could visualize the many hours he had spent planning his route and stop overs (approximately over 20 months).

He and Strider visited 30 cathedrals en-route, some of which he entered with his horse and we enjoyed see photographs of them both en-route.

Unfortunately during his long journey, Strider developed a saddle sore so after attention, William walked him very many miles until he was able to carry a saddle and William again.

It was a captivating talk, catching all our imagination of all the many towns and cities they visited together.

William had recently retired and said he had needed to get physically fit and train and bond with Strider before he set off, and he certainly did that and more.

To date he has raised £80,000 so far for his two chosen charities – The Family Holiday Association and Wormwood Scrubs Party Centre Riding for Disabled Children and travelled 2,682 miles in 214 days.

A remarkable man and horse and William’s talk was greatly enjoyed by all our members – one of the best this year.