April 2026 Club Night Report.
The April club night is traditionally the club auction which is always a good opportunity to offload tools and materials that we don’t need, and as they say, ‘one man’s trash is another mans treasure’, forgive me if I’ve mis-quoted that proverb!
The evening started with our chairman giving us an update on various club matters including progress on the improvements at Puffing Park and of the well-attended Regatta at Verulamium Lake on Easter Sunday and that all members that showed up should claim their chocolate Easter egg from Mike G. Mike also welcomed our new member Daniel to the club.
Mike G then took the microphone and told us that just a couple of seats remained on the coach for the club’s annual outing, this year to the Black Country Museum, and reminding members that their £10 deposit was required now to secure their seats.
With that business out of the way Mike went on to remind us of the auction rules and that the numbered name label that we were all given on entry was our bidder number that would be required after a successful bid.
Then onto the highlight of the evening…the auction.
Our auctioneer Guy did a splendid job and some of the auction lots seemed to attract a great deal of interest from certain parties and at times the bidding was quite frenzied, but always tempered with a great deal of humour as the auction progressed. One member who swore that he wouldn’t be bidding on anything very quickly abandoned that vow and must have spent a fortune on his accumulated winning bids. You know who you are!
All the while Mike G and Irene R diligently recorded all of the winning bids and bidders for the final rekoning at the end of the proceedings.
Lots that didn’t attract any bids on the first round were put aside so that during the tea break they could be inspected by members who were then invited to make bids for these remaining items when the auction restarted after the break.
The last of the auction items were the unclaimed Easter Eggs, which for a winning bid of one pound each, literally ‘flew’ to their successful bidders.
Happily, the majority of items went to new homes but our chairman implored that members who brought unsold items should take them away again.
From the array of ‘trash’ that was brought along I personally didn’t think there was much ‘treasure’ amongst it all but the final figure raised for club funds clearly proved me wrong.
Special mention has to be made for the assistance of the auctioneers ‘runners’ Brian and Andrew who distributed the items to the winning bidders.
Thanks as always to all that set out and put away the furniture and of course the catering team that always keep us refreshed.
PS… “can we have a few more biscuits next time” was a request that I overheard!
Rob Briancourt.
9th April 2026.