(particularly the various distinguished clerical
persons) make of this pomp and circumstance, but they keep coming back
year on year so I presume they manage to season it all with the requisite
proverbial pinch of salt.
The venue again this year was the Tower Guoman hotel.
In addition to offering a simply stunning close-up view of a floodlit
Tower Bridge, the hotel delivers a meal of excellent quality and has
responded well in recent years to the logistical challenge of slaking the
Society’s considerable thirst for both grain and grape. Reflecting on
this, Rev Darren Moore gave us a most apposite grace which alluded to the
fact that most of us would simply be reversing Christ’s miraculous
transformation of water into wine.
With the melodrama of his arrival complete, the
Master of 2006-7, Chris Kippin, announced “Welcome to the … err, whatever
it is.” We wondered if the pace of his year at the helm had taken its slow
toll on this slow toller, but with a brief and uncharacteristic glance
away from his feet he regained control and welcomed us to the 370th
anniversary dinner. Attendance at these dinners has gone from strength to
strength in recent years with 356 people sitting down to enjoy this year’s
event. It was strange this year not to be guided through the ceremonies by
Andrew Stubbs who has filled the role for many years but in Phil Rogers we
have a most able replacement.
Following an enjoyable and efficiently served meal,
the Master proposed the toast to the Church. Having recently confessed to
using a calendar rather than a clock to know when to make calls at 19 in
Stedman Cinques, it was a relief that he was true to his promise to be
brief. After drawing parallels between the splendour of towers like
Chewton Mendip and the secular skyscrapers of Manhattan, Chris finished
with an entertaining poem which will be remembered as much for his
mischievous rhyming of ‘wench’ with ‘Kench’ as for the gentle dig at the
ringing served up on Wednesdays by ‘the other lot’. We were fortunate this
year to welcome two speakers from America to our dinner, inspired by the
recent installation at Trinity Church, New York of the first ring of 12
bells in the United States. To respond to the toast to the Church, Rev Dr
James Cooper, Rector of Trinity Church, spoke entertainingly about his
experiences of ringing, the importance of the Church’s mission to be seen
as being seen in the world not just in the church buildings, and
particularly of the remarkable project to install the ring of 12 at
Trinity and his gratitude to benefactor Dill Faulkes and many other people
who have worked for the success of this peal of bells.
Our second American speaker was Rick Dirksen, a
member of the Society for many years and well known to anyone who has rung
in the States or took part in the UK05 tour. Rick treated us to a
fascinating insight into North American ringing, particularly the early
visit of a College Youth band to ring a peal on the then new ring of 10 at
Washington Cathedral. He thanked some of the many people who have been
instrumental in fostering change-ringing in America, paying particular
tribute to Bill Theobald, Derek Sawyer, Alan Regin, Laith Reynolds, Dill
Faulkes and Simon Linford. Rick proposed the toast to The Society in three
parts: all those who were visiting from overseas, all those who had rung
overseas, and then all present – demonstrating the international nature of
the Society’s membership. The Society’s secretary has the unenviable
responsibility of speaking at every dinner, but John Hughes-D’Aeth is
warming to this task now and despite the close scrutiny of four past
secretaries being present, he responded to Rick’s toast with a
whistle-stop review of the Society’s activities over the past year. A new
feature this year is the awarding of certificates to members achieving 50,
60 or 70 years’ membership of the Society. A grand certificate has been
designed and produced by George Pipe for the purpose and these were
presented to all those present with the longevity to qualify.
The job of proposing a toast to the guests falls to
the Society’s Junior Steward, and Peter Valuks did so with a Jack Dee-like
delivery. I was particularly relieved that Peter shunned the ubiquitous
ploy of Googling all the guests in the hope of finding embarrassing
namesakes, but instead extended a warm and well-researched welcome to all
our guests. His closing joke about a defective church sound system proved
rather well chosen given some earlier technical problems. Our final
speaker for the evening, Tim Joiner, replied to the toast to the guests.
Tim had had a sound introduction to the world of ringing being a (somewhat
younger) cousin of Andrew Stubbs. Tim had clearly done his homework on the
Society and gave us an entertaining speech to finish the evening, managing
to hit a variety of buttons by alluding most delicately to some of the
more interesting facets of Society members.
The College Youths’ dinner rarely fails to be a most
enjoyable occasion and this was certainly one of the best, thanks in no
small part to the tremendous hard work of many people but most notably
John Hughes-D’Aeth who ensures that everything just works. As an
indication of the nature and scale of the event and also of the excellent
planning involved, it’s interesting to consider beer. There were nineteen
72-pint barrels of London Pride available - that’s 1368 pints, but we only
drank 1361. We look forward to more of the same next year. |