This was the first time that the event had been staged since we left the Redcliffe Hotel about 4 years ago.
Now being held at the Club’s present venue, the Paignton Club, the evening was a great success, due in no small part to the tremendous arrangements and especially the outstanding buffet given to us by the staff of the Paignton Club, led by Trevor and Sue, all of whom have made our Club so welcome in our new home.
26 members/wives/guests attended and after ordering our drinks, we settled down at our tables to chat with friends old and new until informed that the buffet was ready for us to collect from the adjoining room.
The buffet was really outstanding in quality and quantity and well presented.
After the meal was cleared away it was time for the races to start.
Our Chairman Barry was the MC and moved the runners (small pieces of wood christened as “Pigs” by our co-host Sue) along a piece of decorated wallpaper cleverly disguised to make it look like a racecourse complete with jumps. The runners were moved by Barry according to instructions called out by his wife Iris.
Halfway through the race our President Roy and one of two Totalising Clerks, (Charles was the other one), called out the “odds” on the runners. Towards each finish the crowds were on their feet, cheering on their chosen runner, culminating in loud cheers 🤩🥳 from the winners and tears of despair from the losers. 😢😥.
Between each race the crowds placed their bets for the next race with the bookies Phil and Paul, aided by their wives Ray and Joan, while your idiot reporter 🤥 struggled to discover the correlation between the names of the runners and the tiny bits of coloured paper he received in exchange for some of the contents from his hard earned pension fund.
Report by Websec Tony Hare
Paignton Probus Club 