Author: Ian Louis Harris

A Hat Trick Of Seasonal Events, London Cricket Trust Dinner, Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinner & Z/Yen Team Lunch, 11, 12 & 13 December 2019

It seems churlish to complain about too many nice events, but this particular week really did include a surfeit of them for me.

I had already enjoyed the Parasite evening at Curzon Mayfair…

Parasite by Bong Joon-hu, Film Preview & Panel Discussion, Curzon Mayfair, 9 December 2019

…and the Z/Yen 25th anniversary party at The Old Bailey…

25th Z/Yeniversary Alumni Function, The Old Bailey, 10 December 2019

…and it was still only Tuesday.

The three events described in this piece were the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the same week.

London Cricket Trust Dinner, Three Cranes, Wednesday 11 December 2019

Duncan Jenkinson, Andy Griffiths, Leshia Hawkins, some bloke in pink Middlesex kit photo-bombing our picture, Ivan Thomas and Me, 16 July 2019

No photos from this event, but the above photo and link is from one of the highlights of the London Cricket Trust’s year – A B de Villiers opening our Deptford Park facility in July.

We thought it would be a good idea to have a meal together after the Trustees meeting this time. We have been gathering now since 2017 planning non-turf pitch and net facilities for London’s parks, without ever breaking bread together…until this evening.

The Three Cranes location in the City worked well for me, giving me the opportunity to clear some work at the office (yes, believe it or not I did also do some work in this event-filled week) before the Trustees meeting at the Three Cranes, which was followed by the joyous meal and libations.

This evening was an excellent opportunity to all get to know each other a bit better. Not just we Trustees, but also the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) people who have been working tirelessly on our intiiative (and participation cricket more generally), plus Ed Griffiths and his team who have been doing so much wonderful pro bono work on behalf of the LCT over the years.

One of many good thoughts that emerged from the evening is that we still haven’t actually watched any professional cricket together; we’re hoping to put that right during the 2020 season.

A very enjoyable evening.

Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinner & Trophy Match, Spaghetti House Holborn, Thursday 12 December 2019

It’s been a big year for anniversaries. Not only the Z/Yen 25th (the alumni party for which is linked again here and at the very start of this “hat trick” piece)…

…but also the 40th anniversary of NewsRevue, which had its alumni event during the summer:

NewsRevue 40th Anniversary Party, Show & Smoker, Canal Cafe Theatre, 18 August 2019

One NewsRevue alum who, sadly, only just made it a few months beyond the 20th anniverary of that show was Ivan Shakespeare. We “Class Of ’92” types who were NewsRevue contemporaries of Ivan meet on an irregular occasional basis, three or four times a year, to keep in touch with each other, eat, trade jokes, share bizarre quizzes and also to remember Ivan. We’ve been doing that since mid 2000, a few months after Ivan died.

In the seasonal version of our gathering, the stakes increase markedly and we play one of the quizzes for The Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Trophy. I am proud to be the donor of the original Memorial Trophy, which was first contested in 2002, about 18 months after the dinners started.

It’s a bit like The Ashes, but for comedy writers rather than for cricketers.

Much like The Ashes, the trophy is a thing of exquisite gimcrackness; it’s absence of taste simply has to be seen to be believed:

Observant readers will see that I won that trophy once; in 2004
Some real names from the world of quizzing on there: Hugh Ryecroft for one, Barry Grossman being another.

The problem is, unlike The Ashes, the trophy is inscribed with the winner’s name each year…

…and the original trophy is running out of sensible places for the embazoning of the winner’s name…

…OK, there never were sensible places for the emblazoning, but now we are even running out of silly places to inscribe.

The solution: a new trophy. Acquired through the sort of tenacity that only Graham Robertson could possibly deploy – an eBay purchase which he needed to make twice because the first eBay vendor of tasteless out-of-date royal gimcrack merchandise took Graham’s money and did a runner.

The assembled alums at our new spiritual venue, The Spaghetti House in Holborn, decreed that Mark Keegan, who won the original trophy three times, should become “steward-for-life” of the original trophy.

Mark Keegan, delighted with his original trophy. Graham Robertson looks on, enviously.
Barry Grossman shows off the new trophy…
…then wears one for the team by winning the new trophy this year

As usual I came quite close but no cigar for me in the trophy stakes since 2004. Barry Grossman scooped the glittering prize this year – with sincere commiserations to Barry – he could have been an also-ran, but instead…

It wasn’t all quizzes and trophies; oh no, no, no, no, no, no no. There was plenty of time for eating, drinking, topical humour and some sense-of-irony-sapping politics on what was, after all, an election night.

Moving swiftly on from the will-to-live-depleting topics back to the humour section, John Random produced another set of personalised Christmas crackers this year, based on the BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg.

My cracker contained a note posing the intriguing question:

What do you call a deer with no eyes?

Frankly, I had no idea and would gladly have said, “no idea”, but for the answer provided, which instead said, in Braggian tones:

With me to discuss what you call a deer with no eyes, I have Ian Harris, Professor of Mammalian Opthalmology at Gresham College and author of In Darkness Let me Dwell – and Professor Jonny Hurst from the University of Manchester, author of Champagne Super Over: Oasis In Popular Culture.

There is sort-of a tradition in recent years for at least one person’s order to go horribly wrong at the festive dinner. This year it Barry Grossman who suffered the indignity of being brought his main at starter time and a starter-sized portion of his chosen main at main course time. The nice waiter did his best to sort things out.

Ironically, Barry went on to win the quiz, as did Jonny Hurst in 2017 when it was his turn to be the brunt of the ritual service humiliation – in those days at Cafe Rogues in Holborn not far from the scene of this year’s crime. That year, 2017, John Random’s personalised crackers had been based on the Moral Maze. He likes his thinky-Radio-4 programmes, does our John.

Anyway, the night of 12 December 2019 will surely be remembered as a great night for NewsRevue alums…and Tories…ironically.

Z/Yen Seasonal Lunch, The Old Bailey, Friday 13 December 2019

Z/Yen team gathered in the Alderman & Sheriff’s apartment

In the world of crime fiction, criminals have a regular, unfortunate tendancy; returning to the scene of the crime. Whether that is true in the real world or not I have no idea. Nor do I have the faintest idea what that point might have to do with this section of this piece.

Anyway, just three days after the Z/Yen Alumni function at The Old Bailey, the current Z/Yen team regrouped in that astonishing building for the staff seasonal lunch.

On this occasion we found ourselves in the smaller function room, used daily for the judges pre-luncheon drinks, after enjoying our pre-lunch drinks in Michael and Elisabeth’s apartment. Once again Sean, their footman, proved his skills as a photographer – thanks Sean.

The meal was a very good one; smoked trout fillet, followed by a posh duck dish, followed by an apple tart-like desert.

The wines tasted suspiciously like those excellent wines we’d enjoyed earlier in the week and seemed suspiciously well food-matched for the lunch, thanks to the combined skills of Gordon Clunie and (in all modesty) me.

Linda produced one of her fiendish seasonal quizzes – let’s not even talk about how badly Simon Mills and I did as a so-called team on that one.

Secret Santa visited (I got some baritone ukulele strings) and Santa also brought everyone a small box of super posh chocolates.

Then the traditional Z/Yen seasonal sing song. Being exceptionally woke for a boomer, I again recycled a previous effort this year, cunningly adding a topical reference ensuring that no-one would realise that it was recycled…

…unless they looked at the copyright years and/or version numbers and/or read this piece. Here is the 2019 version of The 12 Days Of Z/Yen Training. Excellent, was the performance, especially the “Five Forces” motif, which brought tears to my eyes each time around.

It is a fascinating musical phenomenon that this particular song works in so many different keys: C, C#, B, D, D#, A, E, G#, G, F & F#…all at the same time…at least, it did that afternoon.

After the formalities, plenty of informalities with some additional quizzing, singing, chatting and libations until it was chucking out time at The Old Bailey.

Chucking out time at The Old Bailey on a Friday afternoon works remarkably quickly and effectively:

You are welcome to stay on downstairs if you wish…but no-one will be here with the keys to your cell until Monday morning…

…everyone scarpers sharpish at that juncture.

Some ventured on for more libations at a local hostelry, but after five events in five days, all I could think about was getting home and lying down for a good few hours.

25th Z/Yeniversary Alumni Function, The Old Bailey, 10 December 2019

Put out the bunting! Charge the wine glasses. Z/Yen is 25 years old.

Can it really be that long since I formed Z/Yen with a small group of reprobates, not least Michael Mainelli? Yes.

Naturally the event has been reported in Now & Z/Yen, the company’s occasional newsletter/blog, (also now aged 25 and counting), click here for that report.

Preparations for the alumni do started some months before the event. Not least, the creation of a gimcrack exhibition worthy of the Victoria & Albert museum:

An early, experimental attempt some days before the event

Given the sizeable quantities of stock remaining for some Z/Yen gimcrack artefacts, we decided that the alums “deserved” goody bags on leaving this event.

Oh goody

Janie and I got to the location in good time, mostly because I deliberately over-estimated the journey duration for Janie’s benefit.

I showed Janie 20 old Bailey, where Michael and I worked prior to Z/Yen, plus the front of The Old Bailey. Somewhat ominously, 20 old Bailey is now home to Barings Bank & Metro Bank, among others.

While Janie and I were sightseeing outside the building, Linda Cook was busy adding a celebratory touch by putting out bunting based on a very early Z/Yen photo of me, Michael, Steve Taylor and Kate Carty (latterly Kate Taylor) – see headline picture and detail picture below.

I’m a little concerned on Linda’s behalf that the bunting (as seen in the headline picture) seems to be overhanging the portrait of Her Maj a little. There might well be a by-law in The Old Bailey that such disrespect to the monarch constitutes high treason and all that such a crime entrails…I mean, entails.

Joking apart, Michael gave those of us who chose to arrive early a fascinating, but at times somewhat grizzly, history talk about and tour around The Old Bailey.

Aldermansplaining The Old Bailey

Photos are not permitted on the tour. We sat in Court One for much of the talk. Elisabeth sat in the dock, while Janie and I sat in the jury seats. We found Elisabeth guilty on the grounds of looking a bit nervous in the dock…but then who wouldn’t with me and Janie beaming at them from the jury seats?

We also saw Court Six and the very grand main lobby. There is one place on the staircase where photos are permitted. Sean (Michael’s shrieval footman) turns out to be a dab hand at photography and kindly took the following:

By the time we tourists returned to the judges dining room to join the rest of the function, another twenty or so guests had arrived, so the party went into full swing…

…such full swing that Linda and Janie stopped taking photos, so you’ll simply have to imagine the drinks, canapes, bowls of yummy food and revelry.

In the run up to the event, I had been Ogblogging like fury, generating a three-part chronicle of Z/Yen’s conception and birth. Michael and I delivered a brief summary of that chronicle as a double-act on the night – click here for the pdf.

If you want to read the full three-parter, try the links within the pdf or the block links below:

Þe Chronique Of Primordyall Z/Yen: Þe First Part – Sumer Is Icomen In, Spring 1994
Þe Chronique Of Primordyall Z/Yen: Þe Second Part: Mirie It Is While Sumer Ilast, Summer 1994
Þe Chronique Of Primordyall Z/Yen: Þe Third Part: Windes Blast & Weder, Autumn 1994

I also sang the very first Z/Yen song, with the help of the assembled staff and alums who acted as the choir. Click here for a pdf of the lyric.

After that brief interlude, we all returned to eating, drinking and making merry.

It was a really enjoyable event, not least because it was such a well-organised event at such an interesting venue, but more particularly because it was so lovely to see so many Z/Yen folk past and present, all assembled and enjoying spending time together. Moved, I was.

Parasite by Bong Joon-hu, Film Preview & Panel Discussion, Curzon Mayfair, 9 December 2019

South Korean movies don’t win Palmes d’Or…at least they didn’t until Parasite came along this year.

Here’s the trailer:

It is due to be released in the UK next February, but Janie and I spotted an opportunity, offered to Curzon members, to see a preview and then a panel discussion with Bong Joon-hu himself (who seems quite liberal about the spelling of his name in transliteration) plus a couple of actors.

Despite this being a crazy busy week for us, it seemed too good an opportunity to miss, especially as I was able to snap up a choice pair of our favourite Pullman seats for the event.

Unfortunately, our chosen Pullman seat had fallen to pieces between booking and our arrival. A sweet young woman tried to convince me that the Curzon had e-mailed me about this (oh no they hadn’t) and that we had been offered alternatives (but not Pullman seats)…

…blah blah. A nice man whose Pullman seat was adjacent to our vacant space (formerly known as our Pullman seat) said he was willing to take the lesser seats if it really mattered to us, but in the end we accepted the switch, which the sweet young woman sweetened with some drinks, nibbles and the price differential as a refund in cash.

But the comedy/drama/thrills of the seat fiasco was as nothing once the film started.

It really is a cracker of a film. Everything the trailer promises about the twists and turns, the funny moments and the suspense…

…really we were gripped by the movie from start to finish.

If you are nervous of all subtitled movies, then this one might not be for you – the subtitles are very clear and easy to read but you do need the words, so if you let your visual concentration slip from reading the subtitles when you need them, you can miss some lines…

…and when a movie is this visually stimulating, you can even be concentrating on the movie but looking at other eye-popping visuals when you need to be reading.

Still the plot is not that complicated, even though it changes tack more often than a sailing boat in a swirling storm.

Janie and I often find Q&A panels more appealing in the ideas stage of booking the thing than in the actual delivery. This one was no exception.

Most of the questions from the floor were banal. The only really interesting thing I learnt was the fact that Mr Bong had written the first half of the film several years ago and that the second half only revealed itself to him some time later. So those twists and turns don’t just happen suddenly in his head; the second half of the film is very different in style, tone and content.

One interesting question from the floor was about the symbolism of smells and water, themes which constantly recurred in the film. Mr Bong’s answers to that question were insightful.

Ilya Volkov (Kreecher) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]
Taken at a film festival in Munich, summer 2019.

We were also blessed with the presence of Song Kang-ho (who played the father of the parasite family) and Jeong-eun Lee (who played the displaced housekeeper).

They all seemed very nice and were well-humoured on the stage. But they all sat there with their coats on, which felt a bit strange. They also used very little English, making a young translator work very hard. The translator mostly picked up very well on the points they wanted to make, I felt.

Here is a link to a similar panel discussion, from the Toronto Film Festival.

Janie will be irritated that they use English far more in that Toronto interview than they did at the Curzon; Janie said she thought they had better English than they were letting on!

The movie is, above all else, a fascinating insight into societal inequality seen through an East Asian lens, yet unquestionably illustrating universal issues around that topic. So different in style from movies such as Sorry We Missed You and Dirty Pretty Things, yet covering many similar themes.

Point is, go see this movie, Parasite – it really is something special.

Half Way There, Living On A Prayer, Dinner With Simon Jacobs, The Pembroke, 3 December 2019

I chose The Pembroke very carefully. I dug out my trusty slide rule, compass, protractor and set squares…

…concluding that this place was approximately equidistant between my place and Simon’s…

…it was also one of those places I’d heard good things about and was keen to try.

Everything went according to plan; I turned up a couple of minutes after the appointed hour and Simon turned up shortly after that.

I bet you put some effort into choosing this place on the grounds of its equidistance…

…said Simon. I nodded.

Thing is, I forgot to mention last time I saw you, but I have finally got round to commissioning that work on my house I’ve been talking about for years…so I am currently living with my mum in Pinner.

Last time I saw Simon was his gig at Notting Hill Arts Club:

Simon Jacobs Live Gig, Notting Hill Arts Club, 27 August 2019

I’m not surprised Simon didn’t mention the “staying with mum” business on that occasion; it’s not a very rock’n’roll existence, is it? Even if temporary and in sensible circumstances. Even with Simon’s lovely mum.

We spent a bit of time bemoaning the whole “builders in the house” business.

Then we worked out that half way between my place and Simon’s mum’s place is probably Alperton or Wembley (it is). I have subsequently researched half way houses in Alperton/Wembley – click here. Probably best we booked The Pembroke.

The food was good, the staff were attentive without being overly-so. They had acquiesced to my request for a corner table, not that the place was too full anyway, but that back corner is away from the bar, which is a bit nosiy there.

All very satisfactory.

But the funny thing was, that once Simon had told me that he was living with his mum, he seemed somewhat reverted, somehow boyish compared with his usual self.

Still crazy after all these years

Example. Simon was describing his mother’s house, which is not the house I remember Simon & Sue growing up in; their folks moved to a different house in the 1980s.

Simon described the garden as big. Seriously big. He then went to Google Earth to try locating the garden so I could see it.

At one point, when I wondered why Simon was looking at the Google Earth globe, Simon asserted that his mum’s garden is the only structure of human construction, other than the Great Wall Of China, that can be seen from outer space. Perhaps that assertion was meant to be exaggeration for effect, rather than an attempt to hoodwink me.

In the end, Simon failed to locate his mum’s garden on Google Earth…I mean, it can’t be that big then, can it?

So we discussed other things. Such as the political omnishambles that is the general election.

We also discussed Simon’s latest cracking single, which I had been honoured to hear in preview and is due to be released on the Friday after our get together…

…which is today, now that I am writing this up, so I can share the charming video and song with you:

Cool sound, coming from a self-confessed “old bloke” who still lives with his mum…

…Ok, is temporarily living with his mum while making even more cool studio space for himself and Timothy in his house.

Anyway, we had a very enjoyable evening, as always. I was surprised at how late it was by the time we toddled towards Earls Court, from whence I went the two stops back to my place and Simon…schlepped all the way to Pinner.

Midnight Movie by Eve Leigh, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 30 November 2019

No, still don’t get it…

Whoops.

I booked this on the back of us very much enjoying Eve Leigh’s unusual piece, The Trick, earlier this year at The Bush:

The Trick by Eve Leigh, Bush Studio, 23 February 2019

But where The Trick had been unusual and a little puzzling, Janie and I both found Midnight Movie impenetrable.

Here is The Royal Court’s verbiage on the piece.

The trailer also provides some clues:

In many ways the play is in the tradition of dream plays, so it would be wrong to complain about the lack of plot and confusing switches. But this piece seemed, to me, so very disjointed, it was hard to get anything much out of the experience.

It is laudable that Eve Leigh and the Royal Court have tried to produce a piece that specific speaks to people with physical challenges, but the notion that the central male character was substituting internet experience for the physical experiences his body would not allow, really struggled to make that point through the material.

Janie really hated the piece.

I tried to go with the flow but couldn’t get anywhere with it.

It is only 70 minutes long, but it felt like so much longer.

We both had out own physical challenges by the end of the ordeal – those narrow arse-ache chairs had us John-Wayning out of the theatre.

We saw a preview, so there’s a chance that the piece has been tightened a little ahead of press night, but I doubt it.

Early signs from the reviews is that the opacity of the piece shines through, as it were.

A rare miss for us at the Royal Court.

School Dinners Again, Informal Alleyn’s Alums In The City, 28 November 2019

It was about time for another of our regularly-occasional gatherings of the old school clan, so, sure enough, an e-mail came through from John Eltham several weeks ago organising this evening for us.

More than a dozen of us gathered again, most for drinks at the Walrus & Carpenter plus dinner at The Rajasthan, while a handful came to just one or other of the venues.

This felt like a bit of a homecoming to regular City venues, as the last such gathering at this time of year was relocated to different venues, for some reason:

An Award-Winning Evening During Which I Hung Out With The Alleyn’s Old Boys Crowd, Sripur Restaurant, 6 December 2018

Anyway, my need to be in the City this week cunnningly conspired to coincide with this day, so I simply wandered over to The Walrus after work.

The group was already well gathered in the cunningly hidden dowstairs bar. Mostly comprising the usual suspects, the group also included Nick Wahla for the first time. Nick was in my class in the second and third years – here’s some evidence of the former:

My Second Class At Alleyn’s School, 2AK, And Some Nicknames, guessing 1 January 1975

According to the above piece, Nick’s nickname (if you can get your head round the idea of someone named “Nick” having a nickname), was “Gob”. It’s almost impossible to imagine why Nick might ever have been known as Gob. My guess is that the epithet “Gob” was handed down to Nick by our form master, Tony King, rather than an authentic compadre’s moniker.

Mr King, purveyor of synthetic sobriquets

In the Rajasthan, I ended up at the “breezy door” end of the room, next to Nick Wahla and opposite David Wellbrook, who for once in his life was being too polite that evening to promote his latest e-book – click here or the picture link below:

Soon we were joined by Mike Jones, who, coincidentally, had been form master to all three of us in our third year. Simon Ryan enocuraged the whole table to stand up and say, “good evening, Sir” to Mike, which I’m certain caused Mike not one jot of embarrassment.

We did a bit of 3BJ reminiscing at our end of the table…and why not? I particularly remembered Nick Wahla giving “Cyril” Vaughan a hard time in our Latin classes, but Nick claimed not to remember Cyril at all and went all “innocentia effecit imitatio” on the matter of Latin disruption, while admitting to having achieved a record low in his Latin exam. 8%.

Now I’m not saying that Nick was the main or only protagonist in the matter of Cyril baiting. Heaven knows, I personally pulled the “varnishing a stash of chalk and swapping the varnished variety for all the serviceable chalk” stunt…I am now prepared at this late stage to confess to that one…perhaps my best ever practical joke…especially the cunningly hidden addtional piece of varnished chalk waiting to be discovered in the master’s desk drawer…

…but I do distinctly remember Paul Deacon’s impersonation of Cyril, which was excellent vocally, normally comprising phrases such as, “…Wahla, please put that hand grenade down, there’s a good fellow…now Wahla, please don’t pick up that machine gun in place of the hand grenade, be a nice chap…”

If we’re really lucky Paul might chime in with a Cyril voice file to enhance this memory.

Bunch of clowns, we were and I’m sure the masters took great pains at the time to tell us that we wouldn’t be able to make a living in the real world writing silly jokes, speaking in funny voices and/or by having the gift of the gab.

Nick Wahla is now deploying his gift of the gab in the world of market research; he warned us all that no shopping visit nor even the supposed security of our own homes would make us safe from a possible approach by Nick at unsuspecting moments in our lives. It’s a minor miracle, it seems, that none of us have yet encountered Nick and his clip board in the field.

Meanwhile we ate Indian food, most people drank Cobra beer, while three of us (me, David Leach and Lisa Pavlovsky) braved the Indian Shiraz – I’m not sure we’ll be making that mistake with that particular wine again – my bad idea.

There was lots of chat.

At the end of the meal, it transpired that it was Paul Driscoll’s birthday and so David Wellbrook hurriedly cajoled the waiting staff into arranging a token birthday sweet, with which to embarrass Paul.

David Wellbrook uploaded a video of the resulting merriment onto Facebook – click here if you dare.

In that vid you can see an excitable-looking me (not sufficiently sedated with wine – one glass of that Shiraz was more than enough for me) jumping up to take the following picture:

As always, it was great to see the gang and especially nice to see Nick Wahla again after all these years. Astonishingly, he was too polite to ask a range of questions about the evening, so I shall provide the answers here.

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is “totally dissatisfied” and 10 is “totally satisfied”, I would give the following scores:

* quality of food, drink and service 6/10

* quality of company and feeling of bon-homie 11/10

As always, a great evening. Many thanks to John Eltham who always takes on the unenviable task of trying to herd our bunch of Alleyn-cats for these get togethers.

Loadsa Real Tennis, Some Of It Me Playing At Lord’s, Then Some Really Real Tennis At Queen’s, 20 to 23 November 2019

20 November 2019 – Semi Final Of The HD Johns Cup

Dominic Flint and I qualified for the semi-final of the doubles in the Lord’s internal tournament for people of our grade.

Tony (left), Dominic (centre) & Yours Truly (right), at MURTC in spring

We’ve been practicing together a fair bit over the summer and autumn, and/but knew that we’d need to be at the top of our game for our fancied opponents; Gareth Zundel and Sebastian Wood.

We were quite excited to qualify for the semi-final. I haven’t played much competition sport since school, so this was my first semi-final since 1975. My 1975 fives semi-final did not go well; ironically on a day when England’s cricket semi also went sour

A Truly Thrice Awful Day In My School/Sporting Life, 18 June 1975

In short, I’ll have to wait a while longer before I win a semi. Dominic and I started poorly, losing the first four games. After that, we were in the hunt for the rest of the match, but it is a best of three set shootout, so when our opponents overcame our second set lead amd pipped us in the second set as well, that was that.

What do you mean, “you’d like to see the whole sorry affair pan out”? Surely not? What? Oh, Ok, then. It is just shy of an hour, so two parts:

I feel I learnt a lot from the process of getting to know each other’s games and working out a method as a pair. Dominic says he feels the same way, so I hope we get another opportunity to play a tournament together.

21 November 2019 – Club Night, Lord’s

The club has recently initiated a new idea, called club night, which is basically a turn up and play doubles evening with an element of eating and drinking for those who wish.

I love the idea and intend to be a regular attendee. But I was unable to make the first one, so wanted to make the effort to attend this second one, even though I wasn’t really up for the libations and dining side of it.

I got to play a couple of sets; early in the evening with some guys who were well above my pay grade; then latterly a really well-matched set which enabled me to reunite with James McDermott.

Me and James, at Hampton Court a few week’s earlier

In October I had briefly broken away from my partnership with Dominic to play a Dedanist’s representative match with James McDermott at Hampton Court – the first of three travelling matches in a report you may click here or below:

How I Lost My Virginity Three Times In Less Than A Week, Yet Didn’t Lose A Match, 10, 14 & 15 October 2019

James was playing very well in that successful Hampton Court match and has subsequently gone on to great things – not least qualifying for the final of the WH Ollis (singles).

It was good fun to have another go at doubles with James, although this time we came out second best in the tightest of tight sets.

I’m aiming to try and make club nights from now on; including keeping the early morning afterwards free if possible.

22 November 2019, A Couple Of British Open Doubles Quarter-Finals Matches, The Queen’s Club

I was keen to see some of the British Open at Queen’s this year. I chose the Singles semi-finals day to take Janie (that’s tomorrow) but also thought I’d take in some of the doubles (now that I am making strides in that format).

So I took the afternoon out to watch a couple of the matches and then drive on to Noddyland.

Here’s the first match I watched:

Darren Long, who has looked after me so well when I have visited Manchester, was on the wrong side of this match – a not unexpected result in the circumstances.

Between the two matches I watched, i popped into the restaurant/bar for a snack and ran into Darren there. He introduced me to Ben Taylor-Matthews (Leamington) and we had a pleasant chat before he shot off to get his train back to Manchester.

The second match, which included Ben Taylor-Matthews, was a fair bit closer and went the way of my new found friend. He was partnering Bryn Sayers, who i know from Queen’s, so I suppose I was rooting for the favourites for once. You don’t really do much partisan rooting when watching real tennis – more admiration for good rests and great shots:

23 November 2019, The British Open Singles Semi-Finals Matches, The Queen’s Club

After our traditional game of lawners in the morning, Janie and I headed off to The Queen’s Club in time to have a pleasant brunch before watching the singles semi-finals.

I wanted to show Janie how the game really ought to be played – surely she had suffered enough watching me a few times.

As it turned out, although Janie has known many Queensistas in her time and had been with me to see lawn tennis at Queen’s, she’d never actually been in the main building before.

I think that might be the tennis court, there…

Of course we bumped into people we knew, not least Tony Friend, Robin Simpson and Brian Sharp.

Brian is probably asking me if I have got my handicap below 60 yet.

I promised to show Janie around a bit during the break between the two matches, which I did reasonably successfully.

The first semi-final was between Rob Fahey (current world champion, long-time world No 1, now world No 2) and my new friend Ben Taylor-Matthews:

Rob Fahey looking supremely confident
Ben Taylor-Matthews gathering himself

I thought Ben put up some strong resistance before eventually succumbing, but when I saw him briefly afterwards he said he’d been disappointed by his performance.

The second match was a little more one-sided. I don’t think anyone was going to beat Camden Riviere this year:

Chris Chapman sporting electric blue shoes
While Camden wore red and one back shoe; some sort of statement?

Janie really enjoyed her day at Queen’s and even took an interest, the next day, encouraging me to put the streaming on the TV so we could see the semi-finals of the doubles.

The Queen’s Club is a lovely place to visit and my it looked resplendent as we left, even in the rain:

Liberetto III, Lars Danielsson Group, Wigmore Hall, 19 November 2019

I took a punt on this one – Janie doesn’t much like staying in town for anything on a Tuesday evening – but I guessed, correctly, that this would be a really good concert.

Here is the Wigmore Hall resource on this concert.

In fact the evening exceeded my high expectations.

There is a superb review of this concert by Rob Mallows on londonjazznews.com – click here or below:

Lars Danielsson Quartet – Liberetto III at Wigmore Hall (2019 EFG LJF)

I cannot better that review, so need only to defer to it and say little more, other than the fact that Janie and I were quite blown away by this gig. That “oh my gosh this is exceptional” feeling happens rarely for us now, as we are lucky and privileged to see a great deal of wonderful stuff.

But this concert really was the bees knees, as the above review explains.

I dowloaded all three Liberetto albums at the weekend, so we can listen some more to this material and to more of Lars Danielsson’s recent work besides.

Here’s a sample video of one of the tracks from the most recent, Liberetto III, album – Lviv:

Below is another trailer, from the first Liberetto album – different pianist on the vid but the current quartet played this piece on the night:

Have I menioned how good this jazz group is and how wonderfully Lars Danielsson’s music sounds?

I’ll stop and let Lars Danielsson Group’s work speak for itself.

A Gresham Society Visit To Fortnum & Mason, 18 November 2019

Janie and I started our Fornum & Mason cultural evening earlier than most, by visiting the Royal Academy across the road in the late afternoon – click here or below:

Gormley & Freud At The Royal Academy, 18 November 2019

As planned, we still had time to take our own look around Fortnum & Mason ahead of the Gresham Society event. We had been told that we were not getting the standard guided tour of the shop…

…thank goodness – I mean, who needs a guide to take you around a shop, especially if you have Janie with you?…

…so the opportunity to have a butchers at the store ahead of the special artefact session we had been promised, was a good idea.

Of course, being Gresham Society, Janie and I weren’t the only people to have that bright idea. We ran into several Gresham Societitians, not least Barbara Anderson, while exploring the delights of Fortnum and Mason, without a guide.

Sweet
Also sweet
Surely I can’t go back to savoury now?
Everything looked nice enough to eat down there in the food hall

But our real purpose at Fortnum and Mason was to hear from the archivist, Dr Andrea Tanner and see some of the treasured artefacts she has gathered about the 300+ year old institution.

The Gresham connection is a little tenuous, but Fortnum & Mason have recently opened a branch in The Royal Exchange, which of course was founded by Sir Thomas Gresham.

While the direct connection might be tenuous, the international mercantile nature of both Gresham’s career and the commercial venture that is/became Fortnum & Mason, have some clear similarities.

We were honoured to be hosted in the Fortnum & Mason Board Room. We learnt that our visit was very much a one-off treat for The Gresham Society, as the regular “history tours” are more usually small groups on a shop tour. Such tours are most certainly not normally conducted during the run up to the festive season, so we were most firtunate and honoured to be thus welcomed.

Tea…
…and biscuits…
…in the charming Board Room…
…yes, indeed. So listen up, Mr Harris.

The history of the store is very interesting. Much of the history can be gleaned from the Wikipedia entry – click here – amongst other sources.

Janie was especially interested to hear about the post-war history of the business, as she treated Garry Weston (the Wagon Wheel man, as well as the Fortnum & Mason man) & his wife, Mary Weston, for many years.

But in truth, the elements that most interested us and the Gresham folk gathered that afternoon, were the extraordinary historical artefacts that Andrea Tanner was able to show us. These pieces illustrated the history of the place to a far greater extent than the (still interesting) dates and anecdotes.

We were warned not to open this unfinished jar of beef extract; who knows what lurks within such a jar once several decades have passed.
Tommy’s Tin – chocs and cards for the troops

Janie snapped a fair smattering, but not all, of the pieces handed round and explained.

Fortnum & Mason has diversified into all sorts at times in its history; it’s not all about teas, sweets and wines
Well I’ll be darned – more stuff for Tommy
Only Janie seemed to have the guts & dexterity to open this beautiful small watch
Not on the table, Imelda! What would your mother say?

After the superb talk, artefact show and questions, we were each given a very jolly goody-bag, like we see at children’s parties these days…never would have happened in my childhood I might tell you. Tea and biscuits and vouchers in that goody bag – very nice.

Those of us brave or foolish enough to tackle the Fortnum & Mason wine bar prices, retired to the food hall wine bar for an hour or so, to enjoy excellent wines in superb Gresham Society company.

This was not the most intellectually stimulating Gresham Society trip ever, but it was extremely interesting and enjoyable.

We were genuinely privileged to be allowed such access to Fortnum & Mason at this time of year, so many thanks to Tim and Basil for organising the visit. The perfect hors d’oeuvres ahead of the repast that will be the Gresham Society soiree in a few week’s time.

More photos, including those from Janie’s and my earlier visit to the Royal Academy, can be seen in the Flickr album available by clicking here or on the photo link below.

Gormley & Freud At The Royal Academy, 18 November 2019

Neither of us would have made a special trip to the Royal Academy to see either one of these exhibitions on its own, but when we realised that we were due to be across the road in Fortnum & Mason for an early evening Gresham Society event that evening, the opportunity to see:

…was too good for me and Janie to miss. (Click the above links to see the RA’s excellent on-line resources for each of these shows).

First we took in the Gormley. Janie got trigger happy with her iPhone.

The signage tells you to duck and dive your way through this piece, while another sign tells you rather strictly to stick to the outside of the piece. Where’s my sat nav when I need it the most?
I tried to emulate the pose.
This matrix piece made us feel a bit dizzy
Janie was especially taken with the sketch books aplenty,
Having done various real caves and even the Củ Chi tunnels in our time, this synthetic cave held no fear for us, although the health and safety brigade warned us about the dark, head hazards and claustrophbia before we entered. It was fun.

While we were more interested to see the Freud than the Gormley, in the event the Freud was a small exhibition with only a few interesting pieces.

Lucian clearly fancied himself more when he was young…
…than he did when he was older.

As we had suspected, neither show would have satisfied us as a single visit show, but we were pleased to have seen both in one visit, especially so on a day when we were to be so nearby anyway.

There are more photos, in a single album with the Fortnum & Mason ones, to be seen by clicking the link below: