Tag: Streatham BBYO

A Social Whirl At The Start Of “The” Season: Three Dinners In Six Days – 1, 5 & 6 June 2024

The third event: Streatham BBYO alums gathering at Bill’s Covent Garden

Dinner At Claudia & Richard’s Place, 1 June 2024

Claudia & her pot

The weather didn’t smile on us for drinks & nibbles outdoors – Janie and I had a quick guided tour of Claudia’s lovely garden before dashing back inside to warm up – but the warmth of the hospitality made up for the chilly evening.

Jonathan does the wine waiter bit

Claudia likes to show off her culinary skills and thus chose to serve a coulibiac as the centrepiece of her superb meal.

With thanks to Anthea for taking this picture of the coulibiac on my phone – not all blogs have their food porn pictures snapped by world class fashion photographers, you know.

Anthea tries unsuccessfully to encourage these two “kids” away from their phones and towards their dinner.

Honestly, kids these days with their phones…

Janie’s attempt at food porn photography

My attempt at food porn photography

Janie’s pud

It wasn’t all about food. It was great to catch up with old friends again (Anthea, Claudia and Richard), plus meet some new (to us) folks in Jonathan and Joanne. Jonathan’s greyhound provided some additional entertainment, not least when it went missing in the house for a while and search parties scattered to find it.

A super evening – thanks Claudia.

Dinner At Maurizio Barca With Simon Jacobs & Graham Greenglass, 5 June 2024

A few weeks before this dinner, I saw Graham Greenglass in person for the first time in decades at the sad occasion of Fran Erdunast’s funeral evening prayers. Graham and I had re-engaged by e-mail and I had even put Graham back together again with Fran, who was a cousin of his, back in 2021. We had every intention of meeting up back then, but I let that ball drop at that time. My bad.

Coincidentally, Graham’s name had come up again a few weeks before the sad Fran news, when I attended and spoke at the Gresham Society annual dinner:

Singing…Or In This Case Speaking… For My Supper, Gresham Society AGM & Dinner, Guildhall, 11 March 2024

As a small token of thanks for my speech, Professor Tim Connell presented me with the canonical book about The Guildhall – Guildhall: City of London: History Guide Companion: A History and a Guide:

I had meant to get in touch with Graham about that happy coincidence, but in the end it was Fran’s sad demise that triggered the reunion.

While pondering how best to set up a proper meeting, I recalled that Graham and Simon were also good friends back in the day…

Graham and Simon in 1979

…so I e-mailed the two of them to suggest that we three meet again. The idea found favour.

Simon somehow found time to fit us in, despite his sixth album having just been released ‘n’ all:

Graham’s book you may only sample for free, whereas Simon’s album can be heard in full

Compared with the others, I felt a little bereft of relatively recent published materials…apart from the 3000 or so pieces here on Ogblog.

The Scarsdale Tavern was my initial choice of venue, but that place is especially picky about arrival times, which they felt sure we would understand. We did understand that their proposed timings suited the Scarsdale rather than us, so we chose instead to eat when we wanted to at Maurizio Barca, which was a quiet, friendly, local Italian place on the North End Road. Little did I know that Graham’s mum’s family hailed from that part of London, so it was a bit of a spiritual reunion with his family’s ancestors, as well as a reunion with a couple of relics from Graham’s own past.

We had a very enjoyable evening, despite signally failing to put all of the world’s problems to rights by talking them through. Perhaps it will need another get together or two to complete the solving of those.

Streatham BBYO “Annual” Gathering, Bill’s Restaurant, 6 June 2024

David, Linda, Sandra, Wendy, Liza, Andrea (and me behind the lens).

In a break with tradition, we gathered the week after half term holiday this time, but then Sandra is now the last of our clan still working in the education sector and was able to make this date.

Unfortunately Mark was unable to make it in the end for health reasons, but still seven of us gathered, which isn’t bad at all.

Andrea and Wendy were fashionably late, as always. Except that both announced well in advance that they would be late and ended up arriving earlier than we anticipated given that they had said that they’d be late. Does that mean that they were early?

No matter, we all had a good chat over palatable food and a few drinks.

The stuff I have been writing up from my 1974 diaries proved strangely pertinent to much of the chat.

Sandra seems to have forgiven me for needing to be reminded that she suffered along with me and others at the hands of Miss Aaron at Brixton cheder…

“Freed At Last, Freed At Last…”: Brixton Cheder In Early 1974

…I even seem to be forgiven for bringing back Sandra’s nightmares about those unpleasant experiences.

Andrea and Wendy keenly anticipate me reintroducing them to Stuart (no relation) Harris, through whom all three of us met before the BBYO days and with whom I have recently re-engaged after finding my earliest tennis memories in that 1974 diary.

I Didn’t Just Learn Tennis In The School Easter Holidays Of 1974, I Smashed It

I didn’t realise that David Heller and Liza Abrahams also know/knew Stuart and the “Naff Harris” family.

Like the club nights of old, it was all over so very quickly. As always, it was such a pleasure to meet up with the old gang again.

A Clubby Week, Mostly At Lord’s For The Ireland Test, Late May To Early June 2023

Jack Leach warming up on Day Three

Tuesday 30 May – A Streatham BBYO Youth Club Reunion At Cafe Pacifico

Waiting for Andrea? Actually this picture from our 2019 gathering at Bill’s

In a minor break with tradition, we gathered at that Mexican institution, Cafe Pacifico, in Covent Garden this year, at Andrea’s excellent suggestion.

In compliance with the strict traditions of our group, Andrea was late. In the modern era, Andrea is able to pre-announce her tardiness by sending a message to everyone explaining why, on this one occasion, she has been delayed. It always feels in keeping with our long-established social mores. If Andrea is ever to be on time I think she should message us to warn us of that – the shock of her timely arrival might be too great for some of our ageing tickers.

Andrea back then

Anyway, it is always worth the wait to see Andrea, just as it is always worth the wait to see everyone from the youth club gang again. We used to gather almost every week, of course – youth clubs tend to be a bit like that.

Time rolls on, but when we gather it feels as though the decades have changed this gang remarkably little. Coincidentally, Cafe Pacifico similarly felt much like the place I remember trying many decades ago; probably because it is little changed.

As always, we had a very enjoyable evening.

Wednesday 31 May – A Redoubtable Bout Of Doubles Tennis At Lord’s

Me & Mr Thirlwell after a previous battle at Lord’s (early 2020)

Our real tennis court at Lord’s has been sequestered by the cricket authorities “for media purposes” during the major matches this year (don’t get me started) so it made obvious sense to have a game the evening before the temporary closure.

Indeed, even without the closure, I realised that it was a personal tradition for me to play the day before an Ireland test at Lord’s – I have now done so every time such a test has ever been held throughout history (both times):

The Week That Ireland Came To Lord’s, 23 to 26 July 2019

This time it was a ninety minute doubles helping to warm up my friends Andrew Hinds and John Thirlwell who are partnering each other in the in-house tournament. We had a three-set epic, which my partner, Bill, and I managed to take at the very last gasp in a decider, having been one-set-all, five-games-all.

Great fun and a good battle.

Thursday 1 June – England v Ireland Day One At Lord’s

Pavilion View

I went to the gym to get a bit of exercise ahead of the excesses of a few days at Lord’s. I togged up for the pavilion and enjoyed 30-40 minutes of cricket from there before lunch, chatting with Nick Brown from Dulwich College, exchanging interesting thoughts and word on our respective initiatives on community participation cricket.

After lunch, it seemed if anything to get colder in the pavilion. Then the sun came out and I realised that the pavilion would warm up slowly, whereas I might warm up more quickly in one of my favoured sunny spots in the Tavern Stand – if I could get there before the stampede from the chilly Pavilion and Warner.

Made it. No sweat. It was still quite cold, even in the sun, so no sweat.

I watched and read a bit, interrupted only by the arrival of Sidney Yankson & his entourage – I was inadvertently sitting behind their chosen patch. Sidney is one of my real tennis pals, whom I first met when he organised a match between the MCC and Honourable Artillery Company five years ago.

Big Match Weekend At Lord’s Part One: MCC v HAC Real Tennis Match, 21 July 2017

Mid afternoon I received a message from Jonny “Twophones” Hurst to say that he had a spare seat in the Compton Lower and was wondering whether I would care to join him and his mate, Huge Morg. Who could say no to such an invitation.

Jonny Twophones & Huge Morg

We spent the rest of the afternoon watching cricket and nattering…which is not exactly an unusual combination of pastimes when a Lord’s.

All very enjoyable.

Friday 2 June – England v Ireland Day Two With Awesome Simo

I decided to get to Lord’s well early to secure good Tavern Stand seats for me and Simon Jacobs. I figured that the previous day’s good weather and the sunny start would make the Tavern Stand very popular, which it did.

Despite being on picnic duty which included some hand-made onion bagels from Papa Joseph’s place, I was still early enough to secure a brace of end of block seats in the second row.

Tavern Stand seats with excellent view of Jonny Bairstow’s warm-ups

I also wanted to tell Janie, pictorially, that I had arrived safe, sane & sound

Simon arrived around 11:30, but not before my row had been invaded by several real tennis “stars” in exile from our beloved court with only cricket to watch: Tony Friend, Simon Martin & (latterly) James Coley.

An engineer trying in vain properly to equip a 19th century tennis court for 21st century media.

A day of cricket is always a good opportunity to chew the fat with Simon. Or “a good old chinwag” as one of his local Hammersmith places once suggested as a raison d’être.

A Good Old Chinwag and Dinner With Simon Jacobs, Old Suffolk Punch, 10 January 2017

Unfortunately, much like the chinwag occasion, Simon simply couldn’t help himself in the matter of mentioning the names of despicable politicians, usually just after I had eaten a few mouthfuls of delicious smoked trout bagel or some of my “salad-in-a-cup” morsels. “Cruella” being the cruellest mid-mouthful blurt of the lot.

Still, we managed to get over all that and enjoy a glorious sunny day watching the cricket.

I did so little getting up and walking around on this day that I thought my right leg had utterly gone to sleep when I finally gave up on the day about 15 minutes before stumps – Simon had baled out about 10 minutes earlier. Fortunately the walk to Edgware Road tube brought my leg back to life.

I have no idea why a day of doing more or less nothing is so tiring, but I always feel in need of a long deep sleep after such a day of cricket and achieve same without any difficulty. Some people sleep during the cricket, of course, which is an entirely different matter and not usually my thing.

Saturday 3 June – England v Ireland Day Three With Daisy

We might only be here for six balls

We had no idea what to expect of Day Three. The result was pretty much no longer in doubt, but we wondered whether Ireland might collapse within an hour or make a day of it. They did the latter, very well.

We got to Lord’s well early, mostly to get a decent parking space rather than a decent seat but the early arrival meant that we achieved both.

That allowed us plenty of time to observe the England team warming up and interacting with the crowd.

Josh Tongue

Matty Potts

Chris Woakes

Chris & Ollie

We need help to identify these three. Any ideas?

Early morning autograph hunters

We did a bit of strolling around but mostly watched the cricket during the hours of play and chose to stroll during the lunch interval. The place was busy but not heaving on Day Three.

Daisy’s mum, The Duchess, seems to be moonlighting as a fast food outlet

I ran into yet another of my real tennis pals, Alastair Robson, during a pit stop, or “in the jacks” as Alastair so politely put it. Janie and I chatted with him for a while before the resumption, although we’ll hopefully have plenty of time to chat with him in Leamington in less than two week’s time on our way to Edgbaston.

The match even went on until tea, during which time, while politely putting away most of our things as the end was clearly nigh, I also did a bit of stretching.

A dedicated follower of fashion at tea

When England took the final wicket we made our escape ahead of the crowds, realising that a lead of 11 runs was not going to take much hunting down.

Here’s a link to the scorecard and other Cricinfo resources on the match.

We’d had a glorious day in the sun…

…I’d had best part of three such days.

Not the most competitive match ever but a very enjoyable few days at Lord’s.

Virtually Going Back To Our Roots, A Streatham BBYO Youth Club Reunion On Zoom, 29 March 2020

The roll (l to r): Ivor (present) Sandra (present) Mark (awol) Andrea (present)

It was Natalie’s idea and rather a good one. Or maybe it was Andrea’s idea. Anyway, point is, our plans for a spring gathering of the old youth club clan are in tatters this year, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mission Implausible, The Annual Streatham BBYO Alumni Gathering, Bill’s, 30 May 2019

Only one thing for it: gather virtually, e.g. on Zoom (other video conferencing tools are available).

Natalie set it up and a good few of us joined in. Andrea, David, Ivor, Linda, Liza, Martin, Me, Natalie, Sandra, Wendy…

…I think that’s everyone from the old clan who came along on Sunday – apologies if I have missed anyone out. One or two wives/partners/children popped in for a while (Janie for example) or added colour to the proceedings through noises off or other such distractions.

Janie had never witnessed a video conference before and suggested that video-conferencing seemed a chaotic medium to her. I had to point out that video conferences can be highly disciplined and decorous. Had she ever experienced one of our youth club meetings, she’d realise that the chaotic nature of the gathering has little or nothing to do with the medium.

Simon wasn’t there to stick the boot in, but Martin was there to provide security

The conversation covered many topics, not just “what were you up to before the pandemic?” and “how are you coping with the pandemic?”

The Chatham House rule should apply to such gatherings, I feel, so I won’t attribute specific tales to specific people. But we are a communitarian lot, still, so we heard word from near the front line of health care, social services provision and education. Unprecedented times (as everyone seems to be saying right now) presenting immediate and urgent challenges to everyone, especially those working in civil society.

The most fascinating yarn, though, was a true story about rabbits. Apparently, if you put a male rabbit and a female rabbit into a household with children, you generate a myriad of soap-opera-like scenarios within just a few weeks, even if the children are given strict instructions to enforce social distancing between the rabbits. Children, it seems, struggle to obey such simple instructions with predictably hilarious and tragic results in equal measure.Throw Covid-19 lockdown into the scenario and you have a strange brew for story-telling – Beatrix Potter’s Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies meets Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

I do hope Zoom’s VC security is better than some suggest…I’d hate to think that the bunny community found out what’s been going on…

Word on the street is that our gathering went so well that we shall be gathering again very soon – i.e. same time, same day, the next week.

This really IS becoming a virtual youth club, even down to the weekly meetings. Soon we’ll need to reform a committee, start scheduling programmes and sending delegates to virtual regional, national and international shindigs…

North London Cricket And South London Reunion, 15 August 2019

I wanted to go up to North London Cricket Club to take a look at one of Middlesex CCC’s participation programmes. I wanted a bit more context around my work with London Cricket Trust, in part to inform my decision making and in part to inform any further media stuff I might be doing about it, possibly some as early as next week.

Picture borrowed from the North London Cricket Club website – click the picture to see the site.

Katie Berry thought the Wilf Slack Cup at North London Cricket Club would be a good example and I thought that 15 August, a date that I had put aside for the August Z/Yen Board meeting, an event that tends not to happen due to holidays and indeed was not going to happen, was a very good date for me to make such a visit.

Weather wise it turned out to be an excellent choice, sandwiched between two very wet Lord’s test match days. Work-wise it wasn’t quite so ideal, as a few things came up that needed my attention and I needed to deal with those ahead of going to Lord’s for a soaking the next day.

Still, I got to North London around 12:40 and was able to stay for a little under two hours, looked after by Pete Jones who is a key fellow in Middlesex’s participation team. He was able to give me a lot of useful context to the work we are doing and planning to do through the London Cricket Trust. We were also, usefully, joined by Mohammed from the ECB’s participation and growth team who also had some useful and interesting context to give me about such participation programmes in other parts of the country, as well as London.

Considering that the tournament was for 14-17 year olds of mixed ability and experience – ranging from some of the better colt players from strong clubs to young enthusiasts who were perhaps getting their first experience of playing hard ball cricket on a full sized cricket pitch, I thought the standard was pretty high.

I was a bit regretful that I couldn’t stick around and watch the tournament pan out for the afternoon – it was a glorious day for hanging around cricket – but I did need to get home and get some work done. Indeed, I got so deep into one or two tasks, I ended up rushing in the end to get out the door in time for the Streatham BBYO reunion gathering at Imperial China.

There was a coincidental connection between these two noteworthy, North London and then South London, activities of the day. The 14-17 year old age band of the Wilf Slack Cup coincides almost exactly with my age during the Streatham BBYO years and both of those activities were linked to the two “Mission Implausible” challenges that I had assumed at the last reunion gathering in May.

Mission Implausible, The Annual Streatham BBYO Alumni Gathering, Bill’s, 30 May 2019

The first of those challenges was to provide cricket facilities for Mark Phillips’s school, Deptford Green. I must admit at this juncture that I rather set this challenge up when I found out that Mark was the Head Teacher at that school, as I was pretty sure that we were imminently due to put a London Cricket Trust Non-Turf Pitch into Deptford Park. What I hadn’t known, in May, was that we would also be able to get one of the greatest cricketers of all time, AB DeVillers, to open the facility for us in July.

AB & Me & The LCT, Deptford Park, 16 July 2019

The second challenge was to track down Barry Freedman after all these years. This I failed to achieve through the BBYO Facebook network but succeeded in doing through the Kim and Micky connection. It’s not what you know…as they say.

Woddi, Terri and Barry (sounds like a group of England cricketers and their nicknames), from way back then (1979).

I thought we might be a little short of people for the 8-person table I had booked, but I needn’t have worried. Sandra and Mark had both said yes but were demonstrably both abroad right up until the last minute. Still they both – almost AB DeVilliers-like, hot-footed it from their vacation to our event.

I did a shout-out on the BBYO Facebook group. Terri got in touch and hoped to come along and try to replicate the above picture, but sadly in the end couldn’t make it. Simon Ordever wanted to pick up an age-old rivalry between supporters of Crystal Palace (Eagles) and supporters of Brighton FC (Seagulls), but sadly he now lives on the West Coast of the USA. That is a bit of a schlep for one meal.

Fortunately, Paul Dewinter was able to pick up the mantle for the Seagulls community, attending (as he has done before) as a “Friend of Streatham”. Paul possibly didn’t realise that he would be up against the combined forces of Barry, Linda and Liza in the Eagles department. I think Paul held out for a 0-0 draw despite being two men down.

Clockwise from me: Paul, Andrea, Sandra, Linda, Barry, Liza, Mark. Many thanks to the waiter whose photographic skills were surprisingly good considering his polite reluctance to accept the task.

It had been great to speak with Barry again when I called him some weeks ago and likewise it was great to see him again along with the group. Hopefully Barry will be able to join us again at the (now traditional) May gatherings. I find it very enjoyable spending time with everyone in the group. The years just seem to fall away when our group gets together, as I have said in reports of several previous gatherings, which have been happening since 2014.

It was a lovely ending to a busy but largely enjoyable day.

Mission Implausible, The Annual Streatham BBYO Alumni Gathering, Bill’s, 30 May 2019

A smaller gathering this year, after the record numbers last time around:

Our Annual Streatham BBYO Alumni Gathering At Bill’s, 31 May 2018

In many ways the smaller number is a shame, but it was nice, on this occasion, to have a single conversation between a group of five of us. I felt I had a proper catch up with everyone who was there this year, whereas sometimes I feel I didn’t really get to speak with some of the attendees.

Booking Bill’s is an interesting, different experience each time now. This time they seemed happy to take my booking for a largish group of people (I’d estimated eight) many weeks in advance, but I did get a shock when I was sent a reminder in late April for our 30 April booking. I checked my original e-mail from Bill’s and was relieved to see that it correctly said 30 May. I quickly got on the blower to Bill’s. Something about computer systems going awry, but not to worry, we were booked in for 30 May.

The booking all worked fine on the night. Even our reduced numbers proved non-problematic, as Bill’s had pushed two tables together for us and were able to recycle one of those tables when our last minute reduced numbers came to light.

We reminisced, perhaps a little more than usual. I think I might have got a half-confession out of Linda about the 1978 apple pie bed incident:

Abandoned By My Parents, The Only Thing For It Was To Party, 11 to 12 November 1978

Linda’s guard, most unusually, must have been down, perhaps as a result of her having had a cocktail earlier in the evening before arriving at Bill’s.

Linda, Liza, Mark and Sandra all work in education and/or care professions, so I found myself a fascinated listener to a conversation about several sign languages and their diverse educational benefits.

When I discovered that Mark is now back in London, at Deptford Green School, I initiated a conversation about non-turf cricket pitches and my Trustee role at the London Cricket Trust…

Formal Launch Of the London Cricket Trust, Seven Kings Park, 4 October 2018

…Mark agreed that it would be most helpful to his school if there were to be cricket facilities in Deptford Park. I said I’d see what I can do.

Then we returned to our reminiscing and concluded that we’d all like to see many of our old BBYO friends again, but in particular we should try to track down Barry Freedman who was, in so many ways, the driving energy behind our group in the early years.

I’m not quite sure how I got nominated and voted onto the non-existent committee in the role of “Tracking Down Barry Freedman Officer”, as I don’t recall leaving the table or the conversation at that stage of the evening.

My friends assured me that the instructions for my mission, should I choose to accept it (not that I could refuse it, seeing as I’d been elected nem con, in absentia), had been provided on a tape recording which, together with the tape recorder, had now mysteriously evaporated:

My friends wished me luck.

I said I’d see what I can do.

As usual, it was a really enjoyable evening with a great bunch of people whose company I enjoy with renewed relish at these annual gatherings. But the next gathering might need to be sooner than usual, if I can pull off an implausible mission.

Is a selfie with loads of people in it a groupie? If so, thanks to Mark Phillips for the groupie.

Postscript: Did I pull off the implausible missions? You bet your sweet & sour balls and your white cricket balls I did:

AB & Me & The LCT, Deptford Park, 16 July 2019
North London Cricket And South London Reunion, 15 August 2019

Our Annual Streatham BBYO Alumni Gathering At Bill’s, 31 May 2018

Is it really a year since the last gathering? 

A Winning Day, Culminating At Bill’s For A BBYO Youth Club Regathering, 1 June 2017

Yes.

This regathering of the youth club crowd has been going on for a few years now and has settled on the second May bank holiday week, mostly for practical reasons to do with school half-term and those involved in teaching.

This time the turnout was even bigger than the previous year, with the re-appearance of Ivor Heller, a first visit from David, Ivor’s “big” brother (all adjectival things are relative), plus a special guest appearance by that giant personality, Simon Jacobs.

Booking Bill’s for this group is an odd business. We’ve been there several times now, but I always deal with a different person on the phone for the booking – they won’t take on-line bookings that large. This year they didn’t seem to want to take such a large booking at all. When I pressed the point with the manager, explaining that we are a regular, reliable group, they reluctantly took the booking. Perhaps such places get a lot of large group no-shows or something – but they could always take a deposit rather than almost turn good customers away.

Anyway, once it was booked and we turned up, we were very well looked after, as we have been previously.

Linda, Me, Sandra, Martin, Liza, Andrea, Mark, David, Simon, Ivor

The waitress did a grand job of snapping all of us looking cheery and engaged in the above photo. Eighth time lucky, eh?

A few members of the clan who have been before couldn’t join us this year; Jacey and Natalie for example. Wendy didn’t join us in person this time but did join for a while via Facetime – that was a first for this gathering but might not be a last. Some time soon we’ll probably need a video link between London and Hollywood…or something of that ilk.

Without meaning to repeat myself, I do really feel at home with this group of people. The years seem simply to peel away and it really is like a gathering of the youth club; just forty years on. None of us has really changed that much since our late teens. Of course we have all lived several decades of adult life and had some very different experiences since our youth, but the essence of our personalities and why we gelled as a group back then is still there.

It was a very enjoyable evening and several of us, me included, already seem to be looking ahead to the next one.

A Winning Day, Culminating At Bill’s For A “Shavuot Not” BBYO Youth Club Regathering: , 1 June 2017

Al-Karak and the Moabite Hills

The day started well, with Michael (my business partner) letting me know some good business news; it’ll mean some work for me over the coming days but this is the sort of work/news I want to do/hear. I had also managed to get a lot done in the morning.

So I went off to Lord’s at lunchtime, for my first ever real tennis tournament singles match, with a spring in my step and hope (more than expectation) springing eternal.

As it turned out, my opponent had not had a good morning at all and so was not at his best for the match. 6-0, 6-1 does not reflect our respective abilities, but I did think I played well for my part and stayed focused on the task. So I’m through to the round of 16.

I suggested to the professionals that I should write the score on the tournament scoreboard in blood, “pour encourager les autres”. But for some silly reason they laughed, seeming to think I was joking. I explained that I wanted my subsequent opponent…or if things go well opponents…to fear me. The professionals laughed louder.

I was able to half-follow Andy Murray and Kyle Edmund win their modern tennis matches that afternoon (although, frankly, with far more fuss and less convincing scorelines than mine). I was also able to half-follow England beating Bangladesh at cricket, so very much a winning day.

I had also been very much looking forward to the evening; a traditional (if traditions can be established after three or four years) regathering of our old Streatham BBYO youth club clan at Bill’s, Covent Garden.

We were a little depleted in numbers this year. Natalie had originally said yes to the date, but when we got closer to the date realised that the date was the second day of Shavuot.

Natalie is latterly religious, whereas the rest of us have either lost most of it or never had it much in the first place.

In truth, I had to look up Shavuot, to remind myself what it was. Having done so, I discovered that eating dairy was part of the festive deal, as was The Book of Ruth. Realising that I knew as little about The Book of Ruth as I did about Shavuot, I looked that up too. I discovered that Ruth was a Moabite who converted to Judaism and went on to become King David’s great-grandma…

…so naturally I also had to look up what a Moabite was…and from whence the Moabites hailed.

At this point I was on slightly more familiar turf, as I realised that Janie and I had visited Moab briefly, betwixt Amman and Petra in 1997 – hence the picture above and below – all of our Jordan pictures from that Middle-Eastern visit can be seen here.

Moabite Girl With Kid near Al Karak

But I digress big time.

We were further depleted, as Martin had a late call to a shoot (photographic, not weapon-based). The date also clashed with Wendy’s son’s birthday; I got an e-mail from Wendy the day before explaining this and asking me if we could avoid 1 June next year. I observed that 1 June next year is a Friday night and that even I am sufficiently familiar with the ethnic mores to avoid Friday night.

Anyway, when I got to Bill’s, Linda, Sandra and Mark were already there. Liza soon joined us and Andrea arrived fashionably late, as expected.

Reunited with each other and reacquainted (well, frankly for most of us, belatedly acquainted) with the traditions of Shavuot, we all made sure that we chose something dairy with our meals; in several cases regardless of other aspects of dietary laws and traditions.

The wine flowed, sufficiently to lubricate the chat but not so much as to render me useless the next day.

I really enjoy these gatherings. I like this group of people a lot. We did a fair chunk of our growing up together and I feel very comfortable with the gang. We have a remarkable amount in common still, despite our lives going in various directions and despite the fact that our youth was such a long time ago.

Ivor wasn’t there this year, sadly, but three out of four ain’t bad

It’s simply a great bunch of people who are good company; I’m looking forward to the next gathering already.

A winning day and a super evening.

Youth Club Alumni Dinner at Bill’s in Covent Garden, 28 July 2016

The last two or three years we’ve been having youth club (Streatham BBYO) reunion gatherings at Bill’s in Covent Garden. Having done nothing of the sort for well over thirty years, it suddenly and seamlessly felt like something that several of us actually really like doing.

The previous gatherings have been late May, to coincide with half term (several of our number being tied to school holiday times) but that week didn’t work for a great many people this year, so we shifted to the “schools out” week in July instead.

Slightly depleted in number, nevertheless seven of us gathered; Andrea, me, Linda, Liza, Mark, Martin, Sandra. Very pleasant it was, as indeed it has been previously.

We discussed old times, new times, in-between times and of course recent political events.

It’s amazing how much we slip back into club mode when we meet; of course we all have very different lives now, yet we are unquestionably in many ways the same old group.

The time passed very quickly and when the out-of-towners shot off to make sure of getting the last train, the west/north-west London contingent decamped for a drink/coffee and a few more minutes of chat before going home.

A very enjoyable evening.

Youth Club Alumni Dinner at Bill’s in Covent Garden, 28 May 2015

Around this time the previous year, my old youth club (Streatham BBYO) gang gathered at Bill’s in Covent Garden. We had done nothing of the sort for well over thirty years, but was a great success.

Linda had taken the lead organising the 2014 gathering and then asked me to finalise the details at the end. This is how she kicked off negotiations, in March 2015:

Hi Everyone,
Thought it would be good to meet again as its been a year in May!
Last year we met on a Thursday in the school holidays so thought we could try that again, what do people think?
The date would be 28th May, if that is not good for the majority any suggestions are welcome!
Then Ian I can pass it to you if it becomes complicated ?
Linda xx

Strangely, it proved incredibly easy to organise. Everyone was comfy with the date and everyone agreed that the company was more important than scratching around for a different venue, so Bill’s got the nod again.

Natalie had to drop out at the last minute this time, sadly, but still we had me, Linda, Sandra, Mark, Andrea, Jacey, Liza, Wendy, Martin and even a visitation from Ivor.

The atmosphere was partly tinged with sadness that evening, as news of Jeffrey Spector’s passing was only a few days old that night. Still, Jeffrey wouldn’t have wanted us to mope and nor did we.

Ivor told us all about his Hollywood movie prospects while Martin showed us the photographs he took at our infamous “fashion show” back in 1979 (I didn’t realise colour photography had been invented back then). Details of both of those interludes shall remain under wraps for the time being.

Again it was lovely to see everybody and again it seemed impossible that so many years had passed and that most of us had felt disinclined to meet up like this for such a long time.

After two such gatherings, it seemed inevitable that there would be more get togethers…as indeed there have been.

BBYO Convention 1980/81 Recovered Memories, Skits and Songs

I asked the hive mind of the BBYO alums from back then to help try to recover some memories of the BBYO convention 40 years ago:

BBYO Convention 1980/81, Grange Farm Centre, 29 December 1980 to 3 January 1981

Oh boy did some of you deliver! Many thanks for all the contributions.

Several of those contributions referred to skits and songs. This one from Jilly Black, for example:

…this is the one where I remember Jonny Rose doing lots of guitar playing and also acting as a sort of security guard (taking us out to check in the fields one evening with a torch, saying “check in the corners”!) throughout. I also remember there being an awful lot of women who were in love with and falling over Simon Jacobs. That happened quite a bit anyway, but specially at this convention, and I’m also wondering if it’s the one where Pinner did it’s unforgettable welfare-based skit, with Alan Tucker playing the part of our unforgettable Mrs Kushin, re-enacting one of the visits we made, where I think she’d accused someone of breaking a window with a stone from her lawn mower (amazing, what you remember).

Simon Jacobs being “oh so cool” with the girls (18 months or so earlier)

Unusually, Simon chimed in with a stunning memory from that convention. I had chided that Simon, “usually pleads amnesia on stuff that far back, unless Elvis Costello was involved”…

…but I didn’t count on Dave Edmunds. Here’s Simon’s recollection:

…hark, there is one crystal clear memory from 80/81 and it absolutely involves Jilly because it was a duet. Of Jilly and me. I don’t remember the context or how the words were altered, but, because I really loved the song, I managed to force a version of ‘Baby Ride Easy’ into the proceedings. Jilly and I became Carlene Carter and Dave Edmunds respectively. I remember being on a stage with Jilly belting this out and loving it.

Jilly doing country (Keele as it happens) three or four years later

If anyone is struggling to visualise Simon and Jilly singing that song, the following video of the original by Dave Edmunds and Carlene Carter might help you. I must say, on seeing the vid, the Simon and Jilly performance came racing back into my brain:

You can visualise Simon Jacobs & Jilly Black…can’t you?

The other thing that came racing back to my brain was the Streatham effort at a skit that year. I can’t remember the details of it, but something had gone wrong and we were bereft of a performable script. I remember sitting up till all hours with Wendy Robbins hurriedly throwing together a script.

Skittish Streatham on a previous occasion. I’m the goon in the green leotard.

Wendy and I had a couple of things on our minds to use. Firstly, the US Presidential election had just happened. Reagan had been elected. Also, we both had seen the recent Hal Ashby film, Being There, with Peter Sellers as a sort-of innocent savant who is mistaken for a wise man and inadvertently becomes an advisor to the President of the USA. Worth seeing if you missed it at the time; a sort of enduring classic. But I digress.

Anyway, we wrote a skit with a convoluted plot about Wendy being a sort-of innocent savant BBYO chapter president who inadvertently, while applying to the USA for some sort of club presidency, finds herself running for the Presidency of the USA…and winning.

It was ludicrously complex, not really suited to a thrown together, unrehearsed skit. Yet somehow, with Wendy’s bravura performance in the lead, the skit passed some sort of “so bad it’s good” benchmark and it all went down rather well.

Wendy in a charitable role, Nightingale, c18 months earlier

Anyway, these happy memories might help to trigger similar ones from others who enjoy looking at this stuff.

So two questions for “advanced students”:

  • Does anyone else have skit an/or song memories from that convention to share?
  • Did anyone take photographs that year? I don’t think I’ve seen a single photo from the 80/81 convention. It would be super to share pictures if there are any.