Report of meeting

Meeting report for 18th January 2010

Those attending: Dave, Dick, Tony, Liliane, Beryl, Ally, Angela, Martin, Barry.

Apologies from: Ruth, Gemma, Trish and Les.

This being a Bill Budner Trophy meeting we all contributed one thousand words in an anonymous attempt to secure the four monthly award. This weeks winner was Angela with her story of The Cherry Pickers. More of that later.

The stories were:
In first place The Cherry Pickers by Angela (read by Martin)
In second place Dancer girl by Martin (read by Liliane)
In third place Game for a laugh by Dick (read by Angela)

Although these three were the first choices it was generally agreed that the standard was as exceptional and diverse as they always are.

The other stories were:

Consequences by Dave (read by Beryl)
Sheila by Tony (read by Ally)
The Torch by Barry (read by Tony)
Herod was not happy by Liliane (read by Dick)
Snakes by Ally (read by Dave)

Angela’s winning story was a poignant tale prompted by memories of a year ago while the family was picking wild cherries in Felixstowe.

A young girl was torn between loyalty to her dead boyfriend and his best friend who she now desperately wanted to love for the right reasons. Her recently deceased boyfriend had been killed in Afghanistan and the best friend had been asked to comfort her if the unthinkable happened. She had tried, but eventually failed to hold to the mantra that
‘Soldier's girls don’t cry’ when she realised that she was allowed to love another.

These ideas for a story came to Angela as she and her family picked cherries in the summer sunshine, while other families were suffering untold misery as the casualties mounted in the war zone.

Every entry for this weeks trophy meeting was worthy of mention but space does not allow.

Thanks to all who attended.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday 1st February and the homework subject of one thousand words will be . . . DREAMS.

Hope to see you there.

Barry