Bill Budner Trophy meeting

This is a report on the meeting last night, Tuesday the 20th of September when we had the Bill Budner Trophy as an incentive for our continued excellent anonymous stories.

Members present were: Dave, Tony, Robyn, Dick, Liliane, Ray, Beryl, Pamela, Martin, Sandy, Sally and myself.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Pamela, our latest recruit.

Our thanks must go out to Jackie and Giles for giving up a night in front of the box and taking time to attend our meeting and to read with great confidence and aplomb,the works of our attending members. This was a new course of action for us as a group and was greatly appreciated, giving all stories an independent reading.

In order of excellence and position after the voting the stories were as follows.

In first place and winning the evening was a story from Dave, called,
A JOURNEY INTO DOTAGE.
Many of us older members will recognise the premise that after over fifty years of marriage the face we present to the world sometimes (quite often, in fact) differs from the ones we wear behind closed doors. Cedric and Matilda had tested each other's patience for fifty six years with Cedric seeming to be the main protaganist when it came to being senile, stupid or whatever adjective Matilda could coat him with. Socks on wrong feet? washing his face with glasses on etc, etc. Until the day he disappeared and left Matilda bemused until she watched the lunchtime news, her Cedric taking a bath off the Felixstowe seafront, prompting alerts to all the emergency services, including an Air Sea Rescue helicopter.

I have to report that Dave's story was tied for first place with the second place entry from Ray, called
OUT OF THE SHADOWS.
This was beaten by an extra vote after a fourth choice round was held.

Rays piece was a heartwarming story of a crippled child and her mother, being helped by a stranger while waiting for and riding on a bus journey. Their kindness to the old man prompted him to urge the child to wish for a reconciliation between her father
and mother and for the mother to forgive her grief stricken husband. The story ended well with the reunion and healing of the small child.

In third place, and also sharing the position with another story was one from Liliane, called
THE STAR TREK CAFE
an amusing depiction of the life of a restaurant owner who took on the pseudonym of Scottie when his themed cafe took on the mantle of a haven from Star Trek aficionados.
Later it his life and that of the cafe, as Trekkies aged then the cafe was renamed the Harry Potter with devotees of all ages being able to change their affiliations.

The equal third place was taken by a story from Beryl, called
THE FIELD
in which the out of body experience of a car crash victim took us from near death in a wrecked car and the badly injured driver's fantasy walk through a muddy field, only to be told by his deceased father that this was not his time. This was taken from a true life experience of one of the storytellers friends.

Now we come to the other stories in no particular order.

Sally gave us a story called I'TS A SAD THING.
A story of a beautiful young woman's journey through he short life. A story of Norma Jean aka Marilyn Monroe.

Robyn's tale was called THE FABULOUS CAT WOMEN OF FETHIYE
told of the the cat loving women friends on holiday in Turkey.

Tony told of blackmail and plotting in his POOR HARD LUCK
A bank employee being blackmailed and the blackmailer being outfoxed by his victim.

My story was entitled BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR
probably too dark for mixed company and showing my predilection for Detective Stories.

Martin gave us PURRING IN HEAVEN,
a sad tale of a bereaved newlywed and the tragic poisoning of a cat.

Our latest new member Pamela gave us THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE
an assertion that language , by no means a great separator, can have many direct links no matter where you may be in the world.

Sandy had us LOOKING BACK
a successful woman attending a school reunion and discovering her lost love has not developed as she would have wished.

Dick was on form with JUST ANOTHER DAY
the tweaked story of a German Major, billeted in France and reporting his sighting of the Allied armada as it approached the shores on June 6th 1944. This report was greeted with astonishment and disbelief. (That's the German Major, not mine)

Once more my friends, a superb meeting and condolences to all members who were unable to attend whether by ill health other commitments or (lucky things) on holiday.

The next gathering will be on the 4th of October when it will be a normal meeting requiring one thousand words on THE CUP. Any interpretation will be fine.

Thanks to all who attended and to Jackie and Giles and again, congratulation to Dave. Well done.

Till the next time,

Barry.