Minutes of Scribblers meeting held on Tuesday 15 September 2015

Present: Dave, Dick, Hayley, Richard, Mairead, Sally, Jeanette, Beryl, Cathy. 

Apologies: Liliane, Gerry, Jane, Carolyn, Caz. Barry, of course, won’t be with 
us for some time, as he has begun a college course which unfortunately takes 
place on a Tuesday evening – we look forward to welcoming him back when he is 
able to make it. 

Business items: 

Dick generously donated numerous small books of poetry published by the group he 
belongs to – we all gladly took a couple away to read. 

Mairead, as usual, brought along ample supplies of chocolate biscuits for us to 
enjoy – thank you, Mairead. 

We heard from Morag, who sends her best wishes to the Scribblers. 

Scott has kindly offered to provide new silver tabs for the Bill Budner Trophy, 
and also re-stick the one that came off. He's been in Africa, as some folk will 
know, all to do with his self defence work. He has been asked to go back every 
year, although that would be too draining on his business and finances! 

Caz has said she will be back sometime in the future, and enjoyed Jack's 
Memorial walk at the weekend. 


Bill Budner Trophy: 

The meeting provided another fresh name for the cup - the 17th different person 
to win it from 26 stagings. How amazing is that? 

We began the meeting by listening to all seven entries, superbly read by Beryl 
and Dick. Our thanks to them for doing this for us. 

The winning entry was ‘The Escape’, by one of our newest members, Jeannette. In 
second place was Cathy’s story ‘Run, boy, run’, and in third place was Richard’s 
entry, ‘The Mirror’. 

As usual, all entries were interesting, varied, and very well written – which 
made it all the harder to select winners! 

Remaining entries were as follows: 

Mrs Pretty’s ghosts, by Mairead 

Before a fall, by Hayley 

The telephone kiosk, by Beryl 
As the result of a drunken fight John lost Gina, the woman he loved. Now he 
never drinks too much. By means of a strange telephone kiosk he is sent back in 
time to redeem himself. Returning to the present John is stunned to find he and 
Gina have been married for two years. 

That day, by Dave 
Watching the sea ripple gently to the shore brought back memories of that 
terrible day. The boat trip to Seal Island ended in disaster. The beautiful day 
shattered by a violent storm that broke the boat in two. Our dreams shattered as 
you drifted away from me. Your death, tragic. 

By 9pm we had finished the competition element of the meeting, so Dave suggested 
that we complete an ‘on the spot’ exercise to round off the evening. Mairead 
picked a poem at random (from one of Dick’s gifted items), and we wrote for 
twenty minutes using as a prompt the line 
‘Your loving touch and sweet embrace’, and despite the lateness of the hour, we 
all managed to write some good stuff – both prose and poetry. We all agreed that 
at future meetings, when time allows, it would be enjoyable to do something 
similar. 

Next meeting: 6 October. The theme for the 1000 word homework is ‘Ruins’, as 
selected by Dick