Another Cup Final Day - Portsmouth 1 Cardiff 0. Of little interest to me or anyone else I think - (unless you happen to live in Portsmouth or Cardiff).

I arrived at about 3 p.m. having travelled via Norwich to visit Roger Beck who was unable to attend this year, so I was pretty tired, having covered about 350 miles since 6.20 a.m.

First port of call was the Railway Inn at Sawbridgeworth to check in and order a taxi to take me to The Gate pub, where Messrs Baldry and Alexander were waiting to ply me with ale.

It was all rather subdued. An indifferent Cup Final and an almost empty lounge. In 2006 when I last attended the OH reunion, we met in the same pub on a baking hot day (in June!!!) to witness England in their opening World Cup game against Paraguay (we won 1-0). The atmosphere was totally different and of course, we drank far more beer than this time round!

We only had one drink and decided to return to the Railway to give them our custom instead. I only managed a couple of family sized G & T's and had to go to my room for a little rest as the long drive had caught up with me (and possibly the beer and the gin!).

McCready was late as usual and showed his face shortly before we were due to be picked up by our 7 seater cab to take us to the reunion. We all piled in to the cab and duly arrived at St John's. I was last out of the cab (which had fancy sliding doors) and tried to close the door. It was very stiff and I had to really force it to move it about a inch. The cabbie said "It's electric mate." He pressed the button and it smoothly shut. I felt a right wallie! Of course the boys found this highly amusing.

The evening was pleasantly spent and unfortunately, I did not take a menu home this year and I cannot for the life of me remember what we had to eat, but it was very nice. Perhaps someone can remind us of the fayre?

The key event for me was that Tony Cook has decided to retire after 13 years as Treasurer and Colin Porcher was duly elected to take over from him.

I would like to echo the thanks given to Tony on behalf of the Old Harlovians for all the hard work that he has put in over the years and no doubt we will see you at next year's bash Tony - (more relaxed I hope!)

Indeed our thanks to all the committee for the work that they put in to make the reunion a success year after year.

I eagerly await the copy of the minutes from Michael Dyke and I will publish them as soon as I receive them.

The evening finished at about 11 ish and we repaired to the Railway. I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open and was away up to my room at about 11.45. The boys had a couple of drinks and I don't think that they were far behind me.

We were all up at a reasonable time and had a Full English breakfast, cups of tea and toast and a chinwag and I was on the road for about 11 a.m.

It was my birthday on the Sunday (18th) and I planned to be home at a reasonable time to have a celebratory meal with my wife. I spent most of the day in traffic jams on the M6 as 2 junctions were closed due to serious accidents. I eventually arrived home at 4.20 p.m.

There are a few photos that you can access via The Media section that I took on the night. They are in the album titled Reunion 2008. Enjoy.

Next year's reunion takes place on May 16th at St John's Arts & Leisure Centre, (the old chapel) - Old Harlow at 7.00 pm for 7.30 pm. See you there.

Harlovian

If you click on the photo it will enlarge it in another window and you can view the rest of the photos in the album entitled Reunion 2007. Thanks to Michael Dyke for providing the photos.

Better late than never! I will be scanning the "official" photos shortly and will be posting them on the blog in the next few days. Please try and make this year's reunion on 17th May won't you?

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON 19TH MAY 2007 at ST. JOHN'S ARTS AND RECREATION CENTRE - OLD HARLOW

37 members attended the Meeting.

1. The Chairman welcomed all to the meeting and proposed the toast to "The Old Harlovians."

2. The Minutes of the 2006 AGM were taken as read as they had been circulated to all members. Adoption of the Minutes was proposed by Malcolm Norris (50-55) and seconded by Richard Atkins (50-58). Passed unanimously. There were no matters arising.

3. Treasurer's Report. Tony Cook (48-57), reported a total income of £1255 and a total expenditure of £1135. This gave a surplus of £119, leaving a reserve of £1845. There were no matters arising. Proposed by Michael Collins (44-00) and seconded by Tony Milton (4551). Passed unanimously. Tony Cook thanked the auditor, Peter Cottee (48-52).

4. Election of Officers. The office holders were re-elected en bloc: Chairman; Roger Pyle (53-58). Secretary; Michael Dyke (50-58). Treasurer; Tony Cook (48-57). Re-election proposed by John Pryor (58-64) and seconded by Malcolm Norris (50-55). Carried unanimously.

5. Members' telephone numbers and email addresses. The Meeting again allowed their telephone numbers and email addresses to be appended to the Members Attending list to be sent out in 2008, to facilitate communications. The Secretary apologised for not appending them this year.

6. Date and Venue of next Meeting. The Meeting agreed that the next AGM will be on 17th May 2008 at S1. Johns ARC, with Walker Catering providing the meal.

Any Other Business.
(a) Tony White (51-56) requested that no phone numbers or emails were made -available on -the web site. This was agreed.
(b) Roger Brickwood (62-65) suggested that the O.H. Club was remembered in members' wills, to boost the Club's finances. The Chairman thanked Roger for his suggestion, but did note that the Club's life expectancy was limited, and therefore it would serve no purpose to finance it in perpetuity. Some of the older members present also thought it would be of more benefit to the younger ones. Bill Billing (45-51) suggested that, at the demise of the Club, it should go out with a bang!
(c) Peter Cottee (48-52) suggested that the Club should fund the price of one ticket for the following year's A.G.M. and Dinner as a raffle prize. This was agreed.
(d) Tony White proposed a vote of thanks to the officials.
(e) Norman Pegrum (38-43) was thanked by the Chairman for bringing along the public address system.
(f) Robert Collins (40-45) was thanked for supplying Hadham Water for the meeting.

7.
The Meeting closed at 10.42 pm.

You know what I am like for stats. Of interest for the number crunchers. January 2008 saw the highest volume of traffic to the Old Harlovians blog site since we started in March 2007.

We had 489 visitors which beat December 2007 previous best of 403 and we had 1180 page views which beat April 2007 previous best of 1032.

Keep viewing and please feel free to send in any news that you would like published on the blog.

Harlovian

Just to remind you that this year's reunion will take place at the usual venue - St John's Art & Leisure Centre (formerly the school chapel) in Church Walk, Old Harlow on Saturday May 17th at 7 for 7.30 pm.

Tickets are available from the secretary Michael Dyke. If you want further information, please contact me via this blog, by sending me a private message or leaving a comment.

I look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.

Kind regards

Harlovian

Since the blog commenced on 20th March 2007, we have had over 2300 visitors and in excess of 6400 page views (2317 & 6414 to be precise!) at time of writing.

I am impressed, considering the blog is of little interest to anyone other than somebody connected to Harlow College.

With the exception of the previous posting, it has gone a little quiet on the contributions from you "Old Boys" out there, so any memories, reminiscences or "what you are doing now" stories will be most welcome.

Warm regards

Harlovian

I have recently made contact (after a rather prolonged absence)with Chris McCready, who is well and working hard on restoring his computer to its' former glory.

Some of you may remember Peter Guthrie who was at HC in the early 60s, well unfortunately we have just learned that he was killed in a car accident back in 1977 when he was just 28 years old.

Chris recently received an e-mail from his sister (now Pamela Graham) and I have reproduced the contents of it here for you.

If any of you remember Pete Guthrie and have some memories, please share them in the comments section or contact me privately and I will make sure they are passed to Pamela and subsequently Pete's son, who wants to learn more about his father.

Email reproduced as follows:

By some circuitous route through cyberspace I have found myself on the Old Harlovians website. Apart from being astonished that such a site exists in the first place I am also amazed that you are holding reunions and swapping old photos - it's really great to know that the spirit of Harlow College lives on all these years after it was demolished.

Somewhere I have some Harlow College year photos and also a colour one of Peter's class just before they all left and which everyone has signed on the back. If I can dig them out I will scan them and let you have them for your website. I can also confirm that in the 1962 year photo, Peter is the fifth boy from the right on the top row.

To all Old Harlovians I trust you all had a very Merry Christmas and I would like to wish you all the best for 2008.

I hope that the New Year will bring Peace and prosperity to you all.

Best wishes

Harlovian

Just for a bit of fun. The questions get progressively harder. See if you can finish it!

Click Here To Go To Christmas Quiz

Rather than take up valuable space with my holiday photos, (which may or may NOT be of interest to you!) - I have posted them on my personal blog

Personal Stuff

When you get to the site go to labels on left hand side and click on Singapore photos. If you then click on the image it will enlarge the picture. When you finish viewing click the back button on the browser bar to take you back to original post.

I have also included links in some of the post titles to Wikipedia for more information on places or people - e.g. Sir Stamford Raffles.

Hope you enjoy them.

Have a great week-end!

Harlovian