Wycliffe Lutterworth u3a
  • Home
  • Bulletin
  • Committee
  • Interest Groups
  • Links
  • Monthly Meetings
  • Joining this u3a
  • Galleries and Newsletters

April 2014 Monthly bulletin

Report on the March Meeting At the AGM, Eddie gave an entertaining and engaging resume of his experiences and achievements during his role as Chair of the U3A. He stated that he had grown into the role, which had been quite demanding during his three years of office. Continuity and growth in the number of Interest Groups and membership has been encouraging, as Wycliffe now has about 230 members enrolled. Historically the U3A had its inception in France, where continued learning during retirement was stressed. Today there is more of an emphasis on intellectual, aesthetic, leisure and recreational based activities, which are fed by the many varied skills and specialities of the membership.

More than 100 attend monthly meetings to enjoy talks by guest speakers. In future, a working group will undertake the task of finding new speakers, as this is time consuming. Eddie’s ambassadorial role has encouraged many to join the U3A and subsequently the various Groups (“our life blood”) and 6 new activities have been started recently. He sees the social events and outings as adding a further dimension, as for example, last summer at the Misterton Hall Garden Party when, together with the Lutterworth Wycliffe Rotary Club, £165 was raised for LOROS.  He ended by thanking all Group Leaders and Members of the Committee for their support.

U3A quarterly magazine

For those members who wish to receive the U3A magazine, which is published roughly on a quarterly basis, by post, could they please let Bob Howes know their full postal address and a flat fee of £2 for each membership year.  He will then pass these details onto the U3A centrally.

 




 

GROUP REPORTS

(in alphabetical order)


 

 

 

 

 

 

 


BOOK CHAT

Co-ordinator

Mick Curtis

01455 554504

This month's book, Dissolution, by C J Sansom, proved to be that very rare beast, a book that every member liked. It is the first in a series featuring the same main character, Matthew Shardlake. The book set in the Tudor world of Thomas Cromwell set as the title suggests, at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries. However this is really a 'who done it' dealing with murder of a King's Commissioner and Matthew has to find the perpetrator. We felt the book was very well researched, we all learnt something new about Tudor England, and the crime part of the plot was well handled and had an interesting twist at the end. All members who had not read this author before, felt they had found a gem.

 

BUFFET SUPPER CLUB

Co-ordinator

Ann Hetherington

01455 203498

ann@netcomz.com

The first get-together of the Buffet Supper Club was attended by 8 folks who enjoyed the delicious meal especially the 3 scrumptious desserts! It was a very pleasant evening which we all hope to repeat monthly with more folks joining us.

The 9th April supper @ 7pm is at Carol & Ron Poulton’s house. Tel: 01455 559069

The 14th May supper is at Vikky Burt’s – tel: 01455 554498

Please let Carol & Vikky know if you are going & what dish you will be bringing. Do also bring your own drink, plates & cutlery. This does make it so easy for the hostess!

FRENCH CONVERSATION

Co-ordinator

Sue Hicks

01858 880273

27 March 2014

We started with a discussion and translation on the Sochi Paralympics in Russia.  There were games of French Boggle and Bananagrams in different groups.  After coffee we moved round and had general conversations.  This is becoming easier as we get to know each other better and what our interests are. 

The next meeting will be on 24 April.

GARDEN GROUP

Co-ordinator

Sue Creeden

01455 557888

In March, 20 members squeezed into the welcoming home of Mick Cross, an enthusiastic and successful local man who has been showing Dahlias for more than 20 years.  Mick gave us an extremely interesting talk on the work involved in the yearly cycle of growing prize winning blooms.  He also showed us how to take cuttings and demonstrated how he gets them to flower to exactly the correct size in perfect time for each show.    Afterwards his wife Enid kindly provided refreshments. 

The next meeting will be on Tuesday, 22nd April when we will strolling through the bluebells at Badby Woods, 3 miles south of Daventry.  We will meet at Lutterworth Recreation Ground Car Park at 1.30 p.m. to share lifts and, because there are no facilities at the woods, I have arranged refreshments afterwards at the local pub.  We can park at the pub, The Maltsters Arms, Badby Village (NN11 3AF) and walk up to the woods.  Tea and cake will cost approximately £3.00. 

If you would like to come, please could you telephone me on the above number or email sueandpeter.creeden@talktalk.net.

Just a mention, the BBC2 Allotment Challenge presented by Fern Britten.  Anyone interested in competing! See website grow@silverriver.tv.  If not, it could be a good one to watch.  Look out for details.

 


LIVELY DISCUSSION

Co-ordinator

Dot Barnard

01455 208190

dot.barnard@uwclub.net

10th March 2014

The pinkification of little girls and does it matter?

Offering pink clothes and toys for girls is a phenomenon which has grown in the last 50 years.  In the 19th century children of both sexes were dressed in white up to the age of 5. Boys were then dressed in pink as it was seen as close to red, and blue was reserved for girls as it was considered a more delicate colour. Stereotyping has always been apparent, although in previous generations it wasn’t signified by a particular colour, but in the type of work or sports considered acceptable for each gender. The 2 world wars showed that men and women were equally capable of completing work previously considered a male preserve. Interestingly, nowadays, the law and medical practices are attracting more females than males. In the past men were often credited with inventions and discoveries which had been developed by females. This happens less now.

Pink seems to be a commercial decision and a trip to Toys R Us confirms this with aisles and aisles glowing pink and sparkly. TV advertising during children’s programmes shows boys using Lego etc. and girls with dolls and princesses. It is unfortunate that this gender stereotyping appears to be accepted by many parents who accede to their children’s requests to buy the toys so advertised. Marks and Spencer’s is leading the way by responding to parent pressure and not stocking all things pink.

It was felt that when we were young and could play outside, girls would climb trees, build camps and generally act like boys if they joined in with cousins and friends of the opposite sex. Today children lead protected lives and don’t have the freedom to play all day unsupervised. They are also allowed to question parents’ decisions on many things in their lives and use this pester-power to get their own way. The danger being that the advertising and fitting in with their peers makes them ask for ‘girly’ presents. Recent research shows that children can be influenced in a particular direction from as young as 9 months. Sadly we appear unaware that we treat our boy and girl babies differently by talking more to girls and believing that boys are better and quicker at crawling etc.

 A couple of group members felt that if girls wanted to dress in pink and have pink toys that was OK too, in particular to cheer us up after hearing news bulletins which only seem to cover bad things. Our concern, however, was that the main driver of pinkification is vast profits. It appears that girls do well in non-scientific jobs but are not present in large numbers in physics, computer work, maths etc. However, some ex-teachers in the group were able to give examples of girls doing well in science and studying it at university.

Our greatest concern was that either gender should be encouraged by parents, teachers and others to be as good as they can be in any field, and not driven by big business trying to market everything pink!

May Topic What should we do about the lack of burial space?

 

POETRY GROUP

Co-ordinator

 Sylvia Hitchen

0116 247 8353

Sylvia.hitchen@btinternet.com. 

 

27th March.

The suggested theme of the meeting was "landscapes" and the group enjoyed reading and discussing a variety of poems including Wordsworth, Hopkins, Marlowe, Owen Shears and Kingsley. The subject matter covered the destruction of the landscape, trees, working on the land, mountains and rivers. There were some wonderful descriptions of the Lake District courtesy of Wordsworth, of course, but also the rather less well known Hardwicke Rawnsley who was a cofounder of the National Trust. A couple of poems made us laugh - Pam Ayres hilarious seaside poem and U A Fanthorpe with her interesting take on vegetables. We also read and discussed "Rye Hill", by  local Lutterworth poet Bernard Laughton, before we ran out of time.

The next meeting is on 24th April at 2pm with the suggested themes of song and dance and Spring time.  

Sylvie Hitchen

 

 

 

QUIZ GROUP

Co-ordinator

Sylvie Curtis

01455 554504


The usual stalwart few met this month for questions set by Sylvie. Hopefully they were a good mix of easy and challenging.

The group also entered a team for the Rotary quiz evening, and reports say that although we did not win we gave a good account of ourselves.

RUSTY RACKETS

Co-ordinator

Sue Hill

01455553369 and 07790843610

 

 Very few tennis sessions have been cancelled during the Winter months, which is quite surprising considering the wet weather.   On occasions, it's been bitterly cold and windy but still people have turned up and played until the light started to fail.  Some of us have never touched a tennis racket since schooldays, others have played Squash or Badminton in the past and wanted to see how they would get on with tennis. Those who were worried that they might not be "good enough" quickly realised that modern rackets are much easier to play with than the old wooden ones.  Everyone is enthusiastic and everyone enjoys themselves. We would love to have more players, if you would like to have a go, please come along to one of our sessions, you will be more than welcome.  We meet at Gilmorton tennis courts (near The Grey Goose, on the other side of the road) on alternate Tuesdays at 2:30pm.

Spare rackets are always available and hopefully, we will soon be playing in warmer and sunnier conditions!

 

 

NEW CO-ORDINATOR & LOCATION

 

SCRABBLE

Co-ordinator

Pat Hunter

01455 699935

11 Greenacres Drive

Starting with our meeting on May 14th, we will have a new venue and a new co-ordinator (see details above).

 

The group would like to give a big thank you to June Hartopp who has hosted the Scrabble group for six years, in which time she has never missed a meeting except for one time when she was too ill! Quite a record! (Especially when she admits that she doesn’t really enjoy playing Scrabble).

June has offered to be a back up for Pat if ever she is unable to host the Scrabble games at any time, and of course June will also carry on as co-ordinator for both Canasta groups, continuing to be a great asset to WLU3A. ‘

SNAIL’S PACE WALKING GROUP

Co-ordinator

Sheila Eggleton

01455 554387

sheilaeggleton@yahoo.co.uk

 

April 11th 2014

 

Please note not only is this a change of date for our monthly walk but we will also be meeting earlier, at 11.00a.m.

Our walk, tomorrow, will set out from The Forge, Park Street, Market Bosworth.  At 11.00.a.m. there will be a short talk about the forge and a cup of tea, before we commence the guided tour at 11.30a.m., which will take approx one and a half hours.  Walking boots will not be required.  There will be a  charge of £3.50 per person for this walk and monies should be paid to Mandy or Sheila at the U3A meeting on the 10th April.

21st March 2014

 

 



Dot guided us around the historic gems in the village of  Dunton Bassett  and thoughtfully supplied us with a leaflet, each should we wish to revisit the sites.  Our walk took in some lovely scenery, as well as the fascinating architecture.  The weather having improved we were able to do the penultimate section of the walk across fields.  We visited the village Church where the Church Warden was able to give us some interesting facts about the pews, pulpit and stained glass windows. He even kindly took the group photograph which meant Dave managed to get in on this one!

Sheila Eggleton

TRIPS

Co-ordinator

George Robertson

01455 559725 email:george9high@hotmail.com

 

GLOUCESTER TRIP.

The trip is now fully booked. If you put your name on the list and have not yet paid please contact me to arrange to pay. If you no longer intend going on the trip please let me know urgently.

The Cathedral Tour is scheduled for 2.00 pm (there is a choral concert which prevents any morning group bookings). The tour lasts about an hour.

 Any queries ring George on 01455 559725.

 

1st WEDNESDAY WALKING GROUP         

WYCLIFFE U3A Joint Co-ordinators:

Roger Watmore 01455 552431 and

Julian Hargreaves 01455b 557704

Date of Walk – 7th May 2014

Walk organisers John and Sue Hicks – Tel 07971 200861

Meeting point - Coventry Road Recreation Park at 9.20 a.m. to leave at 9.30 a.m.

Directions to the Start - The walk will start from The Coach and Horses at Lubenham at 10.00am prompt.  From Lutterworth take the A4304 to Lubenham.  The Coach and Horses is on the right opposite The Green, postcode LE16 9TF.  Lunch will be at The Coach and Horses.  Homemade meals are available from £4.95 and should be ordered before the walk.

Route and Distance:  The circular walk is approx. 5½ miles including field paths and tracks, passing Gartree Prison and crossing the canal to Foxton swing bridge and village, with a few easy stiles on the way back.

March Walk-35 walkers assembled at The Green Man in Dunchurch and the first priority was to choose our meals from the impressive 2 for £8.00 menu. We were soon out of Dunchurch and under the M45 passing the inquisitive Alpacas grazing in the fields. We walked on through Thurlaston to find a well marked footpath just beyond Pudding Bag Lane. Across Whitefield’s golf course down through an old railway cutting which was quite muddy in places. Mutterings of showing ‘yellow’ and even a hint of ‘red’ cards were directed to the walk leader. The walk continued on to the shore of Draycote reservoir as the sun shone through and the air temperature climbed. Finally uphill to Toft House and back to the pub. The pub staff worked hard climbing the stairs to the first floor dining room to deliver 30 enjoyable meals. Judging by the thanks I received I’m sure we all experienced another wonderful U3A walk. If you haven’t been on a walk why not give it a try? Jointly there are 3 walks per month, just come along, no need to book.

Jane Clark & George Robertson

4th  WEDNESDAY WALKING GROUP Co-ordinators:    

Sue & Peter Creeden

01455 557888 553341

Wednesday 24 April 2014

 

Walk Organisers:- Roger & Gill Watmore  Tel: 01455 552431

Meeting Point and Time:- Lutterworth Recreation Ground car park at 9.20am to leave at 9.30am.

Start Point: Red Lion, Crick leaving at 10.00am

Directions to the Start:-. - From the car park take the M1 south to Junction 18. Turn left signed Crick. At the next roundabout take the third exit for Crick then left at the next roundabout, continue on into Crick for the Red Lion on the right. Drive through the entrance archway to the car park at the rear, which will be open at 9.45am.

 

Route and Distance:- This is a circular walk of approx. 5½ miles to Yelvertoft along paths and the canal, with no styles, and a climb up to Cracks Hill for views.

Lunch arrangements:- Red Lion, main meals at £5. Order before setting off.

 

March 2014 Walk Report

Peter and Irene Moore lead 24 walkers from Cosby Golf Club on a circular that headed off towards Sutton in the Elms, onto Croft and then returned to the Golf Club. The terrain was easy and the weather, although a little chilly into the wind, stayed dry with occasional glimpses of the sun. Lunch afterwards was at the Golf Club. The food was excellent and as you would expect Peter Moore had negotiated a “good deal”.

Sue and Peter Creeden





 

JOINT WYCLIFFE LUTTERWORTH

And LUTTERWORTH U3A GROUPS

And groups open to WLU3A members




 

 

 

TUESDAY  WALKING GROUP Co-ordinator:      

Gordon Jones (Lutterworth U3A)

01455 556192

Date of Walk: Tuesday 15th April
Co-ordinator: Gordon Jones. Tel. 01455 556192
Walk Organizers: Reg Tattersall, 01455 209126
Meeting Point: Meet at the car park by the Leisure Centre
Meeting Time: 09.25 to leave at 09.30.

 

Route and distance: Starting from The Red Lion in Huncote at 10:00 am the walk (of 6 miles) is on a mixture of field paths, metalled roads and tracks. The walk touches the edges of Croft, Potters Marston and Thurlaston returning to The Red Lion for lunch where a wide variety of meals at a range of prices are available.  We will pre-order our food before starting the walk (toilets available pre walk).



Directions to the Starting Point: 10.4 miles from Lutterworth via Broughton Astley. Travel through Broughton Astley on the B581 and then right at the traffic lights onto the B4114 towards Leicester. Take the first road on the left through Croft, turn left in front of The Heathcote Arms and then follow that road all the way into Huncote. The pub (postcode LE9 3AU) is on the right. Park in the car park as far from the pub as possible.

 

JOINT GOLF GROUP (with Lutterworth U3A)

Co-ordinator (Lutterworth U3A)

Peter Moore

01455 552594

e-mail :- peter79moore@gmail.com

 

Next Joint Golf Day -  Lutterworth and Wycliffe u3a.Organiser :- Peter Moore at Kilworth Springs Golf Club on Thursday 17th April  2014.competing for the Hartopp Trophy and Prizes.

Meet at 12.00 Hrs for 1.00 pm Tee Time in the Golf Club Bar.Coffee and Bacon Roll included on arrival.To confirm  your attendance  or for full itinerary, including Meal choices, please contact Peter Moore

Cost each approx. £33.00 To include Coffee and Bacon Roll, Green Fee, Prizes and Dinner. (Dependent upon numbers) Don't forget to invite your Partner/wife for 2 course Dinner at 6.30pm in the  Golf Club Restaurant . Cost £10.00.per person. Coffee and Mints included.

Jackets and Ties *not required*

Seasons Forthcoming Golf Days

Whetstone Golf Club.  12th June 2014

Ullesthorpe Golf Club. 7th August 2014

Lutterworth Golf Club. 11th September 2014

Away Day. Friday 17th October 2014. Wollaton Park Golf Club, Nottingham.

Another top class venue not to be missed. You must attend this event or you will really miss out on a treat.

Full details of all above events in future Newsletters.

 

 

 

Proudly powered by Weebly