There were a number of personnel changes during the start of the year. One of our newest members, Dave Nicholls, had been lured out of retirement to take up a post in Abu Dhabi. We wished him the best of luck and hoped that he would continue to join us when he comes home on his fortnightly breaks. Congratulations to Haydn Crosby, affectionately known as ‘Bing’, who left for a new life in the USA, where he also got married. He had been a loyal member for over 10 years. It was also announced that Dave Wisby became engaged to Bex Taylor on Boxing Day last year. Congratulations to both of you and we wish you a happy life together.
We have also had 3 new members who passed their auditions. Anthony Marmont and Hefin Jones joined the 1st tenors and John Haslam joined the baritone section. Congratulations.
On February 5th we sang at St Catherine’s, Gorseinon, to raise money for their organ appeal. It was an excellent concert and we were joined by an old friend of the choir, Martin Bell, who played a number of pieces on the organ. Martin is the organist at St Catherine’s and has played for us on a few occasions in the past.
We held our annual dinner on Saturday 20th February at the Gower Golf Club. We had an excellent meal which was followed by some dancing by the more energetic of us. Over 70 choristers and guests attended and the ‘skull’ was presented by our Chairman Des Criddle to George Bowen. In September, we were performing at a wedding in Alltwen Chapel and wondered what had happened to George and Wally Carey. We found out the following Tuesday that they went looking for the chapel a bit further up the valley – in Onllwyn!! Thanks to Des and Lawrence Sutton for organising the event and to Linda Lewis and Val Peters for running the raffle.
We entered the final few weeks of rehearsal for our 3rd visit to Disneyland, Paris for their annual Welsh Festival. This year, a number of children, who won their various age groups at the Urdd Eisteddfod last August, would be joining us on stage on the Saturday.
