Chairman Pauline Roberts opened the meeting on October 20, welcoming everyone, including two visitors.

There were ten apologies from members.

Margaret Fennell will be entering the guild national scrabble finals on November 5 and she was wished well. December 12 is the guild Carol Service and programmes will be available at the next meeting. The minutes of September’s meeting are up on the notice board. The financial situation was read by Mrs Roberts as Mrs Fennell was not able to attend. Ramblers would be meeting at the Crabmill car park on October 21 and the scrabble group will be meeting in Wimbledon Drive on October 27. Flowers for the table had been provided by Lilian Green.

The speaker for the evening was Roger Hallwood and his subject The Palaces and Great Wall of China.

The speaker and his daughter had decided to visit China but could not find an organised holiday offering all the places they wished to visit.

They decided to contact the Chinese Embassy and explained to them what they wished to do. The Embassy had been very helpful and said they would have no problem visiting the various sights they were interested in, either on local transport or even an organised tour.

They duly set off and on landing in China found that transport had been waiting for them to take them to the hotel.

The speaker illustrated his talk with slides showing everything from their hotel, the city walls, temples and the Great Wall.

They went to see the Ming tombs, Tian Tan Gardens, Terracotta warriors and went by train to see the Summer Palaces. Mr Hallwood was thanked for an interesting and fascinating talk. The competition for the evening was a Chinese souvenir and was won by Sheila Hogg. Raffle prizes were won by Jean Braddock, Meryl Hadley and Sandra Newall.