Our president, Norman Bryson, welcomed three new members at the start of our monthly lunch meeting at Stourbridge Rugby Club on Tuesday 19 October. After the lunch, members and guests enjoyed a talk by past president Alec Beevers about ‘My Word’. Alec described how his own word ‘Zygology’ had been adopted to define his professional work in joining technology and as the word became more widely used in industry it was accepted for inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary. The meeting ended with a round of the once-popular TV panel game ‘Call My Bluff’ in which different definitions of an obscure word are suggested. Appropriately the word chosen for this round was Proboss – the closest word to Probus in the dictionary! Only a few members guessed the correct definition of an elephant’s trunk.

On Thursday 21 October sixteen members enjoyed an evening visit to the BBC’s Birmingham studios in the Mailbox. We were given a fascinating tour of the TV newsrooms, the production galleries, the BBC WM’s radio station and the studios for recording programmes including The Archers. Our guides demonstrated the many features and sound effects which listeners enjoy in radio drama. Our visit ended with the group acting out a short play – a hilarious horror story in which our social secretary Jack Hadlington took the role of a sinister butler. With confused sound effects and ham acting the playback of the recording provided a great comedy show.

Readers who may be interested in joining the club are invited to contact Andrew Scudamore on 01384 376314.