When members met for the club's November meeting, Christmas was very much on everyone's minds. At the meeting in August, members had received a talk by Audrey Whitmore on the work of the Salvation Army.

One of its principle concerns is looking after deprived children of all ages. It is not generally known that, even in these days of apparent plenty, there are some children who are not so lucky and are not likely to receive expensive Christmas gifts.

So it was arranged that at the association's November meeting, members could bring along toys for the younger children and other useful gifts for the older children.

Such was the response that it needed two cars to take the gifts away from the hall.

As to the November meeting itself, members enjoyed a musical quiz, arranged and presented by Anne Moore.

On November 22, members were at the Royal Festival Hall, London, for a Choral Concert given by the Royal Choral Society and the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes.

Members paid a visit to the Ashford Factory Outlet for Christmas shopping and, on December 9, some members set off for Torquay for a turkey and tinsel holiday.

On December 10, another visit was paid to the Royal Festival Hall to join the BBC Concert Orchestra, The King's Singers, for a Christmas Concert. The whole evening was made especially enjoyable by Brian Kay who conducted as well as keeping the audience amused with some Christmas stories. Mr Kay was a founder of the original King's Singers many years ago.

On the following day, the club held its December meeting. Audrey Whitmore thanked members for the overwhelming response given to her request for gifts for the children. The meeting consisted of a talk by Marian Baldwin who has an inimitable style in presenting her recollections of Christmases of years gone by. She also judged a Christmas hat competition. The winner was Audrey Whitmore.

Members have been continuing with a keep fit programme and attending to the improvement of their 10-pin bowling techniques.

Now it is the year of the Queen's Golden Jubilee and members are looking forward to a very happy and enjoyable new year.