Amersham

ON Sunday next, February 24, the Rushymead Hospice Day Care Centre is running a Race Night at Mr Poon's Chinese Restaurant, London Road, Chalfont St Giles. Rushymead is based in Coleshill, near Amersham and I have been asked to mention this function in the Chalfont St Giles column as well as Amersham, as many of the patients there are from both places.

The Race Night will commence at 7pm, and tickets are £25 each, to include a full Chinese meal and complete race programme. All proceeds will, of course, go to Rushymead.

Rushymead is also in urgent need of voluntary helpers, and is holding an evening to try to recruit people who would like to offer their services for a few hours a week to visit and help care for the Day Care Centre's patients with terminal illnesses. The recruitment evening will be on Wednesday, March 6, at 7.30pm. It will be a very informal occasion with a glass of wine on arrival. The hospice would like interested people to ring and register. The fundraising co-ordinator is Gail Thomson on 01494 434110. Gail's mobile phone number is 07976 810034.

THE Polestars Drama Group, which was formed after the very successful play about the Amersham Martyrs last year, is putting on Our Country's Good, at the Polish Club in Raans Road, Amersham on Sunday next, February 24, Friday, March 1, Saturday, March 2, and Sunday, March 3. All performances start at 8pm.

Our Country's Good is set in the newly-colonised Sydney of 1789 shortly after the arrival of the first convicts. The play follows the struggles of the convicts to stage their very first theatrical production in Australia. Apparently this play contains strong language, and may be unsuitable for children.

Tickets for the production are £6 for adults, £5 for senior citizens and under-18s. They can be obtained from the box office on 01494 724974 and the Amersham Bookshop in Sycamore Road, telephone 01494 433057.

SPEAKING of drama groups and plays, actor Stan Pretty, who lives in Amersham, and who directed the Amersham Martyrs Play last year, will be presenting prizes at the Amersham, Chesham and Great Missenden Rotary Clubs' Prize-giving Ceremony on Thursday next, February 28, at Oldham Hall, Church Street, Great Missenden, at 7pm. Stan Pretty is an Australian who has appeared in a number of feature films, and also a two-man touring play about the life and works of William Shakespeare.

THE Amersham branch of the Workers' Educational Association (WEA) is holding a day school on Russia Today, on Saturday, March 9, at St George's Church Hall in White Lion Road, from 10am to 4pm. Cost is £14.50 including coffee and tea. Please bring a packed lunch. The tutor will be Karen Hewitt. Karen has travelled widely in Russia over many years, and has lectured at the three top universities in Moscow, and Perm University has made her an Honorary Professor. In addition, she runs a publishing company in Russia which provides up-to-date textbooks for Russian students. With the emphasis on the many changes over the last ten years, this day will give a true insight into Russia today.

If you would like to book a place on this day school, please send a cheque, made payable to WEA, Amersham Branch, to Ursula Morton, 25 Fair Leas, Chesham HP5 2QW, telephone 01494 785522. Please enclose a sae for a syllabus and an acknowledgement.

THE next meeting of the Amersham Birdwatching Club is on Friday, March 15, at 8pm in the Barn Hall at the Community Centre in Chiltern Avenue when the speaker will be Nigel Phillips, Senior Conservation Officer of BBOWT (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust). Doors open at 7.30pm, and there will be coffee and biscuits in the interval. Non-members will be very welcome at a cost of £2.

AMERSHAM 61 Club, about which I wrote a few weeks ago, have unfortunately been refused a lottery grant. They put in an application for £220,000 but funding bosses have said they were not convinced of the club's trustees' plans to raise an additional £40,000 towards the £298,000 needed for the new building. The trustees have raised £50,000 so far. New premises are very urgently needed because the club has been told by Buckinghamshire County Council that it must move as soon as possible.

The current building can only remain open for a further six months. There will be an inspection in August to establish whether the club, which has 150 members, will have to leave the dilapidated building which it is using at the moment, until the new building is eventually built. The club feels sure that a temporary building could be found for group meetings. If anyone is able to help in any way to raise funds for the club, I'm sure it would be much appreciated. The person to contact is Mrs Haynes on 01494 715889.

As I mentioned before, the Amersham Evening Townswomen's Guild has made the 61 Club its charity for this year. Members are busy organising various social events to raise money to help in this direction and if any of our readers are able to make a donation, however small it may be, it really will make a difference and go towards the club getting the new building as quickly as possible.

A BOOKLET has recently been produced by the Methodist Church in Little Chalfont. The booklet is filled with all the various events which take place on the church premises in Chalfont Avenue (just off the A404 behind the railway station).

The events include a breakfast stop, coffee stop, a Luncheon Club, music for pre-school children, a youth club and a Wednesday Night Live incorporating three different evening programmes. Other organisations which use the hall are the Brownies and Guides, Chalfont Cherubs and the Nursery School. If you are interested in any of these activities please feel free to pop in and pick up a booklet. It could be useful.

THE next Stamp and Postcard Fair in Amersham will be on Saturday, March 17, at the Jubilee Scout Hall in Rectory Hill, from 10am to 5pm, with free admission. The fairs are very friendly events, where dealers are always keen to buy and sell, subject to stock, stamps, covers, postcards, cigarette and trade cards, etc. I will remind you of the fair nearer the time.

MERRITTS Jaguar, the Amersham car dealer, wants to get more space for cars from its showroom workshop in London Road. They have asked permission from Chiltern District Council to demolish a disused house and use the site for car parking. Final approval is awaited.

HAS anyone any spare jigsaw puzzles and books suitable for under-fives? If you have, the Little Chalfont Mums and Toddlers Group would be very pleased to receive them. If you can help please ring Maureen McCarthy on 01494 724200 or Bernie Hassim in 01494 727716.

IF you would like to Come Dancing on Monday evenings in the Drake Hall, Amersham Community Centre, between 8.15pm and 10pm, please ring Dot and Ken on 020 8428 6853 for further details.

FINALLY, just a reminder about the Amersham Gardening Association's meeting tonight, Friday, at the Red Cross Hall in Chiltern Avenue. The speaker will be Brian Fisher who will be talking about Bulbs, Corms and Rhizomes. The meeting starts at 8pm. Non-members and would-be new members are always welcome at a cost of £2.

By Josie Ricketts