Hello Wizards, Did you enjoy the Hey Presto show? I thought it went fairly well. Ken and I overran slightly (I was hoping to shave my spot down to fifteen minutes!) so Terry did his compere spot in the second half. That was why his key was in his other jacket's pocket! Well done to all those who took part. It was nice to see four members in the show, having just the one last year. You'll find a report elsewhere in the Billet but I'd like to record thanks to all our performers, the sound and lighting team, the back stage crew, and the front of house team, our hospitality officer and our programme sellers. Philip Howarth and I helped Martin James and Co. pack their gear and load their van and he remarked how friendly and helpful our Circle is. His appreciation is extended to those mentioned who made the night the success it was. Hearing of Steve Naylor's resignation from committee, I thought I'd look up when he jumped onto committee and came across some interesting facts. Steve's long stint on committee started in 1988 during which time he was President twice. I dug deeper and learned that he was also treasurer for two years in 1980/81. Our longest serving current committee member is Ivan Robinson who was elected to committee in 1984 and was secretary for a couple of years and of course most recently he become our entertainments officer. Next comes Keith Pickles who was elected to committee in 1986 as treasurer, an office he still holds. The files I have are not complete unfortunately so there are some gaps in the Circle's history. Therefore, it is not recorded when Keith become editor, though I do know he has a copy of every Billet he has produced so he will know. (Ed Note: I became editor in March 1988 issue No 212, so this is the start of my l7th year as editor and 177th Billet.) Paul Sunderland was elected to committee for a short spell in 1986/87 and later returned in 1991 and has been secretary and is currently your librarian. Alex Wright also joined committee in 1991 and was publicity officer and later became webmaster, he was also key holder for a while. I joined in 1992, and took over as key holder when Alex relinquished it and I was welfare officer for four years 1994/98 (a non-committee post) and most recently became secretary. Steve Gore was co-opted to committee in 1995 and has become our most recent publicity officer. Victoria joined Steve on committee in 2000 and is your current welfare officer. They become our key holders when we moved to Thornton and began hosting committee meetings in June 2002. Henry Norris jumped onto committee in 2002 and has already become an event organiser. Of those mentioned, only Steve Naylor and Keith Pickles had served two terms as president and all but Alex, Victoria and Henry have been president. Whilst going through the files, I learned that Doug Haigh was for a while the entertainments officer. I am sure there will be other interesting things in the secretary's tin and I my talk about them at a later date. Please do see me if you hope to attend the Easter Parade at Ilkley as I have some registration forms. It would be worth popping across as it's on your doorstep, and there are several different events happening including, not least of which is of course Geoffrey Durham doing a lecture of sorts and taking part in a fabulous Gala Show. It is a fun weekend and with Bradford Magic Circle being affiliated to Northern Magic Circle, it would be nice to see it supported. Anyway, for now, thanks for reading and I'll see you all later. STEVIE B. |
