Ashburton Courier: March 31, 2022

CLUB NEWS
20 Ashburton Courier, March 31, 2022
www.ashburtoncourier.co.nz
Ashburton Woodworkers
Chair Dave Strongwelcomed 18 members
to the March meeting. He mentioned someof
the jobs to be completed that included paving
round the dust collector outside,the barbeque
table almost finished and it appears we have
afew open days, EasterSaturday and
Sunday. Show and Tell: Dave Strong: an olive
bowl with an unusual grain. John Millichamp:
apopular,apricot bowl, asap wood platter.
Kevin Challis: acollection of turned boxes
from roundthe world. Geoff Brown: four large
decorative walnutcutting boards. Bruce
Ferriman: An unnamed 1.60m spiral sculpture
containing, 125 pieces 200 screws.
Bill Healey: totaracandle holders,jarrah
tilting wall clock. Chris Thompson:beautiful
kauri table,alaminatedwood rim steering
wheelfor avintagecar. Bill Healey explained
how he uses epoxy to enhance his bowls.
Starting with agroove at the top of item which
gets painted black enamel as abackground,
glues several pieces of paua on the bottom of
groovetoprevent them shifting mixes atwo
pot mix then carefully the mix into this groove.
Air bubblescan be aproblem which can be
solvedinusing the wife’s hair drier. Left to dry
for severaldays. The bowl is then sanded with
afinal 1200gritwet/dry sandpaper, asanding
sealer, finished using acutting compound
triple EEE then afinishing compound‘Glow’.
Thanks to Bill for your demonstration.
U3A
March meeting: Kath Woodley spoke on
“How Family Researchers Think”.She asks
“Whatsparks the interest?” Widespread
knownconnections give research paths. Old
formalfamily photographs show family
groupings, with placement of people indicating
relationships. Eras and occasions can be
intelligently guessed by dress fashions,armed
forcesuniform details, hairstyles, family
likenesses; all telling storiesofpast lives.
Location and weather may give the season.
Working from the known to the unknown
provides answers sources are many: Indirect
records such as Papers Past, censusrecords,
schools, church records.Even negative
findings such as non-appearance in
subsequent official records can be useful. Try
Birth, Death and Marriage certificates (often
wrong in details); online resources such as
Ancestry.com, Papers Past and Soundex;
family diaries, immigration and land records.
Spellings can be questioned. Family re-unions
can track and unite families, but can also have
mistakenly regrettable provenance of the
purported ancestor. Researchers may not
reach aconclusion, but there is real joy in
finding stories, and people of the past. We
need to know where we come from, to know
where we are going.Our next speakeronApril
26th is Jenny Howarth “The Artists of WW1”.
Ashburton Electronic Organ & Keyboard
Club
On awet and cool night, asmall but
appreciative audience had the pleasure of
attending club night,organised by the
keyboard group. Karen Balderstone played
some beautiful piano pieces while people
arrived, and went from tune to tune, with
beautiful rolls up the keyboard -sograceful!
Irene thenaccompanied Karen for afew
tunes, giving some lovely harmony -wish Ihad
my dancing shoes on!
Michael started offthe night with When I
Take My Sugar to Tea, using atap dance
swing style, highlighting Michael’s ability to
change settingstocreate some great music!
Then Michael played It Don’t Mean aThing,
which had us journey to 1930s New York,
followed by Amigos Para Siempre, which
translates to Friends for Life.
Rose was next up playing My Elusive
Dreams /Magic Moments, which was agreat
upbeat choice taking us away from the cares
of the day. The next bracket was Ninety-Nine
Ways /Butterfly with acountry swing,
resulting in several people swayingback and
forth. Rose, you alwayssmile and sing as you
play; it is lovely to see the joy music can bring.
The keyboard group played Nola, which
produced abig band sound with the
keyboards really complimenting each other.
Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly was arousing,
toe tapping tune followed by Why Did It Have
to Be Me, apopular ABBA song that was
fabulous to hear.
Acreation by Ashburton
Woodworkers
Irene had her agile fingers whizzingover
her piano accordion;she makes it lookso
easy! Her first tune was The Whistling Negro
by J.B Kok, which was comprised of different
parts and sounded beautiful. Irene’s second
tune, afast waltz called Alpine Slope,
certainly had the sound of Europe about it,
while Balkan Hills made me think of Scotland.
Janet played An Apple Blossom Wedding,
creating alight, bouncy spring-like tune. This
was followed up with Don’t Break the Heart
that Loves You /Breaking in aBrand-New
Broken Heart, which sounded fantastic and
had everyone humming, which just shows
you can’t judge asong by its heartbreak title!
Iris played ALittle on The Lonely Side, a
graceful foxtrot, using the keyboard effects to
create afabulous tune. Iris says she was 16
when she and every other teenage girl, fell in
love with Pat Boone, and went on to play his
song Why Baby Why on her bass ukulele,
accompanying the recorded tune on her
keyboard –soclever. The bass gave a
fabulous depth to the tune!
The keyboard group went on to play an
exoticrhumba in Dark Moon, with beautiful
harmonizing, which led into an upbeat version
of Tweedle Dee. Michael came back with a
county style Brown Eyed Girl followed by
Wish You Were Here, where Michael had his
keyboard create the sound of an organ; very
effective. His final tune was the big-band
sound of Mack the Knife. The keyboard group
finished off the night with aCool, Cool, Cool
Evening, You’re 16 and another ABBA hit,
Hasta Manana, all of which had the audience
singing along. Thanks to everyone for agreat
night’s entertainment.
Ashburton Ladies Friendship Club
President Gillianopened the meeting by
welcoming the members who were present
and avisitor. Lower numbers than usual due
to covid being rife in the district. The national
anthem was sung. Apologies were received .
Flowers are to be taken to two members who
are in care. One member spoke of her sons
fundraising bike hike the lengthofNew
Zealand. Sympathywas expressedfor a
member who had lost her husband. Our mini
speaker was Johnny Wright who spoke of her
life -being raised in Timaru, her working life
first in abank then completing her nursing
training followed by travelling to Britain and
through parts of Europe 1963 -65. On
returning home she married and lived in our
back countrywhich presented quite afew
challenges.
The AGM followed -The Presidents roll
being held on arotating basis with 5members
participating. Those and oneother member
being on committee. Other roles unchanged.
Following furtherbusiness discussion the
meeting closed .
Next meeting at the Sinclair Centre at
9.45am on 27th April. Visitors and new
members welcome.
Ashburton Bowling Club
Ashburton Bowling Club is very proud to
report that one of our members, Wendy
Suttie, has accepted an invitation to act as an
official in umpiringatthe forthcoming
Commonwealth Games in Birmingham later
this year. Wendy is aLevel 4Umpire who was
recently Head Controller in Christchurch for
the NZ Nationals 2022. That, we are sure,
contributedtoher selection for the
aforementioned position and we proudly wish
her Good Luck for her time in the UK. Well
done, Wendy!
Ashburton MSA PetanqueClub
Congratulations to Neville Bensdorp on
becoming the National Singles Petanque
Champion in Dunedin recently, with Richard
Browne the runner up. Avery close game was
played with only one point separating the men
at the end. In the National Doubles 47 teams
competed with ages ranging from 12 to 80
plus. Neville, Richard, Karen Bensdorp, Jan
Guilford, Mavis Thompson, Marion Harrison
and their respective partners got various
placings. Well done Ashburton.
The Thursday before that, locally we held
the Top of the Hill Trophy which was won by
Johnny Wright, Runner Up Marion Harrison
and third place Mick Little.
On Sunday we celebratedour 10th
Anniversary with agood turnout of past and
present members and invited guests from the
MSA and Bowling Club. Several games were
held at the domain where petanque was first
played and then we regrouped at the club
rooms and played afew more games before
enjoying asumptuous afternoon tea.
Rosemary McLaughlin and Lester Herron
spoke about their involvementinintroducing
petanque to town, getting the MSA interested
in us joining in with the bowling section,and
developingthe pistes. Asilver tray was
presented to each of them in recognition of
their early work. Karen Bensdorpwas the
winner on countbackofthe inaugural
Rosemary McLaughlin Anniversary Trophy,
Neville second, Nicky Foden third and Trevor
Nish fourth.
This coming Sunday morning we play for
the Club President’sTriples Trophy, with a
lesson on tactics and rulesinthe afternoon.
Remembertojoin us on Tuesday/Thursdayat
1pm at 115 Racecourse Road to learn our
sport, you won’t regret it.
Grab afew
breakfast
essentials