VICE President Grenville Burrows was in the chair this week as George Bourne was being entertained elsewhere. Members were unanimous in thanking Bill Underwood for an excellent trip to the SS Great Britain last week.

Our speaker was Ceri Jones of Cheltenham who spoke about his life as a primary school Headteacher. He described how, despite or perhaps because of his own sometimes unhappy school days, he decided to become a teacher.

With humour and humility he told us how he had to learn by his mistakes. He clearly loved teaching children and recounted some of the amusing sayings that his young pupils came out with, including them confusing carnal with Cardinal and vulture with voucher.

When interviewed for one teaching job, he was successful as he passed the limb test in that he possessed all four!

Sadly however, he decided that as a Headteacher he could no longer cope with the demands placed upon schools, and took early retirement.

Ceri’s talk brought back memories of our own early schooling. For some of us it was a wonderful time. For others it was a very painful experience. And one who must remain nameless confessed to only attending school in the mornings as he had an afternoon job.

Following many questions, Grenville thanked Ceri profusely and invited him to join us for further discussion at the bar.

Meanwhile, Peter Penney described how he values his membership of our club. In his 20 years as a member he has learnt so much from other members and from our guest speakers. He finds our Thursday mornings most thought-provoking.

Do join us. We meet every Thursday morning at 10am at the Evesham Rowing Club's boathouse. Information about our Club, including our programme of forthcoming talks, is on our website: www.eveshamprobus.co.uk.

CHRIS DONOUGH