APRIL is our birthday meeting so Maureen Matthews, our president, had the pleasure of welcoming members and visitors to this special evening.

The hall looked lovely with the tables decorated with Joan Brand's flower arrangements. Christine Williams read the minutes from March and several notices including an invitation to the Mayor's service in at the cathedral in June.

Members had been asked to put their name in the draw for this year's bursary of £50. We asked one of our visitors to make the draw and the winner was Maureen with Diana Bethal as reserve. Dilys Round then reminded everyone of the time of the dinner at the March Hare next Wednesday and finalised transport for the evening.

She then invited members to put forward ideas for the summer outing. A tour of the Commandary had been suggested but it was still not open to the public. A town walk with a meal afterwards was also a possibility.

We have our first fund-raiser of the year on May 21 - a skittle evening at the Anchor Inn, Diglis. This is always a good night so we are hoping all members will support us. The speaker for the evening was Mrs Bache who had belonged to the Casualty Union for 24 years. She shared with us her experiences as a casualty' in the mock disasters for which all the emergency services have to regularly prepare. This was a most interesting talk and she was enthusiastically thanked by Dilys.

Members had provided the delicious buffet supper which was set out at the end of the hall and tea was brought to the tables. A pudding quiz had been left on the tables to be done as a combined effort and when Jean gave the answers one table had managed 30 out of 30. The monthly competition, entitled A Jolly Brolly, was won by Joan Brand. The evening ending with the raffle which had at least nine prizes. The first ticket out belonging to Margaret Oakley. We meet the third Wednesday of the month at St Mark's Church Hall, Bath Road.