CHAIRMAN Robert Spencer opened our lunch meeting at Bristol Golf Club on June 7 by welcoming two guests, Mike Dowdeswell and Jock Hill.

Jock along with Phil Jones will be joining us as full members at our next lunch in July, both will be welcome additions to our membership.

Robert reminded us that two of our members, Brian Heppell and Ron Preedy, had recently passed away, both will be greatly missed.

The club has sent messages of condolence to the families.

A small number of us have recently returned from a four day break to Kent and organiser Brian Brown reported how enjoyable this short holiday had been.

It had included time in Tunbridge Wells, Dover Castle, Canterbury and Rye.

We also visited the Spitfire and Hurricane museum at Manston and the National Trust property Ightham Mote with its grand moated house and beautiful grounds.

We even squeezed in a ride on the ‘Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch’ narrow gauge steam railway.

We had a lot to pack in to four days but the weather was kind to us, helping to make it even more enjoyable, it will be difficult to better it next year, but we will try.

The speaker was Lorraine, a cheese maker from Godsell Cheese, who gave us a most interesting talk on cheesemaking.

She explained in considerable detail the processes starting with free range milk from their own cows through to the wrapping of their products for sale.

She discussed seven cheeses from their range, giving us all a sample of each one as she went along.

These included Cheddar, Gloucester, Double Gloucester,Three Virgins, Le Pong, Holy Smoked and Crockadilli Chilli which was very hot and tasted of chives and onion, the only one not to my taste.

My favourite was Le Pong which had both a very strong smell and taste.

Gerald Levy gave a vote of thanks and the meeting closed at 2.15pm.

We are a club for retired men meeting for lunch, followed by a speaker, at Bristol Golf Club, on the first Wednesday of each month.

We have an additional three lunches throughout the year at different venues to which we bring our ladies.

We also hold two wine tastings and arrange a short holiday each year.

If you feel you might be interested in joining us we would be pleased to hear from you.

Contact Brian Brown on 01454 414804 or Peter Frost on 01454 415446 for details.