This year we held our St David’s Day Dinner on 27th February as the rest of the weekend was already booked. We chose Gerrards Cross Golf Club again, as the food was so good and it has good acoustics.
We all met for a pre-meal glass of fizz (or orange juice) at 6:30 and caught up with old friends. It was very encouraging to see so many new members there too, including our local MP, Sarah Green. Sarah was our speaker last year, and we were delighted that she agreed to come again this year along with her partner Daniel Paterson .
One of our newest members, Rhiannon Bruce, discovered that she had been to the same school as Sarah, though not at the same time.
David Hancox made it in time, which was a surprise as he had to drop his children off, then get changed and rush all the way from Kingston Bagpuize, which is the other side of Abingdon, and a good hour away.
Gwyndaf had prepared a table plan so that we knew where we were sitting. We had 62 in total spread across 7 tables, so it was a good turn-out.
Ann Evans had arranged for the golf club to be decorated with lots of Welsh flags and, with the help of the ladies and wives of the committee, there were bouquets of daffodils on each table.
At just after 7 we all took our places in the dining room and were welcomed by Gwyndaf John, as chairman and Ann Evans, as President, said grace.
Our dinners were lovely. Kay Day had chosen a delicious selection of food, with starters of prawn cocktail, cawl or chicken liver pate, followed by lamb shank, confit duck or trout for mains and lemon tart, chocolate fondant, fruit cocktail or Welsh cheeses for dessert.
After the dinner, Gwyndaf introduced two of our members, Gwion Thomas and his wife, Chloe Willson-Thomas who would sing for us, accompanied by John Breese on the piano.
Gwion Thomas met Chloe whilst studying at Music College, and their duet has continued ever since.
A baritone, Gwion was born in Gorseinon, South Wales. He gave up a career in banking to study singing at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, where he graduated with Distinction, winning many prizes. He has been a wide-ranging opera and concert soloist, taking leading solo operatic roles with the Welsh National Opera, the Scottish Opera, and many other companies.
Chloe is a Soprano, and has been the Rector of Farnham Royal with Hedgerley since March 2020. She too was a freelance professional singer and singing teacher after a first degree in Music and a post-graduate diploma in advanced musical performance from the Royal Northern College of Music. After ordination in 2009 she went on to complete a theology degree at Oxford University.
Gwion and Chloe sang a variety of solos and duets starting with a piece from Handel and covering Mozart, Welsh songs and pieces by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
A Victorian song – ‘The Spider and the Fly’ was very funny as Chloe tried to lure an innocent fly (Gwion) into her parlour.
John Breese was excellent as accompanist, especially considering the wide range of music and how little time he had to prepare.
We are truly very lucky to have three such excellent musicians within our membership.
Gwyndaf thanked our entertainers and we then concluded with the National anthem, followed by communal singing of some old favourites.
A big thank you to Mike Owen for the photographs – there are even more on this page