“Well we made it, we are now one year old. This time last year I was hoping that my efforts were going to be a success and that I would find enough people to produce a good accordion club, well I found you, what a great bunch of people I have met and what a year it has been since that first night when 35 of us met for the first time with most people not knowing anyone else in the room. The entertainment was provided by myself, Tom Bennett, Richard Eastham and our guest artist Steve Roxton. Now look at us a year later, we have provided music at charity events, provided accordionists for paying jobs, produced an audio tape, played on the radio, had so much enjoyment listening to our players that it must be illegal, been visited by Chester Accordion Club, had over 6200 visits to our Internet Website, appeared in the newspapers and most important - we have made some friendships at the club that no money could buy, and had fun doing it.

Our October meeting was as usual a fantastic night opening with Chick Stephens playing Do You Want Your Old Lobby Washed Down, Wild Colonial Boy, Love is Teasing, Black Velvet Band, Wild Rover, When Irish Eyes and Slievenamon. Chick was telling me about his grandson Alex Cowland aged 13, who is one of our club members who achieved two firsts in and two seconds at the NAO Duckinfield competition, well done Alex. Next up was Basil Berry with Someone To Watch Over Me and others who's title I missed, sorry Basil. We had fun when Basil came to my house to record his pieces for the tape, when he had to stop tapping his foot because the microphone could hear his banging, he found his fingers stopped working, he solved the problem by taking his shoe off to tap his foot and made no mistakes at all after that, good thinking Basil. Bert Winstanley made his debut playing in front of the club and played a nice version of Those Were The Days, the first time is the worse Bert, we will look forward to seeing more of you in the future. Julie Langton was up next, Julie is just seven years old and had only been practicing three weeks before playing Batter Up, Skating and Kick Off.

Channel 4 TV contacted me after the last club night and asked if we had a seven year old accordionist for a proposed feature on the Big Breakfast TV programme, they had found us by typing 'accordion' on the Internet and ended up on our website. Julie's details are now in their files, lets hope the feature materialises. Julie's sister Sarah Jane Langton aged 13 then played Ballooning, her brother William aged 12 then gave us Kinder Marsh, Jenny Lind Polka and Blue Skies before his sister Sarah joined him for a duet playing Tourelay. There is an awful lot of talent in one family there and they deserve to go far, I am sure they will. At Duckinfield North West Area Championships William was placed third in Polka Grade 2, Julie was first in the 7 Years And Under Merit Award, Sarah Langton was second in the Elementary open and third in Elementary Own Choice. Sarah and William achieved a first in Prepatory Duet. Frank Scholes gave me an early request and so he was on next, Frank played Then He Kissed Her, She's A Lady, City of Dreams, Save the Last Dance For Me and Buttons & Bows. Agnes who is no stranger to playing at the club, then made her debut with her MIDI setup playing a selection of Scottish and Irish Medleys, Flower of Scotland and When Irish Eyes. I followed Agnes. In the last newsletter, I said that I was going to play two new tunes per month from memory, this month it was three, I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now, Bless Em All and Don't Dilly Dally. George Hicks followed me with Blaze Away, My Way, and after asking for a request he played Jealousy for Agnes McLaren. Robert Hood Followed George, Robert was practicing for the Duckinfield competition with Ballintore Fisherman, Raviel Musette and My Florence. Robert came first at the championships in Late Starters (L/S) Grade 4/5, Second in L/S Polka, Second L/S Musette and third in the Scottish Open. Robert was then joined by Ian Carter, they played Sorrento Thoughts, Earl of Mansfield and Hazel Villa. Ian then continued on his own with amongst others Scotland the Brave. When I write 'amongst others' it sometimes means I missed the titles of the missing tune/s or the titles were not announced and I did not manage to get them later. Andrew Figg followed Ian playing Luci E Ombre, Sonata No. 1 and Bel Fiorie. Andrew was also at the NAO Championships at Duckinfield where he came first in Advanced Intermediate Solo, first in Open Musette and third in Open Polka, well done to Andrew and all the rest who entered these competitions, I know they have worked hard to get this far. I hope you all appreciate the cartoon on the other side of this newsletter. Tom Bennett then played Dollanes Medley, Blue Danube and Bercuse before the night finished with Dugald McCallum playing Highland Cathedral and a Bobby Macloud March. Our next night on 11th November is our anniversary night with guest artist Steve Roxton who was guest artist at our first night, there will be sandwiches during the break, our tape will be on sale (£5 very good value, 90 minutes of quality accordion playing), and the night will be recorded for broadcast over the Internet. I look forward to seeing you there.

David Batty

Hopefully that was an interesting blast from the past, now to move up to date with some items to keep you entertained during the lockdown. First a few more unseen photographs from the past of our club and players.