Returners’ Dinners or ‘Size Doesn’t Matter’

Bravo to Andrew Holdsworth ( Our beloved RMO) and Steve Branaghan for planning a dinner in London on the 16th April!
I am sure that we are all delighted by this encouraging news and I wish all the diners the most hearty success with this noble undertaking. Most regrettably, I can’t be there but I know that any man living in or near the Metropolis will be busting a gut to get there.

I am reminded of an excellent Returners’ Dinner that we held in London about two years ago. This was organised by Chris Darnell ( RMO) and the ever-reliable Rosset. True attendance was modest but that didn’t have any adverse effect on what was a really most enjoyable evening. It was just so good to be in such a great company and not so much to re-live old days but to catch up on the present and to enjoy the here and now. I here draw a veil over the end part of the evening and what happened in Soho.

That London Dinner was itself as heir to many others that had been organised so successfully by the mighty James Kenny-Levick so there is more than a little precedence to The Returners’ dining in London. But returning to the point ( if indeed there is one) when we were last in London we did discuss some Returners’ business and one of the principle resolutions of that discussion was that size doesn’t always matter ( Just as well in Manson’s case!)

In other words, why can’t there be more Returners’ Dinners held up and down the county and including any number of ‘Ties’ over and above two persons? These days, organisation is relatively simple. The Returner hosting the dinner simply announces it through the website, sets a reply date, and then goes ahead and does it. These would be occasional and additional dinners to any organised by The RMO or the Club at College.

I wonder what other Returners make of these thoughts?

Gaudeamus Semper

JOP