Upbeat message for Littlehampton club’s milestone date

In the first of a series of special events planned to mark the milestone, 42 members and guests enjoyed an anniversary lunch at the Vardar restaurant, in Littlehampton, on Thursday (March 12).

Chairman Tony Strelitz said the success of the club, which has 49 members at a time when other similar groups in the area are struggling, was due ‘in no small measure to the extremely good chairmen and committee members that we have had over the last 20 or so years and the hard work done in coming up with such interesting and enjoyable programmes year after year’.

He also felt that the members enjoyed the social side of the twice-monthly meetings as much as the philatelic content. “The friendliness of the club is something that the members can be very proud of and this is because we do not take ourselves too seriously.”

Eric Burchell, deputy chairman, commended three people who had been instrumental in the club’s longevity – Peter Tristram, who kept the club going in lean years in the 1970s, Brian Rogers, secretary for a number of years and Bill Sammons, a past chairman, who died last year.

The club meets on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, from September to May, in the RVS hall behind the former Co-op supermarket, at 7.15pm.

The next meeting is on March 26, at which four members will entertain.