Cannon’s,

Christmas lunch was held at the newly restored Renaissance Hotel with a superb feast, 5-star service, and facilities provided to us in a nice private room, with special thanks to Bipan Kapur. Twelve of us were in a great Christmas mood and everyone came on time assembling at R Bar, with a bottle of wine and Christmas headgear except Hans who had to pay a fine of 50.00Rm. Also, Roland had to pay 50.00 Rm because he failed to read properly the flyer and forgot to wear the LC shirt. After collecting all the bottles Tony Morris the wine master checked every bottle with the final verdict, Martin and Fritz’s bottles were the crapiest wines and both of them had to pay 50.00 Rm each with some complaints about the judge’s decision. Following the LC tradition, this year we had 4 virgins (Bent, Mike, Fritz & Roland), and with Tony’s paradise bird voice, he sang a traditional song for the punished virgins, and four of them had to drink a full glass of beer standing on the top of the sofa. After we all make a move to the private room to initiate the second half of the festivities. First Ricardo distributed to everyone the 2023 summary season report with all the numbers until the 5th of December, he also thanked Jan for all the hard work from January until the end of October with bookings and hdc reports, to our sponsors and LC members for their continuous support to our society. Also was reported that the new shirt will be ready end of December, and we will join the charity project “Swing for Humanity” charging every game 5.00 Rm for every player next year. Tony proposed that we should increase that contribution to 10.00 Rm which was 100% accepted and from January 2024 I will start collecting and I will report every 3 months to everyone the numbers. After all the formalities we started with our lunch, first a nice buffet, with a lot of choices, and after 1 hour the first delicious main course was served (King Prawn with Black Angus Beef Tenderloin) followed by the second one (Special Christmas, Roasted Big Chicken) and to finish in style a nice combination of Christmas puddings, Pavlova and other delicious cakes, all well presented. We also got a video call from our LC father Mike Smith to say some words and we were all happy to see him in good spirits. Before dessert, everyone had to sing or tell a joke. Andrew Robinson thanked the convenor for all the hard work and also a few words to the demised Cannons members. We finished around 4pm with a full belly and 12 bottles of wine empty, including the two cappiest bottles. On behalf of all LC members, I want to say thank you to all Renaissance staff and wish Merry Christmas to all regular LCs, overseas and past members, and extensive families, may the new year bring all of us good health, happiness, fortune, and love. For the magnificent twelve thank you for coming and making the lunch even more special and to all thank you for your support throughout the year.

Cheers

Ricardo Castro

BEFORE THE PARTY.

LC CHRISTMAS GIFT BAGS.

THE ASSEMBLING.

THE VIRGIN PUNICHEMENT CEREMONY.

PHOTO GROUP. THANK YOU TO RENAISSANCE HOTEL.

SECOND HALF. CHRISTMAS LUNCH.

ANDREW’S REMEMBERING THE DEMISED CANNONS MEMBERS. ALL OUR PRAYERS AND THOUGHTS.

JOKES AND SONGS TIME.

PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY.

THE 500 GAMES RESTRICT CLUB. ANDREW HAS 518 GAMES, TONY 532 GAMES, HANS 503 GAMES AND ALL STILL COUNTING. LONG LIFE FOR OUR SPECIAL CANNONS MEMBERS.