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Aston Wine Club

Aston Wine Club has been established for more than 25 years, and is probably one of the best local wine clubs in the country! Our aim is to have fun socializing with friends and enjoy tasting wine from all over the world. It provides the opportunity to taste unusual & sometimes very expensive wines outside of the wines that we might normally imbibe. With old and new world, still & sparkling, red, white, rosé and orange, we have a really varied & interesting tasting programme.

We meet on the third Friday evening of most months in Buckland Village Hall, where you will be welcomed with a glass of wine in advance of a relaxed, fun and informative evening, led by a wine merchant, wine writer, wine educator or other expert. We sample eight wines with a break for a light supper after the first four, then on to the last four wines. All this for a whopping £15 for members and £20 for guests!

We like to keep things lively and over the years we have enjoyed trips to Waddesdon Manor for private tastings in their cellars, fish n’ chip & champagne evenings, members’ nights where members introduce their personal favourite, presentations focusing on certain countries or regions within a country, and special Christmas events with a meal.

A couple of quotes from our members: "Coming to the club has expanded my horizons and introduced me to lots of wines I would never have tried before – and not all of them expensive! I have learned never to have preconceived ideas about any wine producing country and that price is not always an indication of a good wine. It’s all down to your own personal taste – there is no such thing as a right choice."

"I have always enjoyed drinking wine but had become a little stuck in my ways and would typically always drink my go-to favourites. Wine Club has been fantastic in expanding my knowledge of different wines and enabling me to now enjoy a much wider variety of wine regions and grapes."

For further information please see our website www.astonwineclub.co.uk. We look forward to welcoming you to a future meeting.

Frances Luget

Aylesbury Vale Stitchers

We are Aylesbury Vale Stitchers - a friendly, welcoming group to everyone who picks up any form of needle, thread, fabric and fibre and to those who don't but are interested in textiles, their history and any aspect of their creation. We have been running the group via Zoom meetings once each month on a Saturday afternoon but plan to return to meeting in person at the Memorial Hall from March.

We have a wide range of speakers joining us through the year showing us their diverse range of work. We offer some workshops plus social sessions for tea, cake and chat.

January and February meetings will be via Zoom. On Saturday 15 January our speaker is Hillary Waters Fayle - joining us from Richmond, Virginia, USA - showing her work using leaves to create amazing images and embroidering on them.

On Saturday 19 February Emma Wigginton will be showing us her amazing pictures and textiles made using fabric and thread.

For more information on our group, how to join as a Member or Friend and the programme of activities for 2022 please email us at aylesburyvalestitchers@gmail.com.

Chris Oakley - Chair - Aylesbury Vale Stitchers

Wendover Cricket Club

Wendover Cricket Club has planned a full programme of indoor training for all ages, with the junior age groups starting in early January on Saturdays. The Girls Section will be training on

Sunday mornings from 27 February and Senior nets are on Saturday mornings from March. All this is dependent on covid measures not adversely affecting the programme.

The club would welcome interest from potential umpires and/or scorers, especially for Saturday League matches. For junior enquiries, please contact Vee Patel at wccjuniorscontact@gmail. com or for girls, seniors, umpires, etc to Jonathan Seabrook on 07767 148119 or jseabrook@ talktalk.net.

More information can be found at www.pitchero. com/clubs/wendovercricketclub.

J Seabrook

RSPB

RSPB Aylesbury Group’s next indoor meeting is on Monday 17 January 2022 when Graham Lenton talks on “The Wildlife of Madagascar – a genetic melting pot”. Held at the Prebendal Hall Community Centre, Aylesbury HP19 7QW,starting at 7.30 p.m. More info at www.rspb.org. uk/groups/aylesbury.

Jonathan Seabrook

Wendover Horticultural Society

Wendover Horticultural Society will hold its meeting on Thursday 6 January 2022 in St Anne’s Hall at 2.30. There will be a short AGM, then the speaker is Phil Townsend of BBOWT speaking mainly about Aston Clinton Ragpits, a place well worth a visit and so near to Wendover.

Neville Morton

BBOWT in January

This is a great time for visiting all local reserves, for example tree spotting at Dancersend, birding at College Lake and Weston Turville Reservoir, or simply a fast walk round the Lakes without spending time on the Tufted Duck, Pochard, Wigeon and Teal that have flown in from the Arctic asking to be admired. When you get back to the café at College Lake you can take a bowl of hot soup out into the hide and see them in comfort or keep warm inside with some retail therapy in the excellent shop. The reserve and facilities are open except for Mondays and Tuesdays from 10 am till 4pm after a short Christmas break ending on 1 January. Use the online pages for College Lake for more details including Nature Tots sessions on 12 and 13 January.

There is a lot of conservation work to be done in winter so feel free to sign up at volunteering@ bbowt.org.uk. There are two online talks coming up - Tuesday 18 January at 7.45pm with Dr Helen Read of Burnham Beeches on 'Ancient Trees and all that rot' focussing on the important wildlife of old rotten trees, then Tuesday 22 February at 7.45pm when we have Laurie Jackson talking us through the rewilding project at Knepp in Sussex. Booking is essential for both talks at www.bbowt. org/events. Talks are at £5 to cover costs and you will be redirected to Eventbrite for booking.

Richard Birch

Wendover Bowls Club

It does seem strange to think that we are almost halfway through our indoor season. It feels as if we have only just begun, but it has been that sort of year with everything a bit out of kilter. We are sitting around the middle of the leagues. Most of our heaviest defeats have been by clubs who play indoors all year round while we prefer to get some fresh air between October and April.

On 11 December we had the needle match between the Ladies and Gentlemen. Teams of three did battle in a series of short games. In the morning session the men romped away, then the ladies came back at them in the afternoon, but not enough to win overall. A super day made more enjoyable by an all day buffet organised by one of our ladies, Sharon Razey. There was so much food that I suspect that it was a ploy to get the men to overeat and relax too much after lunch. In fact there was so much food that a meal, that was planned at the end of play, was cancelled to give a chance to make inroads into the excess.

The same Sharon came to me recently and suggested that we have an open day so that anyone can come and sample the joys of indoor bowls. It is a very skilful game and even more tactical than the outdoor equivalent. The Short Mat Open day is Saturday 8 January from 10am- 4pm. Contact wendoverbowls@gmail.com to book a place.

Meanwhile a happy and healthy 2022 to everyone.

Don Knight

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