Author: Jim Murphy

Oh what a night it was, when incoming District Governor Trevor Davies gave us a rubbish talk. And we are still talking about it now.

While we are all knew something about compost and composting, at the end of the evening we were experts in the making.

As Trevor revealed the secrets of a good heap, not too wet not too dry, covered from the rain, he stressed the need for variety, layers not just a morass of grass clippings, (keep leaves out of it), insert a layer of newspaper and just watch your rubbish transform itself into compost that would make John Innes envious. You could sense our members’ zeal as they were working out how their miserable efforts could be transformed with a dash of sawdust, an egg carton or two, grapefruit, but  chopped up into small, sic, pieces, tea bags and coffee grounds.

A compost heap is like life, variety is essential, said our man Trevor and who are we to gainsay the expert. And we all enjoyed every minute of it.

Our speaker this evening, Alan Wright, was an accidental policeman. Looking for an alternative to his actuarial training he saw a Bobby patrolling outside of his office window and thought that that may give him the opportunity to escape.

After enrolling as a cadet with the Met in the 60’s he was taught how to march and and how to fight before being let loose on the streets of Soho and Mayfair after just one months mentoring.

As well as being a time of great social change Alan explained how the 60’s were a period of transition for policing in the capital as the force evolved from an institution which was still largely Victorian in its outlook and practises in response to the challenges posed by organised crime and the emergence of the illegal drugs trade.

Part of the team which brought the Krays to justice and of the Chinese Heroin Squad Alan saw his share of action and he was able to share memories with us which highlighted both the lighter and darker sides of policing during this period.

Alan later went on to lecture at the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth, and is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at Keele University. He is the author of ‘Policing: an introduction to concepts and practice’ and ‘Organised Crime’ and now lives in Wolverhampton.

1982 was a year of new beginnings. For the Tettenhall Club it was the year that we received our Rotary Charter whilst for Nick Owen it was the start of a new chapter in his television career as he joined the fledging commercial breakfast station TV-AM.

As we are both celebrating 30 years in business it was appropriate then that Nick should join us tonight as the speaker at our anniversary dinner.

With a career which has taken him from the birth of breakfast television in the UK, to presenting flagship sports programmes and with his colleague Anne Diamond to forming part of one of the most famous double acts on television Nick entertained us with a wealth of anecdotes.

Originally from Birkhamsted but schooled in Shrewsbury Nick has now made the Midlands his home and he is passionate about promoting the development of the region – though notably this does not extend to his choice of football team as he remains loyal to the team of which he is now Chairman, Luton Town.

With such a polished performance its easy to see why Nick was named Speaker of the Year by the Association of Speakers Clubs and we are grateful to him for helping to make our 30th Anniversary Dinner such a memorable event.