Category: Speakers

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Howard Drury – Garden Time

A couple of weeks of wonderful Spring weather has got most people thinking about what to do with their gardens this year so it was excellent timing to hear from an old friend of the Club tonight, TV gardening expert Howard Drury.

With the weather due to turn however and snow about to hit the region Howard explained the steps we should take to protect plants which had been fooled into an early start and which could be damaged by the cold snap.
Howard – who can be found at Ashwood Nurseries most Sundays – is convinced that we are in for a dry spell this summer and in years to come and he encouraged people to do their bit to conserve water by adopting traditional watering techniques and to start to change the way that they plant their gardens by introducing drought tolerant plants.
Rounding of the evening with a question and answer session Howard gave us all some great ideas to take away.
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Geoff Hill MBE

Its always a pleasure to meet Rotarians from other Clubs and this evening we were joined by Geoff Hill, a member of the Rotary Club of Stourbridge.



Geoff’s electrical store in Amblecote is a local institution and he shared with us the story of how he had made his start in retailing and how he was eventually able to use his lifetime of retail experience to launch a chain of retail shops on behalf of The Mary Stevens Hospice in Stourbridge.

The Hospice provides free specialist palliative care to the people of Dudley Borough and surrounding areas of South Staffordshire, Wyre Forest, Hereford & Worcester and Sandwell who have a non-curative illnesses such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, motor neurone disease, Parkinson’s disease, end stage renal or cardiac disease, HIV / AIDS.

Over 80% of the Hospice’s annual running costs are generated by donations from the local community including the invaluable contribution which the retail outlets which Geoff established continue to make.
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Roger Wilkinson – Monty had the right idea

We were joined this evening by Coach Roger Wilkinson formerly a player with Plymouth Argyle and Luton Town, a coach with Crystal Palace, West Bromwich Albion and the New Zealand under 17 and 20 teams and director of coaching for the New Zealand Football Association.

Now living in Wolverhampton Roger explained how a shared coaching ethos with John Cartwright led the two of them to found Premier Skills – a local not for profit company with a worldwide reach – where he is now a Director of Coaching.

Roger and the team at Premier Skills are convinced that the current FA approach to the development of players and coaching staff simply does not work and through their development of their Practice Play system they have sought to replicate the conditions which made the street football of the 50’s and 60’s such a great incubator for British footballing talent.

Its not surprising that the team at Premier Skills take part of their inspiration from the great Liverpool sides of Shankly and Paisley but it was a little more of surprise to hear how important a role Field Marshall Montgomery has played in the development of their system.
Roger explained how Monty had understood the need to focus on the job at hand, the need to get the morale right within the team, the importance of knowing your enemy, of surrounding yourself with good people and of clearly communicating to all both the culture he expected of them and their objectives.
Premier Skills have translated this onto the football field by ensuring that everyone understands the game style which they are working towards, the importance of governing the ball, the need to go forward with purpose, to create clever chances and to maximise finishing opportunities. Training is focused on playing football rather than ball games.
Roger stressed the importance of not only winning but winning with style and the Club wishes him and the rest of the team at Premier Skills every success in bringing about their coaching revolution.
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District Governor elect talks rubbish

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.

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Policing in the Sixities

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.

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Nick Owen – 30 years in television

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.

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Charles Green – Regeneration and the City

Wolverhampton has had its share of bad news over the last few years with the collapse of the Summer Row Retail Development in the City Centre and a seemingly never ending rise in the unemployment numbers.

Tonight we were joined by Charles Green, the Interim Strategic Director of Education and Enterprise at Wolverhampton City Council. Charles has a planning background and was involved in the successful Salford Quays Development near Manchester. He now works as a troubleshooter with local authorities and has joined Wolverhampton City Council with the object of turning the Council from an organisation which is strong on development strategy into one which is strong on development delivery – no mean feat given that his is an interim appointment- and one which delivers opportunities for all in the City.

Charles was able to share with us some of the work which had been involved in securing the recent investments from Jaguar Land Rover and of the plans which were now in place to capitalise on that investment and the infrastructure and facilities that would be available at the i54 development by attracting in JLR suppliers and aerospace engineering companies.

Whilst Charles admits that there is no quick fix for the City Centre retail core and that the current climate makes any large scale development unrealistic he made it clear that the Council were now listening to local developers to understand what smaller scale development and refocusing of the High Street was feasible.

With the stated aim of of ensuring prosperity for all in the City we wish Charles and his colleagues well in their work.

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Martyn Morgan – Education a Personal Perspective

Our Club has worked closely with Smestow School in Wolverhampton over a number of years so we were pleased to welcome Martyn Morgan, the School’s new headmaster, to our meeting this evening.

Raised on a Council estate in Wolverhampton, educated in the City and the first in his family to go to University Martyn sees himself as proof that education can change lives and he looks to make the same possible for all of the students at Smestow.

Martyn praised the role of the mentors from the Club and from Tettenhall Inner Wheel for the work which they are doing with students at the school in helping them to achieve their potential. Notwithstanding the pressures that are placed on schools to achieve exam success Martyn stressed the need for them to provide a rounded education and in working with Rotary he believes that the School is sending a message that the education of whole child matters.

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Wolverhampton MS Therapy Centre

Rotary has always recognised the powerful difference which can be made when local people work together -putting service before self – for the benefit of their community.
Over the years Rotarians from the five Rotary Clubs of Wolverhampton have translated this into action and have been involved in the foundation and operation of many local charities including Compton Hospice and the  Wolverhampton MS Therapy Centre.
This year the Centre celebrates its 25th Anniversary and we were joined tonight by Wolverhampton Rotarian Peter Williams to tell us about its history, its current work and its future development.
The Centre operates a Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber which helps to relieve the extreme fatigue which sufferers feel. It also offers a range of physiotherapy and reflexology services designed to alleviate some of the more distressing symptoms of the disease and to help sufferers to cope a little better with everyday life. Many of the services are provided with the assitsatnce of trained volunteers and Peter explained that more volunteer assistance was needed if the Charity is to continue its vital work into the future. Looking to the future the Centre has recently acquired additional premises which it is in the course of developing to provide further support for its users.
If you’d like to volunteer to help the Centre to continue its work or to make a donation towards its annual running costs of over £90,000 the Centre would love to hear from you and the Centre Manager can be contacted on 01902 744888.
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John Richards- a Wolves Legend

John Richards doesn’t make habit of speaking to Rotary Clubs so we were over joyed when he agreed to support his old Round Table friends in the Club by agreeing to speak at tonight’s meeting.

John entertained us with tales of his days playing with fellow Wolves legends Derek Dougan, Steve Kingdon and Danny Hegan amongst others. While at the Club he experienced both ups and downs – with UEFA cup run excitement, League Cup victories and relegation to the lower leagues. It’s clear that John thinks that the modern game has lost something in its focus on avoiding relegation at all costs and he looks for a return to the time when cup glory mattered to both players and fans.

Originally from Warrington John’s connection with Wolverhampton spans 42 years now and he described to us not only the sense of privilege in playing for the Wolves but also his gratitude for the way in which its fans have and continue to treat him.

John is still involved with football and through his involvement with Pitchcare he gave us something of an insight in how technology affects every aspect of the game – even down to blade of grass. We’re grateful to John for sharing his stories with us and wish him continued success.