Pegasus Caving Club
aka Pegasus Club Nottingham
The Pegasus Annual Reunion 20th October 2018
The annual club get together took place on a nice bright afternoon at the “Horse and Groom” pub in Basford, Nottingham on Saturday October 20th 2018.
It was amazingly well attended and at least forty people arrived at the pub which turned out to be a pub with no beer. There was shock and then disbelief as the bar lady announced that there was only one beer at the pumps where normally they would have been serving several very good beers with loads of choice. That was one of the reasons why this pub venue was chosen in the first place as the location is hardly picturesque. To add insult to injury that one lone beer was the ordinary Shipstone’s bitter. Now as most know, the Pegasus members are renowned for their lifetime devotion to exceptional tasting fine ales and beers. This Shippo’s beer was not one of them!
To be fair to the bar lady she put a second beer on much later in the afternoon but it was cloudy and undrinkable. To appease the Pegasus clientele we got our “buffet for nowt” and it was quite tasty.
This could have been a real disaster as people had made significant effort to be there from all parts of England while James Cobbett and his wife Marilyn for example came all the way from Panama for the occasion. Cheg and Aileen Chester together with Pat Cronin travelled from Co Clare in Ireland, Mick Logan from Switzerland.
Despite this the Pegasus camaraderie and life time friendships made up for the lack of good beer. After all conversations and laughter were more important and there was plenty of catching up to do.
It was heartening to see Margaret Widdowson in good spirits after the death of Gren Blatherwick her lifelong friend and ultimately her partner. We will all miss Gren in our own way as he was a generous, lovely, happy soul. He touched on so many of our lives whether it be with the Pegasus or the folksinging world in Nottingham . His funeral was attended by many of the Pegasus people. A good send off for a good lad.
Barry and Ceily Sudell, Dave Gough and Cheg Chester felt duty bound to sample the delights of the Nottingham Beer Festival in its new venue at the “Motorpoint Arena” better known to Nottingham folks as the Ice Stadium. They were not impressed by the venue as it lacked the ambience and atmosphere of those festivals formerly held in Nottingham Castle.
It has been suggested that next year we look for a new pub with excellent beer, plenty of parking space for cars and a place to store the Zimmer frames!
One suggestion has been 'The Plough Inn' in Radford owned by the Nottingham Brewery. What are your thoughts on a new venue? Suggestions to chegchester@yahoo.co.uk please.
Barbara Wright
Those Present (but not necessarily correct)
Bari (Mick) Logan, Barbara & Terry Wright, Melvin Batchford, Malc Debbage, Dave Epton, Paul & Judith Thompson, Mick Edwards, Tony & Ruth Marshall, Alan & Sue Harrison, Bob & Maggie Proctor, Aileen & Cheg Chester, Kathryn Bingham, Jenny Dakin, Mick & Sue Cast, Paul Reavill, Victor Holland, Barrie & Janet Parker, Alan Steans, Sam Garrard, Bob Holland, Andy Walchester, Margaret Widdowson, James & Marilyn Cobbett, Pat Cronin, Darren Hind, Roger Hall, Malc Scothern, Barry & Ceily Sudell, Simon Haliday & Pat Eaves.
BEST turnout yet, keep up the good work.