6:00am Saturday 6th March 2010
By Tim Dunkley
ALTHOUGH Mr and Mrs Moore are long gone, their memories live on in the minutes books of Romsey Working Men’s Conservative Club.
A note from 1928 reveals that the Moores were congratulated on their golden wedding “which went unnoticed in the local paper”.
The committee made an allowance of £20 per annum “so that you may be able to drink their health and smoke the old pipe when sitting in the armchair enjoying the paper”.
Founded in December 1883, Romsey Working Men’s Conservative Association used to meet in the Dolphin Hotel and the town hall.
Records show that the first president, Thomas Strong, provided “two chessboards with men complete; two draughts boards with men complete; two boxes of dominoes; six packs of cards and two cribbage boards - all for which he was duly thanked”.
In July 1886, a Mr Scorey let the ground-floor rooms of the old Swan Inn, at 13 Market Place, to the association for £25 per annum, which included coal and gas. Subject to Mr Scorey giving a subscription of £1 per annum, the offer was accepted.
The front room was for reading and the back room for smoking. A bar was installed in 1920.
Steve Wilkinson is in his seventh year as club chairman. The 53-year-old, who owns a building maintenance company, has been a member for 36 years and played in the snooker team for 33 years.
The present-day Romsey Cons A snooker team play in Division 1 of the Southampton & District Social Clubs League.
Or rather they haven’t for the past two weeks.
First, they arrived at Shirley Social B - and Shirley Social B didn’t (they’ve since been kicked out of the league).
And then Acorn Social rang to cancel at kick-off time.
Joint captain Darren Pile refused to rise to the bait. “If they’ve got their problems, they’ve got their problems,” he said. “We don’t want any team to have any problems.”
Teams defaulting forfeit a 3-0 defeat.
However, joint captain Matt Perry pointed out: “It’s quite annoying because be beat Acorn 4-1 away (in October).
“It’s never happened to me before, two games on the trot. We’d always go away with a team, even if it was just three of us.
“We get on so well, we do try our hardest for each other.”
As Clive served up his famous sandwiches, the names of Romsey Cons legends Bernard Browne and the late Harry Channell dominated the conversation.
Daryl Thomas recalled playing Channell after cleaning the tables on Saturday mornings aged 15.
“I didn’t get to play Bernard, unfortunately,” said the 24-year-old.
Pile said: “They were fantastic guys. They were the top boys. They were very influential in the team.”
And Brian Perry added: “They wouldn’t ease up on you because you were a beginner. They’d kick you’re a***.”
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