Master Joiner and Ceiler's Charity Ball
On Saturday 24 April 2010, The Master held a Charity Ball for his chosen charity, Botton Village. Over 100 guests congregated at the Cobham Hilton to enjoy a sumptuous meal in a room beautifully decorated with special centre pieces created by Gill Cornelius, and be entertained as well. The principal part of that entertainment was a murder mystery directed by, and starring, the Master’s sister Mrs Mary Taylor. Each table was given an explanatory sheet and the mystery was acted out in three Acts between each of the courses with the players walking the tables and answering questions strictly in their roles. At the end there was a final question and answer session and all tables submitted their decisions on who was guilty of the murder before the murderer was revealed. The prize of a bottle of champagne went to the winning table of loudly cheering young people from the Master’s Church. Thanks to all the other members of Mary’s Players – Heather Ganderton, Mel Cook, Waqar Siraj, Jason Lambert and last minute substitute Nick from The Killing Game, who generously provided the script free of charge. David Adams of Botton Village talked about the charity and the Master said a few words. The entertainment was capped by a very funny 10 minutes with amateur comedian Mike Richards whose most memorable joke was “I had a bit of a drugs problem when I was young; I couldn’t spell paracetemol!”
During the meal raffle tickets were sold and a silent auction took place with many excellent items donated free by generous sponsors including a villa on a golf course in Portugal, a cottage in Gloucestershire, two bottles of superb vintage wines, lunch and an update on global investment markets at Henderson Global Investors, a bottle of fine port, rounds of golf at both Hendon and Hadley Wood Golf Clubs and a garden lighting system. The highlights of the raffle were a magnum of champagne (that was generously auctioned by the winner) and an enormous fruit basket with a bottle of champagne in the centre. There was also a competition to guess the value of a large box of products from the exclusive Rituals Store by the enterprising and dynamic young manager. The evening was rounded off with music from the band “Grand Central” up till 1am following which the hardy few adjourned to the bar. Rumour has it the Master was last in bed at 3.50am! A fantastic evening was enjoyed by all and an additional £6,500 was raised for Botton Village which was a tremendous result.