• An Auspicious- Occasion .­""." Why do people annually fight for ~ickets at four guineas <thin 'Ullla g a time for the Chelsea Arts Ball, and p.ay ridiculous. prices to attend in costume and apparent lack of costume at this famou& The Magazine of and well-known congregation of. student foolhardiness? And why, we ask, is there such difficulty in selling Club Dance THE ETON MANOR CLUBS Tickets at only three! and sixpence each? This being the only year in. seven that the Chelsea Arts Ball and the Club Rlseholme Street, Hackney Wick, E.9 "Welcoming in" of the New Year did not fall on the same nights The copyright of all matter, both Engravings and Letterpress, (and mornings) our two roving reporters-suit<lbly guised­ attended both functions to try to find the anSwer. We arrived -il strictly reserved in Great Britain, the Colonies, Dominiom at ten thirty p.m. to find the four bands and the crowd just and the United States of America. warming up for the ordeal ahead. From our box we could see a magnificent pageant of costume and co,lour, dancing No. 372-Vol. XXXVII. JANUARY, 1951. around the tableaux which were assembled in the centre of PRICE 2d. the floor, <lnd we were amused by the antics of some, who it seemed had to draw their spirits from a bottle. Things progressed much as a normal fancy dress dance until midnight, when pepped up by the Dagenham Girl Pipers, and the joy of being able to start the destruction of the first of the. BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE tableaux, .they really got into the mood of the thing. Of course, we are not suggesting that members should imitate this at a Club dance-,-they're much t00' sane???? After this If we were to follow the river Lee from its beginning, we outburst of energy the general. trend seemed to. be towarc!s :should pass through some of Hertfordshire's loveliest districts. Champagne and Cocktails from the adjoining bars, as opposed' 'The little river leaves its parental chalk hills, and babbles to the old Club tradition of six 0" chips and a gherkin at Ma gaily through the beautiful English countryside, gradually Green's during the interval. (We refer, of course, to that' ;gathering strength 'until it reaches North East London,' where salubrious establishment in the Wick Road.) At one a.m., this picturesque river passes through part of London's industrial prompted by the noisy crowd led by our two. selves, a "Knees :areas. up" was started, and Victor Sylvester - catching on very Here the river is considerably improved by the gigantic quickly-:-struck in with the music. However, it didn't com­ pumps which work 24 hours a day helping to swell the river pare with the Club's "Knees up," which lasted three-quarters with best selected sewerage. Quietly on flows the Lee, getting of an hour, thus providing more buyers for foot treatments. sweeter and sweeter, until it reaches Hackney Wick, where it Our general impression, after great deliberations, whilst wait­ 'becomes the only genuine rival to the lower reaches of the ing for the first Tube at five seventeen a.m. the next morning, . Lim Po Po. Here on its broad banks, amid the snow and was that the spirit found at the Chelsea Arts Ball was n.othing ice, the Otters in traditional style hold their annual Christmas to the friendliness and readiness to enjoy oneself found at the morning handic<lp. This ycar the event W<lS enhanced by Club. two things-one the Television camera, and the other by As well known (henceforth} speakers on this subject, we '''The Man in Black." The television part was straightforward would advocate greater publicity of Our available assets, keep ·enough, but within five minutes of the film being shown the to decent bands and, who: knows,. we'll yet see a clamouring B.B.C. were snowed under with telephone messages, all to the crowd of students and "tophatters" waiting for spare tickets. :same effect-"Who· is the Man in Black?" and "Who is the at the door. This being due to the enormous sales to members man with the strange Dyall?" and black market selling•. The swimmers arrived at the start in grand style, i.e., the Wishful thinking-who knows? young stepping lightly and the old swaying tightly; here they queued for their Tot and their Tet, A. & B. Then up the Two 0' THE 'ERBERTS. steps the M.LB. with a thermometer to take the temperature 'Of H20. The race took place, but is of little consequence, as the M.LE. did not take part. For the reference book, one -competitor fell in 36 seconds before he was due to go, but he IN THE AIR would have won anyway. Then the cameras began to whirr again, and there was theJ M.LB. giving aW<ly turkeys and By SPARROW Christmas pudding (note of interest, 60,000 birds died of fowl Without exactly meeting with a deal of SUCCeSS, the Club pest last week), and smiling benevolently at all and sundry. was for a time opened on Saturday evenings for members. So,me of the shrewd nuts amongst you might connect the Nothing in particular was laid on, just the usual '1'able Tennis, losi!}g oIf one small Otter (it was a big splash for a wee, lad I), Billiards, Cup of Tea and Cake arourid the fire. This did the M.I.B. and that Stone. Some of the shrewder nuts might not seem to appeal to the members; perhaps they wanted eyen be able to work out why it is that some of the, buns that something different on this particular evening? After several Mrs. Foreman sells are called Scones! Saturday evenings of almost deserted Club, it became apparent Since the race the Otters have changed considerably; they that a great deal of smoke was going up the chimney for the have installed Toni apparatus at the Baths, had their names sake of a very small number of members. After some five embroidered in silk on their trunks, used suntan lotion, and years of uncertain peace, most of the Club Sections are back put lavender in the showers. Quite a number of them will, at their pre-war level, many of them are indeed bigger and jf you can get them down to earth, subconsciously autograph more successful than ever. It has now become necessary for your collar. Esther, at centre forward in the Polo, team last the CI~b to· remain. o:pen almost every Saturday evening during week was seen to' pause in the act of scoring when he mistook the wmter months In order to cope with the. number of a bloke with glasses, who was eating a banana, for a camera­ Dances, Concerts, Boxing Tournaments, and other functions. man! One of the most important aims of the. Club is to try to And so as the mighty river flows on, we say farewell to please everybody; something entirely . different has been this. land of milk and honey, and leave you with the problem, arranged for Saturday ·'evening, January 27th. "Flicks" is the "Who is the Man in Black?" operative word for this particular evening. The older mem­ bers will get a lot of fun by bringing the wife and kids along, Po~tscri'Pt. Who would have thought that the Spurs would beat the Arsenal? Mr. Fox gave everyone in the Club that and can sleep content in the knowledge that he has given his evening a cigar and a double whiskey before dropping off into family a night out. The cost is only 6d., and we will let his usual nocturnal slumbers around the fire in the Veterans' the kids in free. Don't forget tJ;u; date; the programme will Club. be Victor McLaglen in "CaptainF\lry," supported by a Charlie Chaplin, Cartoons, News, etc. Come along, all of you, for a "THE MOOSE." really enjoyable evening. - a J annar:v. 1951 ORiB-WAG 3 CHIN-WAG January 1951 2 darts camp. petered out through lack of suPPdt and Ber 'a little slow getting the ball away after gammg possession. This opportunity is taken of thankiii-g all members .who Half-time arrived with no score. Eton continued to attack, have in some measure helped us with our dance preparations. 'Club Camp. f 1 Cole and A. A. Thompson .are now th7 prou owners 0 f With the present weathe-r it does seem a httIe ou~ 0 Pbace ·efforts by Harry Lee, Guy, Prodrick going close. After 15 To those who have sold tickets, and others, thank you. new scarves as a result of their prowess With. a c,ue .. ·minutes play in the second half Ilford took the lead rather t write about Camp. Even the thought (if runmng a (iut Side by side, amid all the hubbub of Chnstmas .Eve, unJ,>e •. A member of the Rugby Club, Reg Carrington is a patient cliul in nothing other than a pair of shorts makes you s~uggle luckily through a miskick by Laurie Griffiths. Ilf?rd's outside at the London Chest Hospital. All visitors will find him in turhed by the click of snooker balls, the ste,:dy purr of coms. -1eft sent in a harmless centre along the ground close to the goal, down under the blankets, and take an extra five mmutes on the shove-halfpenny board and the .monastIc. chant(?). of th~, Ward 1c. A few members visited Reg on Christmas morning thinking about getting up.