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Recent happenings

Don Graham: Cyprus a Divided Island: A presentation to the Rotary Club of Scarborough Cavaliers 29th April 2026.

Don Graham entertained the club members with a most interesting and informative presentation, enhanced by excellent photos. His presentation began with a photograph of a Vulcan bomber flying over Scarborough Castle, with him on board.

He explained that he grew up in Scarborough and was an apprentice at Arundale’s Garage in Northway before joining the RAF where he was to serve for 31 years, rising to the rank of a senior staff officer.

Don explained that Britain had administered Cyprus from its Sovereign Base Areas since the 19th century. He outlined how the island’s later tensions centred on the Greek concept of “Enosis,” the aim of uniting Greek-populated areas with Greece. The Turkish Cypriot community opposed Enosis and instead favoured partition.

The principal leaders of the Greek population were Archbishop Makarios and George Grivas. Makarios became President of Cyprus under a UN formed joint government. Grivas was the leader of the Greek Cypriot terrorist group EOKA which conducted atrocities against the Turkish population and killed 371 UK military personnel. Grivas died in January 1974. In July that year the Pro Greek troops took over the whole of the Island which led to Turks invading on 20th July 1974.

Don described how he was transferred from Akrotiri to Nicosia Airport and watched the battle on the Nicosia Plain. From there he took part in patrols of the nearby villages that had suffered in the war. He told the tale of finding an old lady in an abandoned house. She had no shoes, so he gave her his. She gave him an English penny in return, a custom in Cyprus when you receive a gift. The penny was passed around at the meeting.

The Turkish invasion led to a settlement that divided the island, north and south by the “Green Line.” The outcome of the dispute was that 200,000 Greeks and 60,000 Turks were displaced, and an estimate of 6,000 killed. Cyprus was then and is now divided.

Don was thanked by the members in the usual way (and a donation made to don's charity Puliminory Fibrosis). Report by Doug Johnson. (THANKS Doug). 

LOOK OUT: By popular request Don is coming to talk to us again on 3 June "Anglian Odyssey" - details follow.

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Illustrated talk by Roger Chapman-Scarborough Cavaliers Club Photographer 4th March 2026

Roger Chapman gave a most interesting and entertaining presentation about his interests and examples of his work as Rotary Cavaliers club photographer.

Roger began his talk by apologising for the number of aircraft in the presentation. He then showed a video called AirVenture Oshkosh 2006 which showed the huge array of aircraft which were displayed at Wittman Regional Airport in Wisconsin, USA.

This was followed by a video of an American Police motorcycle show, demonstrating the skill and control of a police motorcycle instructor and his trainee pupil.

The third video was called Big Bombers over Arizona and showed a Flying Fortress and Liberator bombers flying over the spectacular canyons of Arizona.

The next video was from the Institute of Advanced Motorists which described IAM techniques for joining a motorway and driving on country roads.

Roger then showed a collection of his excellent photos from the RAF Fairford 2016 Air Tattoo, showing aircraft and vehicles.

He finished with a selection of nostalgic photos that he had taken as Rotary Cavaliers Club Photographer.

Roger took questions from members and was thanked in the usual way. {Report by Doug Johnson}.

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Maria Kitching: the Sporting Initiative of Cloughton and Burniston Village Hall 29th October 2025

Maria Kitching gave a most interesting and informative presentation about the renovation of Cloughton and Burniston Village Hall and its sporting facilities.

She set out the history of the village hall with the land being donated in 1934 and the hall being built in the 1960’s.

Maria explained how the hall and the three tennis courts had deteriorated and needed upgrading.

A three-year strategy for maintenance and improvement was planned. The first part was the repairing of the three bridges for access to the site at a cost of about £30,000 and the planting of 400 trees.

The second phase was the renovation of the tennis courts, converting the three courts into two tennis courts and one multi-purpose court for basketball and football at an approximate cost of £120,000. Events such as Burniston Rocks and Cloughton Open Gardens were held to raise funds and grants were received from Sport England and North Yorkshire Council.

Phase 3 is a proposal to build a skateboard park with an estimated cost of £100,000.

The hall has been modernised and has had solar panels and a new heating system fitted.

Children from the local school have been involved and have produced posters for the path to the Cinder Track highlighting the picking up of litter and dog mess.

The initiative has raised around £300,000 from various sources.

Maria took questions from members and was thanked in the usual manner. {Doug Johnson}

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Fascinating presentation by Andrew Ormiston on Wednesday 17th September 2025 "A coppers lot"

As an Ex CID officer with West Yorkshire Police, I was interested to learn about his work.

Andrew is a retired Det Sgt in the Metropolitan Police and for a number of years he was seconded to the Undercover Unit of the Met Police, which entailed building relationships with people suspected of being involved in serious crime including robberies, burglary and drug trafficking. As a result of this he had to change his appearance e.g. grow his hair like a ponytail and look the part of a criminal. The most important thing was to gain the confidence of these people.

Andrew gave an example of being asked to drive for T.N.T which is a large transport company and some of their drivers were suspected of trafficking drugs from Spain and other continental countries. He found that job quite strenuous and did not envy the work carried out by normal HGV drivers. He spoke about his work for approximately 40 minutes and was very knowledgeable about how the underworld work. He had to be careful how he presented his evidence to the courts and at the same time keeping his identity secret.

At the end of the presentation, he was asked about where the drugs were distributed on the continent. He admitted his job was very dangerous and he did claim that he had received commendations for his work. {Alan Haigh}

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Defying Dr Beeching a very impressive in depth presentation by Lisa Williams.,

Lisa, a qualified train driver and General Manager with her husband Alan as the Chair; of the Esk Valley Community Rail Partnership.Additionally, Peter Myers, Chair of the Yorkshire Coast Community Rail Partnership gave an equally high standard presentation of his area of responsibility.

The Esk Valley Railway, Middlesbrough to Whitby, is funded by the Dept. of Transport and enjoys a £7M donation from the areas potash mine. Many improvements have been made at the stations along the line, including the toilets at Glaisdale. A major success is the Forget me Not Train aimed at people experiencing dementia, who can travel with their Carer. Activities during the journey include live music and hand massage. Along with other services there is a New Years Day Special. Dogs travel free, which has encouraged use by walkers and high media coverage has enhanced this with a 9% annual increase of passengers.The partnership employs as volunteers Station Adopters who carry out local maintenance and improvements. Lisa concluded by stating their ambition to commence a 2 hourly train service.

Meeting 26th Aug: Alan Banks introduces us to Boccia 

Boccia, a ball game suited (but not exclusively) to the elderly and disabled is played from a sitting position on an upright chair. It is an adapted from a combination of Lawn Bowls and the French game Boulle. Two Teams of a varying number. supervised by a mobile umpire sit in a row facing each other some 20-30 feet apart. There is a white ball, the jack, and each player has two leather balls approximately 4 inches in diameter filled with firm heavy material such as sand. Team A has red balls and Team B blue balls.Equal numbers of both teams sit on alternate seats at both ends.(A.B,A,B etc);the game commences when a member of team A tosses the Jack to a favoured position in the area between the two rows of teams. The Jack tosser throws their red ball to get it as near as possible to the Jack. A team B player then throws a blue ball, followed in succession by blue ball players until a blue ball becomes stationary nearer to the Jack than the initial red ball. When this occurs the red ball players in turn throw balls until one rests nearer the Jack than the blue ball or they run out of balls. When one side runs out of balls leaving at least one of the opponents' balls nearer the Jack that team can continue if they wish to throw their remaining balls to try to increase their score or accept the score they had already achieved winning the game. If whilst trying to increase their score their ball is dislodged to leave an opposition ball nearer the hole the win changes to the other team. Several games can be played to constitute a Match.                                                                                                                          Alan Banks , an expert nationally recognized player  introduced the Club to the game of Boccia and supervised a exciting keenly contested match, a first for the Cavaliers Rotary Club. Alan's Boccia group Scarboccia organise games at several centres in Scarborough and it was gratifying to be able to introduce the support group Moving Forward and also a prominent nursing home to Alan and Scarboccia. We wish him well with the excellent work he is undertaking.

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ORANGE THE WORLD Christine Hines from Scarborough Inner Wheel. On 16 Aug

Christine gave us an insight into the international UN supported campaign to raise awareness about violence against women and girls. The campaign “Orange the World” runs from 25th November until 10th December. Inner wheel members will be supporting the effort by walking on 25th November to raise awareness of the violence many women and girls are subjected to.

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Water Wheels in the forge valley - Brian Mulvana on 23 July 

On  23 July we had a highly entertaining and erudite talk from Brian Mulvana. He presented an in-depth account of the water mills in the Forge Valley, and nearby, supported by great images. Water mills dated from over 1,000 years ago and were prolific in the 19^th century – some of them remaining in use until the mid 20^th century and a few  are being revived nowadays.

Mills throughout Forge valley included  Allerston, Brompton  (2), Ayton (2)  with 4 mills at Thornton dale and farther afield with 4 at Scalby beck – and to the north Ramsdale Mill (under restoration). Nearly 30 mills serving the local communities by grinding wheat for flour for the people and grain for the cattle and latterly generating electricity. Thanks to  Brian for an entertaining and informative evening.

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President Handover Occasion July  2nd 2025

This is the time of year the resident President, Kavita handsover her annual duties to the President Elect, Roy. Pauline becomes President Elect for 2026/7. All a bit confusing, however we as a club celebrate this occasion and this year we met at Wydale Hall, Brompton. It was a glorious evening and the guests enjoyed light refreshments whilst taking in the wonderful views across the gardens and wolds in the far distance.

Following a tasteful meal served by hotel staff, the proceedings of the evening began. The photographs show Kavita presenting President Elect, Roy, with the traditional chain of honour. Roy, then inaugurated Pauline as President Elect.

Kavita was kindly gifted with a bouquet of flowers by Pru Butterworth as a gesture for her service to the club over the past year.

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"The Disappearance of Agatha Christie" - insight from Tim Tubbs

 A Coppers Lot. (11 June 2025)

Seven areas of Rotary focus and support