FALMOUTH IN THE ’80s (21)

Councillors Condemn Cinema As ‘Appalling . . . Dangerous . . . A Disgrace’

Two of the most prominent and long-running topics regularly covered in the Falmouth Packet of the 1970s and ‘80s were the town’s dire car parking problems – specifically the debate over a possible multi-storey car park – and the future of its old-established cinema, alternately known as the Grand and the ABC. In early 1985, the two clashed head-on. A few years earlier, a Save Our Cinema campaign had won much support, but things were different now, with local councillors savaging the state of the place.

 

At the February meeting of the town council’s planning committee, the Grand was labelled “a positive disgrace,” with a call for it to be pulled down to make way for more parking. Mayor Douglas Martinsuggested a multi-storey car park (MSCP) should be built in its place – with another one at Town Quarry, and a new cinema beneath it! With county council officers also attending, the committee was discussing various options in the Draft Local Plan. Councillor Mrs Olive White, a former Mayor, complained: “The cinema at the moment is a positive disgrace. It’s falling down anyway; it doesn’t need pulling down. If you get half a dozen people in there, you’re lucky. That isn’t because of the films being shown, it’s because of the condition of the cinema.” Councillor Martin agreed: “The place is in an appalling condition; it could even be described as dangerous. The district council could buy it and earmark it for an MSCP.” Councillor Mrs Brenda Bailey said people would no longer want to fight for the Grand in the way they had in 1978, when a car park had first been suggested for the site.  

 

‘I Quit – I’m Closing The Grand’

 

Eleven months later, in January, 1986, the Grand was back in the news with the announcement by its operator, Norman Whale, that it was to close at the end of the month, leaving the town with no cinema and a dozen staff out of work. He had “had enough,” he said, and had handed the lease back to EMI.  “Nobody seems to want the cinema any more and there’s been a lot of upset among the staff,” he added, citing falling attendance figures and financial losses. Mr Whale, who lived in Somerset, said he would continue to lease Truro’s Plaza Cinema, where he ran “a very successful business with a happy staff.” He explained that he had rejected the option of purchasing the Grand from EMI and commented: “I have no idea what will happen to the building after January.  Truro is now the place for everything in Cornwall and I shall be concentrating my time on developing the Plaza.”

 

However, one of his Falmouth staff, cashier and key holder, Mrs Cynthia Hampshire, went public with her frustration, claiming the Grand could become profitable again “if someone was prepared to spend money on repairs.” She was “in despair” over the planned closure and she and her colleagues were all “very upset and amazed” by the decision.  On the building’s current condition, she said: “The grand old lady has been showing her knickers lately and is in a terrible state. We have been operating for the last two months with no phone and we’ve had no fresh supplies of sweets and chocolate since October; we can only sell ice cream and drinks. Many of our customers are very angry about this.” She also claimed that heating had not been switched on in the cinema until November, with patrons regular ly bringing hot water bottles and blankets with them.  “There’s not even toilet paper in the toilets and when people pay a visit they have to come and ask staff for paper. It’s terrible. Mrs Hampshire said a ceiling in the freezer store had collapsed and that the stage and floor of the cinema were “dripping wet” from rain water leaking in.

 

But Mr Whale countered that staff had been “a problem” and were partly to blame for the closure. New supplies of refreshments were not delivered because members of staff were not available there for morning deliveries, he claimed. As well as “a lot of problems with staff,” he had inherited a bad heating system when he took over the Grand.  The heating was now on and the problems were “nowhere near as bad as Mrs Hampshire is making out,” he argued.  

 

Action Group Formed To Combat ‘Years Of Neglect’

 

Annoyed by what it called “years of neglect” by Carrick District Council, a Falmouth Action Group was formally established to act on behalf of the town’s ratepayers.  A 40-strong team of workers began visiting local homes and in the first three days had attracted more than 500 paid-up members, leading to a claim that the new body was already Falmouth’s strongest pressure group.

 

Acting chairman of the group – effectively a strong ratepayers association – was prominent Falmouth estate agent and now former borough councillor Ruth Jones/Dunstan, figurehead in a vigorous campaign against the controversial Well Lane multi-storey car park scheme, which had split the town in two.  “I feel Falmouth has been neglected ever since the local government reorganisation of 1974,” she said. “I want to see the historic proportions protected and the commercial section built up on the best possible lines . . . The action group will be consultative.  There will be a voice and we will address each matter as it turns up.  The important thing is to give the residents a voice.  They are the only ones in the town who are not organised.”

 

There was early action when the group stepped up opposition to the Well Lane scheme with an 11^th hour plea to Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine to intervene before an upcoming meeting of Carrick Council.  In a telegram, the group said its members unanimously opposed the scheme, which was “based partially on false premises and (is) being hastily processed entirely against the wishes of the large majority of residents in order to gain Government grant.” The telegram added: “This folly disastrous for Falmouth and will not, repeat not, solve traffic problems.  Furthermore, members totally support adoption Town Quarry site.  Please intervene.”

 

In November, 1982, the group announced that it was “going into cold storage” following its “magnificent victory” against the Well Lane scheme – but it would remain ready to spring into action again in the event of another controversial planning application affecting the town.  Miss Jones told the group’s annual meeting: “We know from our MP that the Secretary of State feels that such action groups are immensely valuable, but most valuable when they spring up as we did – really motivated by one or more major problems.”

 

Councillors Up In Arms Over Loss Of Court

 

A healthy rivalry has existed between Falmouth and Penryn ever since the former had the cheek to begin existing and then grow far ahead of the latter even though it was so much younger.  Imagine the emotions, therefore, when Falmouth had the cheek to “steal” Penryn’s magistrates court! That’s what happened in early 1985 and Penryn Town Council, for one, took a pretty dim view of it. 

 

Barely a month before the great move was scheduled to come about, the councillors got to hear of it for the first time.  At their January meeting, members rued the imminent loss of the court, which had been held in the Town Hall for at least 400 years. They were about to lose “another piece of Penryn prestige to Falmouth,” a town more than 400 years younger than its neighbour albeit now nearly four times larger. Of immediate concern was the lost revenue, with the town council having spent some £60,000 in the late 1970s on improvements to the building, especially the magistrates court section.  Mayor John Pollard pointed out: “They rent the courtroom on a 12-month basis. I would have thought we should have had 12 months’ notice of their intentions.” Moreover, some form of justice had been administered in Penryn from the time of its charter, 1236.

 

Councillor John Barringer said: “They have been our tenants for over 400 years. To walk out without saying goodbye I think is blatantly bad manners. We certainly feel aggrieved that the first we heard of it is a notice in the press and a small typewritten slip saying the court would move. The main part of the building was refurbished five or six years ago, mainly to bring the court side of the operation up to a workable standard.”

 

Town clerk Reg Chegwidden said the clerk to the magistrates, Mr R Sefton Sidle, had been very apologetic about the situation. He said the wheels at County Hall had not turned as fast as they should have done and the council should have been notified some time ago. Councillor Jack Chinn reminded members that two of the last men to be hanged in Britain for murder had begun their trial at Penryn. 

 

The meeting heard that an old church hall in Falmouth had been converted into a court complex at a cost of £175,000 and a spokesman for the county council’s magistrates clerks committee later said the decision to move had been made by the Penryn justices themselves and no pressure had been brought on them. “The reasons were that we have a far superior building in which to hold courts,” said the spokesman,”and not only that, all the staff are under one roof.” Even though they would be moving to Falmouth, they would still be Penryn magistrates and would deal with all the cases normally brought before them. The reason for the short notice to the council, he said, was that the decision had only been made in the previous month.   

 

RIP MARK NORTON, ENTREPRENEUR, ‘PASTY KING’ AND GOOD FRIEND

The Cornish business community has lost a powerful and much-admired figure with the death after a short illness of Mark Norton, aged 60, who was best known as head of the Scorrier-based Prima Bakeries Group.

 

After his takeover of Prima in 2010, it went on to become the county’s fastest-growing bakery, expanding tenfold over the next 14 years.

 

But Mark had already made a big impression west of the Tamar with his earlier entrepreneurial ventures.

 

And it was my great good fortune to have met him at the start of his Cornish business life, circa 2000.

 

We soon began working together, quickly establishing a strong rapport and becoming genuine good friends in the process.

 

So much so that he was one of the very last clients I “let go” when winding down my PR business in the early 2010s.

 

I continued to write a fair few words about him from time to time in my various columns and blog posts.

 

One of my favourites takes me back to Mark’s very early days in Cornwall, and I reproduce it here, first published in January, 2022:--

 

THANK GOODNESS I NEVER REFUSED A FREE LUNCH!

 

My dawn diversion into town the other day also included a sighting that took me back 20 years or more and to a major Cornish success story of the past decade.

 

The “sighting” was of a Prima Bakeries delivery lorry.  It reminded me of the time when I of all people – renowned for always putting my stomach first, or so I’m told – almost missed out on a free lunch, and a whole lot more besides.

 

The year was 2000, give or take, and I was the PR man for Cornwall Association of Tourist Attractions (CATA).

 

As per usual, I was attending one of their monthly meetings, which always ended with lunch.

 

Only this time the morning-long meeting was running seriously late.  Some of us were even shuffling in our seats as we knew there was still a guest speaker to come, which meant another half-hour or so before nosh time.

 

My PR business was at its peak, keeping me flat-out busy and acutely aware of time racing by.  Whisper it, but I even began to contemplate sneaking away, missing that talk – and that lunch.

 

The thought didn’t last long, of course, and thank goodness it didn’t.

 

Despite my own tummy rumbles, I felt sorry for the speaker, but I needn’t have worried – he rapidly had us all hooked with the quality of his presentation.

 

Mark Norton was launching an excellent new Cornwall holiday guide, which turned out to be the first in a stable of similar Norton publications, including his “Classic Walks” series for Cornwall and elsewhere.

 

I duly made myself known to him over lunch and I was soon handling all his PR and gaining a very good friend in the process. He was one of the very last clients to whom I bade farewell when closing down my PR business in 2012.

 

Two years earlier we had met over one of those famous breakfasts (with the reality every bit as good as the reputation) at Smokey Joe’s near Scorrier.

 

There he briefed me on the big story – for a press release on his takeover of Prima Bakeries.  

 

Since then, this long-established Cornish business has been transformed. 

 

Mark and his team went on to grow the business five-fold, increasing staff from 19 to around 100 and becoming a multiple top-three winner in the Eden World Pasty Championships.

 

During lockdown, when others were laying off or furloughing staff, Prima actually recruited more to cope with soaring demand for its products.

 

Quite some success story, then – and yes, I’m so glad I waited for that oh-so-late CATA lunch!

 

For CornwallLive’s report of Mark’s death, see 

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/boss-well-known-cornish-pasty-9750863 

CONGRATULATIONS . . .

. . . to Tommy Matthews on his outstanding success with his book GAME OF TWO HALVES (see previous blog posts). All profits have been donated to Cancer Research UK and the final total is £2,554.    

SOARAWAY CITY SCALE HISTORIC HEIGHTS

Congratulations to Truro City on achieving their highest League position in their 135-year history by going top of the Vanerama National League South with their 4-1 win at Weymouth last night.  

 

Truro, of course, are the only Cornish club ever to have played at this level and the current team’s standard has been rewarded with consistently high attendances at the handsome new stadium.

 

Many observers feared that the figure would drop substantially after the initial novelty back in August, with the historic first match there and also heralding the club’s return to their home city after four years of playing all their fixtures away.

 

But the home crowds have since held up around the 1,500 mark and only dropped significantly – to 1,061 – with last Saturday’s vile Storm Bet conditions, when the pitch, reputedly Premier League standard, held up well.

 

There has been nothing like it in Cornish football – in terms of such consistently high attendance figures – since at least the 1950s, if ever. 

 

Equally encouraging is the presence of a whole new generation of committed and passionate younger supporters who were nowhere to be seen in the club’s final days at the old Treyew Ground.

 

It may not be happening in quite the way Kevin Heaney envisaged when he began City’s “revolution” in the early 2000s, but the outlook for the club appears to be brighter and more exciting now that at any time in its long and proud history. 

THE ‘UNREAL’ SCILLIES SERVICE – AND ITS WORLD-BEATING SUCCESSOR

This year is the 60^th anniversary of a landmark change in links between the Cornish mainland and the enchanting Isles of Scilly – bidding farewell to a service that had “an air of unreality,” as one author put it, and welcoming a world-beating successor.

 

The author was David Mudd, MP, journalist and broadcaster, who explained that until 1964 the traveller on the 36-mile route had the feeling of being almost an aviation pioneer.

 

“There was the coach trip from Penzance to St Just airfield,” he wrote*, “the strange ritual of checking in at which the traveller was publicly weighed on an indiscreet balance that transmitted private details to all and sundry. Then, on the basis of weight, the voyager was allocated a seat. But a seat on what?

 

“Surely that diminutive, twin-engined de Haviland Dragon Rapide standing patiently on the grass strip could not be the vehicle for such a journey!  With its slim fuselage and tiny wings, it looked more like an advertising replica than a real-life airliner.  In disbelief, the passengers scrambled aboard.  

 

“The engine roared; the Rapide moved gracefully forward, and just as it seemed it was about to run out of grass and topple over the cliff edge it found its full power and soared upwards and outwards.

 

“(Towards the end of the flight, it would) start a hair-raising descent into St Mary’s airfield. Even this was an improvement, for at one time there was no formal landing strip other than the local golf club.”

 

This would be obligingly cleared of golfers as a bell would ring three minutes before the aircraft was due!

 

But all that changed in 1964 with the arrival of one of British Airways’ first Sikorsky S-61 N helicopters and the transfer of mainland operations from St Just to a purpose-made heliport at Penzance.

 

David quoted Captain Jock Cameron, of British European Airways, as having always argued the possibilities of a helicopter service in West Cornwall.

 

Not only would it be able to beat most weather conditions, except fog, but its greater passenger capacity and reliability would soon justify its introduction.

 

“He was right,” David reflected.  “In its first year it carried more passengers than the three Rapides it had replaced.

 

“From 1964 to 1976, it was, in fact, British Airways’ only profitable domestic route. To add to its uniqueness, it became the only profit-making scheduled helicopter service in the world.”

 

The uniqueness didn’t stop there: “Based on a British Airways ‘family,’ it has the best percentage figures of any passenger service in the world, and proudly claims the European record for flight and time regularity.

 

“Above all, it has proved that – over the right route – helicopters can operate reliable and profitable services without the need for massive staff, large airport facilities, or all the costly impedimenta normally associated with air travel. 

 

“According to Jock Cameron’s own figures, the proof is overwhelming. It cost £6 per passenger to run and maintain Heathrow Airport at 1977 prices. The ground costs per passenger at Penzance and St Mary’s were an unbelievable 40p.”

 

* Cornwall & Scilly Peculiar, published 1979 by Bossiney Books. 

CORNISH FOOTBALLERS ALL SET TO BOOST CANCER RESEARCH

Delighted to confirm that we’re already steaming ahead nicely with the double-header of a Cornish footballers book boost for Cancer Research UK – see blog November 9.

 

After an all-too-long pause for various reasons beyond our control, I have now resumed regular sessions with Mark “Rappo” Rapsey for his sequel book RAPPO’S WORLD OF FOOTBALL FUN.

 

And I’ve fixed to meet up with Andy “Sledge” Street, principally ex-Falmouth Town and Newquay, early next month. He’s already sent me a whole stack of raw material which confirms beyond a doubt that we have another belter of a book on our hands.

 

Here are a few randomly-selected titbits:--

 

The great beer night that was followed by a tournament triumph the next day!

 

Sledge’s Gareth Southgate moment when he was “gutted” after missing a vital penalty – but how it made him a stronger person.

 

Playing 114 times for Cornwall, including captaining them to the County Championship Final . . . and keeping every single selection letter.

 

Being kicked out of the Cornwall Charity Cup – after beating Wadebridge 9-0!

 

Travelling the longest-ever recorded FA competition distance.

 

As for Rappo’s fun, here’s a taster:--

 

The player (not Rappo!) who paid a prostitute NOT to give him pleasure

 

The crazy conclusion to a booze-fuelled “rooftop” race across boats in Amsterdam

 

The hair-raising escapade that produced a bizarre “new signing”

 

A novel way of ruling the roost with a chicken

 

How a warped racket AIDED Rappo’s tennis comeback

 

Finally for now, here’s the first idea for Rappo’s new book cover, created by Colin Pascoe (see that previous blog, November 9):--

 

Colin will also be designing the cover for Sledge’s book, albeit in more conventional style! 

NORMAL SERVICE RESUMED – BUT BRRR, WHAT A SHOCKER!

It was good to be back . . .

As I waited for daughter Lisa to arrive (always three minutes late, bare minimum), I was joined for a chat on Falmouth’s Gyllyngvase Beach by Bruce Rioch, former Scotland football captain and Arsenal manager.

 

Bruce, who knows a thing or two about achieving, said: “I take my hat off to these swimmers, the ones who do it all year round. You’ll never get me doing that.

 

“I have just been standing here on the beach, gazing out in awe at the whole scene, with a fantastic sunrise over the bay and all these swimmers having their daily dip.  It makes me feel cold just looking at them!”

 

For Lisa and me, it was our first sea swim for a week.  All reports yesterday suggested the great jellyfish invasion (see recent blog posts) was all but over – for now, anyway.

 

And with today’s forecast of total sun and precious little wind, how could we resist that grand return?

 

We were not disappointed, but something else I picked up from one of yesterday’s swimmers was that the sea had turned markedly colder.

 

She was not wrong. It fair took our breath away.

 

And, together with today’s drop in the air temperature, there was a very real sense as we got changed afterwards that winter is upon us, for all the glorious dawn this morning.

 

At least all those jellies had gone.  All, that is, except for just one of them, lying dead on the sloping shingle as we walked down to the low-tide water.

 

Small mercies, eh? 

JELLY BAD SHOW, WHAT?

Latest reports from the front indicate that the great jellyfish invasion, although receding, is still far from gone. (See WHAT A SHOCKER – WHO NEEDS JAWS! Blog 04 Nov.)

 

I’ve been without my regular sea-swim fix, at Gyllyngvase Beach on Falmouth’s seafront, for more than a week now and the withdrawal symptoms are setting in alarmingly, I tell you.

 

On Friday, as I checked with a swimmer just leaving the water, the “mauve stingers” were thinning out but were still there in small clumps – and he had duly been stung several times.

 

This morning, I sidled up to another fellow swimmer, still in her dry robe, having decided not to go in, and she told me that a gentleman had just tried his luck but got no further than knee depth before he was surrounded by them.

 

Hopes had risen, with winds now that much more south-ish, rather from the east/south east, which seems to be the direction most likely to drive the little blighters in.

 

This is getting serious.  And I’ve yet to meet any long-term regular who can recall a precedent – and in November of all months! 

 

The normal form is for the jellies to spoil things - albeit not this variety and in nowhere near such numbers - when the sea warms up a bit for a few short weeks at the height of summer. 

A SLIGHT CHANGE IN DIRECTION . . . 

 

STEPPING UP A GEAR: FOOTBALL LEGENDS’ LIFE STORIES TO SUPPORT CANCER RESEARCH

 

The outstanding success of Tommy Matthews’ book - £2,000-plus clear profit for Cancer Research UK in less than a fortnight – has encouraged me to switch my main writing focus from blog-ing to book-ing.

 

The books raise money for a great charity.  The blog, apart from occasionally promoting those books, doesn’t.

I have raised well over £20,000 in the ten years since I retired, writing and publishing 13 limited edition local nostalgia books and, latterly, Cornish footballer life stories.

 

But I’m now kicking myself because it could have been significantly more.

 

That is, I’m sure it would have been so if I’d had Tommy helping me push all these titles in the way he has with his own. He’s shown me, and reminded me, of little ways and means that can make a big difference in sales and marketing.

 

But then you’d expect that from a guy who is not just a great credit to the grand game of football but who was also a newspaper advertising manager in a previous life!

 

So here we go, then, with my “new direction,” namely two Cornish footballer projects under way simultaneously, with every penny profit going to Cancer Research.

 

I had already begun work on the Mark “Rappo” Rapsey sequel – Rappo’s World of Football Fun – and now another towering figure in Cornish soccer has joined the “club.”

 

Step forward Andy Street, one of the biggest names in South West non-League circles in the 1980s, ‘90s and early 2000s, principally with Falmouth Town and Newquay.

 

 

All told, Andy – “Sledge” to his team-mates – played in sides that bagged a massive haul of 30 trophies! He also captained Cornwall and won 114 county caps. 

 

His career also included spells with Nanpean Rovers, Bugle, Bodmin Town and St Blazey.  

 

Rappo’s sequel, meanwhile, has already begun to take shape nicely, and I can promise you a great many entertaining tales from that direction. And those are just the printable ones!

 

As bonus, I have signed up a retired professional illustrator to design the front cover for Rappo’s book in caricature style and to illustrate the chapters with appropriate cartoons.  

 

He’s Colin Pascoe, who by a very neat co-incidence is the son of Tommy Pascoe, who was Falmouth Town’s first skipper (and also a well-known Falmouth cricketer) when the club was reformed in the early 1950s.

  

So that’s how it all looks from here for the moment. Inevitably, my “new direction” will likely see me scaling back somewhat on my blog activity.

 

NO PROMISES, THOUGH  . . . 

 

RIP ERIC DAWKINS

Sad to read of the death of Eric Dawkins, aged 94, a man who made an immense contribution to public life and who gave us so much “added value” with his penchant for entertaining with the unconventional.

Eric was town clerk with Falmouth, Penryn and Truro at various times between 1970 and 2003, with other posts in his long career including  Carrick District Council amenities officer.

 

He was also memorably the man at the helm of Falmouth’s St Nazaire commemorations for over 30 years, as recognised by Falmouth Town Council in 2017 - https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/15259093.eric-dawkins-recognised-again-for-his-dedication-to-st-nazaire-commemorations/

 

Eric has made so many appearances on my blog and in my various columns and books down the years that I really wouldn’t know where to begin right now. 

 

So here’s a couple of my favourites at random. He truly knew how to bring smiles to our faces.

 

TOWN CLERK’S ‘OUTRAGEOUS’ WAY OF MAKING MINUTES READABLE

 

Deservedly or otherwise, council minutes would probably be high up on most people’s lists of reading matter suitable for combatting insomnia.

 

There’s an exception to every rule, of course, and one man who managed to achieve the exact opposite was Falmouth and Penryn town clerk Eric Dawkins, who could even boast that his minutes once made a reporter jump out of his bed!

 

In an interview with him in 1986, he told me it had all been to do with his favourite trick of slipping in outrageously long and little-known words. 

 

I say “outrageously” because these words – or “Dawkinspeak”, as I christened them – were frequently beyond the comprehension of those for whom they were principally written – his councillors – let alone the public at large. 

 

As for that reporter who left his bed, Eric recalled: “He said he usually read council minutes in bed because they sent him to sleep, but when he read mine for the first time he leapt out of bed again to find his dictionary!”

 

Hardly surprising, really, if you had just read this: “A disputatious discussion on the sesquipedalian content of the draft notes for guidance ensued prior to the reconcilement on the utilisation of the budgetary allocation of . . . “

 

“Disputatious,” “reconcilement” and “utilisation” are straightforward enough in meaning, although magnificently supporting the “rule” that you should never use a short word where you can find a long one.

 

But you might well be stumped, as I was, by “sesquipedalian.” So Eric advised: “Use of words over a foot long . . . applying to long words.”  Well, yes, quite so!

 

Then, in the same minutes, came this mouthful: “During the ensuing discussion, it was the opinion that a delegation having a verisimilitude of hermeneutics should meet the county council highways committee chairman to clarify the situation.”

 

This time at least my dictionary came to my aid, as it had not done with “sesqui-etc”.  Verisimilitude: “The appearance or semblance of truth or reality.” Hermeneutics: “The science of interpretation.”

 

“I have achieved what I wanted,” Eric declared.  “People read my minutes.  Some of the council look at them specifically for these words!” 

 

It’s just a pity they so often couldn’t understand them, as per his last set of council minutes before the 1987 local elections, when his final phrases included “a disquisition of dissyllabic monomania” and “a display of noology to the perplexity of members.”

 

THE ‘SHEIKH’ WHO FOOLED THE MAYOR

 

The time is almost upon us for a fresh round of elaborate April Fools Day pranks, but they will have to go some to match one played on the then Mayor of Penryn, John Ashwin, in 1981.

 

In what can only be regarded as one of the great April Fools Day stunts of all time, John was a top-table guest at a Penryn Rotary Club lunch meeting in Falmouth’s Green Lawns Hotel. 

 

He found himself sitting beside another “guest,” in Arab headdress. He was introduced as Sheikh Muhammed Ali Aba Al Khaial, Minister for Finance and Economy in Saudi Arabia.

 

Club president Walter Trevena said a prolonged Muslim grace and, after a split vote the previous week, members had no alcohol with their meal. Their “Arab” guest chopped his lamb into tiny pieces . . . and ate a specially prepared dish of rice with his fingers.  Likewise the strawberry mousse.

 

An interpreter, it was explained, had been delayed on the way over from Newquay Airport, and the “Sheikh” had been brought in by Falmouth Town Clerk Eric Dawkins.

 

The former evidently had no idea what to do when everyone else stood up at the end of the meal for the loyal toast.  So much so that John Ashwin placed a glass in his hand and physically helped him out of his chair.

 

Afterwards, Eric drove the “Sheikh” away – to a nearby location where he took off the Arab headdress loaned by Falmouth’s Workshop Theatre and washed off his make-up.

 

David Woods, Helston Rotary Club member and actor, shook hands with Eric and reflected:  “It was the most uncanny feeling, knowing so many people and yet not being able to speak to any of them. I was received with great courtesy by everyone.”

 

Eric Dawkins later had a quiet word with John Ashwin . . . 

WHAT A SHOCKER – WHO NEEDS JAWS!

No kidding, I reckon the Falmouth Bay shoreline must have had literally millions of invaders today.

Look at this photo taken at Swanpool Beach, with the tide out this afternoon, by my daughter Lisa. 

 

 Never mind the seaweed, just blow up the pic and see all those little purply, pinky things. Count ‘em all just in this little tiny space if you can. And then multiply by Gawd knows how many.

 

They are the “mauve stingers” . . . presumably the same little blighters that sparked a round of publicity in September, e.g. this extract from a CornwallLive report:--

 

“Hundreds of thousands of rare purple jellyfish have washed up on a British beach. The 'Mauve Stingers' are only small, but are capable of a powerful sting and glow brightly at night if disturbed. The jellyfish were spotted washed up at Porth Hellick on St Mary's on the Isles Of Scilly. The species are uncommon close to UK shores.”

 

And BBC News carried some scary pictures of how victims had suffered - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp9527gjkz4o

 

This morning, there were reports of the sea being carpeted with them at Falmouth’s Gyllyngvase and Swanpool Beach, as well as Greeb and, probably, Castle.

 

At Gylly, where daughter Lisa and I were due to swim tomorrow (not any more, folks), only a few of the regulars ventured in – and came out pretty sharpish. 

 

A neighbour of mine managed to find “a gap” through them and returned unharmed, but her sister was stung several times. 

The whole thing is all the more shocking as we’ve normally forgotten all about jellyfish by now until the next summer, and even then the visitors are not normally of such a lethal variety.

 

Ah well, I guess it’s back to the heated indoor pool touch for a few days at least.  Tough life, innit?