After a well-earned Christmas break, the club’s regular Wednesday night sessions will start again on January 9th. With the Jesters’ Tour and even our first fixture of the season in the near future – not to mention the Club Championship – there’s much for our players to prepare for. So, we hope to see plenty of you back on court working off the extra pounds that Santa brought…
Club members had their traditionally successful tilt at the President’s Cup this year – with an Executioner in every one of the four finals.
Pride of place went to Charles Compton, who won the Love Mug with Gwydion Wiseman – mere days after completing a 6000-mile round-Britain walk.
Meanwhile, Dick Warner, Ben Hale and Guy Matthews all reached finals, but all three ended up on the losing side – Dick in the main final, Guy in the Love Mug and Ben in the Mates Plate. However, Dick had the consolation of winning a new trophy: the Vice President’s Trophy. We’d love to tell you what he did to deserve this, but the inscription is in Latin and none of us can work out a sensible translation!
St. Paul’s has confirmed the dates when the school’s Sports Centre will be closed over the Xmas holidays. This means we also know when the Fives courts will be available to us.
The club’s final session of 2018 will be on Wednesday December 12th, while the first session of 2019 will be on Wednesday January 9th.
After 6100 miles of walking round Britain, Charles Compton returned to London today – and was greeted by several fellow Executioners.
It was on January 2nd that he set off from Tower Bridge and, 11 months later – on the very day he had planned a year ago – he crossed the same bridge to complete his walk around the entire coast of Britain.
Naturally, he was greeted by several club members – including Guy Matthews, Ben Hale, Jon Peterson and Andy Pringle, as well as ex-Executioner Rupert Mathieu – who celebrated in the traditional fashion: hitting the bar!
The club is in awe of Charles’ achievement and urges all its members to contribute to his fund-raising – by clicking on this link.
The next step for Charles? A proper physical challenge: the President’s Cup! 
Club member Charles Compton has been walking around the coast of Britain since January 2nd and will be returning to London on Friday November 30th. We now have details of the events that will celebrate his return and, as promised, we’re forwarding them on to you all in the hope that some of you can join us in celebrating his momentous achievement.
So, copied from Facebook, this is what has been planned by his brother – and you can join the events at any stage by following one of the three options:
CHARLES’ WALK RETURNS
FRIDAY 30TH NOVEMBER
1. JOIN THE WALK
Join Charles for the final 1.5 miles of the walk.
Time 4.15PM
Location – Prospect Of Whitby
57 Wapping Wall, St Katharine’s, Wapping, E1W 3SH
2. THE FINISH LINE
See Charles in from such a phenomenal accomplishment.
Time 5pm
Location – Tower Bridge, South side, London SE1 2UP
3. THE PUB
For the sensible ones joining for food and drinks.
Time 5.15pm
Location – Draft House
206-208 Tower Bridge Rd, Bermondsey, SE1 2UP
FOR UPDATES ON THE DAY PLEASE FOLLOW THE INSTA PAGE @CHARLES_WALK
Executioners past and present (and who knows, maybe future) enjoyed the RFA’s 90th Anniversary Dinner at the Queen’s Club last Saturday.
Indeed, the club was able to have what was effectively its own table. Here, Andy Pringle was joined by Richard Kemp, Tom Webster and Guy Matthews, along with his better half.
Dick Warner was also in attendance, in glorious Ghanaian garb as a result of a bet with Ben Hale, as were ex-Executioners Alex Smith and Alex Steel. New member Ibby Lee found herself hob-nobbing with the self–appointed Next Generation, all of whom enjoyed rubbing shoulders with some of our club’s founders, such as David Fox and Bruce Mackenzie.
The dinner was a marvellous celebration of our great game, punctuated by some fine speeches – and another more rambling effort from Alex Smith, which continued despite the efforts of the RFA’s President to stem the flow.
As ever, the evening finished with the Executioners doing what they do best: hitting the bar.
Here’s to the centenary dinner in 10 years’ time!
We hope that all our club members have had a good summer and are itching to get those uniquely fragranced leather gloves back on. The St Paul’s Sports Centre opens on Monday September 3rd, so the first Executioners session of the 2018/19 season will be Wednesday 5th.
We look forward to seeing plenty of players on court then – and throughout the season!
