OUR new president, ably assisted by his wife (guess who did the work) duly held his coffee morning in aid of the Macmillan Nurses, which raised £270 plus for that excellent organisation. But, coffee morning???? What a total misnomer. It’s not a coffee morning, it’s a cake morning – lemon cake, chocolate cake, millionaire’s shortbread, cream sponge, fairy cakes, lumberjack cake, peach and apricot cake the list goes on and on.

There was coffee and tea, but can you hold a cake plate, eat cake and drink at the same time? Let’s just say that the plates won.

The one hour coffee morning became three, and under the influence of the sugar boost we found out that one of our lady Lions is a published poet. Fortunately for us, I hope, not in the limerick style.

To find out who she is you’ll have to visit our website and go to the Join Us/ Meet the Members page where everyone has their character read. I’d like to say that we took the leftover cake to some worthy organisation. But that would be a lie – doggy bags were the order of the day.

Welfare: SCOPE asked us to help with the case of a man who can only communicate by eye movement. There is a piece of equipment which can facilitate this. But, it costs £6,500. We have pledged a donation of £500. If you know anyone else who might like to help, please point them in the direction of SCOPE. We have also donated £500 to First Point to help them do some forward planning for their help for the homeless at Christmas. Other than that we spent £150 on domestic emergencies and have several more cases awaiting resolution.

On November 15, it’s Quiz Night at the Cliddesden Millenium Hall again. We also have a raffle, spot question prizes and a hotly contested booby prize and top prize.

Book your three/four person team table by contacting Philip Wilson philipjhwilson@btinternet.com or telephone 01256 352393. Twenty-two tables is our max, and 11 have already been booked so get your skates on!

The club has agreed that the entire proceeds from the evening should be donated to the Macmillan Cancer Nurses to top up our coffee morning donation.

On November 19, The Apollo Big Band is appearing for us again at QMC. They were ecstatically received when they appeared for us last time.

They are a super group with a large repertoire drawing from such greats as Glenn Miller, Ted Heath, Billy Cotton etc. We have decided to donate the entire proceeds from the event to the Basingstoke Multiple Sclerosis Society. It’s a great charity so do come along and support it.

Tickets are available from the usual suspects by phoning 01256 325280 or 421867 or (email: jomolincoln@btinternet.com), or mauricehockley@hotmail.com) or from Toucan Travel at the Chineham Shopping Centre.

More details are available on our website basingstokelions.org.uk.