Wednesday March 20^th – Restaurante El Elefante in Javea – this was the venue for the Costa Blanca 41 Club 27^th year Charter Dinner. A return to a quaint and picturesque local restaurant that had looked after us so well the previous year. An earlier start this year allowed us to take in the evening air on the terrace of this venue before moving on to a cava reception inside well serviced by Nadia and her staff. Twenty eight members, partners and guests made up the numbers on the night almost filling the restaurant to capacity.

Jim Thomas heralded the call to dinner and performed MC’s duties throughout the evening which led on to a sumptuous three course dinner well prepared and excellently presented by our hosts. The format was somewhat different this year. As the Club had not run the usual Ladies night during the year; Past Chairman Bob Oxley proposed a toast to the Ladies on behalf of the Club backed up by the earlier presenting of a red rose to the lady attendees, the Chairman’s wife Eliza Fraser responded with a tongue in cheek reply.

In a move away from normal 41 Club evenings Vice Chairman Mike Beaumont introduced guest speaker Chris Duffin, President of Women In Business (Costa Blanca) and a retired Governess of the UK Prison service giving us some pleasant after dinner entertainment with a talk on her experiences whilst in the service.

Chairman Phil Fraser responded on behalf of the Club ending the evening by proposing a toast to the Club and the final toast.

“The 41 Club Social in February was hastily switched around with the meeting due to the great weather on the Costa Blanca in recent weeks resulting in the almond blossom being in full bloom early in the month.

A dozen members and partners took a short stroll through the Jalon Valley whilst our drivers followed at a respectable pace allowing us plenty of time to take in the wonderful pink and white blossoms so prevalent in the area.

A further dozen or so more joined us for a lunch in La Piscina restaurant with its’ ever entertaining ‘verbal’ menu read out by the rotund owner. This trip is becoming a firm fixture on the social calendar and who can blame us with such beautiful countryside.”

CB 41 Club – January Social

Eleven members, partners and guests turned out for a spot of 10 pin bowling at the Ozone complex near Teulada for the monthly social in what turned out to be a highly enjoyable evening with many of us recapturing our youths in a surprisingly energetic pastime. Our old muscles and bones only allowed us to play two games each before permanent damage was caused but that was certainly enough to show who had those signs of a misspent youth.

We took over two lanes of the complex for close to 2 hours but the result was always going to be inevitable in the men’s section with Jim Thomas striking and sparing throughout his first game to join the 175 club by clocking up an amazing 179 to take top spot for the evening. Closely following though was octogenarian Dr Bob Grainger who chalked up a creditable 140 in his first outing of the game for many years. The ladies side saw a little more action when Marion Mitchell took a tumble on the floor close to the end of the first game ending her chances at the title; thankfully a painful wrist and sore bum soon rectified itself. Unfortunately the following day showed the true situation with Marion spending many hours in Denia hospital getting her thumb and arm plastered. The ladies winner then ended in a dead heat between Eliza Fraser and Jean Farrimond with scores of 91.

The enjoyable evening ended when a further 7 members and partners joined us for dinner at Monroe’s in Moraira where the winners were presented with a well deserved bottle of wine by Chairman Phil.

Over 20 members and neighbours turned up to enjoy a sumptuous curry feast laid on by Peter and Ethna Williamson at their home on the Montgo for our August social.

Despite the searing heat at this time of the year, Peter and Ethna had spent days preparing this evening for our pleasure and what a pleasure it turned out to be.

Curry, Pork, fish and vegetarian specialties followed a starter of samosas and onion bhajis. Even the desserts were not to be outclassed with mini ice cream cones and frozen strawberries to take away the spicy tang on our palates.

Our hosts had prepared well with drinks, knowing that the red wine would take a back seat to beer on the night and, although many of us found it difficult to pour, we managed to sink a few.

Many thanks Peter & Ethna you did us proud.

The last hardy souls left at just after 11pm after seeing off all the wine and beer in the Chairman’s fridge, proving a good night was had by all.

Next month we are off to Peter and Ethna’s home, also on the Montgo, for a curry evening.

the Costa Blanca 41 Club tried out a new venue with a view to making it a permanent home for the Club.

Restaurant Chez Urs, a Swiss run restaurant on the Ctra. Jesus Pobre proved itself capable of catering for us when 16 members and wives turned up for lunch. Normally Chez Urs closes for the months of July and August at lunch time but Urs opened up especially to cater for the monthly Club lunch.

A pleasant 3 course meal with coffee, wine and water was put on for the grand sum of 15 euros. It is hoped we can repeat this in August initially and make a further assessment of the venue after the summer. 

Chez Urs, Carretera de Jesús Pobre, 126  03730 Jávea, Spania
965 79 08 30

The annual battle of the giants took place on Javea turf on June 20^th when CB 41 Club took on Calpe 41 Club at Petanca. Now renamed the Baby Bob Boule competition since Billy was

allegedly kidnapped by an unknown source in Calpe 3 years ago, this annual event is held in high esteem in the 41 Club calendar.

Nearly 40 hardy souls braved the searing heat and hurricane winds to meet on well tended petanca grounds near the Arenal. We were lucky enough to welcome numerous non-resident members back for the summer together with a number of guests to make up a total of 13 teams. What commenced as a hard fought match between the two rivals ended in a total slaying of the visitors from Calpe when it was decided to end their embarrassment as the scores reached 20 to 9 in favour of Costa Blanca 41 Club.

A sumptuous dinner followed at the nearby Indian Palace restaurant where we were treated to a feast fit for a Maharaja. Presentations were made to the winning couple, David Burns and his partner Vera who recorded the highest score of the evening, and of course the winning team, the Costa Blanca 41 Club, by Steve Moores of Calpe, last years’ title holder.

A special ending of the night saw a birthday cake, card and of course the usual song, presented to the Costa Blanca’s’ IPC, Bob Oxley who attained the ripe old age of 70 the following day.