Chairman's Message

I wrote my last report before the Olympics. I think that the general feeling, and one which I certainly share, is that the Olympics were a great success for London, and nowhere was the success greater than at Lord’s, where the Olympic Archery achieved the highest mark awarded to any Olympic venue. World Archery, the international federation responsible for organising the Olympic Archery competition, was enormously enthusiastic about the venue, and one member of the International Olympic Committee told me that after attending many Olympic Games, his visit to Lord’s was the first time that he had understood what was going on! Our congratulations go to the MCC for allowing Lord’s to be a venue, and for enabling the event to be such a success. And, although many had feared that there would be traffic and parking problems while the archery was taking place, I am pleased to report that those fears proved unfounded.

The Society’s Annual General Meeting was at a new venue, the AmericanSchool, and our thanks to the School for making their excellent facilities available to us. The meeting was attended by a rather larger number of members than usual (a very welcome development), and we heard interesting and informative talks from Karen Buck MP, Cllr Philippa Roe, the Leader of Westminster Council, and Derek Brewer, the new Chief Executive and Secretary of the MCC. Unfortunately, Cllr Robert Davis could not be with us due to ill health. I am pleased to report that he is back in the harness, and I hope that he will join us for this year’s AGM. After we had heard from our guests, and they had answered questions from members, we had a fascinating talk about the history of St John’s Wood from Les Koski of KSR Architects. After the meeting about forty members enjoyed an excellent dinner at the Café Med.