Burns Night Supper

My apologies for the confusion caused in the October newsletter by giving the wrong date for the next Burns Night.  I�m pretty sure that most of you detected the rather obvious error, but to clear things up once and for all, the main social event in the London Hibs social calendar will be on Saturday 22 January 2000 starting at 7.30pm. 

Tickets next year will remain at �15 each but as an extra incentive to encourage our members to bring lots of guests along with them, this year there will be a small discount to members buying additional tickets.  For the price of a ticket, you will receive a drink of your choice on arrival at the pub, a traditional meal of Haggis Neaps and Tatties, Live music until 1am and a wee dram to toast the haggis. I�m sure you will agree that there are not too many places in London where you could have a good night out for this price.  With Christmas fast approaching, I appreciate that the last thing you want to worry about is paying for tickets to a function in January, so if you prefer, you can send me a post-dated cheque (dated 15^th January) for the number of tickets you require.

As I mentioned in the October newsletter, our Guest of Honour will be Eddie Turnbull who has now confirmed that he will be able to join us.  I spoke with Eddie last week who told me that he is very much looking forward to the weekend with our branch and, in particular, to meeting with our members.

With our membership at an all time high and with such a prestigious guest of honour joining us for the evening, I hope that we will have a record attendance at this event, so please put this date in your diary, start inviting your friends/family and book your baby-sitters if necessary! Although it is a London Hibs function, the evening is just as enjoyable for non-Hibs supporters.  So much so that we have a couple of Hearts fans who have turned up at the last two evenings � their tickets cost �30 each, but they have always been made welcome by our members and they seem to enjoy themselves!

For the benefit of those new members who have not yet attended a London Hibs Burns Night before, they are always very enjoyable evenings with a good combination of both Scottish and Hibby content.  Although they are fairly informal, we will of course be piping in/addressing the haggis so you are encouraged to dig out those kilts and get into the spirit of things.  As in previous years, there will again be a prize for the best-dressed lady/man, which will be announced sometime during the evening.

Although we have reserved the recently refurbished Holyrood for the evening, we are unable to say for certain that it will be held there, as we have not yet received notification of the late license being approved.  However, should this be a problem then we have a couple of other options available to us, which are both in Central London.

Hibs Merchandise

Enclosed with the hard copy of this newsletter is a copy of the latest official Hibs merchandise catalogue to assist you with those last minute presents for your family and friends. (See http://www.hibs.co.uk for the online shop). I have used this service many times in the past and have always found it to be good value and very efficient, but with the extra demand on our postal service at this time of the year, please don�t leave it too late to place your orders with the club!

Whilst on the subject of merchandise, I have a number of London Hibs fleece jackets (�25), black nylon coaching jackets (�14) and yellow V neck T-shirts (�8) still available for sale, so if you would like to purchase any of them before Christmas, then give me a call to confirm that I have your size available.  We also have a very limited number of children�s coach jackets (Age 4, 10 and 12) with the London Hibs logo on so if you are looking for a stocking filler for the kids, then let me know.  These jackets look really good and cost �10 each, but as there are only a few of the different sizes available you should give me a call ASAP to ensure that I have the size you require before sending me any money. 

For those members who ordered fleece tops or coach jackets at our November gathering, then I will be bringing them along with me to our next meeting on Tuesday 14^th December so don�t forget to bring your chequebook!  If you are unable to make this meeting, then give me a call and I will send them onto you by mail. 

November Meeting

The November meeting was another upbeat affair with 20 members in attendance. Apologies were received from Brian Rogan, Tony Connor, Graeme Walker and Pat McKinney.  In the absence of Brian, Stuart Donald chaired the meeting and we welcomed Sean Slater who was attending his first London Hibs meeting.  Andrew gave an update on the clubs finances, which are in a very healthy state at the moment and Mike confirmed that our paid up membership now stands at just over 140, but there are still approximately 20 members who have not renewed their subs from last season. 

Hibs Quiz

Craig Bennison hosted the long overdue Hibs quiz that we have been threatening to hold for the last few meetings.  The questions were brilliantly put together by Craig and the quiz seemed to be enjoyed by everyone who participated.  In total, there were 10 teams entered with names like: Archie The Jinx Buster, Fatboy Slim, Green Cunning Linguists, Jambo fat B%s$%&s, Mike and Andrew, F&%k the Jambos, Wee Mad Mental, Hibees Dunces, Madrid and Will(H)ibees.  The eventual winner of the competition was Archie the Jinx Buster (Grant Ramsay and Iain Tully) with 20 points. See Report and photos

APFSCIL Dinner/Dance

The annual APFSCIL Dinner and dance will take place in the New Connaught rooms in Holborn on Friday 25^th February.  The club intends to reserve a table at the event, which has Labour MP Tony Banks as guest speaker, so if you would like to attend, then you should contact our APFSCIL representative Grant Ramsay to let him know.  Tickets cost �32 a head.

Hearts Game on 19^th December

A reminder that the next Edinburgh Derby will be live on SKY SPORTS on Sunday 19^th December.  For those members who live in the Berkshire area, then we will once again be meeting up in the Bridge Pub in Bracknell at 6pm to watch the game.  For those London based members looking for good company to watch the game, then you should make your way to the William Wallace where I�m sure there will be plenty of fellow Hibbies to enjoy the game with.  Let�s hope that we can make it 3 wins in a row for Hibs on SKY and that the game is as exciting as the two against Dundee and Dundee United earlier in the season!

SKY has announced the latest batch of fixtures in the Scottish Premier League with two Hibs games against Rangers on 6 Feb and Celtic on 5 Mar being included. 

Whilst this may be good news for those of us who were unable to make it up to Edinburgh for these games, it does of course mean that those members who have requested the season tickets (Richard Turnbull and Pat McKinney) will have to rearrange their weekends.  Other games included in this announcement are as follows:

Hibernian v Rangers    6 February

Dundee v Rangers   27 February

Hibernian v Celtic   5 March

Rangers v Celtic  26 March

Celtic v Kilmarnock   2 April

Motherwell v Kilmarnock  16 April

St Johnstone v Rangers  23 April

Future Meetings

It looks as though the William Wallace will be the permanent venue for our monthly gatherings.  After almost 10 years of using the Holyrood it is sad to move on, but following its recent refurbishment, they have turned the downstairs bar area into toilets (some may say it always was a toilet) so there is no longer room for us to have a private meeting.

Football Team

Once again, our congratulations to the football team for doing the double over London Rangers in consecutive weeks last month.  In the first game we knocked them out of the APFSCIL cup by winning 2-1 (report) and last week in the league, we went one step further and beat them 3-0 (report).  Two great results and by all accounts, brilliant performances by the team, so well done to everyone involved. The next round of the cup will be against Norwich City on Sunday 16^th January at King Georges Park in Earlsfield (Off Kimber Road).   As always, you are encouraged to give the team your full support at this game and at other league games throughout the season. 

ET is a Hibby

We all knew that Eddie Turnbull was a die-hard Hibby but who would have guessed that the wee terrestrial from the 80s hit film would have had the good sense to turn out to be one also!  Whilst most of us believed that ET was already in Edinburgh playing for the jambos under the alias of Steve Foulton, there is a great advert out at the moment from BT showing ET celebrating Russell Latapy�s penalty goal against (I believe) the Jambos from earlier in the season.  Most of you will have no doubt seen the advert already, but for the benefit of those who haven�t, then Mike Inglis is planning to put the 30-second clip onto our web site over the next few days (Webmaster's note - if I can get it - if anyone has it on PC please email me).

Mike McSherry

Club Secretary