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On Saturday 18th October, a good crowd of around 60 people from member clubs gathered at the Resource Centre in Chelmsford for a very pleasant evening of competition and Wine Tasting. The Tri-Comp consisted of Wine : 2008 EWF Special, Beer : Own Choice Bitter and to complete the trio - Cookery : Bread Pudding. The evening was also the occasion when the winners were to be decided for the Autumn Draw.
The entry for the competitions was good, with 13 Wines, 11 Beers and a massive 25 Bread Puddings (see below) to sift out the winners from the ‘also rans’.
Our Judges - Alan And Shirley Downes had to cancel at the last moment due to illness. National Judge Geoff Fryer and his wife saved the day by agreeing to step into the breech to cover the judging duties.

Meanwhile, in the main hall, those present enjoyed exercising their taste buds in attempting to match the various categories of bottle label information to the contents of their glasses. Of the 8 wines tasted, 3 were White and 5 were Reds - ranging in price from £3-49 at the low end to £8-99 at the top. At the end of the evening, one of two tables occupied by Upminster members managed to find the most correct answers. A very enjoyable evening that promoted much discussion around the tasting tables.

During the evening, the draw was made for the many prizes in the Autumn Draw, I understand clubs did well in selling their ticket quotas and half a black sack of counterfoils were presented - from which to pick the winners. The 1st Ticket out (1624) bore the marking - P & R - (Pat & Roy), this turned out to be one of the tickets I had purchased the evening before - rather than returning the 5 unsold books, those present will also know that I was also the one that had been asked by Chairman David Bracci to draw the winning tickets - how embarrassing ! (but the feeling soon passed) and before we left the hall - Pat had ‘spent’ most of it anyway !. Second prize went to ticket number 1868 - C.M.Mark (Peverell) who won the original painting by Sheila Goodwin (Upminster) and the 3rd Prize of a bottle of Whisky went to ticket number 0208 - Brian Holworth. No doubt a full list of winners will appear in the December edition of the EWF Grapevine. Bob Gould (Colchester) won the Wine Comp, Gerald Murfitt (Hutton) won the Beer