Ernie Callaghan
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UK reunionI shall soon be contacting Burleigh Court in reference to our 2006 reunion, hopefully for the last weekend in May. I shall be trying to obtain the best possible deal as they have been getting progressively more expensive every year. I shall impress on them that we are not a large corperation with a taxed reliefed training budget, but a bunch of old soldiers, mostly pensioners who spend loads of dosh at the bar. Wish me luck with my endevours because we want to go there d'ont we?
Any comments will be greatly appreciated.
Ernie. 
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Mac Bowker
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Better than ASDA priceYes Ernie,
I have no objection to returning there old son, and we really do spend mucho Deniro at the bar.
So I wish you the best of luck in your negotiations
Mac.B
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jr
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Only been there the one time, found it very comfortable, if a bit on the pricey side, but then UK in general is getting very expensive. (Maybe we need LOA for UK visits.) Loughborough is, though, our second spiritual home, and nice and centrally located with good rail and road connections.
A move elsewhere would for me have to be well justiified on grounds of cost or accessibility.
What alternatives do we have?
1. Try and find a cheaper venue. I do see a few places advertising in the British Legion Magazine, might be interesting to see what prices they come up with. The "UK ex-forces Forum" on the internet also recommends reunion venues. A posting on there might bring a few suggestions.
2. Try asking the Army (14 Signal Regiment/Blandford/Chicksands etc.) for use of their camp (accommodation and use of Sgts Mess over a weekend). I know we used to do this at Loughborough now and again for the RSA. Maybe our President could pull a string or two? Trouble here: given the operational loading nowadays, I wouldn't like to muck the lads about even more. It was bad enough at Langeleben. That said, we could probably do a lot of work ourselves, in liaison with the Army. I would be prepared to join a "fatigue party" to set out tables, etc. for example.
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Tom Neal
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UK ReunionAm all in favour of Burleigh Court again as I have found the accommodation and the staff always eager to please.
Regarding the comments from John Richardson I do not think any of the army units would really be able to cope with the numbers that attend our reunion even if we did provide our own fatigue parties. It may be different if we were only a male reunion but with wives and/or partners I think it would be a no go.
Any way look forward to seeing all our old friends again no matter where it is.
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jr
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Thanks for the comments, Tom. I was really only trying to make the point (which maybe didn't come over too well) that we haven't really got an alternative to the Burleigh Court. I doubt if the Army would want anything to do with us old codgers anyway.
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bob allum
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For the record, I think Burleigh Court is pretty good; they know us, we know them and there is plenty of space. I don't think they will ever run out of beer again. Parking is safe (would you want to upset Pete Gilbert??) and easy to get in and out of. We could always hold a swimming gala on the Saturday afternoon........
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