Club News
July Lunch: Chairman, Andrew Carver, welcomed 18 members and our guest speaker Roger Tristram. £38 was raised for the Chairman’s Charity, Old Coulsdon Centre for Retired. The raffle raised £24.
News of Members: Ian Payne was welcomed back after a long absence due to stroke. Graham Davis is not too well (balance problems).
Birthdays in August: Bill Ainsworth, David Carpenter, Graham Davis, Brian Morris.
Outings/Events: The visit to Hampton Court had to be cancelled due to lack of support. A guided tour of Skinners Hall (livery company) planned for 7th September. Annual Skittles Match with Sanderstead and Riddlesdown is on 15th September. Looking to visit Fishmongers Hall (livery company) in January (earliest available). Contact Terry on tribbs42@gmail.com for further suggestions.
The Annual Quiz for the benefit of the Chairman’s Charity is being planned for February 2027.
Speaker today: ‘Lasting Power of Attorney Made Simple’ – representative Gaye Illsley.
3rd September 2026: ‘Michael Gilbert. ‘Sydenham 1854 and the Crystal Palace’’.
Welfare Officer: Please contact Tony Farrell if anyone knows of a member in difficulty: tonyfarrell1953@gmail.com
Lunch changes by 10.30am prior Tuesday: chris@moniz.co.uk T: 020 8660 6063.
Newsletter articles please to vincentfosdike@gmail.com
John Douglas Morgan: 1945–2026
John was born in Purley Hospital. Home was in Keston Avenue, Old Coulsdon where his younger brother Trevor was born. His first school was Keston Avenue School and secondary school was Woodcote School where he developed an interest in cooking.
One of John’s first jobs was to deliver papers for his grandfather’s paper and toy shop in Purley – a long cycle ride from Old Coulsdon to Purley. He followed in his father’s footsteps and started an apprenticeship with Purley Electric. When that business was sold, he moved to Peter Tree Electric in Reigate.
One of John’s many interests was the Sail Training Association. Rough seas were ok but he dreaded flying. This was a problem when he had to fly to the Azores to bring back the crew (members of the STA) of the tall ship Malcolm Miller who had crashed on a pilot training flight.
On board the ships he was second chef cooking three meals a day for about 50 crew. Another interest was working with the Hill Billies who were volunteers with the City of London Commons. The Hill Billies were associated with Friends of Farthing Downs (of which John was a founding member, and Pauline secretary for many years) which is where we met him and Maddy. At our annual get together, John and Maddy always volunteered to do the barbecue. We didn’t know of his cooking prowess at the time.
John had a love of wood from restoring a berthed ship and built a workshop in his garden. He took up wood turning often with specialized and exotic woods.
John joined Probus in January 2015 and was good conversationalist. Madalaine passed away in January this year after a long illness, cared for exemplarily by John who himself was suffering from a lung condition and struggled to speak without severe coughing. Hence his long absence from our luncheons. John was a very kind person and always ready to help. He will be greatly missed. Carol Fisher (sister-in-law)/Ian Payne
July Guest Speaker: Roger Tristram
‘Motor Sport and Milk’
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy 500 Motor Race
by David Carpenter
Roger Tristram gave us an excellent talk about a subject probably little-known to most of us. He began by emphasising the sheer scale of the event and what it means to America as an event both sporting and patriotic. The fact that the track can hold over 350,000 spectators gives some idea of the scale.
The track was built by a man called Carl Fisher following a visit by him to Brooklands, the British racetrack in Surrey. It was built in 1909 by 500 men, 300 mules and some unspecified machinery, in those days an enormous undertaking.
The surface was found to be unsatisfactory and no allowance had been made for spectators so in 1910 the entire track was altered and re-laid, by hand, with 3.2 million bricks!! Eventually the track was covered in asphalt (spelling OK Tony?) except for a small strip at the start, one yard wide, still made of bricks. The bricks have led to the track being known by the diehards as ‘the brickyard!!’ The race is steeped in tradition and one such requires the winner to kiss the strip of bricks after the race. The track is the largest sports venue in the world.
The track consists of four equal turns connected by two short and two long straights. Twelve teams and 33 cars are allowed to qualify for each race. The 500 miles is made up of 200 laps of 2.5 miles each. Leading to the start the cars cruise around the track in specific order until the first crosses the ‘line of brick’ starting point. The green flag is dropped and to a shout of “Green, green, green!” the race is underway. The cars are slightly larger and less complex than Grand Prix cars but intriguingly all have the same chassis. They race sometimes three abreast, wheel to wheel and have to decide at each bend whether to go ‘high’ or ‘low.’ In 1911 the race took 6hrs and 42 mins at a speed of 75 mph. In 2025 it took 2hrs 57 minutes at an average speed of 170 mph!!
The winner is rewarded, among other things such as a few million dollars, with a bottle of milk. You might wonder why and the answer is the all-important tradition? When a man called Louis Meyer won the race in 1936, his mother instructed him that he must have a bottle of milk with him to keep his strength up. In one of the photos taken after he won, he was shown holding a bottle of milk. A dairy company realised that such a picture at such an event offered priceless advertising possibilities and so the tradition was born. That tradition demands that the winner must take a swig of milk and then pour the remainder over his head! Various renegades tried variations. Fittipaldi tried orange because he was advertising it, another coloured it with strawberry powder and the 2025 winner refused to pour it over his head. Needless to say, he was not voted ‘Man of the Match.’
The winner’s trophy is a monster 5’4” high and weighs 153 lbs, they don’t do anything by halves.
There have been four people who have won it four times and six people who have won it three times. The winners prize money in 2023 was $3.7 million and $4.3 million in 2025. In 2026 the first 21 drivers won over £1 million each!!
A footnote. If all the hot dogs and bratwurst consumed during a race meeting were laid end to end, they would reach three times around the track. That’s a lot of sausages, a lot of distance and an event like few others!!
Double Espresso by Vincent Fosdike
There is a man on a ladder in “my” cafe. He has climbed up to the air-con unit which is partially dismantled and is experimenting with a small jug of water. The results do not satisfy him. Further striping down is needed and he brings down the surrounding frame which has a gully built into it. He works close to my table protected by some drip trays and the ubiquitous yellow warning triangle. As he scrubs the gully he notes my curious gaze and grins back saying “coffee grounds”.
“Surely these don’t reach the ceiling” I ask. “Oh yes they do” he replies, his voice just audible over the bean grinder freshly preparing the fifty-third cup of life-giving caffeine for the stressed commuters and remote workers at their laptops. Apparently bean dust regularly troubles aircon units. In fact so much so that droplets of water are emitted around the edges of the ceiling mount.