We had two tremendous meetings in August.

The first meeting of the month was held on the 11th when Scott Clegg was our host for an evening of Card Magic. He started off by talking about his quandy this evening in whether to perform new effects that he had learned specifically for this event or whether to reprise effects that he thought he could remember. He took the second option and it resulted in him showing us some excellent stuff, which he interspersed through performances from other members. Eoin used the evening to show us the specially commissioned Centenary Deck and it looks, feels and smells splendid. Scott finished off by showing us some Banshees throwing cards. Scott is pretty good with them and demonstrated his accuracy and the strength and deadliness of the cards by firing one into a florists oasis block. He said that he would present the deck to the most accurate thrower among us. As Jono was the only one who managed to embed a card in the block, he was the clear winner.

Barry Spence and Stuart Sharkey were our co-hosts for Levitation, Suspension and Animation on the 25th. After Stuart had given an explanation and introduction, Barry demonstrated a really lovely small version of the Asrah Levitation. It was themed around Ancient Egypt, using a mummy rather than a conventional assistant but was perfect in every way with the mummy vanishing in mid-air, then reappearing in the sarcophagus. What made it extra-special was that Barry built it at home. Stuart then invited the members to step up and show us what they brought along. There was some great stuff on display, as usual. Dave Anderson spoke about his struggles with the Dancing Cane and floating orb; Steve showed us a floating card device and spoke about some other effects; Scott demonstrated a dismembered arm (and several uses for the box it came in), as well as a head twister and third hand; Jono demonstrated his jumping pen; the Secretary floated a table; Garry showed some of his thread work and spoke about alternative props. I am sure that there were other wonderful performances but my memory has let me down and I apologise for not mentioning them.

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Dave G