THERE was a distinctly foody flavour to a four-course menu of main speeches at last week's packed meeting at the Great Malvern Hotel.

The exception was Hazel Robinson's interesting account (with demonstration!) of the history and development of Lindy Hop dancing.

And there was a cricket-themed session of impromptu short talks introduced by Jabba Riaz – most of which were notable for managing to avoid the subject of cricket completely. Pete Caddy, a visitor from Nottinghamshire, gamely took part, and although he ran well over his allotted time, held his audience spellbound with an explanation of (among other things) how to tell a Guardsman's regiment by the number of buttons on his uniform! But it was the club's newest member, Angela Davison, who won the evening's Best Table Topic award for a lively talk on rituals and superstitions

The food theme was led off by Steve Birch, with a light-hearted but informative history of Marmite. This included an account of Marmageddon, when the Marmite factory in New Zealand – the only country outside Britain to make the spread – had to cease production following the Christchurch earthquake, leading to empty supermarket shelves and a lively second-hand market!

More serious were Elaine Watt's thoughtful and balanced musings on the rights and wrongs converting her family, including two teenage sons, to a vegetarian or vegan regime. Voted the best speech, however, was Cate Cody's impassioned plea for less food waste in the home, which included a nine-point plan for greater household economy. Among the points she suggested were to buy less, better quality, use seasonal and hedgerow produce, grow your own, avoid convenience foods and use all your leftovers.

The speakers were helped by observant and constructively critical evaluations from Glenda Ballard, Andrew Nixon, Will Dutton and Wendy Aridela, the last-named being voted best evaluator for her acute assessment of Cate Cody's talk. The meeting ended with the presentation of a Toastmasters International Competent Communicator award to club founder member Amanda Duncan.

COLIN JACKSON