Honorary Membership awarded to: f.l.t.r. T Botha, F Loots, A Moorcroft, D Wentzel & R Wentzel

Mr. F Norval - Master of Ceremonies

Mr. A Pringle in action during the Wine Auction

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Post Retief Farmers’ Association Centenary Celebration
– by Barry James

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Post Retief and the Winterberg Mountain Range was described as breath-taking and beautiful by Mr. Doug Stern, the guest of honour and President of Agri Eastern Cape, at a gala dinner at the Post Retief Country Club.

Mr. Stern was the guest speaker at the Centenary celebration of the very proud Post Retief Wool and Mohair Growers Association. He lauded the forebears who pioneered under difficult circumstances in the fertile valleys of the Great Winterberg. Mention was made of a number of families, many 4th, 5th and 6th generation farmers who still ply their trade of wool, mohair and beef production. Some of the older families are the James’, Moorcrofts, Bothas, Davies’, Bennetts and Miles’.

Speaking confidently, Mr. Doug Stern reminded the 100 strong diners of the efforts of maverick, Piet Retief, in wooing the Cape Government to build a road from Grahamstown to the Winterberg where in 1836 a fortified barracks was constructed and thereafter named in his honour. This barracks, which still stands today, was one of many built in the region to police and protect inhabitants of the area. Sadly however, Retief is no more to undertake any maintenance of sorts on what was once called “The Queen’s Road”.

Mr. Doug Stern awarded the association with a Certificate of Recognition in Honour of our Centenary Celebration.

A certificate of Service Excellence was awarded to Mr. Norman Emslie for his unwavering service to E.C.A.U. over many years.

Certificates of faithful duty and support were presented to five long-serving members of the Post Retief Farmers’ Association. Honorary membership was bestowed on Mr. Theuns Botha, Mr. Derick Wentzel, Mr. Arthur Moorcroft, Mr. Rex Wentzel and Mr. Francois Loots.

The Master of Ceremonies, Mr. Francois Norval, with the ease of an automatic gear shift, swopping from English to Afrikaans with amazing ease, conducted matters most eloquently!

A most interesting and stunning collection of Dr. Haggis Black’s exquisite slides of the area were shown to the delight of the guests.

The audience was entertained by a fired up Ford Kuga in the form of Mr. Oggie Pringle, of the Baviaans River, Bedford, who auctioned top quality wines for top dollar prices to top off an enjoyable evening. Two paintings by Mrs. Trudie Botha, one of which was of a merino ram, 2 ewes and 2 lambs was sold for a whopping R6 000, making each animal a very good investment at R1200 each. A hotly contested, brisk bidding ensued when a stunning Winterberg landscape was chased by siblings, Mrs. Dizey Hornby (nee Brotherton) and her brother, Mr. Edgar Brotherton, both former Post Retief residents from the farm Fountain Head. This sold for R6300.

The watering hole was just as hotly contested with water of the malt variety and spirited high-tea slaking the patrons’ thirsts. Samantha James, Ross Bennett and their team perfected the art of Inn-keeping to the delight of the merry throng, while the children were kept entertained by Candice James.

The Chairman, Mr. Brad Emslie, regaled the crowd with a number of facts. The Association boasts an attendance in excess of 80% at all meetings which are held bi-monthly at either the Post Retief Country Club or the Winterberg Country Club.

He and his executive team, ably assisted by the Secretary, Mrs. Rhona van Vuuren, put on a great social event with all of the Who’s Who associated with organised agriculture and Post Retief attending!!! Mr. Ernest Pringle of Agri S.A. as well as Mr. Alfonso van Niekerk the East Cape Agricultural Union representative also attended. Congratulations Brad!!!

Just like the “It’s Time” – Angus Buchan gathering, we too had a full house, allowing time to honour the men and women who have made it possible for us to be at this auspicious occasion. Rev. Mark Langston dutifully said the grace with Ds. Paul Odendaal, the official photographer of the evening, snapping away with his camera. A most beautifully decorated hall by talented Pieter van der Westhuizen, Miné Norval and their team and an exceptionally tasty 3 course meal, prepared by Mrs. Karen Morgan was appreciated by all. Grateful thanks was expressed to our business partners who sponsored the event and an interesting and informative coffee table book on Post Retief as well as engraved wine glasses were given to each family attending the dinner.

Post Retief and the farmers of the Winterberg inhabit a highly productive area of the Eastern Cape, predominantly a sheep farming area producing top quality wools. As good as the area is, so too are the farmers of these hills and valleys. Through generations of working the land and livestock these hardy men and women have proved themselves excellent business people.

The message conveyed by Mr. Doug Stern to the members and guests was very well received and this was “TO NEVER GIVE UP” in our daily endeavours!!!!

Avago (have a go) was a gaming television channel in Ireland and the United Kingdom. It was launched on 4 July 2002.

Games[edit]

There were numerous games you could play on Avago, by pressing the red button on the Sky remote. The main game was Avago Balls, a live bingo game. Other games included Spin 2 Win and Trackside. The official Avago website game's descriptions:

• Avago Balls 'Our live, interactive, presenter – led show makes Avago Balls truly unique. Play along with the presenter through your TV and watch your numbers make you a winner.'
• Roulette 'Just like the real thing. Load up our Roulette game and stake your bets on the classic Roulette board.'
• Spin 2 Win 'Play Spin to Win, our Roulette style game. Just put your chips on the table and see which number comes up. There's a new spin every minute, 24/7, so you never miss out. Check this out!'
• Avago Instants 'Just select Play for Real within the Avago Balls game. Choose the 'Instants' option. Get a card, change it if you don't like it and we'll do the rest! Cards cost £1. Come and join the fun – get involved with Instants today! Where else can you win instant money with each game?'
• Super Bingo Keno 'Choose your lucky card in this classic Bingo Keno game and place your stake. When the balls are drawn from the machine, the more you match, the more you win!'
• Cash Keno 'A classic Keno game with the added turbo feature. Simply select up to 15 numbers from a grid of 1 to 80 and let the 20 balls drawn decide your win. The more you match, the more your win!'
• Trackside 'Trackside is our racing game, running all day and all night. It's all the fun of a real day at the races, and we can now offer a fuller choice of bets; Win Bets; Reverse Forecasts; Tricasts and Combination Tricasts. If that's double Dutch to you, just follow our simple instructions once inside the game.'

Avago also played Big Shuffle, a live card-turning game in which viewers bet on whether the next card turned would be higher or lower than the current one.

Avago Balls[edit]

Avago Balls was the main game on the channel; it was a live show that broadcast on the channel for ten hours every day. It worked in a similar way to bingo with presenters pulling the balls and players buying electronic playing cards. The interactivity was emphasised with text messages being read while the balls were being pulled, a daily poll on a topical issue voted via the Sky remote again while playing and special prizes such as a weekly draw.

No actual skill (or activity) was required to 'play' Avago Balls. Players bought 'cards' via their Sky remote handsets, and watched as the system checked them automatically against the balls that had been drawn. Claiming a win was done automatically too.

One major innovation was that each player's cards were superimposed onto the broadcast picture by software running in their Sky set-top box (the box had to remain connected to Avago by phone during play; this link was used to download the cards' numbers and patterns). This gave a much stronger illusion of actually participating in game of skill rather than a lottery.

Avago Balls was a revised version of the game that was played when the channel first launched. In the original version (called 'Avago – The Biggest Numbers Game in Town'), each game continued until someone had filled the required pattern of squares (like traditional Bingo). This resulted in relatively few winners, and long games (sometimes 30 balls or more on large patterns).

In the revised ('Avago Balls') version, each game was a fixed length of 15 balls. Anyone who matched at least one square was deemed a 'winner', and those who had matched the most squares (typically five or more) had their names displayed and read out by the presenters.

Avago with Gala[edit]

On 22 December 2005, Yoomedia announced the sale of Avago to the gambling operator Gala Coral. The deal was said to be worth £5.1m in a move which would see the channel rebrand as Gala Bingo in the 3rd quarter of 2006.

Gala TV launched in October 2006. It was planned for the channel to also launch on Virgin Media/NTL however today Gala only broadcasts on Sky, Freesat and Online. The only presenter from Avago to move to Gala was Liv Kennard.

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Presenters[edit]

The longest lasting presenters were Mark Pell, Jemish Patel, Charlotte Gane, Lawrie Jordan. The. host of the biggest prize giveaways was Colin Murnane.The presenters there to the final curtain were Marc Raphael, James Seager, Jodie McMullen, Steve Walls, Sylvia Viosna, & Freya Berry and Paul Metcalfe A not comprehensive list of presenters:

• Freya Berry^[1]
• Zo Christien
• Alan Ennis
• Charlotte Gane^[2]
• Lawrie Jordan^[3]
• Jodie McMullen^[4]
• Jemish Patel^[5]
• Mark Raphael^[6]
• Sylvia Viosna

References[edit]

1. ^'Freyaberry.com – Freya Berry'. Archived from the original on 8 August 2010. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
2. ^'Charlie Gane'. Archived from the original on 9 March 2007. Retrieved 3 April 2007.
3. ^'Lawrie Jordan official website:: home'. Archived from the original on 7 March 2007. Retrieved 3 April 2007.
4. ^'Welcome to jodiemcmullen.com'. Archived from the original on 7 February 2011. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
5. ^'Jemish Patel – TV Presenter | Radio Presenter | Voice Over'. Archived from the original on 2 November 2010. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
6. ^'Marc Raphael'. Archived from the original on 9 March 2007. Retrieved 3 April 2007.

External links[edit]

Gala Bingo Online

• 'Avago on Sky 235 1pm to 1am everyday'. Archived from the original on 25 December 2003. Retrieved 3 April 2007.

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