The Pension Play Pen Linked in Group was set up in 2007 to be an alternative to corporate hospitality for those who either couldn’t or wouldn’t accept corporate invites.
The ideas was then/ is now, that when people want to go to the theatre or a gig or go to Henley, or Cheltenham or whatever took their fancy, they could advertise their intentions to a group of like minded people and organise groups around them.
Over the last ten years we’ve run around 120 lunches, been to Cheltenham 10 times and had numerous outings on the river. Tony Earnshaw has advertised his plays, we’ve had a lot of parties and almost everything has been achieved on the principal of “pay as you go”.
The advantage of this approach is that we aren’t beholden to any one organisation, aren’t conflicted , don’t have to sign corporate gift registers and can self-select our company.
Of course the self-selection becomes a little more difficult when the groups over 8,300 strong but their is a curious affinity around that silly Pension Play Pen name that means we’re not going to rip each other off, sell each other tat or hold fundamentally different views. At heart we all want to restore confidence in pensions.
Next Tuesday – 14th March – Champions Day at Cheltenham
Another lost sole
This year’s outing to Cheltenham leaves Paddington by bus at 9.30 on Tuesday and gets back around 12 hours later. The bus will be laden with 18-20 play pals, a large amount of food and drink and a number of songbooks.
We have space for a couple of more guests- due to the calamity of the toad work getting in the way. I say it every year but it never changes. The feeling of excitement prior to the Supreme Novices Hurdle (the first race of the day) and the roar that goes up as the tapes comes down, is beyond anyone’s imagining!
The racing is magnificent but it is the occasion (what the Irish call the Craic) that makes things so memorable! We congregate by the bandstand in Tattersalls’ Guinness Village after every race. You’ll find us there, Guinness in hand with the same dazed expression (whether we’re up or down!)
For example
You’ll find the likes of Dick Strattan and the “train-set”- Julie, Elaine and Una- you’ll find O’Connor and family , Sarah Farrant, the Birmingham boys and of course you’ll find the jollypeople from London.
Two of the train set – don’t ask!
If you’d like to see more detail, there’s an evenbrite advert though you may want to join us directly by mailing me at henry.tapper@pensionplaypen.com. If you read this blog – you are a friend of the Pension Play Pen! Tickets are £110 all in!
Go on- strike the day out and drop me a line!
