April meeting.

Thanks to Mike from Tobacco Pipe Collectors, Neil was able to restock his supply of Captain Black Gold...this helps show what a great worldwide community of gents pipe smokers are! :-)

Neil started with some of his regular Troost and I started with Orlik Bull's Eye. Some peaceful contemplation ensued, together with a few gripes from both of us about the chairs. I might take a cushion next time lol.

Later, we both enjoyed a very pleasant bowl of Mac Baren Plumcake. This was the first time I had tried it and it will not be my last. It's a very tasty blend with flavours of both Rum and Latakia.

As ever for a Scottish spring the weather was a mixed bag: clear blue sky and warm sunshine, followed by drizzle and even some hail. Fortunately it brightened up again later and the smoking shelter protected us from the worst.

"Sponsorship" of British Pipe Smoking Championships.

The John Hollingsworth Pipe Club of Birmingham will be acting as hosts of the Championships on July 15th, as they are the closest to Newark.

Clive Davies of John Hollingsworth Pipe Club has been in contact asking for help organising prizes for the Championships.

As a result, if any businesses or organisations would be interested in providing a prize (doesn't have to be pipe related or expensive) any such help would be gratefully received...and publicly acknowledged at the Championships.

If you are interested, please contact me directly for further information.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

British Championships, 15th July 2012

In case anyone was wondering, the Newark and Nottingham Showground DO have the booking for the British Championships...they just haven't updated the calendar of events on their website yet.
I am planning to drive down on  Saturday 14th and stay Saturday and Sunday nights, then drive back up on the Monday. If anyone wants to do the same please let me know ASAP.

Update: The Showground have now updated their calendar of events. 

Better late than never.

My apologies for not updating sooner.

The last two meetings (19th Feb and 10th March) were both fairly quiet so I shall do a joint update for both.

John managed to get away (briefly) from a shopping trip to Fort Kinnaird to help me mark IPSD. As he couldn't stay long we just had a single bowl each...Condor, in a sandblast Parker billiard, for John and St Bruno in a rustic Peterson 302 Standard for myself.

For this month's meeting, I was joined by Neil again for a very pleasant afternoon discussing the relative merits of the teams in the 6 Nations and the state of rugby in general, this was aided by several bowls of tobacco...Troost (which has a lovely room note)  for Neil and some Sam Gawith Squadron Leader for me...and a couple of pints!

At the previous meeting Neil came up with the clever suggestion of getting some business cards printed up for the club. He also very kindly offered his daughter's graphic design skills to come up with a logo for EPC when she has finished her coursework.

Hopefully, now that the clocks have gone forward, future meetings should have a bit more daylight and (fingers crossed) warmer weather.

February meeting (1).

Johnny and I were joined by Neil, for a very pleasant afternoon's smoking and conversation.
Neil was smoking a very handsome Aldo Morelli Loreto...I think might have a case of pipe envy, will have to investigate the range. Johnny started with a Nording Freehand, again another handsome piece of briar with it's plateau rim. My first pipe of the afternoon was a Peterson's Donegal Rocky.
We got through a very cosmopolitan selection of tobaccos; Dunbar from Esoterica, Troost and Rattray's Marlin Flake were all popular. The 7 Seas Cherry Blend had a lovely room note when Neil and I smoked it, although neither of us really got the cherry flavour from our own pipes.
The weather remained mild until the sun went down, fortunately the heaters in the smoking shelter put out a very impressive heat.
I tried a new beer, Belhaven Black Scottish Stout...it complemented the pipes nicely!

Couple of dates for your diaries.

A couple of dates for your diaries:

Monday 20th February 2012 International Pipe Smoking Day. As IPSD is on a Monday this year, I'd like to suggest an extra meeting on Sunday 19th February to show our support.

Sunday July 15th 2012. British Championships of Pipe Smoking, at Newark Showground (see the UKFoPC page for more details). This coincides with a regular meeting so it would be great if we could get a team together to represent the club.

January meeting.

The first meeting of 2012 was a great success!

Myles and I were joined by Johnny, also known as Yorkshirepipensnuff on YouTube, who had braved the train journey down from Dundee.

At one point, the table looked like a well-stocked tobacconist's with a wide selection of pipes, tins and bags of tobacco spread around...all three of us got to try something new. I tried some Germain's Royal Jersey Perique, Johnny had a bowl of Dunhill Royal Yacht and Myles had his first taste of Peterson's Nutty Cut. On the strength of it's tin and room notes, I am very interested in trying some Gauntley's Nottingham Blend in the near future.

Myles definitely suits his new pipe (see last month's post for details), Johnny was justifiably proud of his Nording Freehands, a couple of very handsome pipes...the smooth finish one was particularly striking.

The weather remained kind to us, until about 5pm when it started getting very chilly. Fortunately, a cup of fresh ground coffee from the bar helped keep the cold at bay.

On a side note, the cask Belhaven IPA was a very smooth pint!

Thanks to the guys, the club's "tobacco bar" now has a very healthy selection for members to sample, including:
Dunhill Nightcap,
Dunhill Early Morning Pipe,
Mac Baren Scottish Blend (mixture),
Mac Baren Cherry Ambrosia,
Mac Baren Navy Flake,
Mac Baren Virginia Flake,
7 Seas Cherry Blend,
Sam Gawith Squadron Leader.
Additionally, we all seem to bring a few extra blends to share!