Steve Glaister, Bewdley

Steve Glaister, is a Sales Director and member of Bewdley Round Table. When he and his fellow Tablers decided that they would like to do an international trip, they flicked through the Round Table International Directory with the aim of finding a club elsewhere in the world that ended with 187, like their club.

Steve explains what happened next:

"There were a few clubs that we identified, so we sent out a couple of speculative emails on the lines of 'we haven’t done this before but we would like to come and visit you'.

"We quickly had one back from Bamberg, Germany stating that they would love to see us, they have a charter night in two weeks or a beer festival in three months.

"Beer festival won.

"So flights were booked, a car was hired and six of us went over for a weekend (Friday to Sunday).

"What was humbling was the welcome, they really looked after us. They had no idea who we were apart from we belonged to the same organisation. We stayed in their houses, we ate with them, we were hungover with them.

"We organised a return trip for them this year and tried to match their hospitality. Table crossed all barriers including language and it is very difficult to explain this.

"The highlight of the weekend was trying to teach a group of German Tablers the art of the game of conkers! They were quite good."

Steve's story is typical of the many exchanges that take place between clubs across the world every year. With hundreds of clubs on every continent in the world, the Round Table's international reach means Tablers are never short of somewhere to visit!