A lot has happened since the last newsletter.

At the end of May, your Secretary went to Heidenheim as part of the Newport/ Heidenheim Twinning Association visit.

This was my first proper visit to Germany. Heidenheim is a beautiful town overlooked by an impressive castle. The local stamp club did not meet but I visited a club in a nearby town with Dierk Lisdorf, the vice-president of the Heidenheim club. The meeting was held in a pub. There were no displays, although there was a little bit of wheeling and dealing.

The local stamp shop was a bit of a disappointment, concentrating really on German issues.

Other "official" events included a lunch, a tour of the town, a dinner and folk dance with the local folk history group, a trip to the fairy-tale castle of Schloss Neuschwanstein and shopping in Rothenburg (the Christmas town).

The most surprising part of the weekend was meeting Robert Agg in the town centre. He was there with the local folk dance group so had no time for stamps.

October visit

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The result of this was an invitation to the Heidenheim stamp weekend in October. Gwen Hussey and Dennis Martin represented the society.

Dennis and Gwen took the plane to Stuttgart for the October fair in Heidenheim. They were given a wonderful weekend by their hosts in Heidenheim which included an official dinner and a stamp fair.

In addition , we have produced a "friendship" cover. This shows the various twinning towns associated with Heidenheim, including Newport with a picture of the civic Centre . It is franked with a German commemorative for the Bund Deutscher Philatelisten and postmarked Heidenheim an der Brenz on 19 October (the weekend of the stamp fair). Also on the cover is a Welsh regional postmarked Caldicot PSO, Newport, Gwent on 27 October. Fifty covers were produced, 25 for each club.

Federation news

The annual Port Talbot convention clashed with Stamp 96 at Wembley which meant that some of the regular dealers stayed in London and there were some late cancellations.

The autumn day at Llanelli on 28 September was the usual enjoyable event, with some bargains available from the club tables.

The next convention will be on 3 May 1997, once again in Port Talbot, and once again clashing, this time with the Symes fair at the City Hall in Cardiff. You may wish to make it a combined trip. The provisional list of dealers for Port Talbot is Reg Sumbler, D Winstone, Sheila Hart, Baystamps, Boscombe Stamps, Frank Lane, K Daniels, H Fennemore, European and Foreign Stamps, Sweeting Brothers, Pipe and Tear and Seldon Cluskey (?).

Entrance will be reduced to 30p (including programme). The souvenir card will show Newport postmarks. Please place your orders early. In addition there will be a display for Newport members of 8 frames of 12 sheets, especially for our 50th.

Barry are organising another stamp fair, on 7 June 1997.

The 1998 convention will be held in the usual place on 2 May.

John Beachey of Barry club gained another gold at Stampex, this time in the international class. I hope to get him along next season to show us some of this collection. Reg Lyon also of Barry also got a silver.

Meetings past

Due to other commitments, I have missed a couple of excellent meetings. The last of the old season was a display on "bridging history" by Frank Jones. Anne reported that it was a very enjoyable evening.

The summer meetings were at Roy's and twice at Gwen's. The tradition here is that the host not only provides some food but also displays some stamps. Thanks from everyone who went along.

The new season kicked off with the usual member s' evening. Ten members brought along (roughly) eight sheets on subjects as varied as Beethoven and the Holy Land.

Once again I missed a display on 10 October, when Peter Coldrey showed some more London Posts.

Something new was a slide show of Newport postcards by Ray and Margaret O'Brien.

The four sheets competition night brought 12 excellent entries. There was no prize but all members voted for their favourite display. The winner was Gwen Hussey with El Salvador.

We have already made two visits. These are excellent ways to get to know members in other clubs. The welcome is always warm and we do get some good displays when there is a "return visit".

Gwen, Martyn, Margaret and your secretary visited Barry, who now hold meetings in a pub. Gwen's Saar, Martyn's Fiji, Margaret's perfins and my Czechoslovakia seemed to go down very well. I also learnt that four of the stamps from the first issue of Bohemia and Moravia from the second world war can be joined together to form a map of the former Czechoslovakia!

For the visit to Bridgend in October, the team was your Secretary (Finland and Denmark), Gwen (Saar), Margaret (perfins) and Roy (Belarus and Ukraine).

Meetings future

You should all have your programme for 1996/7. There are some interesting events coming up. The trivia quiz will be organised by Neil Jones (but him a pint and you might get some clues). There are also visits from Barry, Bridgend and Hereford.

Members' interests

The usual plea for you to update my list of members' interests and to fill up those blank books that you have been holding.

Stamp (and postcard) fairs

The Autumn Stampex coach trip usually organised by Cardiff was cancelled due to lack of support. They will not now be doing one for the Spring (January) Stampex.

It looks like the Wembley "Stamp" shows are to be an annual feature, coinciding more or less with the timing of the South Wales conventions. The NEC saw a three day event from 22 to 24 November. Unfortunately, I missed it, being in Southampton at the time.

Other fairs of note are the regular postcard bashes run by Anne Scott in Bristol. These have been joined by Peter Best's South Wales postcard club fairs in Cardiff . John Symes continues to visit the City Hall and Chris Doble the Hotel Diplomat in Cardiff. That is about as close as you get to Newport.

Golden year

September 1997 sees the 50th anniversary of the club.

We are organising a Stamp Fair to coincide with the South wales federation Autumn Day. This will be on 4 October 1997 hopefully at Bassaleg school. Make a note in your diaries.

Tables will be available for all clubs in the Federation at absolutely no charge. The host club will be given up to £12 per club from Federation funds. Dealers will pay.

We hope that some members from the Heidenheim stamp club will be able to come along for the weekend and will arrange a social event for all members to join in. The St Gilles (Brussels) club that twins with Heidenheim may be represented.

There will be a special 50th anniversary cover .

As mentioned last time, I also will try to produce a booklet on the history of the club as a souvenir for members. Any anecdotes are welcome. I also need to borrow any good covers (illustrated with special postmarks from the past 50 years). I have a few myself but am sure that there are more. I will keep them safe and return them quickly to you.

John Perry, Secretary

01633 881068