The Culm Valley u3a Executive Committee wish all our members a very merry Christmas and look forward to a new year which sees us finally win the fight with Corona Virus!
On Thursday 2nd December 2021 at 2pm we met for mince pies and shortbread with our cups of tea, as we tried to solve a murder mystery - Thank you to Nick Sole for his review of The Corkscrew Murder! and to all those who sent me their encouraging comments and thanks for a very enjoyable afternoon. Nick writes …. The game "The Corkscrew Murder" is a murder mystery, but with a difference. A murder mystery usually involves participants dressing up in character and acting out a play or drama, reading from a prepared script and asking questions. At the end everyone tries to guess the murderer. It can be great fun if you like acting out, but more tricky for those less happy in the limelight. And not great for involving a large group of people. So when our u3a revealed that our Christmas meeting would feature a Murder Mystery which involved us all but no-one was required to play a role, I was intrigued but relieved! The difference was that we played the Corkscrew Murder with small teams, sitting round tables at our monthly meeting. No pressure then, just the natural competitive spirit to be the team to crack the murder mystery. Each team was provided with a pack of information, including envelopes we opened when prompted, describing the background to the murder and an overview of the characters. Our Chair led us through the whole game, drip feeding us with more facts and handing out 'Suspect Statements', evidence documents and timelines to add to our complete confusion! Our challenge was to plough through a wealth - dare I say mountain - of information including maps, newspaper cuttings and other facts relevant (or were they?) to the crime, before the demon buzzer interrupted our discussions with a series of NEWSFLASHES delivered at intervals by one of our committee. It showed me what a real murder investigation might be like and how easy it must be for the police to drown in all the information they gather in. At the end of the afternoon, by dint of good teamwork and a few leaps of faith, some of the teams (but not mine!) miraculously identified the murderer whilst others made credible but wrong guesses. But that didn't matter because we all had fun and what more do you want? Nick Sole Just wanted to say thank you for taking so much time, effort and ingenuity to produce such an impressive Corkscrew Murder today. I enjoyed it immensely, so many red herrings and horrible people! Kat was Liz's 'best friend' ?? I hope I am spared such a best friend, but then I don't have an alleged vein of gold in my garden! Pat G
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