Past Events

SAMS Annual President's Dinner 2011

What a wonderful President’s Dinner we had on the evening of Saturday, 23 July 2011 at the Emakhosini Boutique Hotel. Compliments to all our members who were able to attend !  It was great to see some members who cannot get to our monthly meetings – for example, Des Teague and his wife June,  Robert Carlton-Shields and his wife Karen and, of course, Robin Boltman ! We were also delighted to welcome Pam Sargeant, widow of our late friend and colleague in magic, Dennis Sargeant.

Our President, Bennie Matthee, ably assisted by Scott, had prepared some “ magic ” decorations for the evening. The theme was “ The Royals of Magic ’ so we had printed biographies of many of the superstars of magic on our tables. These biographies will appear in our monthly newsletter from time to time so do look out for them !

Adi Paxton was our very capable MC for the evening and she kept an eagle-eye on the proceedings. During the course of the evening members were asked to vote for the two nominees for the Charles Potts Trophy, namely our President, Bennie Matthee and our Secretary, Neil Hazell.

Six members had decided to compete for the Rem Brickhill Trophy and we were entertained by Gavin Stockden ( effect with playing cards), Keith Pettengell ( linking rings ),Wayne Driver ( coin manipulation ), Adrian Smith ( wine in a shoe ! ), Neil Hazell
( playing card effect ) and Bernard Dyer ( newspaper prediction).

At the end of a thoroughly enjoyable evening, the Charles Potts Trophy and the Rem Brickhill Trophy were well-deservedly awarded to Bennie Matthee and Wayne Driver respectively. Congratulations to the two of you !!

SAMS Annual President's Dinner 2010

What a wonderful evening we had at the Emakhosini Boutique Hotel on the evening of Saturday, 22nd May being the occasion of the President’s Dinner.

Firstly, I must compliment our President on the wonderful décor inspired by the World Cup !  The flags of the various countries made the room so colourful and then there were all the other football nick nacks including the controversial vuvuzela !! : ) ( fortunately they were miniatures! )

With a slightly raised price we opted for a menu with more variety and it was certainly worth it as the food was absolutely delicious.  

We had no less than eight performers for the Rem Brickhill Trophy and we saw magic involving coins appearing in glass tumblers and going through them, ropes, cups and balls, sponge balls, card mentalism, appearing cane, mysterious production from a newspaper and the surprise appearance of garden spade !  It was all most entertaining and amusing and congratulations to Keith Pettengell who just could not stop plucking coins out of thin air and ended up with the trophy !  Well done, Keith !

The Charles Potts Trophy was awarded jointly to Adi Paxton and yours truly. Well done Adi and thank you to all the members for your support which is much appreciated.

Neil Hazell

SAMS Annual President's Dinner 2009

Desmond presenting Charles Potts trophy to Neil	Darryn with Rem Brickhill trophy	Richard performing to Gwen
Dr. Neil Hazell	Ron Wilson gets award acknowledging his constant help in the Society.	Tony Leeuw
The Trophy Table	Neil Hazell as MC	Our efficient Treasurer. Darryn

Colin Rood Competition

Colin Rood Trophy for the best children’s magic act, was held on 22 March 2009. The audience was made up of the children of St. Martin’s Home and they were particularly enthusiastic!
Many thanks to all the other performers and backstage crew for a wonderful evening of magic enjoyed by all.

Read the Thank You letter from Rev. Dr. Vincent Dippenaar