Winnipeg Pingfest Pictures 2007

The Winnipeg Coronation Street Annual Pingfest was held this year on September 30th at the Viscount Gort Hotel.

Before we go any further, we would like to thank the following for their very generous donations which helped make our Ping the success it was:

Granada Television,......Debbie & Norma Taylor,........ Karol Bullard..and .Olive Taylor. Not forgetting Reesa Morrison, deceased, who bequeathed her whole Corrie collection to be given as prizes each year at our Pingfests. Also, a very special thanks to Ron Robinson, our MC, who always does an amazing job for us.

Ron Robinson as usual had a box full of door prizes that he awarded throughout the afternoon. Also we had prizes for the winners of the Last Fan Standing game and the Bingo. We also had prizes for the three best tacky gifts.

I am sure you are dying to see some photos, and as always, Pat Jahns-Kraak took loads of 'em, so here we go....

Olive Taylor donated a very special prize of a tie signed by Roy Barraclough who used to play Alec Gilroy.

Ron asked for a show of hands from anyone who could tell him the name of Alec's first wife.

Anita Kreuger shown left with the tie was the lucky one who was picked to come up with Joyce as the answer!

It was Anita's lucky day, because she not only won the tie, which took Corrie knowledge, but she also won the prize for the game 'Last Fan Standing', which only required you to have the character around your neck that was called last.

For being the last on her feet, she won a beautiful brand new Corrie mug and a pair of Street earrings donated by Debbie & Norma Taylor.

We played a couple of Corrie Bingo games invented and run by Carolyn Haslewood, checked by Judy Shields seen here. Christine was waiting to find out who to give the prizes to. The winners got to pick from a lovely selection of Corrie gifts.

After everyone had arrived, and had got to know each other, people spent a little time trying to guess whose character they had hanging down their backs.

On the left, Jackie Calder and Gobinder Basi still have theirs to do, whereas Jennifer and Ari Maisson and Betty Marks (right) have theirs hanging to the front, so must have guessed already.

We then had a lovely buffet brunch.

There were door prizes and more door prizes!

On the left, Chrissy Dyer won a Corrie horse brass, which went into some heated trading after the Ping. The horse brass ended up going home to Calgary with Debbie Taylor, and Chrissy took home a nice set of leather Rovers Return beer mats. Everyone was happy!

On the right, Olive Taylor looks pretty pleased to have won a bar of Corrie soap. Probably going to bathe all those dogs of hers with it. (She breeds Rhodesian Ridgebacks) If you don't know what these lovely dogs look like, look here..

This photo looks like the same person, not sure if it is the same mug, but it has on the bottom 'Coronation Street Tour and the price of �3.99 still on it! I didn't think we were into the tacky gifts yet! :-)

Patti Duke (above) and Chrissy Dyer worked their buns off selling tickets for the Corrie Auction, 6 lots of at least 6 top quality Corrie items, like a musical alarm clock, the music of course was the Corrie theme, we had teapots, trinket boxes, and even a Corrie Monopoly game.

Christine's Bet glasses disappeared part way through the afternoon, and this is where she found them! Here is Pat Jahns-Kraak, our photographer. Actually they rather suit her don't they?

Now I am not sure what the conversation was here between Connie Fawley and our photographer, but I think you could have some fun making it up! What springs to my mind is... 1st photo "What size was the sausage you had for lunch Connie? ... 2nd photo "Oh it was huge!"...3rd photo "Well OK, maybe only this big".

Why do we so often think of Cilla when the word tacky comes to mind? Christine certainly did. Cilla in the deckchair is actually a candle, the wick is popping up out of her stomach and she is sitting out in Les' beautiful back yard, complete with cludgy. Instead of a dustbin, they have a toxic waste drum. Schmeichel is tethered to a heavy tool on the ground and the yard is filled with junk. Her frillies are hanging on the line, and even though she is still sporting her bandaid (plaster) on her left breast, she obviously hasn't learned her lesson! The two humps you see inside the cludgy are bottles of Les' dirt shifting shampoo and Saturday Night Skiver Foam bath, toiletries he uses twice a month whether he needs it or not!.

Blimey, I know we had our Pingfest later this year, but it was still a bit early for Adrian to get a Christmas gift! He received a Christmas bath set of bath beads, a seasonal candle and a Santa mug containing a package of holiday cheer.

Adrian's wife Carol is cracking up because she received a Norris Cole graffiti removing kit! It consisted of a yellow plastic basket with yellow plastic gloves, a spray bottle, large sponges, small scouring sponges and various scrubbing brushes This very practical gift was supplied by Annette Chyzy, who was a Pingfest virgin this year. Well done Annette! You have the Ping spirit down pat!

Vanessa received the gift that Adrian brought. It's a very smart tote bag featuring the Women of Coronation Street past and present.
Past: Ena Sharples, Minnie Caldwell & Martha Longhurst, plus a photo of almost all the women of the Street in Annie Walker's day.

Present: Janice Battersby, Hayley Cropper and Sunita Alahan (well, the latter is fairly recent isn't she?)

And here on the right is Annette whose gift said on the outside:
To Tracy
Love ��
She was a bit worried to open the gift thinking one of Tracy�s male friends was giving her some unmentionables.

Inside the box was a tea mug and an absolutely gorgeous green shoe.

Only one shoe.

LOL!! Remember that storyline where Tracy spent her abortion money on a pair of expensive shoes, and Charlie stole one of them?
Well, Annette says she loves the shoe, and would like the other one! :-)

Oh yes, we all recognise the hat Carol Varey received don't we? It looks just like Vernon's, however, Maureen Wilson tells me it actually belongs to Liz, so they could have 'his 'n hers' matching hats.

Maureen says that she wanted to add the letters "I'm with the drummer", but didn't have enough, so settled for "Liz & Vern"

The lady on the left opened up a gift brought by Mary Wilson. It was a little swimming pool (bucket) with a Cilla doll and dolphins inside.

This gift was the winner of the tacky gift contest, and Mary went home with a Corrie cup and saucer.

And here is Mary Wilson herself with her gift. She received a beautiful set of three flying ducks that are far tackier than Hilda's ever were!

These were courtesy of Norma Taylor, who tells me that Mary was more pleased with the bag they came in than the gift itself!

Susan Algie received a large bag which was a day in the life of Vera packed with:
Cookies
Tea
A hideous purple and white blouse
Curlers and a scarf to cover them
Mug
Earrings (very "showy")
Pinny and recipe book for the caf
Bingo dauber
Women's weekly
Framed photos of Charles and Camilla; Jack with the caption "Vera's idea of marriage as expressed to Steve McDonald..."I believe in mahogany, me".

Wow, what a haul!

I am not sure who brought this, or who received it, but it was terribly funny. It was a box of little babies along with this wheel entitled "Who's Your Daddy". Then you can spin the wheel to land on any one of many Coronation Street fellas. I think this won 2nd prize.

Karen Land & Ron reading all the instructions on the outside of the Cilla's Yard box - 'Do Not Tip', "Built by Shoddy Workmen", "Look In The ~~Loo~~ (the word is cludgy you Southern crate egg!)" etc. etc.

Norma Taylor received a tacky teapot complete with non-tacky tea. Notice anything different about Norma this year? She has no glasses! She underwent laser surgery and now she can see perfectly! It takes years off her doesn't it?

Oh dear, everyone is looking very concerned about this gift aren't they? In fact Eleanor Thompson looks as if she is afraid that lanyard will bite her! I think it has a key on the end, but am not sure what it was all about.
It was voted at our table that everyone wanted your shirt Eleanor! :-) Stonehenge Rocks!

Remember we always used to say this is Carolyn Haslewood from Montreal - well guess what? She liked Winnipeg so much, she has now moved here! And we are VERY happy about that!

Now, what is better than receiving Boddingtons as a gift?

Oh yes, just like a bad penny, Arthur the gnome has shown up at every Pingfest since Derek Wilton lived on the Street. Someone should contact him and tell him to come pick him up! He doesn't even have the good manners to bring Guinevere with him!

Err, Carol, we hate to break this to you, but when you slipped out for a moment, this is what our photographer snapped your husband getting up to with Audrey Lowe and Christine Warren. We just thought you should know. :-)

Still, he does work very hard at our Pings, and we love him anyway, so gave him an original Coronation Street rehearsal script written by Daran Little and signed by about 19 of the cast.

We didn't get any photos of that, and I must admit I don't remember who won them all. However, I do know that the lot with the Corrie Monopoly game in it has now gone to Montreal with Carol Varey - who said she really enjoyed her first Winnipeg Ping, I guess so, the lucky lady. What a haul!

Lot #1, that contained the Corrie Alarm Clock was won by Annette Chyzy, and Lot #6 was won by Colin T, who is a regular contributor to the CSVU guestbook, and I notice that Colin managed to stay out of most of the photos. How did you manage that Colin? Did you give our photographer an offer she couldn't refuse?
Someone was telling me that she thought Connie Fawley won either Lot #2 or #3.
I have just realised that all the winners that I know about were newcomers this year. What a lucky start!

Anyway, congratulations all you lucky winners - you know who you are, and I hope you are enjoying your flying ducks bag full of loot!

Next came the videos. The hotel had given us the wrong hookup to show the tape we had planned. Luckily we had Dan Jahns-Kraak and his computer, plus a couple of extra DVD's, so here is the first that we showed. Can you guess which episode it was?

Yes, it was the final appearance of the dastardly Alan Bradley, and we watched him go under the wheels of a tram in Blackpool.
Did you know that Mark Eden, who played Alan Bradley is married in real life to Sue Nicholls, who plays Audrey Roberts?

Aha! Just had an e-mail from Calgary to explain this one. Supplied by Debbie Taylor, it was called 'Charlie's Treasure Chest', which contained one red shoe, a lanyard with three keys, one each for Shelly, Maria and Tracy, and also a video showing Maria's door! LOL!!