CHAIRMAN Janice Jackson welcomed members and visitors to the recent meeting of Northwich U3A. Notices were given of groups and activities and there was a reminder that final payment was due for the holiday to Bournemouth in June. Other planned trips include: Tea and Plants, May 30 and a theatre trip in October to see Let It Be.

Members of the singing group were reminded that the rehearsal will be on June 20 before breaking for the summer.

Janet introduced the guest speaker Peter Turner whose talk was entitled ‘slight of mind’. Peter has many years of experience as a magician and has travelled worldwide.

Over the years he has developed his magic into the science of magic which includes deception, perception, misdirection and reverse psychology. People are often sceptical but are also fascinated and during the afternoon many members of the audience were chosen or coerced into helping Peter.

At one stage, six people were asked to assist and were each given an identical paragraph to read.

They were then asked to count the number of ‘f’ sounds found in the reading.

However many times they read it they couldn’t agree on the same number. There were other tasks that members participated in and each time many of them got the wrong answer.

Peter was thanked for a most interesting afternoon, and I’m sure that members all left the meeting wondering “how did he do that?”

The next meeting takes place on Wednesday, June 17 when the speaker will be Susan leicester talking about an 'English woman in the White House'.