On Saturday 25th February, Spinnaker Chorus members and other guests were transported somewhere in Las Vegas for a murder mystery fundraiser. Napier Hall in Horndean was transformed into a Spinnakeresque version of a Vegas casino as the setting for a ‘Murder on The Strip‘ written by our talented President, Jill Cook.
The evening was arranged to help us advance further towards our fundraising target of £7000 for this year. Tickets were sold at £15 per person which included a delicious 3 course meal prepared and cooked by our fabulous fundraising Spinnakerettes Elspeth Smith, Wendy Ranft and Nicki Kelleher.
Menu consisted of soup or pate for starters, a main of either pulled pork with barbecue sauce or vegetable chilli both with jacket potatoes, salad and coleslaw, followed by a number of sweet dessert treats, then coffee, tea and After Eight mints.
Between courses our talented cast members performed intriguing and rather hilarious scenes as the plot thickened providing various clues to the identity of the murderer of ‘Spin City Chorus’ MD Glyn Smarmy, who collapsed and died after blowing a poisoned pitchpipe.
We had a Poker Chip raffle where numbered chips were purchased for £2.50 each. There were three cash prizes of £10 (3rd) £15 (2nd) and £25 (1st). Our first prize winner kindly donated his prize back to Spinnaker funds which was an extremely generous gesture.
Numerous suspects were interviewed until finally super sleuth, Columbio Holmes, solved the mystery by discovering ditsy Wendy Clinger as the murderess. Wendy being in love with Glyn actually intended the poisoned pitchpipe to be used by Petula Pitchpiper who she thought was a love interest of his. Little did Wendy know that it was actually Sabrina Slinkyhips, the Choreographer, who Glyn was having an affair with. Jealousy was obviously Wendy’s motive as she wanted Glyn for herself however sadly her plan misfired as he chose the contaminated pitchpipe from the two on the table.
The murder mystery was produced by Spinnakerette Kay Sumpner, who also produced our 2016 Christmas Show at St.Mary’s Church in Fratton, Portsmouth.
This type of fundraising event was a first for Spinnaker and was a fantastic evening of fun, hilarious entertainment and of course scrumptious food. We will definitely host similar future events as the feedback we received from our guests was extremely positive. Huge thanks to all who supported our evening.