Catsfield

The exhibition centres on Thomas Brassey the railway builder who commissioned the building of Normanhurst as the Brassey family home and who is buried in Catsfield churchyard. The Brassey family were great benefactors to the parish, they donated the Village Hall and gave employment to many people living in the village. The exhibition gives a small insight into the world of a man of whom many people in the village have never heard.

AGM: The Annual General Meeting of the Catsfield Village Hall will be held in the hall at 7.30pm on Wednesday 9th May. Come along and hear about the running of this hub of the community and improvements that have been made and planned. No doubt there will be some refreshments to follow.

Christian Aid Plant Sale and Coffee Morning: On Saturday 19th May in Catsfield Village Hall the annual Christian Aid Plant Sale and Coffee Morning will be selling a large selection of plants for your garden, both annuals and perennials and it is always well worth a visit.

Spring Concert: The church was comfortably full last Friday for the concert and Bob Andrew set the ball rolling with a Schubert Impromptu, followed by his granddaughter Ella who sang ‘ I could have danced all night’. Next came the opportunity for some brass input with two lovely pieces from Emma Laurens on the horn, the latter being appropriately entitled ‘A candle in church’. The tempo changed somewhat with Paul Eshelby with his trumpet and flugelhorn, not both at once you understand, concluding with a great rendition of ‘Embraceable You’ by Gershwin. Then came the Church choir who started with a great West Gallery piece which sort of summed up the evening: ‘Sound, Sound your Instruments of Joy’. Moving on about 175 years, they sang ‘I Give to You a New Commandment’ by Peter Nardone. They continued around the centuries with pieces by Mozart, Elgar & Dowland and were in excellent voice throughout the evening.

More singing of a different nature, bringing things a little more down to earth and introducing some humour to the evening came the St. Laurence Quartet. They started off with a favourite of the Copper Family of Rottingdean - ‘Babes In The Wood’, then perhaps taking some of the audience back to their school days of ‘Music and Movement’ on the BBC with ‘Pleasant & Delightful’ and finally concluded with a cheeky tribute to Bob about the trials & tribulations of a choirmaster set to a well-known hymn tune. Time for the interval – but no - a surprise addition in the shape of Father Michael who gave an excellent rendition of the Curate’s Song from the Sorcerer by Gilbert & Sullivan.

Welcome refreshments followed and a great cold collation it was. So good, that it was with great difficulty everyone was herded back into place for the second half which started off with a lovely cello courante by J S Bach played by Issey Richardson. A little more horn, then the delightful Lucy Ashton with some opera excerpts finishing up with an encore of ‘Fly Home Little Heart’ from Ivor Novello. Bob then gave a lovely performance of 2nd movement of Shostakovich’s piano concerto No: 2. It fell to the Church choir to conclude the evening with a short anthem followed by the ever-popular ‘Old Hundredth’ as arranged by Vaughan Williams for the Queen’s Coronation in 1953 and the audience joined in to help raise the roof. The general consensus was that a good time was had by all, enjoying a wide variety of music performed to an extremely high standard and raising over £700 for church funds.

Farming: As an addition to the last piece of farming news, a local farmer with lots of sheep in Hooe reports he had a record 150 sets of triplets. He was also pleased that the price for lambs is getting better, but then of course, he went on to mention the wet weather; much binding in the marsh!

Sport: The weather played havoc with the first scheduled cricket match on Sunday, which did not take place. The Groundsman went up to the Playing Field on Saturday morning to check for wetness and found it to be – wet! He did have the opportunity of watching’ Pass and Move’ play a game on our small football pitch and commented what a good lot of players they are. After a quick sandwich he went to Punnetts Town to watch our team who started well but eventually lost 2 - 7 to very good and fit opponents. Tomorrow we play our last game against Hawkhurst at home.

Saturday evening: we were invited to ‘Pass and Move’s’ award ceremony at the well-appointed Bexhill Academy Theatre. It was an Oscar-type evening with noise, music, videos and the type of razzamatazz that the youngsters like. The boys and girls were all in their training gear sitting in their teams well behaved and excited. The suspense was kept up before each presentation and as each winner’s squad number was read out, they cheered each other. We met lots of their coaches, some of whom train the children at Catsfield School and we were very impressed by the skill, discipline and sportsmanship of the players. Lots of clapping was required of the audience and we cheered with particular pride when Lennie Andrew was chosen as striker in the team of the year and then Sam Gower, son of our stoolballers Jess and Steve Gower, was chosen as player of the year. A great honour and a promise of things to come. The Groundsman won a raffle prize of two free training sessions, which he wisely declined for someone sixty years younger.

At the end of the evening, the children shouted out a huge “thank you” to their parents, who expend a great deal of time and commitment to take them to their football and every child was presented with a football and a book of stickers for the World Cup. We hope ‘Pass and Move’ will be using our Playing Field next season, please go and watch, there are some very promising players up there. We spent the evening with Dave Perkins and his wife who do so much voluntary work for Ewhurst Pavilion and Playing Field where ‘Pass and Move’ also play. Dave also knows the High Sheriff Major General John Moore-Bick who came to the WI celebratory birthday meeting.