Catsfield

CADS: This year’s annual performance by the Catsfield Amateur Dramatic Society will be a performance of Anthony and Cleopatra – certainly a very different theme to the old traditional pantomimes, but what’s the betting that all the old favourites (people and traditions) will still be there! Performances are on December 1st, 2nd and 3rd at 7.30pm and there will be a matinee on Saturday 3rd. Tickets are on sale at Catsfield Village Store priced £7 and £4, so get yours soon as this event is always extremely popular.

Craft Fair - A message from Helen about last Saturday: I am pleased to say that it was a very successful fair and raised £180 for Diabetes UK. I would be grateful if you could pass on my thanks to all those who came along with their beautiful home made goods to sell, those providing the lovely refreshments and of course, those who gave us donations and everyone who came along to support us. Without them we would not have been able to raise the amount we did.

The Catsfield Horticultural Society: The AGM of the Catsfield Horticultural Society was held last Wednesday evening in the Village Hall and there seemed to be a few more than the usual ‘village stalwarts’ present. Maybe this was connected to the fact that it was general local knowledge that Vanessa was finally, really, truly, definitely giving in her resignation as chairman of the Society. She arrived, fashionably late, to a huge welcome of cheers and applause, having just finished a long hard day at work and she immediately dived in to chairing her last meeting by giving the Annual Report. She first paid tribute to Chris Parkes who had died recently and had been the Flower Show Secretary for several years, she described him as a true gentleman and a thoroughly nice bloke who is sadly missed by everyone. She congratulated Victoria who had taken over his role and had made a great success of the Spring and Summer Shows and she announced that the next Spring Show will be on Saturday 8th April 2017. The dance in the marquee that had always followed the Summer Fete and Flower Show had been cancelled as no-one had come forward to organise it, but a Quiz Night held in July to raise funds towards the cost of the marquee had been most successful and had raised £600. This will be repeated next year.

The fete had been a great success owing to the jolly hard work of all the usual stalwarts and she suggested that the seven village clubs and organisations who are happy to receive a share of the profits from the event, should make their participation in the fete an item on their agenda for consideration well in advance. It would be with great reluctance that those who were unwilling to give full participation would be penalised when it came to dividing up the profits.

Vanessa wound up her report by saying what a great village Catsfield is and how much she has enjoyed organising the fete since 1999 and her years as chairman, she thanked the committee members for their support over the years. More committee members are needed and if anyone would like to volunteer they will be most welcome. She introduced Wendy Goodliffe as her successor and said what a great help she had been to her with running this year’s fete.

The Treasurer, Mike Cooper went through the figures of his report, of which everyone had a copy and then dropped the bombshell that after forty-four years he too was resigning! Fortunately he had already lined up his successor and the new Treasurer is Tony Heath. Victoria reported on the success of both the Flower Shows, the increased number of entries and said what a great help the new computerised system, set up by James for recording the results, had proved to be.

As there was no other business, the meeting drew to a close with the presentation to Vanessa of flowers and an envelope, together with everyone’s sincere thanks for all her many years of hard work. John Overall then stood up and said more nice things about Vanessa before presenting her with an interesting-looking carrier bag, a gift to express the thanks of the Parish Council. Then everyone flocked to the back of the hall for wine and an amazing spread of refreshments, leaving the Social Club to their usual activities, which they’d postponed till later so that the meeting could take place.

Sport: As predicted, our cup match against high-flying Mayfield on Saturday ended in defeat. 0 - 6 seems as though it was a one-sided match, but we had plenty of chances and if they had been taken, we could have begun the match ahead. Sounds like Manchester United, but not like Brighton where the President and Chairman spent the afternoon watching a 5 - 0 win over Norwich. Apparently, the pies were very good. Saturday, we have yet another cup match at home starting at the winter time of 1.30 against Sovereign Saints, let’s hope they show us benefice! One of our players was badly cut on the back of the head and was taken to hospital for six stitches, so he won’t be playing for a while.

Farming: Farming news is that all crops have been planted, leaving time for hedge cutting, notably up at the Playing Field which now looks very smart. A modest amount of work needs to be done to the cricket wicket, where the battle against the rabbit has commenced.

Mobile Library: The East Sussex Mobile Library will be in its usual place today, Friday 4th November outside the Village Hall from 11.55am until 12.30pm.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1) Make our website your homepage at www.ryeandbattleobserver.co.uk/

2) Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/RyeandBattleObserver

3) Follow us on Twitter @BattleObs

4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!

The Rye and Battle Observer - always the first with your local news.

Be part of it.