Catsfield

Don’t forget to get in the mood and celebrate Christmas by joining with friends in the Village Hall tomorrow evening to sing carols and enjoy mince pies and hot punch. Drop in at any time between 6.30pm and 8.30pm. There will be a retiring collection for St Michael’s Hospice.

The final Lunch Club last Friday was a great, albeit sad, occasion. A wonderful, full traditional Christmas dinner with all the trimmings was served piping hot to a hall of regular diners and visitors by an untiring team of helpers. The tables looked most attractive with festive napkins, crackers and table decorations and it was lovely to enjoy the meal in the company of many old friends. An amazing selection of desserts, including Christmas pudding and custard, presented a difficult choice and the meal was rounded off with tea and coffee and the drawing of the raffle.

Speeches and presentations brought applause all round and a special gift was given to Libby for all the many hundreds of delicious lunches that she has cooked over most of the last twenty years or so that Lunch Club has been around. Libby has asked me to say thank you on her behalf to everyone for their kind words and the generous gift of garden vouchers, which she is looking forward to using next year. Beryl would like to thank all the many volunteer helpers who have cheerfully worked so hard over the years helping to make the Lunch Club a relaxed and happy occasion week after week.

Last Saturday Catsfield’s first football team beat Hawkhurst 3 – 0 at home, the goal scorers for the home team were Charlie Morgan - 2 and Jack Graham – 1. Our second team beat Orington 2 – 1 away. A good weekend for Catsfield! This Saturday the first team is away to Tackleway and the seconds are playing FC Westridge at home.

This will be the last Village Voice before the holidays so I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a truly happy and peaceful Christmas and to say thank you to Ann Davy and Mike Cooper for their valued and interesting contributions to this column during the year. The Observer will be on sale next week after the holiday and I’ll do my best to find some news for the Catsfield column, but it has to reach the office together with the piece for the week after New Year, even before this edition reaches the shops! I will be struggling and will be unable to find anything of interest to write so far in advance for the 3rd January issue, so there will be a small column on 27th December and then there won’t be a Catsfield column until January 10th.