Catsfield

Jill Jarrett, Henley Down Cottage

The WI held a splendid garden meeting last Thursday in Beryl and David Bodey’s peaceful garden, shaded by some towering trees. The Committee provided the tea and raffle prizes and Sarah Reed compiled a very difficult quiz. It was nice to just sit and chat on a beautiful summer day. Our next formal meeting is on 5th September when members are requested to bring photographs of themselves as young girls and talk about their school days, or general childhood memories. We look forward to some revelations!

Songs of Praise held last Sunday to mark the patron saint of St Laurence’s church was an uplifting occasion. The rousing hymns, requested by members of the congregation, were punctuated by readings and meditation and Father Michael read a piece written many years ago by Reverend Talbot about the life of St Laurence. A huge table of food was waiting after the service for a picnic tea taken either in the sunshine in the churchyard or in the church.

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Unfortunately our cricket match against Chailey away on Sunday had to be cancelled early in the week as Chailey couldn’t field a side. This is happening to local cricket, it has occasionally happened to us and in this paper last week, we read that Icklesham have had to cancel all remaining fixtures due to difficulties in getting a team. There seem to be fewer people playing village cricket, which is a great shame. We hope that David Taylor’s colt sides will grow up and want to play for us, but the reality is that they will either go to play for a league side on a Saturday, or give up the game completely. What a loss this would be for village life.

Football, however, has started with friendly matches being arranged before the season begins. Saturday afternoon there is the memorial game between the first and second teams on the Playing Field. This has become a tradition following the sad death of Andy Gurr and we hope for a good match followed by some socialising. On Sunday the cricket team play Newenden at home beginning at 2pm.

As a responsible dog owner I sometimes enjoy a gentle stroll around our beautiful playing field, taking care to ensure that there is never any mess left by my dog and using the poo bin provided. On the whole, there is very little fouling by dogs on the field but the other day I was appalled to see an enormous dollop that no owner could have avoided seeing deposited on the beautiful turf. I would have picked it up, but my dog being small, my bag just wasn’t big enough. Please dog owners, take responsibility for clearing up after your pet and show consideration for other users of this lovely village facility. If you don’t, the Parish Council will forbid us to exercise our dogs there and that would be a great loss to the rest of us.

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