Catsfield

This important message has been sent to me by Diane Wilson who has been in contact with Highways about the heavy goods vehicles involved in the By Pass construction using the Catsfield Road. They have followed up on concerns and contacted this morning to say that a new sign has been erected at the junction of the B2204 and North Trade Road to stop these vehicles using the road. None of these vehicles can use any B or C class roads from now on.

All heavy goods vehicles that are working on the By Pass now have to display a sign - B2HLR - in the cab. We are asked to take the registration and report any vehicle with this sign that uses the B2204 from now on. There is a website to report vehicles that are driving dangerously/too fast etc. and in our case, particularly to report those displaying the sign that use our road which is - operationcrackdown.org This is a police and safer roads partnership. Highways have also suggested by phone that the police non-emergency number of 101 could be used to report drivers. This should be useful information to all of us in Catsfield.

Last Saturday was beautiful weather for the annual Catsfield Flower Show, held this year in the Village Hall without the usual accompanying Village Fete. Entries were about the same as last year and the standard was very high. The hall was buzzing with people throughout the afternoon and it was delightful also to see people sitting out in the garden, enjoying tea and cakes whilst waiting for the prize giving and the draw of the raffle.

The winners of the cups were as follows –

Presidents Tankard – Ivan Luck

RHS Banksian Medal – Ivan Luck

Chris Campbell Shield – Brian Croft/Ivan Luck

Ernie Taylor Cup – Ivan Luck/David Macvicar

Burgess Cup - Ivan Luck

Sweet Pea Salver – Brian Croft

Newtime Salver – Keith Bishop

Stobbs Cup – Keith Bishop

Hodgkin Cup – Pauline Putland

Floral Cup – Ann Clegg

F.J.Parsons Trophy – Ann Clegg/Jacqueline Kemp

Arning Cup – Amy Cook

Casselton-Elliot Cup – John Kemp

The extremely successful flower show culminated on Saturday evening in an eccentric evening dance/disco in the Village Hall. Eccentric? Well I don’t suppose many discos finish with the inimitable Vanessa leading community songs such as “We’ll meet again” and “White Cliffs of Dover”. It all seemed appropriate somehow, as we needed some bulldog spirit to run the event this year. Thanks to Vanessa’s organisation and Ricky Adelaide’s skill, the small band of happy dancers had a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

This is an early mention in for the Horticultural Society AGM Friday 4th October in the hall. If anyone has any interest in the village fete it is important that they must attend that meeting.

The Village Hall is closed now for a couple of weeks while some repairs are carried out to the floor and some re-decoration undertaken after which it will be opened and ready to host the mix of usual and unusual events. We couldn’t do without it.

The Cricket Club gave us another good match on Sunday against Sedlescombe who batted first and finished at tea with 178 for 6, one of their batsmen having damaged a car with a six hit over the pavilion. Our distinguished village boy Tony Taylor had the best bowling figures with 3 for 43, followed by Ed Malins 1 for 35, Nick Gurr 1 for 30 and Connor Earl 1 for 13. David Taylor opened the batting and laid a good foundation with 15, Nigel Champion batted well for 36 and Tom Hammick got fairly battered by the ball for his valuable 31. Nick Gurr again made some lovely strokes for his 32 and captain Martin Gurr was not out 19 with Connor Earl scoring the winning runs in the last over. A great game played in good spirit.

The Cricket Club and many residents of Catsfield send their condolences to Doreen and the family and friends of Bub Bingham who died on 25th July. Bub was part of a good cricketing family and played regularly as a boy and young man. His relaxed spin bowling, batting skill and good humour made him a much loved member of the old team. His funeral will take place at St Laurence Church on Tuesday 13th August at 1.45pm followed by cremation at Eastbourne.

Every year since 2000, the church in Catsfield has made an award to an outstanding Catsfield student who attends Claverham College. This year the winner was Katrina Styles. The student is nominated by the teachers at the College. The “Millenium Gifts” consist of a small bundle of books for the student and another to be taken by the student to college to be placed in the Library. The prize is generally awarded at a village event, this year at the Village Flower Show. Well done Katie, we are all proud of you!

August 10th is St. Laurence’s Day and Catsfield Parish church, which is dedicated to this saint will be celebrating with a Songs of Praise service followed by a tea party outside (plenty of room inside if wet!). All are very welcome to join us at 3pm on Sunday, August 11th. The service will be joyfully informal and you are invited to bring along cakes and sandwiches to share.

Everyone locally seems to have received circular information about a proposed Solar Farm at St Francis Farm in Potman’s Lane. Whatever your views on this, it would seem important to find out more about the project by attending the following public consultation to be held at

Christchurch Methodist Church (Main Hall), Springfield Road, Bexhill-on-Sea. TN40 2BX on Wednesday 14th August between 5.30pm and 8.00pm. More information can be found online as follows -

Go to www.lightsource-re.co.uk

Click on ‘Community Portal’ on the top right of the home page

Choose the ‘Community Consultation’ button

Type in ‘St Francis Solar Farm’ into the search box.