Catsfield village voice

The Book Club meets on the third Tuesday in the month in the village hall at 4pm. The next meeting will be on 17th July and there will be a discussion on the book read by members during the previous month, the books are supplied by the East Sussex County Library. A small charge will be made for the session and tea and biscuits will be available.

The Olympic Torch Procession arrives in Bexhill on Tuesday 17th July at 17.09 at Little Common Roundabout. From there it will go up Cooden Sea Road, left into Birkdale, right into Westcourt Drive, along Cooden Drive for a short distance and down on to the sea front at West Parade. It will go up Sea Road, past the station, turn right into Magdalen Road and Dorset Road and then be transported along the A259 before starting again in St Leonards at 17.58 and passing along Hastings seafront. On the morning of Wednesday 18th July there is an opportunity to see the torch at Battle Abbey where it makes a brief appearance for a photo-call at about 8am in the Abbey grounds before it returns to Hastings. It will continue its journey in Hastings at 08.40 by ascending the cliff on the lift at East Hill and then onwards towards Kent. What a great opportunity to enter into the spirit of the forthcoming Olympics and cheer the torch and it’s bearers on their way!

There was no match last weekend for the cricket club, but the previous week saw a satisfying draw against a touring team who scored 207 all out, Andy Williams taking 5 wickets for 51 runs and Conor took 3 for 37, its good to get our younger players back from university.  Catsfield scored 170 for 7 with Sean Tottman top scorer at 39.  Sunday 15th Catsfield are playing Ashburnham away, always a hard fought contest with Maureen Baker’s son Bernard leading the bowling attack.  The nets have been refurbished and anyone is welcome to use them.

Both the mixed and ladies stoolball teams are flourishing, and when the weather permits they play on Tuesdays and Thursdays. A fixture list will be published shortly. Spectators are welcome at all sporting fixtures.

At the WI meeting on Thursday last week we were given the dates of many forthcoming activities. There will be a ramble on Tuesday 10th, meeting in the car park at 10am and walking up through the Normanhurst Estate to have coffee at Ann Stacey’s lovely home and wander round her beautiful garden, before strolling back. The summer outing on July 12th is to Merriments Gardens followed by a guided tour of Scotney Castle and then on to have tea with the Matfield WI.

There was a surprise interruption to our meeting when Carol, the Clerk to the Parish Council arrived carrying a beautiful arrangement of flowers and a bottle of champagne. This was duly presented to our surprised president Ann Davey, with a message from The Parish Council. They sent their thanks to her as chairman of the Jubilee committee, for organising the best-ever celebrations enjoyed by the whole of Catsfield community over the long Jubilee weekend.

Business over, we sat back to enjoy the illustrated talk by Don Dray entitled ‘The History of the British Seaside’. We could all relate to the recollection of the smell of steam trains and the feeling of excitement on arriving on the beach. Never mind the cold sea or the wind, they were more than compensated for by the donkey rides on the sand, eating ice-creams or candy floss, slot machines on the pier, Punch and Judy - all contributed to our childhood memories of holidays at the seaside. We were reminded of Tea Dances, holiday romances, dodgems, cheeky postcards of fat ladies and trying to undress on the beach behind a precarious towel! After a sing-a-long to some well-remembered tunes, we enjoyed the usual delicious WI tea. The first prize in the competition for a photograph of a single flower stem was awarded to Beryl Bodey. Our next meeting will be on 23rd August at the home of our treasurer Ann Clegg, when hopefully the sun will shine and we can enjoy the delights of her garden.

This report is by Carol Hodgson about the school fete. Catsfield School PTA would like to send a huge thank you to all those who helped make our Summer Fete last Saturday such a great success. The weather was amazingly kind and we only had to duck the occasional shower. It was lovely to see so many people at Catsfield Playing Field and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. In total we raised £1,400 which will help fund the Schools Jubilee Garden Project and to provide a 2-day Science event for the whole school in conjunction with The Observatory Science Centre at Herstmonceux.

We would also like to thank all the companies and individuals who generously donated Raffle Prizes to help make the day so successful and to Rob Platt who donated back his Raffle Prize of £100! We must also say thank you to Dave Isaacs for providing the Marquee, Sundance Charcoal for providing the charcoal for our BBQ, Terry Jenner for bringing along his miniature steam engine and relentlessly pulling a cart of people up and down the field, Julie Bull for endlessly supplying the Bouncy Castles each year, Jan Auer for making available his time and expertise on Air Rifles and Jane Horsman for bringing her pony for the ever popular Pony Rides.

Finally I (Carol) would like to send my personal thanks to ‘The PTA’ who spent lots of time both before and on the day making sure things ran smoothly.

JILL JARRETT

Henley Down Cottage