Etchingham

The Annual Parish Meeting will be held at 6.15pm on Thursday April 18 at Etchingham Village Hall.The meeting is facilitated by the Parish Council but is an open public meeting and not a Parish Council meeting. All welcome to attend. Please see the Notice Boards and Etchingham website ( www.etchinghamvillage.co.uk ) for details of the Agenda shortly.

Etchingham Annual Report. The Etchingham Annual Report is a presentation of the past year by village groups and organisations, the Parish Council and elected Members. This is an opportunity for local groups to advertise their activities, request help and recruit volunteers. Please ensure that your contribution is sent to Bob Hodgson, Parish Clerk at [email protected] by Monday 8th April. Reports should be limited to one side of A4.

Royal visit for Etchingham. HRH The Duke of Gloucester is to visit Etchingham on Tuesday April 16, arriving at around 4.30pm.

Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester is the Queen’s cousin and recently represented her in Rome at the Pope’s inauguration. The visit is at the invitation of the Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex, Peter Field, who has been in the village a few times in the last year, the first time was when he planted the Royal Oak in the Jubilee Wood. The Lord Lieutenant is the Queen’s representative in East Sussex.

The visit will start at the Bistro and then the visiting party will walk through the Bistro car park and the newly planted wild flower garden, past the Church to visit the Shop & Deli.

The whole tour is due to last about 60 minutes so you will have plenty of chances to see our Royal visitor. We hope as many people as possible, especially the children, will turn out on the day with flags and bunting.

I am sure many of you will take your cameras on the day, if you get some interesting shots, you are welcome to email the images to me and I will add them to the pictures that I take and post on my Flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/ttelyob , if I add any of your pictures you will of course be credited as the photographer. Please note, due to limited space, numbers will obviously be restricted inside the buildings, but you will get plenty of viewing opportunities outside.

The Improvements Committee will hold their AGM on Thursday April 25, 7.30pm in Etchingham Club. The committee is currently at a critical point and urgently needs more people to get involved, if they cannot sevure more help and members it is quite likely they will not be able to deliver a Fete and the Flower & dog Show this year, and possibly no other events.

If you can help, contact Chas or Lucy on 01580 819567 or 01580 819057 [email protected] Fo r more details go to the Etchingham Village website www.etchinghamvillage.co.uk and follow the link.

Etchingham & Fontridge Cricket Club is a friendly team of mixed ability and ages, normally playing Sunday village cricket games, and occasionally on Wednesday evenings during the summer in small Twenty/20 competitions.

During the season they run weekly practice sessions in their own nets at the top of the Lambing Field, in the spring and summer every Wednesday from about 6.30pm till the light fades. If you are interested in getting involved, even if you can only commit to one or two games a season, the Club is keen to see the village Club continue and grow and therefore always need to increase the playing squad. You can find out more on line at www.etchinghamvillage.co.uk/village-organisations/etchingham-cricket-club or www.facebook.com/pages/Etchingham-Fontridge-Cricket-Club/119092951438048?fref=ts

The Bistro is now on Saturdays. Opening from 10am till 2pm for Saturday Brunch, in addition to the usual Bistro menu there will be a special dish each week, such as Smoked salmon and Scrambled Eggs with English Muffins, Kippers in Cider with Lighthouse Bread, Very Special Eggs and more.

From Saturday April 20 the Bistro will be open in the evening from 7pm. the menu will change regularly and feature “Saturday Evenings with a rota of your Favourite Chefs”, details of chefs will be announced nearer the date. No tickets are required on Saturday evenings, but is is always advisable to book a table as seating is limited. Guest Chef nights will be re-launched in the autumn. To keep up with Bistro news go to the website http://www.bistroatthestation.co.uk

Tomorrow (Saturday April 6) the Etchingham Shop & Deli will hold a Charity Duck Race. It will take place at 12 noon on the River Dudwell, starting on Oxenbridge Lane and finishing at the rear of the shop, where a BBQ and refreshments will be served. The aim is to raise money for a village charity with each entrant purchasing a duck and nominating a charity, ie Darby & joan, Under 5’s, FES etc. The winning duck owner will reveive a giant Easter Egg, there will also be a prize for the best decorated children’s duck and the best decorated adults duck. The race is open to everyone, young and old, with all profits going to the winners nominated charity. If you have not already purchased a duck, go to the Shop, find out if they have any left, if they, buy your duck, take it home and decorate it (optional) and take it to the race.

Get information for this column to me as soon as possible, if you have a diary of events planned for the year let me have the dates and I will put in a list of village events for the year so that people can put the dates in their diaries. There are several ways to get your info to me, but email is preferred because there is less chance of errors during copying. I need information by 10pm on Monday to be sure it will be in time for inclusion, I can sometimes add extra items on Tuesday morning, but this cannot be guaranteed. Just a little reminder, I get plenty of information about events that are taking place, but I get very little follow up information, after your event try and remember to send me brief account of how successful your event was, it can be as simple as a thank you to those that attended and how much money was raised etc. You can deliver to 2 Park Farm Close, telephone 01580 819532 or 07941 786244 or email [email protected]