Fairlight

Church matters: There are two services in the parish this Sunday '“ January 8 already! '“ the first being Holy Communion at 8 am at St Peter's, and the second being the service of Morning Praise at 10.30 am at St Andrew's, with guest speaker Andrew Thomas. Of note for Methodists, Pett Methodist church has a Methodist Covenant Service with Holy Communion at 10.45 am.
Fairlight newsFairlight news
Fairlight news

MOPPs today and next Friday: Today, the members will be thoroughly entertained – oh, yes they will – by a pantomime presented by the ladies of the Tuesday Ladies Club, entitled ‘The Tale of Lady Valentina’. The activities today also include Nicola’s Age UK toenail cutting service, and a star prize for the raffle. There’s roast pork for lunch, followed by fruit meringue. Next Friday, January 13, the entertainment is by the skiffle group, the Field Stone Boys, with lunch being lasagne, new potatoes and salad, and then fruit jelly.

Whist tonight: As the village settles back into some of the old faithful, regular favourites that have been temporarily suspended over the Christmas season, starting properly with the Bowls Club’s winter Whist Drives. The first of the New Year’s drives is tonight, Friday, January 6, in the village hall at 6.45 for a 7 pm start. Don’t be late for this popular fortnightly event.

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Speakers Corner: The Group starts its 2017 programme with a talk by Phil White entitled The History of the Winkle Club. It starts at 2.30 pm in the village hall on Wednesday, January 11. A fortnight later, on Wednesday 25, Alan Haines will be along to give the group a ‘Kick up the 60’s’.

The Tuesday Ladies Club: will have their January meeting on Tuesday 17, at 2.15 pm in the village hall, when they will have a review of 2016 plus a quiz.

Fairlight Players: The Players will be holding the auditions for their forthcoming April production, which is to be Cranford, dramatised by Martyn Coleman from the works of Elizabeth Gaskell. The stories are set in the 1830s, when lighting was by candle and oil lamp, sewing and lace-making were done by hand, the fastest travel was by horse, and tea was only for the genteel few. By the time Mrs Gaskell wrote the stories in the 1860s, the slow world of Cranford had been lost to gaslight, mass production in factories, railways and much more tea available for the working classes.

The production, which will be directed by Judy Welsh on her Fairlight debut, features nine women and two men, a play which should satisfy the burgeoning number of female members in the group. The auditions will commence at 7.30 pm in the village hall on Thursday, January 19. If you would like to take part, but are unable to make the auditions, please give Secretary Carol Ardley a call on 814178, or email her at [email protected]

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Red Riding Hood: It’s strange working on a Fairlight panto. Prior to Christmas is a relaxing period, with little to worry about. After all, the thinking goes, the production is not even this year. But after the break, it suddenly becomes obvious that the performances commence in less than a month, and that brief spell is getting briefer by the minute. This realisation stimulates the adrenalin, and the presentation starts taking on its final shape, ready for the run from Thursday 26 to Saturday 28 January. Tickets are on sale now at the Post Office, and there are already fewer available than was the case just before Christmas. Don’t miss out on yours! They’ll cost you between £3 and £7, depending on who is going and when. Get down to the PO as quickly as you can!

And so: The village, slowly but surely, returns to normality. News of future events, happenings, meetings and the like start to filter through once more and, in the wider community experience, village lights-out, briefly extended over the festive season to shortly after 10.30 pm, can be found almost back to the customary 10.06 pm, which is news headlines and then bed.

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