Fairlight

From July, that’s Sunday 26, Sunday Live is to have a different focus. Whereas until now the emphasis has been upon encouragement and testimony of what God has done in people’s lives, this will change to concentrate on teaching about God and who He is, from a biblical perspective. The meeting will still continue to be about an hour long, and will still be followed by food, fellowship and support for one another.

Don’t forget the Hot Potato night at 6.30 pm on Saturday, July 4 at St Peter’s, a social event for church and community. There will be food — jacket potatoes with a variety of fillings — and drinks. During the evening there will be a panel of people willing to answer questions about God, the church and faith — a great opportunity for anyone to receive some answers to difficult questions.

To the delight of youngsters, Messy Church will be there for them once more on Wednesday next, July 1 from 3.30 until 5.30 pm in the village hall.

MOPPs today and next Friday: Today, the entertainment will be Janice Bolton’s Country Dance, with a lunch of chicken and bacon, followed by banoffee pie. Next week, on Friday, July 3, there’s Celia King’s chair-based exercises to help keep you supple, and ready to tuck in to sausage and mash, and then peaches and custard. Don’t these weekly plans tempt you to join the group? Numbers are currently fairly high, but do register your interest and you could be slotted in to a vacancy as soon as one occurs.

This month’s Tuesday Ladies Club: had a most enjoyable afternoon in the company of a very relaxed Chris McCooey with a very interesting talk. As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Chris had very kindly stepped in to replace the booked speaker, who is unfortunately unwell. Chris held the ladies spellbound with his talks about scandals, a ménage a trois (Edith Nesbit), Noel Coward and the really sad one about the scandalous treatment of chimney sweep boys and finally the saucy postcards of Donald McGill. Chris will be making a return visit in September when he will talk about Notorious Sussex Women. The meeting on July 21 will feature Andy Dinsdale talking about Australian Wildlife. The meeting will be in the village hall, starting at 2.15. Visitors of either sex are very welcome for a mere £2 which includes tea and cakes.

By the time you’re reading this, the Ladies will have had their Annual Outing, encompassing the Old Loom Mill Craft Centre, and a cream tea at Hillier’s Garden Centre in Hailsham. A report will follow next week.

The Players’ AGM: will be taking place tomorrow evening, starting at 7.30 pm, in the village hall. Members will know that they have to state that they will be attending, for catering purposes. It will be following the tried and tested formula of business, followed by entertainment, followed by supper. And the bar will be open. I’ve never known it yet to fail…!

RSPCA Grand Summer Fayre: A week tomorrow, on Saturday, July 4, the South East and Hastings Branch (Dogs and Cats) of the RSPCA will be holding their Summer Fayre from 10 am to 1 pm in the village hall. This is the grass-roots and much loved RSPCA, full of local animal welfare, and far removed from the blight of the politically correct animal rights shenanigans that seem to beset the Society’s HQ. The fayre will cost you 50p for admission, which gets you not only through the door, but brings with it a cuppa tea or coffee, and access to the biscuits! Then you can browse and buy at the Pet Shop, Raffles, Linen Stall, China and Glass Collectables, Cakes and Savouries, the Bargain Basement and Toys and Games. As before, clairvoyant Jenny Croft will be there, too, but I expect you knew already that she would be coming…

Fairfest Summer Bash: Coming up fast is this year’s Fairfest offering, the vital and exciting Summer Bash, which will be with us in four weeks on Sunday, July 26. The fun starts at 4 pm, with live music from 6 pm, and this will feature Dorey the Wise, the Rye Ukulele experiment and the ever-popular Kytes. Not only is this event designed to be fun raising, it is also fund raising – ready for the fourth Fairfest Festival, which is next summer. As well as free entry, the Bash offers games, a bouncy castle, tea, a bar and a barbie.

For the Festival itself, putting it on is hugely expensive with items like Public Insurance Liability, an Events Licence, portaloos to hire and bands to be paid, so any profits from this year’s ‘do’ will be a welcome boost for the funds.

From a more mundane point of view, any help anyone could offer for the morning of the Bash would be welcomed, as there will be tents to put up, games to get organised, and car parking areas to be marked off. Such help, plus those who would enjoy either running a game or helping with car parking when it all begins, are asked, nicely, to contact Jennifer Annetts on 812476

Quiz Night at the Cove: The latest Cove Quiz is coming along on Wednesday week, July 8 at 8 pm, with Bob and Dec question-mastering a 1950’s affair. Appropriately, the entrance fee per person is thirty bob, or pedantically £1 10s 0d. Your fee gets you entry into all quizzes, and to a go at the free sandwiches. There’s a £25 cash prize, too. If Jack Frost on the inside of your bedroom window is a memory of your winter mornings, this quiz is the place for you to be!

It’s the Bowls Club Tournament Day: this Sunday, June 28, when twenty four teams will be playing each other throughout the day, with an excellent lunch provided by the Ladies Captain Penny Kenward and her team of helpers. The event is sponsored once again by the Brickwall Hotel in Sedlescombe and will be raising money for the Club Captain Colin Yellop’s choice of charity, and he has nominated St Michaels’ Hospice, a very worthy cause. The club has previously made significant donations to such other worthy causes as Myeloma UK, Prostate Cancer and Help for Heroes. The main raffle prize of the day will be a meal for four plus Bed and Breakfast at the Brickwall Hotel, and there is also a meal voucher from the Bella Vista restaurant in St Leonard’s and many other prizes. There’s also a tombola stall, home made cakes and tea and cakes will be served throughout the day.

The winning team will be announced at the end of the day and presented with a trophy to be held for a year, plus cash prizes and a bottle of wine.

There is a ‘spider’ competition as well, in which the jack is placed in the centre of the green, and all bowlers, with one foot in the ditch, cast one bowl. The nearest to the jack wins a bottle of whisky. We’ll let you know who won this and the main tournament next week!

Your jolly good health: A group tour, complete with wine tasting, is planned to go to Carr Taylor Vineyards in Westfield, on Friday, August 14. Because there is a minimum charge, more people are needed to make the visit economic. The one and a half hour tour is to start at 11 am, and if you are interested, please email organiser David Lucas at [email protected]. The cost would be £6.50 per head, with a pound off for OAPs, and lunch is available for an extra £6.50. Free transport can probably be provided if needed.

All the signs aren’t there: On Wood Field, a wildflower verge was created last year by the Meadow Way entrance. There were some five or six small signs placed along the verge confirming this.

However, twice in the last few weeks, these signs have been ripped up and have gone missing. If it were just the usual mindless vandalism, you would usually expect to see the signs thrown around or over a fence, but there is no sign (!) of them whatsoever. They can be of no use to anyone else, which is the most annoying aspect of this. If anyone has any knowledge of who has been doing this, please get in touch with any member of the parish council.

A lot of hard work has been and is still being put in by volunteers, with principal ‘hands-on’ councillor David Thatcher, to make the field and the parish’s part of the Wood accessible, for them to be enjoyed by all, but it seems some are intent on spoiling it.

Is Wood Field a rec or a wreck?: A recreation ground, or ‘rec’, is a piece of publicly owned land used for sports and games. Our Wood Field is one such facility, owned and maintained by our parish council, but it is becoming home to an unusual game called, I think they said, ‘Dodge It’. It has been developed from necessity as an unconscionable amount of dog fouling has been deposited there, and in the wood. One despairs of the mind-boggling thoughtlessness and selfishness of the dog owners, not for allowing their dogs to ‘perform’ there – there is little one can do about that – but for walking blithely away as if nothing untoward has happened. It takes so little effort to pick up whatever there is, and it doesn’t cost much for a bag or two. And there are proper bins provided for quick and safe disposal. Everyone knows that people on the rec are enjoying the fresh air and the views and, with children especially, they are not looking down to ensure that every footfall is on to clean grass. As Sting almost sang ‘Every step you take, I’ll be watching poo’. We owe a large debt of gratitude to Tony and Val King, who patrol the field every day cleaning up after these self-centred thickos. When I was growing up, there was a train of thought that said, if your dog had an ‘accident’ in the home, rub its nose in it. I don’t think that was actually ever done, but the thought should be revived today. Not for the dogs, but the owners!

Summertime: and the living is breezy. Time was when you could take the dogs out for a final trot in the twilight wearing T-shirt, shorts and open-toed sandals to enjoy the balmy ambience. That’s you, not the dogs. Not this year. Even with temperatures soaring into the low 60’s, there’s a chilly wind, which we seem to have had for the last eight months, and a wind-chill factor that gives a RealFeel somewhere in the 40’s. Balmy? No, if you don’t go out all wrapped up like Nanook of the North, you’re barmy.

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