A Village Celebration Event

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Royal Treasure Hunt:

This was the first of our events to mark the Queen’s 90th Birthday. Peter and Ruth Green had put a challenging treasure hunt together around the village which began in the Village Hall with participants collecting their clue sheets from Peter. They were also given a blank cardboard crown which they had to decorate with coloured marker pens and “jewels” available at a table after which, wearing their crowns, they set out around the village to hunt for the clues.

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Adults, children and dogs all joined in the search returning eventually to the Village Hall for lunch of cottage pie and peas provided by Sarah Anderson, Janice Ford, Ruth Green, Gwynneth Doran, Pompi Parry and Barbara Lowe with a vegetarian version made by Rachel Jeffries. This was followed by cupcakes made by Vickie Finnecy and decorated with gold and silver crown rings. After lunch, Peter read out the answers to the treasure hunt and Ruth presented the prizes. The adult winners were David and Sarah Anderson, the child winner was Alice Ward, and Nicky Shipp identified the butterfly correctly.

The prize for best decorated crown was won jointly by Matilda Jeffries and Amelie Thomas-Watts, and Nigel Parry was given a special mention for the decoration on his adult crown. All the children were presented with a bag of Cadbury’s chocolate buttons by Ruth. Peter Ford took photographs and Janice Ford gave the vote of thanks. Everyone agreed it had been a very enjoyable occasion and a lot of fun. Thank You to Sarah, Janice, Gwynneth, Pompi, Barbara, Rachel, Vickie and Peter, to everyone who set up and cleared away afterwards, and a very special Thank You to Peter and Ruth for all their hard work in organising the event which raised almost £250 for new equipment for the playing field.

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The treasure trail around the village begins

Following on from the treasure hunt we had another event to celebrate the Queen’s 90th Birthday, in the form of a mini fete.

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…………………..Our celebration event was opened by our own Royal Corgi, Crystal, who came with her attendants, Rick and Maureen Downer. Her arrival was announced by our Master of Ceremonies, Peter Green, and, accompanied by Henry Purcell’s Trumpet Tune, Crystal made a Royal Progress in the Village Hall. Having fulfilled her royal duty, she was presented with a box of dog biscuits by Peter after which she made her way round greeting everyone and Peter declared the event open.

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Inside, there were refreshments served by Janice Ford and Carol Hastings, a tombola run by Joan Belson and Ron Gregory, the human fruit machine run by Stella Weir, a captions competition devised by Ruth Green and judged by David Morriss, the Royal Bake Off! looked after by Lorna Kingdon, and pin the tail on the corgi where blindfolded participants, encouraged by Barbara Lowe, placed stickers on a most attractive drawing of a corgi by Dave Anderson.

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Outside in the field behind the Village Hall, David and Barbara Lowe ran the skittles alley and the egg and spoon race, and Ruth Green and Rachel Jeffries painted faces and looked after the children’s tent. The wet sponge proved very popular; Rachel had produced a picture of a queen and a prince on a board with the faces cut out and “victims” put their faces into the spaces and were pelted with wet sponges.

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There were wheelbarrow races, Hook a Duck and Beat the Goalie which were all watched with interest by the sheep, loaned by Allan Castle, while people wrote their guesses of her weight on a clipboard attached to her pen. Karen Cunningham devised a Splat the Rat which proved very popular with the children who enthusiastically “splatted” away and Robert Pennington acted as parking marshall.

Christina Tailby judged the cakes for the Royal Bake Off! There were four cakes, but only three to be judged as one participant asked not to be included. Christina felt the standard was so good, she awarded first prize to all three cakes which were entered by Sheila Futcher, Liz Bayford, and Gerry Arnold whom she particularly commended for his unusual blend of ingredients – carrot and walnut. This was followed by the auction of the cakes and the awarding of the prizes for the other events.

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Guess the Weight of the Sheep was won by Jo Essigman whose guess of 32.25kg was nearest to the actual weight of 32.55kg. Pin the Tail on the Corgi was won by Barbara Lowe, the Under 12s skittles was won by Pip Winser and the Adults skittles by Prue Castle. The captions competition was won by Emily Fleming whose caption for a picture of the Queen and Prince Charles laughing was “Charles look! Harry’s dressed as Hitler again!” Throughout the afternoon, Peter Ford took photographs. There was no entry fee, but Vickie Finnecy and her family encouraged people to give donations which will be added to the proceeds from the afternoon and used to buy new play equipment for the playing field.

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May we say a big “Thank You” to Peter G, Rick, Maureen and Crystal, Janice, Carol, Joan, Ron, Stella, Ruth, David M, Lorna, Barbara, Dave, David L, Rachel, Allan, Karen, Robert, Christina, Peter F, Malcolm Read for loan of straw bales for the skittles, Graham Read, Mark Atwill and Brian Kirby for use of the field, Alderbury and West Grimstead CEVA Primary School for loan of pennants, gazebos and the school bell, Bill’s Restaurant and The Entertainer toy shop for donating prizes to the tombola, and everyone who came and supported the event. ………………………………………

A special “Thank You” to the Queen’s 90th Birthday Team who not only baked scones for the refreshments, but worked so hard to put our celebrations together: Sarah Anderson, Karen Cunningham, Gwynneth Doran, Vickie Finnecy, Janice Ford, Ruth Green, Rachel Jeffries and Barbara Lowe.

This event’s proceeds, when added to those from the Royal Treasure Hunt, gave a total of over £400 which will go towards buying new play equipment for the playing field.

Thank you everyone!

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Our Church was also decorated for the occasion

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Tony Watt, our trumpeter, playing at the Service of Thanksgiving for the Queen’s 90th birthday

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Photos taken by Peter Ford and C.Hastings.