Catsfield

Catsfield WI: The next meeting of the WI will be in the Village Hall next Thursday, 6th October at 2.30pm. The speaker will be Roy Calthorpe speaking about ‘1066 and all that’ – most appropriate at this time of the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings on the 14th of October. There will be a raffle, the Trade Stall and the usual delicious WI tea. Visitors and new members are always welcome.

WI National Sporting Challenge: Catsfield WI, one of the oldest in the country, decided to join in the National WI Sporting Challenge. We opened the WI cupboard, moving the tea bags, jam recipes and ‘Jerusalem’ song sheets hoping to find an old discus, hammer or even a vaulting pole. Sad to say there was nothing - what to do? A quick look at the tide tables told us it was low tide and the day was glorious. So, a spot of beach combing seemed appropriate followed by coffee. Seaweed covered the rocks and crabs, shrimps and delightful small brown fish were revealed in the pools. We had an I-Spy book of the seaside so were able to identify some species, but mostly it didn’t matter what they were. Some of the shells, seaweed and stones will be displayed at our next meeting. As a sporting challenge perhaps it wasn’t very dramatic, but it couldn’t be beaten as an exercise in nostalgia.

Last night at the Proms: This was another brilliant fund raising event for St Laurence Church held last Saturday in the Village Hall, organised by the indefatiguable Sandra Shoobridge. The hall was packed with bunting and flag-bedecked tables suitably named after prom connections – ours was ‘Sir Henry Wood’. The evening opened with the St Laurence Church Choir singing three songs, the last of which was the highly amusing ‘Orpheus in the Underground’ about a journey on the tube, listing just about every station there is! Then the Rother Community Choir filled the stage and entertained us with eleven ‘Songs from the Musicals’, one of which included a large selection from ‘Oliver!’ and had the audience humming and singing along.

Sandra then announced that as the evening was a ‘take’ on the Proms Night ‘Picnic in the Park’, ‘hampers’ would be distributed to every table - a very large, posh cardboard box filled with everything – Pork pies, Scotch eggs, sausage rolls, chicken legs, salad, cole-slaw, potato salad, French bread & butter, a basket full of biscuits and cheese with pickles and grapes, plastic mugs (for filling with free punch or soft drink), cutlery wrapped in Union Jack napkins, cardboard plates, little iced cakes with Union Jacks on top and even a large bag for the rubbish. What a brilliant idea, a huge amount of planning and it all worked like a dream. When you consider that there were at least seventy-two people present PLUS twenty-eight members of the choir, that was quite a feat. There was a large raffle with some excellent prizes, after which the show began again.

The next part of the evening was led by the choir once more and this time, audience participation was expected and ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ was sung with great gusto to start the second half. After several more good sing-a-long numbers, the evening came to its traditional climax with the usual rendition of ‘Rule Britannia’, ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ etc, accompanied by much flag waving and an enormous feeling of patriotism - the singing must have been heard from a great distance. Congratulations to Sandra and her helpers on organising another memorable and very enjoyable village event which raised the wonderful sum of £670 for the much-needed church funds.

Quiz Night: The next fund raising event for the church will be a Quiz Night on Saturday 22nd October in the Village Hall at 7.30pm. Teams should be of four to six people and entrance will be £5 per person. There will be liquid refreshments available and bring your own nibbles. Tickets available from Catsfield Village Store or at the door.

Harvest Festival: Last Sunday saw Crowhurst and Catsfield congregations joyfully join together to celebrate and give thanks for the harvest and to welcome into the church Solomon Elisha Lindfield at his Christening ceremony. The church looked lovely with harvest decorations of flowers, fruit and vegetables and following the service a wonderful buffet lunch was served. A musical entertainment was provided by Mike, Linda and James singing country folk songs.

Farming News: When will we get some rain? The soil is still hard as iron and ploughing has been difficult. Most of the local wheat is in and the beans will shortly be planted. Blackberries are small and dry, but the acorns and nuts are prevalent, also hawthorn berries and lovely brown shiny conkers waiting to be collected.

Sport: After a weekend with no football fixture, our team play Hailsham Athletico again, but this time at home – Ole!

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