Fairlight

MOPPs today and next Friday: This week it’s Keith Osbourne’s Music for Health, along with some Pirates Day celebrations. Lunch today is cottage pie, with banana and custard to follow. Next Friday, July 31, there’s the Summer Party with Brian Howard. For lunch, you have a choice between chicken curry and chicken supreme, either of which comes with fruit jelly for pud.

Summer Bash: Two days to go until the well publicised Fairfest Summer Bash is here. It’s free on Wood Field, starting at 4 pm, and with live music from 6 pm. There’s a barbeque and a beer (and wine) tent, and a bouncy castle for the kids. Live on the music front will be The Kytes, Dorey the Wise, and Rye Ukulele. It all adds up to yet another enjoyable Fairfest project. Not to be missed!

Picnic and Clean-up: And almost before the BBQ has had a chance to cool off completely, Fairfest will be back in action again. This time it’s in support of the Cliff Preservation Scheme, and it will be a Picnic and Beach Clean-Up on behalf of the Preservation Trust. This will be not only another fun event but also an opportunity to ‘meet some of the team’ and find out a bit more about what the Preservation Trust team are doing to Save Our Village. The date is Sunday, August 9, and the time from 12 noon to 3.30 pm. You are advised to wear sensible shoes. For your safety you will be asked to sign in at the top and keep to the marked pathway: there will be stewards to guide you. If you would like to come please contact Paul on 812107 or Jennifer on 812476, so they have an idea of numbers who will be taking part. You can picnic on the beach, because the tide will be out, or you can picnic on the cliff if you don’t want to go all the way down. There’s no charge but a bucket donation for Fairlight Preservation Trust.

Parish Council Agenda: Many old favourites are on the Agenda for next Tuesday’s meeting, in the village hall starting at 7.15 pm, especially the Open Forum, always popular at the end of the meeting. Under Land Management, there will be a discussion on parking issues at the junction of Hill Road and Coastguard Lane, another on Southern Water regarding Lower Waites Lane and the response from Consumer Council for Water, plus wildflower verges and an update and costing of the playground matting. Under Financial Matters, there are three items that are somewhat recondite – to discuss the requested increase in Valuation fee by the District Valuer, to approve the payment on account to Wellers Law Group and an item on Pensions Auto enrolment. On the subject of the Country Park New Visitor Centre, there will be an update, and a discussion and the ratification of the offer for representation on the Project Board and the representative’s remit. Why not just be there and find out what it’s all about!

Gardening Club Show: Last Saturday the Club’s exhibitors excelled themselves at their Summer Show with their displays of flowers, plants, vegetables, jams, chutneys, cakes, bread and bug houses, making the village hall, always clean and bright, positively resplendent (in the words of at least one respondent!)

The Club awards certificates for first, second and third places as well as those categories for which cups are awarded. Richard Barron (known as the Reverend Sweet Pea) lived up to his nickname by winning the T.W.E.F.S. Cup for best sweet pea exhibit, the Fairlight Cup for most fragrant sweet pea, and the Bob Liddon Trophy for best pot plant. Keeping pace with her husband, Kath Barron came away with the Dick Ford Cup for the best flower exhibit, the Flower Arrangement Trophy and was joint winner of the Golden Anniversary Cup (shared with Sue Clarke) for the overall best show exhibit with her multigrain loaf. As for Sue Clarke herself, she not only co-ordinated the show, she also collected three trophies, the Jack Hayward Cup for the most first places, the Brian Ardley Domestic Challenge Cup, together with that joint winning of the Golden Anniversary Cup for her multigrain loaf. The Cruttenden family, Anne and Bernard, maintained their winning ways with Anne being awarded the Charles Long Trophy for the best rose exhibit and Bernard gaining the Nick Carter Trophy for the highest points in the vegetable section.

Roger Bowen’s entry in the soft fruit category won him the Alliance and Leicester Trophy for the best exhibit in the fruit classes. First time entrant John Giles produced a very impressive cucumber which won him the Dennis Burgess Trophy for the best vegetable. The Men’s Domestic challenge was to produce six chocolate brownies and the judge here was very impressed with all three entrants, but it was John Eveleigh who took the winner’s certificate – as well as getting himself four first places in other classes. The number of entrants for the Potato Challenge was a record this year. This led to a lot of excitement and anticipation as each bag was weighed, but it was Paul and Karen Draper who pipped Stephen Leadbetter, winner for the past two years, to the post with 6lb 11oz worth of potatoes – all from one potato!

In all, there were 49 classes and several of those who won certificates are not mentioned above, so

congratulations go to each and every one of them! This Summer Show was a great success and the standard of the exhibits illustrated the dedication and devotion shown by the gardeners in the village. The Club thanks all the helpers who worked so hard to put on the show. It was particularly pleasing to have many first time entrants and indeed, winners, which it is hoped will encourage more people to ‘have a go’ next year. The Club consists of a group of happy gardeners who not only enjoy the facilities of the club hut (on Saturdays from 10 am to 12 noon, just south of Fairlight Gardens) but also their series of monthly talks and visits, on the first Monday of each month in the village hall. Some of the Club’s efforts are clearly visible around the village with the new pot and container displays, and the Circle planting is still to come. They always welcome new members, and new entrants for the show, so if you are interested in joining them, please ring Sue Clarke on 813006 for further details.

Activate Village Walk, or Run: Sunday dawned miserably, but cleared up nicely in plenty of time for the Activate Walk, meticulously organised and planned, with a Union flagged route and water stations to prevent dehydration, plus a nice barbeque at the end. All that was missing were the scores of participants the event and its planning had warranted. What a pity that so few were prepared to enjoy an easy, pleasant gander round Fairlight, all in further support of Stage 3 of the Cliff Preservation Scheme!

Step in Time: You may have heard of it, but have you ever wondered what Step in Time is all about? Well you have two chances to try it out as there will be two extra classes on Tuesdays July 28 and August 25. These classes will be at the village hall from 10 am until 11.30 am and the cost of £3 per session includes coffee and biscuits afterwards. Go on – have a go! If you’d like more details, call Dale Bowen on 812307.

Village Hall closure: The hall will be closed for some rejuvenation works on Monday 3 and Tuesday 4 August. We’ll let you know what happens to functions that should be taking place on those days.

Save our noticeboards!: Many will have noticed the flyers that appeared, stuck everywhere, just before the General Election, urging readers to ‘Save Our Wildlife’ by not voting Tory. The problem was not in the message, but the fact that each flyer would not be flying anywhere, as they seemed to have been stuck up with 100% superglue, and could only be removed by the cautious application of an angle-grinder. They’ll probably still be there when the Tory party, and most of our wildlife, are no more.

Stop, thief, and buy one: There was an unusual takeaway at the Post Office when a horse-box did what we all do, and backed a little bit up the drive to turn round and go from whence it came. Except that, unlike most of us, the vehicle clipped an ice cream sign, which stuck underneath the van and departed along with the vehicle. The driver’s Magnum opus for the day, that. Perhaps Ken and Pam will have to put cones round the sign…

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