Netherfield

Netherfield Village Hall Future Events: Netherfield Village Hall has a Jumble Sale booked for Saturday 6th April from 10am-11.30am at Netherfield Village Hall, Netherfield Road, TN33 9QB. We already have a considerable amount of items being stored - Clothing, bric a brac, toys, books and much more – which will be on sale to everyone at bargain prices. 50p admission for adults, children free. Make a date in your diary!

The Three Churches of Mountfield, Brightling and Netherfield Events: The following information has been provided by the Churches to hopefully enable everyone to successfully plan ahead for the month of March.

1. St. John the Baptist Church, Netherfield - On March 24th – Eucharist at Netherfield, 10 a.m, and March 31st – Mothering Sunday at Netherfield, 10 a.m.

2. Brightling – On 10th March – Eucharist at Brightling, 10 a.m.

3. Mountfield – On 17th March – Eucharist at Mountfield, 10 a.m.

Netherfield Village Hall Library Service: Donations are arriving on a regular basis at the Hall ensuring the diversity of the library’s content for the community across Netherfield. It is your service so please use it.

Netherfield Village Hall Bingo: Unfortunately, due to illness the Bingo was unable to proceed last month. However, please don’t despair as I am assured that it will go ahead at the end of March on Thursday 28th. See you there.

Painting the Netherfield Village Hall: Keeping a building up to scratch, making it look nice and welcoming is an ongoing task. It not only requires funds to make sure that the structure is fit for purpose, but the help of volunteers for tasks such as painting. Our progress in bringing the Hall back to full use over the last year and a half, through the on-going fund-raising functions, has enabled us to acquire the paint and the brushes to brighten up the outside, but not the money to pay for someone to do it. Therefore, we need volunteers to come and help us paint.

With that in mind, I am asking now for that help, so we can organise a date, at a time when the weather gets warmer. Yes, it is a job and a half but the end result will be worth the effort. We have already been offered help by one person so far, so I am making this request now to see if we can stimulate further interest. There is free tea and coffee and a simple lunch provided to all helpers at no charge to them. It is a good day, with lots of laughs, so why not come along? You can contact me using any of the details at the end of this column. Thanks.

Claverham Monday Badminton Club: Vim and vigour were in evidence on Monday night this week at the badminton. No, these are not two names of new entrants to the club or a revitalised advertising campaign for a couple of ancient cleaning products, but my assessment of the effort shown by sixteen, yes I kid you not, sixteen players of this sport of the greats. Or should that be, sport that grates as some of my reader may think? I can’t remember the last time there were that many players in one go.

Of these sixteen, three were our lady members, Lyn, Jo and Sandra, which is 18.75% of the numbers attending, for those statisticians that feature in my reader. Not perfect I grant you, but worth a mench.

This meant that once our friends who use the fourth court had finished their session, we were able to occupy a fourth court for a short while. We have been slowing growing our attendance rates over the last millennia, sorry year, which is surprising given the rubbish I print in this column. It also ensures that the Claverham Sports Club Hall can be fully occupied from 8.00 o’clock in the evening on a Monday, ensuring long term, some would say, its continued existence.

As always, the action was fast and furious, and that was only in the warm-up sessions before any matches started. The games themselves – well, why not come along and see for yourself?

More next week...

Reflections on a garden: My calculations on the number of bags of ballast and concrete required to extend the base, where the secondhand shed should sit, indicates to me, that I have a lot to learn about building and construction. When I marked it out, put the shuttering (a technical term) in place, it did not look very big. In my ignorance, I thought a 25kg bag of ballast with 6 or 7 kg of cement added to it, plus an amount of water consistent with achieving the right consistency for a base, would need x number of bags overall. Off I went to the local supplier, the car’s rear compartment duly changed to accommodate the bags, and purchased what I thought was the required amount. Paid my money to the machine and loaded my car.

When the first lot of concrete is mixed by hand, transported to the site and laid, you then realise the mistake you have made. Not, you might think, a disaster, as a few bags extra should do it, but frustrating that your eye and the brain’s calculation is not what it once was. Off you trot armed with a new calculation in your head, that you now require y number of bags. One extra for luck this time to ensure compliance. Got to look good to those around you who rely on your judgment.

Same procedure. Rear of the car changed to accommodate the bags, load, unload. Shoulders now feeling the strain of lifting these multitude of 25kg bags, combined with the manual mixing of the end product, but, hey, you are a man and nobody is gonna call you a sissy and somebody that has to rely on a machine. I didn’t get those bumps on my upper arm from using a mixer you know!

A slightly slower mixing speed this time and then push the wheelbarrow over to the site. Oh no, not enough again. My good lady is now questioning my “expertise” in these matters, which I assured her I possessed when I started the task. Well it can’t be that hard, surely? You start on a Friday and that is when you should finish given the size of the job. When the last section of concrete went in it was time for Sunday Lunch.

More next week...

Contact: If you have any stories or articles of interest that will give our readership a reason to buy the paper please contact me on email at [email protected]. Call 01424838410 and ask for Maurice or text 07957588172