Catsfield

Catsfield Remembers: Tomorrow, Saturday 10th November in the Village Hall at 7pm there will be an event to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of WWl. This will include an Act of Commemoration, a '˜Trench-style Meal' and a period entertainment. Tickets were sold out well in advance and the hall will be full to mark this occasion in a social atmosphere, whilst also remembering the significance of this anniversary.

‘Battle’s Over’: This will be followed the next day by a half hour service of Holy Communion at 9.15am. The special Remembrance Sunday Service will be held in the evening this year at 6.20pm as part of the Nation’s Tribute entitled ‘Battle’s Over’. Village organisations will be represented including some children from Catsfield School, poppy wreaths laid and of course the names of the fallen from both wars will be read out. The congregation will then move to the churchyard where at 6.55pm the Last Post will be played before the lighting of a memorial beacon at 7pm, followed by the joyful sound of the church bells ringing out for peace for 15 minutes. The ceramic poppies recently made will be on display, especially those thirty named and dedicated to the fallen servicemen of Catsfield in both wars and others will be outside on the grass in the churchyard.

1st Ninfield Scouts: Next Friday 16th November in Catsfield Village Hall the 1st Ninfield Scouts will be holding their AGM. This will be followed by the Grand Autumn Raffle and the 1st Ninfield Explorers will be having a Charity Race Night with all bets £1. No tickets are required, but it would be appreciated if you would notify Dick Creasey on 07970559226 or Carol Hodgson on 07967116972 if you are coming. Refreshments, snacks and hot dogs will be on sale and doors open at 6.15pm. Join them for a fun night out and support the local Scouts.

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Christmas Market: The St Laurence Church Christmas Market will be held on Saturday 24th November in the Village Hall from 10am – 2pm, entrance 50pm, children free. There will be all the usual lovely stalls – plants, cakes, books, tombola, gifts, bathroom stall, raffle and Christmas fayre. This is the biggest fundraiser of the year for St Laurence Church so do come along and bring your friends to buy Christmas gifts and enjoy coffee or tea, cakes and lunches and support our village church. Donations of homemade cakes, raffle prizes and items for all the stalls are needed please, contact Jane on 01424 893431.

WI: The November Annual meeting of the Catsfield WI was well attended and we heard news of forthcoming events for December and given the menu for our Christmas lunch. It was also time to choose a charity for which to raise money in the next year and the Sara Lee Trust was chosen. Catherine Nichols was welcomed to the committee following the appeal for new members. Then the Annual meeting formalities began and we heard from Beryl, our Secretary who read a summary of all that had taken place over the past year. This was a lengthy report at the end of our centenary year, during which so many special and memorable events had been enjoyed by the members, organised by our efficient and busy committee. Ann, our Treasurer gave the financial report and was followed by Ann, our President giving her report and thanking all of her committee for the help and support they had given her during this busy and historic year for our WI. We also heard of several past and present members who had sadly died during this year. She then ‘stepped down’ while the members elected a President for the next year and, to no-one’s surprise, Ann was unanimously re-elected for the next twelve months, thank goodness! Beryl presented us with a challenging ‘fun’ quiz, which had us all wracking our brains for a while before tea and the raffle and time to go home. The next meeting will be on 6th December at 2pm and will be the Christmas party when we’ll be entertained by ‘Rabbit in the Hole’ Blue Grass Band. The competition will be to create a Christmas angel completely out of paper and members are reminded to bring a gift for the bran tub.

The Bishop of Blackburn: It was a pleasure to welcome the former Bishop of Blackburn to our morning service of Holy Communion at St Laurence Church twice in the last three weeks when Father Michael was away. On both occasions, his warm enthusiasm and interest in everything was much appreciated and we hope he will visit us again sometime soon.

Sport: Saturday saw our football team play a closely fought cup match at home against Crowhurst. There was a smattering of supporters, including the groundsman of course, whose Saturday isn’t complete without standing around with his mates either getting wet or freezing re-living past glories. We lost after extra time 2 - 3, but had to play with only ten men for a large part of the match when our goalkeeper rushed out, fouled a player and was sent off. At the end of the match, he sloped off with a full set of kit to wash and won’t be able to play for a couple of matches. Quite a lot was said about this on the groundsman’s return home. Tomorrow we play Sedlescombe again at home, hoping we can find another goalkeeper (the groundsman’s football boots have been hidden away for the time being).

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Sunday: we went to visit the WW1 exhibition at Westfield Church Hall, which has now been transferred to the Church. The exhibition has been expertly curated by Ruth Carter, who it turns out is married to Ben Carter, son of Martin (Tinker) our esteemed old Church organist and member of the Carter Egg Farm family. Much reminiscing with ex Claverham schoolmates amid the extremely detailed pieces illustrating Westfield soldiers, a film and lots of photos. Ben tells me he has quite a lot of Catsfield memorabilia and we will look forward to seeing it sometime.

Our own Catsfield History Group has installed three boards showing their material in our Church, which will stay up for the week.