News, comment and gossip for Horsington, the Cheritons and surrounding villages in Somerset
Tickets for the MPO’s concert performance of “The Arcadians” are selling well, but there’s still time to book.
The concert is on Saturday September 25th at Milborne port Village Hall. 7.30 pm. £10 admission.
Book at www.mpopera.co.uk
Click on the photos to enlarge
Richard Gaunt- nearest the pin for a birdie
Sixty eight golfers of all abilities mustered at Henstridge gold Club on Saturday 4th September to compete in the annual charity golf tournament, the Horsington Open. It was the tenth anniversary game; a relaxed, carefree occasion, with several payers taking the trouble to dress up in outlandish costumes, a tradition which the organisers hope will continue in future years.
Golf is a funny game. The aim is to go round in the least possible strokes. But because some players are not very good, a system has evolved to give less able players an allowance of strokes which are not counted in their final score, and this is called their handicap. So the good golfers have to play exceptionally well, while the bad players simply have to get lucky. And to complicate matters further, the result is not calculated on the total number of strokes taken, but on the number of times you beat the official “par” for each hole, for which you get points. The one with the most points wins.
So Henstridge vice captain Nick Hudd, who stormed round in a stunning 33 strokes, had to content himself with coming 6th overall. Trevor Legg, also from Henstridge managed to beat him by a full two points to carry off the coveted Claret Jug. Richard Gaunt, who is normally well down the field, had a good day on a big handicap, and was the runner up, closely followed by Chris Bailward, Peter Gripper, and Denise Case just a couple of points behind.
George Wagland, representing the sadly closed Half Moon, won the parallel competition for players without an official handicap. Horsington’s other contenders Mark Warren, David Blake, Phil Warren, Andrew Tarling and Anthony Yateman fought valiantly but were further down the rankings.
In the team event. Horsington’s top team, the Home Farm Harriers, led by Chris Bailward, came third, beating the Grippers by a point. The Horsington Hackers, led by David Blake, last year’s winners followed behind, tying with Richard Gaunt’s The Improbables for 11th place.
The day raised over £1200 for the Somerset Air Ambulance and St Margaret’s Hospice, and organisers Richard Gaunt and David Blake (now residing in Bath) would like to thank everyone who took part and for their generous donations and prizes. Next year’s competition is on Saturday September 3rd 2022.
All in all, a good day.
http://horsington.blog2.idnet.com/?p=6795More photos in the Horsington Open Album
The 2021 Horsington Open, in aid of the Somerset Air Ambulance and St Margaret’s Hospice, tees off on Saturday 4th September at 9 am and 11 am.
The organisers, faced with the dual task or organising and playing, have opted to play their round on Friday 4th September in order to concentrate on running the event.
This means that there are 8 places available on the Saturday Morning for a quick nine holes before lunch and a chance of winning the famous Horsington Open claret jug.
You can book on line here . All welcome. Or email the editor. editor@idnet.com.
Horsington’s intrepid cyclist Chris Bailward, en route from John O’Groats to Lands End, has crossed the Forth bridge and is heading south towards the Borders.
You can read his exploits on his Blog www.bailward.co.uk
Milborne Port Opera will emerge from its lockdown hibernation with a one-night-only “concert performance” of its postponed production “The Arcadians”. The performance will be on Saturday September 25th in Milborne Port Village Hall at 7.30 pm.
The original production was postponed 2 weeks before its opening night in April 2020 when the country went into lockdown.
Due to Covid precautions, the opera will not be fully staged. The chorus will perform as a socially distanced choir, on a plain stage, with only the principals costumed. But the minimalistic version will enable the audience to enjoy the superb music of Lionel Moncton and Howard Talbot (the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice of their era).
Director Linda Mumford has created a cut down version of the show which simplifies the plot while retaining the best musical numbers and the abundant humour.
For health reasons the audience has been limited to 100 people. Seats are unreserved but there will be capacity for sensible social distancing. The cost is £10 per ticket. Book online at www. mpopera.co.uk.
The company is planning its next show for April 2022 – Franz Lehar’s “The Merry Widow”. Rehearsals start in October.
If anyone wants to take part, front or backstage, the company will give them a warm welcome. See their website – www.milborneportopera.co.uk. Rehearsals are weekly, on Thursdays, so the time commitment is manageable.
Horsington’s demon cyclist, Chris Bailward, is currently in the wilds of Scotland on the early stages of an epic 1100 mile John O’Groats to Lands End (JOGLE for short) cycle ride.
He’s done it in reverse before, in 2014, but this time he’s doing it the easy way, as its obvious to anyone looking at the map that it’s downhill all the way! Moreover, he’s assisted by a power-assisted cycle which will give him a boost up any hills he encounters.
Previously Chris has done a circumnavigation of France, Ireland, Sicily-Horsington, the 4 corners of Britain and Every English county town, so this trip is just business as usual.
It did not get off to a good start. Chris went to Scotland by sleeper from London Euston. He booked his (electric power-assisted) bike. It was only when he got the ticket and read the small print that he discovered that the Caledonian Sleeper will not take electric bikes, even though you can’t tell them apart from normal bikes. Other railway companies will carry , and even welcome them, so why not Caledonian Sleeper?
He tried in vain to find out why, but was met with a wall of silence. Eventually the Blog contacted the Caledonian press office to obtain a statement from them. Again silence. The Blog then contacted the Serco chief of media relations Charles Carr, who promised a response, and again nothing.
Serco, one of Britain’s worst companies, owns Caledonian Sleeper, but clearly has no influence over its press office.
The story gets worse. Chris bought a different electric bike, with a detachable motor, and this was allowed on the train (he put the motor in his bag). However, when he got to Edinburgh at 4am, where the train divided, Chris was woken up by the guard and told to move his bike to a different carriage, an impossible task for a sleeper employee. Not a good start to an adventure.
You can follow Chris’s adventures on his entertaining blog at www.bailward.co.uk. JOGLE is not up at the moment owing to poor internet connections in the far north of Scotland, but in the meantime you can read about his other voyages there.
Good luck Chris. See you in September in time for the Horsington Open!
Everyone is invited to celebrate the (hopeful) return of summer on Saturday 14 August, when St John’s Horsington is hosting a family picnic and barbeque in the churchyard from 5 pm.
Come ready for a picnic, bring salads, desserts, plates, cutlery, glasses and
rugs/chairs.
Wine & soft drinks available to buy(or bring your own if you like).
In order to cater correctly, please email your order for Burgers £2.50, Hot dogs £2. to Steve Miles freshford632@gmail.com. Pay on the day.
In the event of rain, they may have to cancel so please supply a mobile telephone number so they can text you.
Sounds good. The village needs something like this. Have fun!
Horsington’s champion cheesemakers, Marcus and Penny, will offer tours of their award winning cheesemaking facilitates on Horsington Marsh on three dates during the summer:
Saturday 31 July
Friday 20 August
Saturday 28 August (Bank Holiday weekend)
From 4 -6.30 pm.
They have had so many people asking to see the organic farm and facility that they decided to formalise these into some “Cheese Experience” events at Feltham’s Farm.
You will be welcomed with an organic ale whilst they take you to feed whey to the piglets (born 9 July!), and the Hebridean sheep. You will tour the exterior of the cheese facility, and you will get to feel and taste curds and whey (whey-hey!). Then to the barn to taste four cheeses, along with delicious local wine from Smith and Evans in Langport. Cheese and wine will be available to buy afterwards. We have three dates over the summer (see above), but if you are in the area, and have 4+ people wishing to do this, they will try to find another date for you so please get in touch.
Pre-booking is essential – Book here:https://www.felthamsfarm.com/buy-our-cheese/
Penny Nagle writes . . . .
| Our cheesemaking adventure started out of adversity – redundancy at work – and then Marcus taking the one day cheesemaking at River Cottage in 2016. This was life changing. Marcus has now been invited back to teach that very same course starting in September, so it just goes to show that you, too, can go from passionate, cheese eating amateur, to multi-award winning professional by doing this River Cottage course…! You can book tickets for it here. We’ve have had some real highlights at Feltham’s Farm over the past few months – and it is always worth sharing good news (particularly when there is a pandemic still hovering at the door). Summer really started for us when our third cheese, La Fresca Margarita won Best British Cheese at the Virtual Cheese Awards. That we won this award for the second year running, blind tasted live online by professional cheese experts really, finally confirmed for us that our decision to become cheesemakers five years ago was the right one. Marcus has been elected Chair of the Global Cheese Awards in Frome, which are the longest running cheese awards in the UK – since 1861. This will be happening on 11 September, and half of the Feltham’s Farm team will be there. Find out more about the awards here Penny will take the other half of the Feltham’s Farm team to the Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival on 11 & 12 September, so do come and say hello to us there. Another organic farmer visited us yesterday, and as we walked through our fields he commented that he’d never seen so many butterflies or moths anywhere before – our fields are alive and thriving with them! Whilst we don’t have accommodation available over the summer as it is being revamped, we will do from September, so please do look at our website. If you love wild swimming, our new 25m square swimming pond will be finished by then too…lots of dragon flies are already making it their home. Please do visit as well… All the best Penny and Marcus @FelthamsFarm www.felthamsfarm.com |
The White Horse at South Cheriton is going from strength to strength. Good food, fair prices and some excellent beers, coupled with excellent and friendly hospitality makes this a great pub for our villages.
They did a splendid job during the Euro finals, with a large high-definition screen in the socially-distanced skittle alley, and now they have some more events in the pipeline.
Next Sunday, 18th July will be the slightly postponed monthly quiz. Teams of up to five. £1 per person entry fee, and the winning team takes the pot. The quiz starts at 7.45, so be there early to grab a table. The quiz is repeated on the second Sunday of every month.
The following weekend, Sunday 25th July sees the return of the popular Redhillbillies who create what they describe as “warm nostalgic, foot tapping, partner swinging and sunshine smile on your face music”. They have been playing together for over 10 years, and last time they visited the White Horse they created a musical storm of the nicest kind.
Their session starts at 2pm, which will round off a delicious lunch nicely.To book a table for either event call 01963 370394 or email thewhitehorse@gmail.com.
