News, comment and gossip for Horsington, the Cheritons and surrounding villages in Somerset
News and events in the Horsington area
Mark Tucker, soon to depart on the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, will be in the Half Moon Inn, Horsington, from 9 pm onwards on Friday 28th July. This will be one of his last appearances before he vanishes for a year, and this is an ideal opportunity for people to meet him, thank him for his service as a parish councillor, and wish him bon voyage.
See you there.
The Horsington Open is back, bigger and better, at a date and time which will be more convenient for many players.
This year’s competition will be played at Henstridge Golf Club on Saturday September 2nd 2017.
The 9-hole competition is in aid of local charities, and is open to all comers. Ladies and non-handicappers are welcome. Entry is just £15 per player, including green fees. Individuals and teams of 4.
The prize (as befits an “Open”) is a claret jug, plus many other prizes generously donated by local businesses.
The competition tees off just after 10 am. The prize giving will be held in the Half Moon, Horsington at 6.30 pm, when there will also be a charity raffle.
This competition is back after a year off in 2016. It provides an opportunity for players at all levels to get together for a fun day of golf and raise money for charity. The field normally includes some really good golfers, some desperately bad golfers, many ladies and several beginners.
The Half Moon, Horsington, has generously agreed to sponsor some prizes
and to host the prize giving. South Cheriton’s White Horse pub has volunteered its customary support, with players and prizes. Henstridge Golf Club have been generous and wonderful, as usual.
The easiest way to enter is to book on line Pay on the day.
Or you can get an entry form and more information from the Half Moon, the White Horse, or Henstridge Golf Club, ALL WELCOME!
The competition is organised by Horsington’s Richard Gaunt and David and Tricia Blake.
Thanks to the estate of the late, celebrated cartoonist, HM Bateman for permission to use his cartoon in our poster. We will be offering one of his famous prints as a prize.
Re-live last the 2015 competition won by Tony Brodie, of Henstridge
A vacancy has arisen for a talented, knowledgeable, well-read, erudite polymath of any gender to join an established pub quiz team for Sunday night competitions in Milborne Port, following the impeding departure of the present incumbent on a year-long yacht cruise.
A working knowledge of the celebrity sections of the tabloid press and modern pop music would be a distinct advantage, since the existing team members are devoid of talent in this area.
This team came within a gnat’s whisker of winning the £135 jackpot in last week’s quiz. This could be your big chance.
Apply to the editor in confidence – editor@idnet.com
We are delighted to report that someone has come forward, but we can still accommodate 1 more. Don’t be shy. -Ed
Horsington parish councillor, diver, Glastonbury entrepreneur, pub quizzer, and now – sailor – MARK TUCKER is about to embark on a trans global adventure as part of the Great Britain Team in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.
This is one of the toughest endurance challenges on the planet. At 40,000 nautical miles long and taking almost a year to complete, it consists of twelve teams competing against each other on the world’s largest matched fleet of 70-foot ocean racing yachts.
There are 712 crew, representing 41 different nationalities. Crew can choose the entire race or one or more of its eight legs, but our Mark has signed up for the entire 11-month trip. He has been appointed a coxwain.
The Race sets sail on Sunday 20 August from Liverpool’s Albert Dock, and the route takes in Uruguay, South Africa, Australia, Tasmania, China, The USA, the Panama Canal and Ireland, returning to Liverpool in July 2018.
The Blog had an exclusive preview of Great Britain in dock at Gosport. It’s a spartan, cramped, comfortless sardine tin housing 22 people (half of whom will be on deck, so they will be “hot bunking”) with no privacy, alcohol, heating (or cooling). Take a good supply of wet wipes Mark, because there will be no showers until you reach port. Each leg takes between 4-6 weeks.
On deck, there’s precious little shelter. The sails, which must be constantly changed and trimmed according to conditions, weigh a ton. They also occupy a third of the accommodation below deck. The ropes are huge, the winches fearsome and the steel shrouds, which hold the rigging together, are bar-tight and would support a cable-car.
The whole machine will slice through the waves at about 14 knots, the speed of a cruising merchant ship. They will encounter extremes of everything – hot-cold, wind-calm, elation-depression, confidence-fear. They will become very, very tired. And smelly.
Mark has decided to support UNICEF, the Round the World Race official charity. He writes:
“In a few weeks’ time, I’ll be stepping onto a 70 foot racing yacht and won’t set foot again on UK soil for over 11 months and having covered 40,000 miles of ocean. It’s going to be awesome but it’s also going to be tough, it’s going to be cold and it’s going to be uncomfortable.
“Children around the world live their whole lives in much tougher, harsher and more uncomfortable environments however – UNICEF are working in the UK and around the globe to improve living, health and educational conditions and I’d be overjoyed if you’d find it in your hearts to make a small donation to help make someone’s life just a little easier.”
You can donate to Mark’s cause by visiting his “Just Giving” page
£850 has been raised so far. Come on Horsington! We have something and someone to be very proud of.
Note: money raised will go straight to the charity, Mark is funding his own expenses. Ed
Vote for Feltham’s Farm in the Great British Cheese Awards 2017
Blog readers and cheese fans are being urged to vote for Feltham’s Farm in Horsington, which has been shortlisted in the 2017 Great British Cheese Awards in two categories – Best Artisan Cheese and Best Soft Cheese for its Renegade Monk cheese. The Great British Cheese Awards recognise, promote and reward excellence in the artisan cheese industry, dominated by small, independent cheese makers.
Renegade Monk is a soft blue cheese, rind washed in ale from Frome’s Milk Street Brewery, and made using organic pasteurised cow’s milk from Bruton Dairy. It is one of twelve shortlisted cheeses in each category out of 500 nominated cheeses by the public nationwide. No other cheese award gives the general public such a large voice in choosing the winners.
The Great British Cheese Awards don’t rely on tastings by a panel of judges but instead bring together hundreds of thousands of people online.
You can vote online for Feltham’s Farm’s Renegade Monk until 12th August at www.greatbritishcheeseawards.com.
Marcus Fergusson, Cheese maker at Feltham’s Farm says “We could only have managed this with the wonderful partners and retailers who have supported us from the start The Great British Cheese Awards are exciting for us because they are voted for solely by the public . If we win the cheese will get national recognition and we can expand our business”.
You can buy Renegade Monk from the Village shop in Charlton Horethorne. Please buy some and vote -Ed.
We apologise to email subscribers who are receiving automatic emails from the blog about ancient news and events.
There is obviously a gremlin in the system, we don’t understand it, and we have no idea how to fix it. Sorry.
Horsington Church is staging a concert on Sunday July 16th with an interesting and unusual theme – Thomas Gainsborough’s Musical Friends.
Thomas Gainsborough was an accomplished musician as well as an artist, and painted many of his musical friends and acquaintances, including Charles Frederick Abel, John Christian Bach, John Stanley and members of the Linley family. He played the violin and the harpsichord but had a particular affection for the viola da gamba or bass viol and the lute, then both rare instruments.
Local musician Janet Coles, an accomplished and well-known cellist, is joined by David Jewel on the Flute and John Davenport on the Spinet (an 18th Century harpsichord) to play a selection of music which would have been enjoyed and played by Gainsborough and his chums.
Readers may recall one of Janet’s earlier concerts, a musical exploration of the life of Parson Woodford. This time the audience will be spared a ham actor impersonating the venerable subject, and instead will see a slide show illustrating aspects of Gainsborough and his life.
A delicious cream tea will follow.
Sunday 16th July, 3pm
St John’s Church, Horsington
Suggested donation £8.00, in aid of church funds.
About Thomas Gainsborough (Wikipedia)
Thomas Gainsborough FRSA (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. He surpassed his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds to become the dominant British portraitist of the second half of the 18th century. He painted quickly, and the works of his maturity are characterised by a light palette and easy strokes. He preferred landscapes to portraits, and is credited (with Richard Wilson) as the originator of the 18th-century British landscape school. Gainsborough was a founding member of the Royal Academy.
The very successful Blackmore Vale Revival – a classic vehicle and vintage show, will this year be held on Saturday 1 July 2017 at Henstridge Airfield. Last year this exciting event helped raise over £5000 for CliC Sargent, Future Roots and the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance plus many other local charities. This year more local charities and good causes are included.
The organisers are expecting over 250 classic and vintage cars and a number of vintage commercial and military vehicles. There will be a fly past of one of the last remaining WW2 Lancaster Bombers and a Swordfish together with a group of WildCat Helicopters.
You can take a 20min helicopter flight around the local area for a small fee.
A new addition is a model railway exhibition by kind permission of the Mere Model Railway Group led by Tom Snook. This will include a large trade stand of Model Railway equipment and literature. This promises to be a knockout as it will take up the whole area of one of the buildings in the centre of the arena.
The 2017 event will have more trade stalls,more vehicles, more entertainment (including an enormous Bouncy Castle and Steve Burrows’ circus skills for children)
If you prefer a more relaxed afternoon, there is lots of live music to suit everyone of all ages in the Beer Tent.
There will also be a prize for the best dressed person in vintage dress (judged this year by the ex BBC Blue Peter presenter Valerie Singleton) and a host of raffle prizes including a fantastic cake in the design of an Austin Healey 3000 classic car.
For more information please go to our website – http://www.henstridgeclassicrevival.com
Put the date in your diaries – July 1st at Henstridge Airfield
Written by Angela Clayton on behalf of the Parish Council…
.“The Horsington play area is inspected every year by an independent inspector for health & safety and insurance purposes.This year several pieces of equipment were found to be unsafe and beyond repair.
They will have to be removed immediately.
The Parish Council have limited funds to replace and repair existing apparatus but will be reviewing and considering how to manage the play area in the longer term.We will provide more information and issue regular updates throughout this financial year.
We have removed the main multi play unit from the play area, the PC have taken this action to ensure the safety of the children on the play equipment.”
The Blog’s exclusive racing correspondent Winterborne Longjohns has send us a dispatch from somewhere in France . . .
After a disastrous Derby having incurred large losses laying the winner to a fellow house guest at 40/1, Winterborne has temporarily fled his home stable for sanctuary in France until after the election and a new Government having hopefully been formed. He has a strong financial interest in Boris being installed as our next Prime Minister and really hopes this will come to pass sooner rather than later . Any price above 5/1 should be taken whilst it is still available. Meanwhile his (Winterborne’s, not Boris’s -Ed) followers are reminded that it is also Royal Ascot where there will be further opportunities to follow Dame Fortune next week.
You need to keep up. I doubt whether you will get 5/1 anywhere. You should have taken our advice yesterday and had Boris at 5/2. The odds have now halved to 9/4, and it looks like the bandwagon has left the station. Will it get as far as Upminster or will he get off at Barking?
Ascot? Give us some winners then. For everyone’s sake, we hope you fare better on the flat than over the jumps -Ed.