Fairlight

July 10 Sea Sunday will be celebrated by the beach at St Nicholas, Pett Level at 10.30 am. It will be followed by a bring your own picnic. For those who prefer an alternative, Penny Button will

lead a short Morning Praise service at St Andrew’s at 10.30 am.

At MOPPs: Today, Friday, July 1, Celia King will be along with her chair-based exercises, and there will be a star prize for the raffle. Lunch will be ham salad and cheesy mash, and then fruit meringue to follow.

Next Friday, July 8, the entertainment will be by Janice Bolton’s Country Dancers, and it happens to be a toe-nail service day, too. Lunch will be chicken chasseur with cheesecake for sweet.

Last Sunday saw MOPPs in the village hall during the afternoon, fund raising with the aid of a special cream tea and some quality entertainment. More than 80 people, mainly from the village, attended and thoroughly enjoyed the scones, clotted cream and cakes. Entertainment was provided by Sharon Sellens, Carol George and MOPPs very own Jim Saphin, all of whom gave up their Sunday afternoon to sing for the gathered crowds. There were 17 volunteers making and serving the tea, a number that included Liz, Lisa, Irene and Rosemarie from Sainsbury’s in Sedlescombe Road, who had also kindly donated the scones, cream and jam. The village hall was decorated with Union Jacks and red, white and blue balloons while there were Union Jack napkins to go with the china plates, cups and saucers. What with the raffle and a cake sale, the total raised amounted to an astonishing £802.

Fairlight Bowls Club: The Club would like to say a big thank you to all who attended their open day last Saturday. It turned out to be a lovely day, supported by club members plus new faces from the village and beyond. The weather behaved itself with just a quick shower of rain – a marked contrast with the torrents that fell a couple of hours after the bowls event had ended. While the green open, club members were happy to give some tuition to those interested in having a go at bowling. Anyone who missed the open day and would like to join the club as a bowling member please phone Sylvia Taylor, the Club Chairman, on 813518.

The Club’s next big day comes up this Sunday, July 3, when 18 teams from across the district will compete against each other throughout the day, with the winning team receiving a trophy and a cash prize. For the second year running the nominated charity for the day is our local St Michael’s Hospice. Last year the Hospice was presented with a cheque for £1,500, and all are hoping to achieve the same or better this year.

Fairlight Players: The Players’ AGM was part of a pleasant evening last Saturday, with supper and a quiz to follow the business at the beginning. Auditions for the first play in their new season – Arnold Ridley’s The Ghost Train, will take place uncommonly early, on Monday, July 25. Secretary Carol Ardley has inspection scripts for those who would like to participate. Give her a call on 814178. The play requires eight men and four women, and is to be directed by David Burchell. It will run on Thursday 10, Friday 11 and Saturday 12 November. The reason for the early start is to accommodate re-rehearsals for The Vicar of Dibley, last November’s sell-out production, which is being revived at the Stables Theatre from Thursday 25 to Saturday 27 August.

An important note for all residents: Word has been received from Gemselect, the owners of the Market Garden site, stating that they are intending to submit a new planning application for this site within the next couple of months.

So that local residents may see what is involved and comment on the proposals, Gemselect will be holding a public exhibition in the village hall on Monday, July 18 from 2.30 to 7.30 pm.

Many will recall a similar exercise held upstairs in the Cove some years ago, and should not miss this updating opportunity.

Fairlight Gardening Club: Last call for the Gardening Club’s evening meeting on Monday next, July 4, in the village hall at 7 pm, when Stephen Harmer will be telling the history of Sissinghurst Castle and gardens.

Quiz Night at The Cove: Next Wednesday, July 6, at 8 pm, it’s time for the latest in Bob and Dec’s popular quiz series at the Cove and this one’s a Movie Quiz. It’ll only £2 each to enter, and there should be no more than six in your team. If you need more info, call Bob on 812128.

The Wine and Social Club: Members are reminded that the themed evening ‘Turkish Delights’ is on Monday, July 11 from 7 to 11 pm. They should make sure that Jill Lewing, on 812340, knows they will be going.

Fairfest is on its way: Hooray! We’ll have the glorious summer weather to sustain us through the entire month of July until Fairfest is with us once more on the last day of the month. Posters for the event are around in the village, and children are already deciding which fancy dress outfit they would like to appear in. The opening parade starts from the Cove at 11.30 am, and their efforts will be judged when they arrive at Wood Field by our very own Vicar of Dibley.

Fairfest now has a Facebook page where more information can be found on the event. You’ll need to search for @FairlightFairfest because there is another Fairfest in Germany. It’s a good job there aren’t any Fairfest sun-loungers…

The Tuesday Ladies Club: The Club’s June meeting was a somewhat darker affair than the meetings thus far this year. The speaker at the meeting was Lady Mary Teviot, who told the history of the baby farming that went on well into the 1950’s. Prior to 1874 births did not have to be registered and previous attempts to bring in this legislation had failed due to pressure from the Church and peoples’ fear of being forced to inoculate their babies against smallpox. Illegitimate births were in those days an awful stigma and women had to resort to selling their offspring to unscrupulous ‘baby farms’ for £5. Nobody knows how many of these unfortunates died through neglect or worse and many bodies were found dumped. The hero of the piece was a Sgt Relph of the Metropolitan Police who in 1870 doggedly investigated a Margaret Walters and her sister. Margaret was eventually hanged but the sister got away with hard labour. The members were horrified by the talk, but thankful that things have changed!

The Club sponsors a Hearing Dog called Zara and Sally Watson will be holding a garden party at her home on July 21 to raise money for this very worthy cause. The Club had also received a letter of thanks from the Alzheimer’s Society for the jewellery collected and sent to them. The Society needs to raise £200k to open another dementia café, a facility that has proved to be very successful.

The next meeting will feature P J Wellspring, a former RAF pilot and RAF and civilian Air Traffic Controller, talking about Air Traffic Control. This will be on July 19 at the village hall at 2.15 pm. As usual, visitors are welcome for £2.

Brexit solidarity: So, to the surprise of many, Brexit won the day – by just under 52 to 48%. Here in Rother, the margin was somewhat larger at 58.5 to 41.5%. How warming to see our footballers emulating the rest of the nation, leaving Europe as soon as they decently could after the referendum by a thumping 2 to 1 majority. Perhaps they would have liked extra time to be sure whether they should depart or not, but in the end they went without penalty. Followers of what is laughingly still known as ‘the beautiful game’ will be aware that Tottenham Hotspur’s young Eric Dier earned early plaudits for his efforts in France. With their grammatical abilities, this is probably why all his teammates were uniformly dire last Monday.

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