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About
the Wivenhoe Weekend 9-10
September 2006 An
article by Tom Roberts first published in the Winter 2006 edition of
Wivenhoe News Once again
the Wivenhoe Society did a brilliant job in pulling a lot of other
organisations together to make a lot of things happen all on one weekend.
There was certainly something for everyone and people of all ages
probably found it hard to choose what to leave out – I don’t believe
it was possible to see everything! What follows is very much a personal impression, not an
encyclopaedic report of the whole weekend. I last
watched bowls being played rather more decades ago than I care to count.
I suppose it is on television nowadays, but I have never seen it.
So Wivenhoe Bowls Club’s open day, with regional finals going on,
was irresistible. I was
delighted to find that nothing has changed.
Decorum reigns. Players
were extremely smartly turned out, the gentlemen particularly, in their
blazers and ties, looked just as I remember them and the only display of
emotion was an occasional burst of discreet applause.
Other sports used to be like that too, in days gone by.
In case the reader thinks me too flippant, I must add that I was also hugely impressed by the standard of play. By far the
most popular event was the Crabbing Contest. It was impossible to count, of course, but there must have
been thousands of people stretched out along both the old quay and the
new. The winner of the adult
section was Joanna Carslake with 80g of crab and coincidentally also with
80g, the First Prize in the junior section was won by Jake Gaffney.
Second Prize was won by Pat Gardner and Third by Lily Lockwell.
The event raised a handsome sum which enabled a cheque for £165.00
to be sent to each of our three local schools. (By way of clarification,
Broomgrove Junior and Infants are two distinct entities, although sharing
the same site.) The proceeds
of the bucket collection was shared by the Ferry Trust and the Essex Air
Ambulance, who each received £133.00.
Well done Gilli Primrose, who masterminded the whole thing. The
churchyard had assorted stalls offering
the usual wares and a chance to chat, a bouncy castle and a little
bit of Wivenhoe wackiness: the country’s greatest singing estate agent,
Mike Rollo. Great fun! There
seemed to be a lot of contestants in the Watercolour Challenge this year.
Almost everywhere one went in lower Wivenhoe there was someone
working at an easel. Organiser
Bill Hislop says “it was more successful than ever this year and a lot
of money was raised for FOSM”, and he had more good news: “Trinity
Galleries have agreed to continue sponsoring the event in 2007”. This
year’s winners were: 1st
prize: Jean Heath, Holland-on-Sea. 2nd prize: James Hollis,
Colchester. 3rd
prize: Adrian Koval, Alresford Junior:
7 years and under: Jake Martin; 8-10:Samantha Tierney; 11-14:
Camille Georgiou. WAGA’s annual show was another highlight of the weekend which I enjoyed enormously. After all the excitement of the weekend, the Grand Draw in the Horse and Groom the following Tuesday evening seemed a very low key affair. Well, OK, it was not the National Lottery, but I was surprised so few people turned up, because there were some super prizes donated by local traders and individuals. There was a certain amount of banter as the last three books of tickets were pressed upon unsuspecting people who had just come out for a quiet drink, but in the end there were no screams of excitement and almost all the winners will have simply been notified of their win by telephone. Tom Roberts
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