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Ashford
Open - Club Report The year started with a rush of new arrivals as Seth's dog had pups in the car park of the aeronautical museum that we were visiting in Brenzett! We then had a dog training evening booked for the Autumn, but the trainer then rang to cancel a week beforehand! This, then, was my opportunity to prove myself as Chairman, so I let everyone turn up for the dog training evening and proceeded to tell them that THEY were to be the dogs and the sheep and that they had a number of games to take part in! Everyone had great fun although some of the dogs took too much interest in some of the tegs in the flock and were harder to control than others! We had a dinner and dance at the Ashford International Hotel and this was successful although the music was not quite what we were promised! As
we got into winter, the club went to the Ashford Fatstock Show and Karen Silk
( Club secretary) won the beef stock judging with Phil Boyd coming a close second. The club then went to Perry Court Farm Shop, where Heidi Fermur kindly supplied goods and helped us fill 25 Christmas hampers for the elderly in Ashford. The following week the club members delivered the hampers to the Joe Fagg pop-in centre. Something must have been in the air around Christmas as two couples in the club got engaged - Chris and Miriam, Ed and Verity. Most of the club then disappeared off ski-ing during January - Phil Quinn took one group off to Canada, whilst Chris and Miriam took another group to Andorra with excellent snow and lovely sunshine. In late winter, the club had an evening of balloon - modelling with all sorts of shapes and creations!
We
had a Valentine's Disco at Smarden Village Hall which was very well attended by
the whole of the county federation and raised about £700 for the club. We planted about 500 metres of hedge with the rest to do this winter.
The year then carried on with evenings such as, pool and darts, food eating competitions, bowling, car treasure hunts etc. We had a lambing day at Rawnie Farm in Appledore, which is a great way of attracting members of the public - and if any of you sheep farmers want a day off during lambing, then invite the public and I guarantee nothing will lamb! Or that was our experience! Off
to Torquay in April for the AGM with fellow county members. We
have had a shearing evening allowing all members to have a go on a sheep. Great
fun, but I have had to spend the last few months looking at the clubs creations,
so not so good to the flock master's eye! The
Kent Show was a big success for the club and we have raised quite a bit of sponsorship
money this year so that we could invest in some new kit. Gemma Austen and I both got 1st in the lamb turnout and she then beat me by getting the reserve champion - this was not her biggest surprise though, as I then later asked her to marry me whilst in the sheep pens! A lot of hard work went on during the summer with the pub being the order of the day on Wednesday evenings. Steve and Emma, two of our older members, tied the knot at The Hop Farm on a beautiful summer's day. The last few weeks of my chairmanship have been very busy having been getting prepared for, and marrying Gemma, our honeymoon, and then rushing back for the Harvest Supper. This went very well and we fed about 45 guests and 15 club members. Thanks go to the cook - Steph Dean - who did an amazing job. I
have had an enjoyable year as chairman and am reluctant to hand the job over,
but the club has to move on. My aim this year has been to get the club to grow
and evolve, and hopefully people will agree that this has been the case. Edward Lovejoy - Chairman 2005.
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Kent
YFC (c)2006 is registered charity #302905. |
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