Riseley Village Fete

2010

The Riseley Village Fete was successfully run on Saturday 10th July this year, a week later than usual to avoid the World Cup Quarter Final in which Fred Capello’s England were expected to play and storm their way through to the final, demolishing all corners with a blistering, masterful display of skill and panache I  must have been reading the wrong newspaper.

Far more importantly we had the Fete as planned with excellent weather and excellent support from a host of good people who gave up their valuable time to help man stalls and events.

Gate numbers were down this year by about 20% and a number of people had indicated they would not be going if it was too hot This may have been part of the reason but it was also noticeable that around the field people did not seem to be spending as much as usual.

Increased costs for events and support did not help the cause either, e.g. £100 this year for First Aid with us providing the tent and seats.. what’s that all about I

Interim calculations indicate we had a turnover of approx £2,000 and expected profits of approx £1000- £1,100 but final figures are awaited from our busy Treasurer, Graham Spurgeon. The profits as always will be distributed to local Village dubs and societies.

There were a number of main arena events this year which did not turn up including the Duck Herders, - advised it was too hot for the dogs and ducks! I assume they spent the afternoon in the fridge cooling off, one of the bands did not turn up and the helpers for the sports events did not make it.

In spite of this we were still able to muster a good event and we were brilliantly supported by Mike’s Line dancers, the Oakley Hunt dogs, The Jive Dance Band and the Viking Warriors in the Main Arena.

The kids did well with their wooden swords slaughtering the Viking Warriors in the arena and thus preventing them racing off on a ‘rape and pillage’ rampage through the dog arena. This most certainly would have raised a few eyebrows!

Further along the field we were thus able to present the very successful Riseley Dog Show courtesy of young Barbara Owen and ably supported by the youthful Stuart.

The Dog show went down particularly well with very good feed back received from many and we must have had well over 50,000 dogs turn up for the event from all over the World. All the dogs were very well behaved in spite of the Oakly Hunt pack snapping at their heels.

There were a number of new people assisting with game stalls this year Which helped to boost -income. Among these was young Sarah who managed the Tin Can Alley once again with cans newly engineered by Uncle Bill Smith to stop them blowing off their stand. A bit more work to be done here Bill!

Bill also picked up some pointers on requirements to fine tune the ‘Play your Cards Right’ game, which was managed with style and dignity by young ‘Dutch’ Holland. Dutch also had a lengthy conversation with the Mayor, presumably over these fine tuning requirement, so Bill, will need to look sharp!

Thank you to all who cooked the home made cakes which were sold in the Hail by the Scouts who also managed the tea and biscuits while Rita and Brenda took a well earned break

The Fete Raffle did very well this year helped by those selling tickets around the village the week before, so many thanks to Deb and boys, Deb Mathews, young Bridgette, Vikki, and of course the mighty Mark Parsons, ticket seller extraordinaire!

Thanks also to Vikki S, Yvonne and Menah for manning and managing the Raffle on the field and a big thank you also to all who donated Raffle prizes, Tim Wilkinson, Sporting Targets, WJH Motors, The Fox and Hounds, The Swan with Two Nicks, DNS Stores, the Decarpo family, and the many others.

Young Wendy and Russell did very well, turning up early and manning about 12 stands between them; it was almost a blur.

Thanks to Anne and Tony for manning the gate for most of the afternoon in the blazing heat -we will provide more programmes next time to avoid them running out.

Our resident Fete brief David Tough manned the Burger stall all afternoon with his new vegetarian assistant Martyn ‘Save the Bells’ Wadey. Well done Martyn and good result getting the planning application for the Bells turned down on the l2th.

Thanks to Leslie, Fred, Roger etc for running the Bar. There was always a queue so hopefully the hot people were kept chilIed. In spite of this we were still able to muster a good event.

We had a very good turn out of Scarecrows around the village this year and Jenny Heck had some difficulties in choosing the winners. Mick Watson has toured the village and taken pictures which will be displayed on the Riseley Web site.

Many thanks also to Andy and Sporting Targets Rifles, Kevin, Reg, Helen, Dennis, Ann, Deb, Bev, Pam, Nigel, Andrew, Jim Lea, Playgroup, Sharpy, Johno, and any I may have missed.

For others in the background & not mentioned we thank for your support in the planning and particularly for the help on the day.  Without you we could not put the event together.