Good News from the South of England Show

By Kate Claisse

Sheila and I went to the South of England Show at Ardingly last week to help in the WI refreshments marquee. It’s the first time I’ve been to Ardingly and I was quite overwhelmed with the size of the site and variety of stalls. It’s primarily an agricultural show but, as we had little time outside our WI duties, we actually saw very few animals! Instead we chose to wander in and out the various marquees selling all sorts of food, crafts, clothing, gardening implements, furniture, jewellery etc etc. You name it and it was there. The weather was perfect – sunny with a cool breeze, so not too hot or cold … and DRY (much to my relief as I had attended the only wet day at Chelsea! )

The highlight, of course is the WI marquee. The refreshments half sold a very impressive selection of homemade scones and cakes with, of course, tea and coffee. It was staffed with volunteers from WIs all around the county and it was very good humoured, and pleasant to meet other WIers and exchange notes on what they do in their branches. I would recommend anyone to volunteer next year.

The other half of the WI marquee housed the craft display, with entries from WI’s in East and West Sussex. We in Bognor Regis had 4 entries this year and we had really excellent results.

Particularly the Embroidered cushion made by Barbara Foster which gained FIRST PLACE – the first time we have achieved this. The judges comments were that this was an ‘excellent interpretation and embroidery’.

Another excellent result was the HIGHLY COMMENDED that Jan Marsden gained for her acrylic painting of an African Sunset. The judges thought that this had ‘Excellent depth and space, well expressed’.

Mary Stanley crocheted a knee rug, which made ‘good use of colour and design’ and earned her 17 points out of a possible 20.

Karen McCreedy’s story “Around the World in 80 words” was ‘handled with care with an effective last line’. Karen earned 39 points with the winner on 45.