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Tag: Allen
Heyford Singers – April/May 2021
A year ago, I wrote the April article for the Prattler, just as we began the first lockdown. Beautiful spring days with summer ahead of us, yet the uncertain feeling of being confined to our own small patches, wary of a new threat to our way of life. In the twelve months since we have seen sadness and suffering, experienced loneliness and loss, and missed our families and friends. Yet time passes, the seasons come round again and with spring the eternal message of hope and new beginnings. There is much to look forward to, much to savour each new day, and much to cherish and remember.
Meetings and AGM’s have continued throughout the year, albeit in 2D format, and so it was with Heyford Singers AGM on 5th March. At this meeting I stepped down from the role of Secretary, after ten years in post. It was shortly after I retired from Bliss Charity School that Bob Wilson, then Chairman, persuaded me to take on the responsibility of secretary. I have really enjoyed ‘keeping the little grey cells busy’, it has honed my IT skills considerably and I am delighted that the choir has gone from strength to strength during that time.
Geoff Allen is taking over as secretary and will do a wonderful job. He informs me that Heyford Singers is one of the very few village committees that he has not served on!
Tony Wright will maintain his very long-standing commitment to the choir by joining the committee (and representing the basses), replacing Frances Johnson who has also decided to step down. Frances has served the choir with enthusiasm and dedication since its formation, and we all hope that she will still be there to support the altos for many days to come.
Arthur Hanley has finally relinquished the post of Village Hall Representative for the choir, doing a longer tour of duty than his intended one year. Alwyne Wilson has agreed to succeed Arthur in this post, which enables her to continue her very strong links with everything pertaining to village hall activities in Heyford!
I would like to thank Frances and Arthur for their years of hard work on the committee, Geoff, Tony and Alwyne for taking on the vacant roles, but also to everyone else in Heyford Singers, committee and choir, who work so hard to make this organisation such a wonderful part of our village community.
The HS committee is almost fifty percent male now (with Mike Andrew and Keith Rands-Allen)! We would now dearly like to recruit more men to sing with us. The choir is fun, it’s sociable, it’s so good for your wellbeing, it ticks the boxes of everything we’ve missed this past year – so why not think about it?
Take care, look after yourselves and each other.
*I may no longer be taking the minutes at meetings, but I shall continue to write these articles for the Prattler for as long as there is someone happy to read them!
Jill Langrish
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If you would like to find out more, visit the Heyford Singers page or our website:
alternatively come along to one of our rehearsals in Nether Heyford Village Hall.
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Heyford Bowls Club – April/May 2021
Heyford Bowls Club
Is that a light I see at the end of the tunnel? Heyford Bowls Club certainly think so. At a Zoom Committee Meeting the other day we started laying plans to have some sort of bowls season.
According to Boris’ roadmap out of lockdown, outdoor sports can commence at the end of March, which is well before the start of the outdoor bowling season. We therefore plan to open the green on Monday 19th April. Initial play will be restricted to roll ups, with limited numbers, on rinks 1/3/5 or 2/4/6. If all goes to plan, we shall be back to some form of normality by the middle of June, which means we might be back playing matches against other clubs, but we will have another copy of The Prattler by then and we can tell you for sure.
We also need to arrange our AGM when greater numbers can gather together, and this will be on the agenda of our next Committee Meeting which we hope to hold out of doors in the week commencing 12th April. Our Chairman will be scanning the skies and consulting his seaweed before deciding on the actual date and time.
Otherwise, it will be on Zoom again.
And I should have had my second vaccination by then.
Happy days
Geoff Allen 01327 349909
For more bowls club information please visit our website:
Heyford Bowls Club – October 2020
In 1962 a new satirical television programme was aired in BBC TV called “That Was The Week That Was” or TWTWTW for short. Its signature tune sung by Millicent Martin went:
“That was the week that was, it’s over let it go”
And that’s just how everyone feels about the bowls season 2020. We have hardly had a season at all and the news that the green will close for the winter on Wednesday 7th October almost seems as if it has closed before it has really opened. We have also decided to delay our Annual General Meeting until such time as we can hold a safe gathering with more than six people present.
All of which makes pretty gloomy reading, but to end on a positive note, the extension to the clubhouse is complete structurally and will be in pristine condition for the 2021 bowls season which commences next April, covid free.
We hope.
Geoff Allen 01327 349909
For more bowls club information please visit our website:
Heyford Bowls Club – September 2020
Heyford Bowls Club is up and running again, but in a restricted way. The green is open for roll-ups. You have to book a rink with our Chairman (only rinks 1/3/5 or 2/4/6) and a number of restrictions apply. Sanitise the jack and mat, before and after play, and no use of the scoreboards and bowls pushers. Social distancing at all times, which you soon get used to, and no physical contact, which means an elbow “handshake” at the end of the game. Twenty of our fifty members have availed themselves of the roll-up facility and on some occasions all three rinks have been used at the same time.
We’ve written off the 2020 season as far as matches with other clubs, internal competitions, and external leagues are concerned. We have also decided not to hold our annual presentation night this year (no competitions = no trophy winners), and our popular social events (quiz nights, race nights etc) have also been put on the back burner. Shirley and Mick Collins have never had so much time on their hands.
Daventry Indoor Bowls Club is re-opening on 31st August for roll-ups with similar restrictions as we are imposing. I know they are hoping to run an internal league programme throughout the winter, but no details have yet been published.
Off the green at Heyford, the clubhouse extension is progressing nicely. The walls and roof are in place, and it won’t be long before the windows and internal walls are complete. It’s a pity the clubhouse is out of bounds under the current restrictions. We live in hope that we will be back to normal soon.
It’s life Jim, but not as we know it.
Geoff Allen 01327 349909
For more bowls club information please visit our website:
Heyford Bowls Club – June 2020
Good news is in short supply at the moment, but Heyford Bowls Club has some. The Club has been successful in obtaining £3,700 from the Sport England Community Emergency Fund to help with ongoing running costs, incurred while there is no income from members because of the Covid19 pandemic.
This takes financial pressure off for a few weeks while we decide how and when we are going to re-open the club. We are moving cautiously as many of our members are in the vulnerable category. At the time of writing these notes, Bowls England have just released some guidelines which include: –
- Playing on rinks 1/3/5 or 2/4/6 only, to allow for social distancing.
- Singles or Pairs matches only, but only from the same family.
- Booking system for games.
- Clubhouse and changing rooms to remain closed.
- No spectators.
- One person to handle jack and mat, with sanitisation of this equipment after play.
- Copious supply of hand gel.
- No use of bowls pushers, scoreboards, and other communal equipment.
- No handshakes, high fives, and definitely no hugging!!!!!
The list goes on.
We intend to have a remote committee meeting in early June to consider our position. Until then, no bowls at Heyford I’m afraid.
It is galling to report that the green is in immaculate condition. The best it has ever looked.
Geoff Allen 01327 349909
For more bowls club information please visit our website:
Heyford Bowls Club – May 2020
We’ve all heard the expression “no news is good news” but I’m not sure in this context that it is necessarily true. I understand – good old internet- that the phrase originated in the reign of King James I when he said, “no news is better than evil news”, but he had not experienced Covid 19.
I believe in a pandemic you can get too much news. If you watch the television news too much it can have a deteriorating effect on your mental health. A case of too much news is not good news, because all the news is gloomy. And I’m still waiting for David Shulman, a journalist in the BBC, to produce a positive report that is not full of gloomy predictions.
Meanwhile in the world gone mad category: –
Wednesday: the UK is heading for the biggest depression in living memory; two to three million people unemployed. Thursday: farmers charter an aeroplane to fly in crop pickers from Romania.
In any case, won’t every economy in the world suffer some degree of depression?
One final thought. Have you noticed the unprecedented use of the word unprecedented?
Take care of yourselves and your loved ones. Keep safe.
Geoff Allen 01327 349909
For more bowls club information please visit our website:
Heyford Bowls Club – April 2020
Indoor
Our last three matches in the ‘WARDINGTON LEAGUE’ have been very successful. A hard match at Moreton Pinkney saw us win on one mat and lose on the other. Unfortunately we lost on the final aggregate score. However a really good win at home to Middleton Cheney on both mats. This led to the final aggregate score in our favour by the magnificent score of 74-8.
The ‘LADIES PAIRS’ was played on Saturday 14th March. The knock-out matches produced some really good bowling. An excellent and close final saw Liz Davison and Pauline Thackray beat Eileen Everard and Jean Cullin by the score of 5-4.
We have a few matches coming up now in quick succession. A very popular fixture the INDOOR v OUTDOOR will be played on the 26th March. The Mixed Singles will be played on the 18th April. Both matches will start at 1.30 pm.
Good support has once again been maintained on our Wednesday bowling sessions.
Den Taylor
Outdoor
I always knew that nuclear bunker I built in the 1960s would come in handy one day. I’ve promised my wife that this crisis will all be over by the time of our wedding anniversary on 18th June, but when I hear of national organisations suspending all meetings for four months, I fear that my deadline may be a trifle optimistic.
This is my first missive for The Prattler this calendar year, and it should have been telling you of the dates for the enrolment night, the fish and chip supper, the spring quiz, the working party on the green, and fixtures. Instead all I can report is they are all cancelled. This leaves the residents of Heyford free to spring clean their houses and make their gardens immaculate. At the end of the pandemic I will be round to check.
In the meantime, take care of yourselves and your loved ones.
PS Don’t go to the shops specially to buy us an anniversary card. Use one of the ones you panic bought at the start of the pandemic. They’re up in the loft. On top of the toilet rolls.
Geoff Allen 01327 349909
For more bowls club information please visit our website:
Nether Heyford W.I. – February 2020
We ended our 2019 Meetings in The Barn Restaurant at the Old Dairy Farm for a delicious Christmas meal. Good food and good company – it was a happy way to end what had been a very successful year for Nether Heyford WI.
However, our last job in 2019 was to make the ‘bacon butties’ for the Crafty Club Sale. It is a long way from ‘Jam & Jerusalem’ and is always great fun. Who knows, it may even encourage some of you ladies who were there to come and join us.
We started 2020 in a similarly happy frame of mind as we welcomed several gentlemen to join us in hearing Geoff Allen re-living his sporting life. Geoff has a great ability to bring things to life and it was great to hear about people and places that we had perhaps forgotten. As well as this there was the inside view of some of the problems encountered as amateur rugby changed into professional – all alongside some of the more humorous moments. Thank you, Geoff.
The speaker for our February meeting is The Rev. William Adams, Director of the Banbury Branch of the Samaritans. His talk for the evening is entitled ‘Who we are and what we do’. The Samaritans is a wonderful organisation providing round the clock telephone support to anyone in emotional distress and which, I would imagine, is much needed during the darker winter months. The meeting starts at 7.30pm and is in the Village Hall on Thursday February 6th. Should you like to join us for the evening the charge is £5 and refreshments are included.
Mary Rice – Heyford Lodge – 01327 340101
Carols on the Green (December 2019) – Update – February 2020
Carols on the Green – December 2019
When I first envisaged ‘Carols on the Green’ I had a picture of villagers singing as in a Christmas card, with the weather ‘Deep and crisp and even’. At 2 o’clock in the afternoon, standing on the green, it was more like ‘Wind and rain and boggy’. The team who came to set up were incredible, completely ignored the weather and got drenched in the process. However, NEVER doubt the power of prayer as by 6.30 it had actually stopped raining and the wind was not as bad – I can’t claim that the green was perfectly dry but we can’t have everything! I would like to say a heartfelt, personal thank you to everyone who turned out to raise their voices to Christmas.
You raised £256.56p towards replacing our Church roof which, considering the conditions, was wonderful. I would also like to thank you all for leaving virtually no litter for me to pick up the next morning.
On behalf of Heyford Singers there are, as always, people who must be acknowledged for their help in the organisation of an evening such as this and I hope you will forgive me if I have missed anyone out!
The Parish Council for permission to use the green and help with insurance arrangements.
Unusual (Rigging) Ltd. for the use of power cables.
PPL PRS for a Charity Music Licence.
The Village Hall Committee for use of the Hall in the case of bad weather.
Alwyne Wilson for her co-ordinating skills.
Tony Clewett for the use of the sound equipment and being so sure it would stop
raining!
Geoff Allen for being an incomparable compere.
Peter Squire and Jeremy Rice for fixing the power cables in the rain without
electrocuting themselves (or anyone else)!
Keith Rands Allen, Jill & Mike Langrish + grandsons, Alwyne W and Tony C for
erecting the gazebo despite the wind and rain.
The Rev. Stephen Burrow for his closing prayer.
And Richard Musson for providing the collecting buckets.
I have been told that carol singing on the green used to happen in the past and I would love to hear from anyone who can tell me when this was. It would be lovely to start a new ‘ Village Tradition’ but equally exciting to carry on an old one – especially as Northampton seems to be creeping ever nearer along the A45.
Thank you all for your support; hope to see you again in December.
Mary Rice
Heyford Lodge 01327 340101
The Nether Heyford Prattler 