Video by Bruce Jordan of repairs to St Michael’s Church steeple, Great Gidding, April 2015.
As summer gets closer the weekly Aunt Sally tournaments have been reinstated at the Fox and Hounds.
Come along every Thursday evening (weather permitting) to the beer garden at the Fox and Hounds for a few rounds of stick throwing and a few rounds of beers!
Read more about the Fox and Hounds
A few photos of previous Aunt Sally events
- Fox and Hounds Summer 2014
- Great Gidding Aunt Sally Tournament
- Great Gidding Aunt Sally Tournament
- Great Gidding Aunt Sally Tournament 2013 – it’s all in the technique
- Great Gidding Aunt Sally
- Great Gidding Aunt Sally Tournament 2013 – elegant throwing style by Sue
- Great Gidding Aunt Sally Tournament
- Great Gidding Aunt Sally Tournament
Great Gidding resident Dan Valderas who lives in Main Street is running next years London marathon 2016 on behalf of Barnardo’s charity for young people.
Dan needs to raise £2,000 for this worthwhile cause and in one week has already raised over £200 from friends and family who have donated via Dan’s Just Giving page, but there’s still a long way to go!
Dan plans to organise fun fund raising events in the future, so any help you can give for this very worthwhile charity will be hugely appreciated. Just click on the Just Giving link to help towards Dan’s marathon appeal www.justgiving.com/Dan-Valderas
Sue Jarvis and Val Littlewood: Two artists who in a rash moment decided to get together to record their drawings and paintings This year their focus has changed to record the comings, goings and happenings in the Jubilee Wood.
Visit their blog: beautiful-beasts.blogspot.co.uk
Calum Titmus from Great Gidding defended his title as British Special Olympics Figure Skating champion for the second time and also won gold in Ice Dance and medals in Speed Skating.
Twenty one year old Calum Titmus from Great Gidding competed in Inclusive Skating Glasgow 2015 from 10-12 April 2015. This was the 3rd Special Olympics GB National Competitions, the NISA National Inclusive Skating Championships and the International Club Competition, held with competitors from Austria, Iceland, Ireland, Finland, Canada, Scotland and Wales.
Remarkable success
After two days of intensive competition in a number of events, he defended his title as British Special Olympics Figure Skating champion for the second time and also won gold in Ice Dance and medals in Speed Skating. This is all the more remarkable when you realise that Calum is Autistic with severe learning difficulties. Figure Skating as a Special Olympics sport was brought to Britain for the first time in 2012, and in 2013 Speed Skating was added to the event. Calum entered the Speed Skating event at three distances, winning bronze head-to-head against non-learning impaired competitors and retaining his British Special Olympics Speed Skating title.
Inclusive Skating
Calum is also heavily involved with Inclusive Skating. This is a charity that is trying to set up a family orientated group at each ice rink in the UK. This group will be for anyone with any visual, hearing, bio-mechanical or learning difficulty, along with family and carers who want to learn to skate. Please look out for local fundraising events for Calum and Inclusive Skating.
Calum attends Huntingdon Regional College and trains twice a week at Planet Ice in Peterborough. He also trains at the gyms in the One Leisure group and with the Piranhas Swimming Club in Huntingdon as well as the Peterborough Special Olympics Swimming Club.
Calum with Speed Skating coach Mike Rivet(Canada)
Special Olympics is the world’s largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and competitions to more than 3.7 million athletes in more than 170 countries. Visit www.specialolympics.org and www.specialolympicsgb.org.uk
Inclusive Skating is a global project for impaired skaters, based in the UK. Our goal is to develop a programme that will include all skaters with an impairment and will allow them to participate in all competitions and events on an equal basis. www.inclusiveskating.org
For those of you who might have missed it here’s some photos of today’s partial solar eclipse.

Partial solar eclipse at 9.22am

Partial solar eclipse at 9.25am

Partial solar eclipse at 9.31am

Partial solar eclipse at 9.35am
Gidding saw a partial eclipse with an obscuration of 86.06% and the total duration was from 8.26am to 10.42am.
If anyones got other/better photos of the eclipse please send them over to paulcrank@thegiddings.org.uk and we’ll add them to the site.
With over 2000 cyclists taking part in this UK cycling event, the Village Hall and car park was packed with cyclists of all ages, shapes and sizes.
Well everywhere is still very wet underfoot. If you are riding on bridle ways, please keep off the very wet ones until the ground dries out. Otherwise it creates heavy poached areas & puddles get walked around rather than through. This causes more churning as riders stray onto crops. Areas never recover & get spoiled for year round use.
Whilst out & about, I’ve been noticing more & more litter on verges, especially cans. So please if you come across any, pick it up & pop in a bin.
Be safe – be seen
Don’t forget ‘hi vis’ jackets or tabbards when it’s dull- Be Seen. Whether you’re riding, cycling or walking, have fun.
I have to say that cycling on these blustery days is great for calorie busting!
Rachel
6.2.15
A short video of the children playing Jingle Bells on the handbells.
Sleigh bells ringing, hot dogs roasting, mulled wine simmering – what a magical Christmas wonderland was seen in Great Gidding Village Hall on Saturday 15 November. Many thanks to all who worked so hard to put this all together – the decorations, food and drinks providers, stall holders, poster and ticket designers, sleigh manufacturers, team of young hand bell ringers and Santa and his trusty Elf.
We raised a superb total for the St Michael’s Church Restoration Fund – still being counted at the time of writing.
Thank you again to everyone who supported this Christmas event.
Report by Mary Read, Fundraising Committee.
A male was assaulted on Main Street in Yaxley following an argument between a group of males walking and a group in a car. This happened between 23:45 and 00:15 on Sunday 23rd November 2014. If you think you may have witnessed anything to do with this or any other crime, then please contact us.
You can e-mail us at HuntsCops@cambs.pnn.police.uk or call police on 101. You can also call Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
And good news regarding dwelling burglary:
A police operation yesterday Monday 24th November 2014 resulted in five males being arrested in relation to dwelling burglaries in Huntingdonshire. All have been interviewed and bailed while the investigation is on-going.





















