It’s time to get growing for the village produce show, the first one since 2018!
Mark your calendars for Saturday 6th September.
Venue: Great Gidding Village Hall
Schedule: Entries by midday, public viewing 3.00pm–4.00pm.
Schedules are available from the village shop, and coming to your door very soon…
Please contact Sue on (01832) 293271 if you have any queries.
The weather was wonderful, which was a relief after last year, and we were really amazed at the increase in entries, with nearly 300 exhibits from just under 40 exhibitors. What made it even better was the praise from the judges for the high standard of the entries right across the board.
The barbecue of smoked beef baps was highly praised too, and I think Gidding must be one of the few, if not the only village show where the process of home smoking the beef required constant checking throughout the night and meant that the chef ended up sleeping downstairs with his dogs! Thank you to both Andrew and Dick for providing something special… as always.
The children’s entertainment also went down very well and it was great to see so many families enjoying the event. If anyone has any new ideas regarding entertainment for the children then please let one of the committee members know as we’re always keen to improve on things, especially when the next show seems to be such a long way off and we’re lulled into a false sense of security.
Thanks again to everyone, we have a great team of people who put the show together and work hard on the day but it’s all worth it when we see everyone having such a good time.
Children’s Cup: Alex Warren. Best First prize: Charlie Warren
Baking: Mich Woodley. Best First prize: Tilly Warren
Flowers: Julie Trolove
Craft: Mich Woodley
Jams: Claire Purllant
Vegetables: Neville Cook. Best First prize: Michael McCarthur
Fox and Hounds Challenge: Brenda Williams
Overall Winner: Neville Cook
PS. Look out for a report on the Show in the Hunts Post this week! See you next year?
Download the Schedule for the 2017 Village Show in Great Gidding.
Click to download the PDF file Schedule_2017v2.
The weather was certainly ‘autumnal’ as members of the committee got the hall ready for the annual village show but fears that it would affect the entry numbers were soon allayed as a steady trickle of people arrived (culminating in the inevitable rush just before midday) with their vegetables, fruit and baking. It was wonderful to see and we were particularly pleased that we had so many children’s entries this year, with wonderful creations made from junk as well as weird and creative animals made from vegetables…
Considering how difficult a growing year it’s been [yes, I know, gardeners always say that] the entries were prolific and of a really high standard. As always, the bakers excelled themselves and the judges were very impressed by the entries in the new class sponsored by the Fox and Hounds pub who kindly donated a meal for two as a prize. The tables were a riot of colour and shapes, strange shapes in the case of the’ biggest growing disaster’! Flowers, vegetables and fruit were the perfect decoration for our village hall and to complement the traditional inside, we had some modern attractions outside including delicious pulled pork rolls, a bouncy castle and face painting.
The wonderful smell of the pork cooking all morning had been torturing several members of the committee for hours but it was worth it as they tucked in once the awards had been given out to the successful entrants. The vegetarians amongst us really appreciated the delicious veggie option which was so full of flavour that we nearly felt sorry for the meat eaters!
We were very grateful for the generous response we had to both the brown envelope auction and the silent auction for the fascinating and colourful whirligig weathervane which was expertly made and donated by Bruce Jordan.
Thank you to everyone who participated and those who just came along on the day, it was such a great community event and lovely to see so many people having the chance to catch up with each other. We hope to see you again next year.
Overall winner: Tilly Warren
Vegetable cup: Michael Mc Arthur
Baking cup: Brenda Williams
Craft cup: Carol Warren
Children’s cup: Tilly Warren
Flower cup: Sue Shepherd
Fox and Hounds voucher for best chicken pie: Tilly Warren
The Village Show Committee – 7th September 2015
What a show it was this year! Considering how difficult the weather has been at times we were a little apprehensive about how many entries we would get but we shouldn’t have worried. There was a wonderful array of vegetables and fruit and a great increase in entries for the jams, chutneys, baking, and bottles of homemade wine and sloe gin.
When the marks were added up, it was a very close run thing in many of the categories so next year the cups could be changing hands again. We also had many more children enter this year who showed fantastic technical skills as well as marvellous imagination and artistic talents. Thank you to all the show entrants for making it so interesting for the rest of us.
Excellent barbecue rounds off the day
Altering the format this year was a bit of a gamble but the BBQ proved to be a great success and no wonder, with the excellent organisational abilities and cooking of both Andrew Underwood and Dick Downer (at least I think it was them behind the smoke). Thanks to them we were all well fed and I can personally vouch for the vegetarian choice, halloumi cheese and aubergine wrap – delicious!
Raising funds for Village Hall and the Friends of St Michael’s Church
Although all the costs have not yet been accounted for as we have to have the cups engraved for the new winners, it looks as if we should have made over £300 including a much appreciated contribution from the parish council which helped us keep the cost of the food down and stage a really fun village event for all the family. The proceeds will be distributed between the Village Hall and the Friends of St Michael’s Church, two charities that look after the fabric of two special buildings in this village. Our profits were also increased by the generous donation of Bruce Jordan’s handmade fort which reached £25.00 by auction, thank you Bruce you have made somebody’s grandchild (and the show committee members) very happy!
A final note of thanks to Maurice and Margaret Armstrong, two stalwart members of the committee who worked so hard to make the event the success that it was and also to our judges who also had to work so hard this year with the increased entries!
Report by Sue and Patrick Jarvis
Winners of the Classes
Overall Winner Amelia Hodson
Vegetables/Fruit Amelia Hodson
Baking Brenda Williams
Jams/Chutneys Steve Knowles
Flowers Sue Shepherd
Craft Mich Woodley
Children Tilly Warren
And the Giddings website says special thanks to Sue & Patrick Jarvis and everyone involved in making it such an enjoyable event for the Giddings and surrounding villages.
Gallery
Just a reminder that there’s less than a week to go before the village show and BBQ on Sat 6th September from 2.00pm to 4.00pm. We hope that there will be plenty of entries this year and know that it’s been a difficult year (again) but don’t be put off from entering your produce even if it isn’t up to the standard you would like. Remember, it’s the taking part that counts and people are only allowed to laugh at their own entries – Gidding rules.
Don’t forget the BBQ starts at 4.00 p.m. and all are welcome, whether you have entered the village show or not. We will be asking for a small contribution towards a drink and a burger (delicious veggy options will be available , even if true carnivores find the ‘delicious’ bit hard to believe) and there will be plenty for everyone to enjoy. Hopefully the sun will be shining and it will be time for the lucky winners to enjoy their glory and the rest of us to discuss what went wrong.
The sealed envelope auction will also take place then and for those of you who haven’t come across this before (like most of the committee) it SHOULD go something like this. You put an unspecified amount in an envelope, mark it with your name and produce preference e.g. cakes rather than veg, and we will endeavour to match your envelope with a bag of goodies. It sounds relatively simple but I suspect there could well be a few amusing glitches along the way so come along and be part of the fun.
Hope to see you there, just remember to get your entries in by mid-day on Sat, and if you haven’t got a schedule you can check the classes out on this website. Good luck!
Public Viewing 3.00 to 4.OOpm
Presentation of Cups and Certificates at 4.00pm followed by B.B.Q. and brown envelope raffle.
Everyone welcome!
NOTE
All exhibits will be raffled unless exhibitors indicate otherwise at registration. Exhibitors must remove non-raffle items immediately after the prize giving. The proceeds of the raffle will be given to a Parish Charity.
Another challenging year for gardeners but we feel sure that even after all the difficulties we’ve faced with the weather, the village show is going to have some great entries. It’s always a pleasure to see the fantastic results people achieve with their vegetables and fruit and more than anything it’s being part of a fun village event so please don’t think your entry isn’t worth showing – it will be!
As to the baking side of things, there are all sorts of classes and hopefully you’ll get a chance to try some of the entries. This year we are doing a ‘sealed envelope’ auction where people can put an undisclosed amount of money in an envelope with their name on and we’ll then pick out a bag of goodies from the show and match it with the envelope. People will still be able to retrieve their entry before this auction but if you donate vegetables, fruit or cakes we would be very grateful .
We look forward to seeing you at the BBQ even if you can’t make the show so come along with the family and enjoy a relaxing time with the rest of us. Remember, anyone can enter you don’t have to live in Gidding!
Sue Jarvis