the village fun day 2009
The Bishop Sutton Society would like to thank all those who supported and were involved in the 2009 'Village Fun Day'. It was a truly spectacular event with a great turnout.
Bishop Sutton Fun Day 2009 - Review
Bishop Sutton Village hall and recreation field looked resplendent draped in fluttering bunting on the beautifully sunny afternoon of Saturday June 20th, for the first Fun Day to be organised by the Bishop Sutton Society.
The car park was soon overflowing as crowds flocked to the fun-packed field and hall to enjoy themselves in the heat. Dr. Phil Hammond was on great form as he welcomed everyone to the event. He revelled in the attentions of the WI and officially opened the Bristol Water sponsored Fun Day in typically amusing fashion, setting the tone superbly.
The Twerzels then launched into their first set atop a flatbed lorry and soon had everyone singing and clapping along to the old country favourites. Kids wandered around with smiling painted faces, clutching clouds of candy floss and looking enthralled and stall-owners did a roaring trade with anything from the Radstock Museum’s historical artifact ‘feelie-box’, to the Twinning Association’s smash an egg with flying boules game.
There was a 12 hole crazy golf course, a gigantic 72 foot inflatable assault course, a bouncy castle with slide and ball pit, Chuckles the clown, a police car, a fire engine, a ride-on toy park, an extremely popular Pimms tent(!) as well as a bar and delicious hog roast, beat the goalie, too many stalls to mention and an awesome vintage and performance car show to boot.
The children of Bishop Sutton Primary School blew everyone away with the high quality of their poetry and artwork, displayed alongside the hot air balloon design competition entries in the hall. Winners and runners-up rosettes were awarded to Thomas Arrowsmith, Kerri McKenna, Amelia Dix, Ella Sheppard, Ryan, Molly, Heather LaPorte, Joe Moss, Reine and Becky Betlon with winners choosing from a selection of artistic prizes.
The Fun Day programme - distributed throughout the village in the weeks leading up to the day - housed the template for the design a hot air balloon competition. Entries were invited in three age groups and judged by Derek Maltby, pilot of the real hot air balloon inflated during the course of the afternoon on the field. He was astonished by the creativity on show, but eventually awarded 1st prize and an 8ft solar airship in the 0-5 yrs category to Olivia Hocock, 1st place and an 8ft x 6ft ‘miniature’ hot air balloon model in the 6-10 yrs group to Charlie Bartlett-Hooker, and top spot in the 11-16 yrs section went to Ellie Hammond who pocketed a 3rd generation i-Pod Shuffle for her efforts.
After a breathtaking aerobatic display by the Bath model helicopter display team, there followed a highly amusing tug-o-war series. The first ‘tug’ saw the dads of the village sliding across the grass to a humiliating defeat at the hands of practically every child in the valley. Then, after calling in reinforcements, the dads - and Chuckles the clown - exacted their revenge with what unfortunately became a rather hollow victory as children were toppled like screaming dominoes into a tangled and tearful pile. The series was abandoned as a draw.
Continuing with the theme of physical exertion, Bishop Sutton resident Adrian Sims put in a superhuman effort to beat all comers in Colin Radforth’s mixed martial arts fitness challenge. Having amassed the highest total of press-ups, punches and sit-ups in a minute, he had just enough energy left to lift the trophy and pose for a photo.
Once winners of all the 30 prizes in the grand raffle had been drawn and announced by Phil Hammond – the Twerzels gave one final rendition of ‘Combine Harvester’ to bring the day to a close.
The Bishop Sutton Society would like to thank everyone for supporting the day so enthusiastically and have asked that you circle Saturday 19th June 2010 for the next Fun Day which, they’ve assured us - will be even bigger and even more fun.
The Society have also asked that anyone who’d like to get involved in the organisation of next year’s event to get in touch via the village website www.bishopsutton.org.uk where you can also find a large gallery of photos from the day.
newsround
The Bishop Sutton Society has promoted our events in all forms of press media. Please see artciles below:
Somerset Guardian - 6th May 2009
Chew Valley Gazette - April 2009 / May 2009
would you like to get involved?
if you would like to get involved in this event, please email society@bishopsutton.org.uk
