The Bendlowe’s Bugle November 2020 People working for people Welcome…. ...to the seventh issue of our Bendlowe’s newsletter of 2020. Apologies if I called the last issue the fifth—it should have been the sixth! We have lots of articles around Remembrance this month plus some fascinating local history stories and some great reminiscences. Don’t forget to send your Christmassy ‘stuff’ in by 27 November. UPDATES – BY: Alice Petanque Just a quick update on Petanque. Our fund raiser has got off to a good start and our calendar proudly presenting photos taken by Shalfordians is now on sale. Sorry, yes it is a little expensive at £8 but that is because at least £5 is go- ing straight to the Petanque project. Our goal is to sell at least 100. Calendars will be on sale in the Village Shop, The George Inn and Deersbrook Farm. In the meantime, for anyone wanting to play Petanque, Terry Whiting has kindly sent us the following email:- ‘We would welcome any Shalford resident that would like to try out the game of petanque (boule) to come to Wethersfield and try this very pleasant game out. We have plenty of spare boules etc they could use, plus we can offer some coach- ing, all this free of charge, and fully under Pertanque England's covid 19 guidance. Please contact by either telephone 01371850293, or email: [email protected] Bendlowe’s Bugle I just wanted to say a few words of thank you to the many people who have contributed in various ways to the last seven months of our Newsletter. We had hoped to offer a small dis- traction by distributing the Newsletter during these Covid times but WOW it has taken off. We are now distributing just under 30 hardcopies plus a further 28 emails and a few in the Shop. We have received so many praising and uplifting comments that we are overwhelmed. My favourite being “Phew, that was a good read!” So, with this in mind, we are encouraged to try and continue distributing Bendlowe’s Bugle throughout the Covid period which is prov- ing a difficult time for all of us but especially those that are living alone. So, please please please take part and let us have your articles/stories, of your life, holidays, work, hobbies, history, photos. If you say to yourself “no-one will be interested!” You are wrong! We are interested. Help us to ensure we have enough varied and interesting articles to fill the pages to ensure it keeps going for at least the next few months until we can start up Meet & Greet again. It’s good to take part! Many, many thanks Bendlowe’s Charity no. 241285 Trustees: Alice Cox, Sally Welsh, Rev. Alex Shannon 1 SHALFORD WALKERS A benefit of lockdown from Coronavirus is that we were all encouraged to go out and walk for exercise for one hour each day – socially distancing of course. So Vic and Janet Goodey, and Derrick and Marianna Marriott took to walking around our beautiful village of Shalford. We were already walking around Finchingfield on Friday mornings with a programme to encourage walking through Freshwell Surgery but this was temporarily curtailed due to COVID. Since most of the group travelled from Shalford, it was another reason to stay close to home and not use the car. Once restrictions were lessened we thought that perhaps others may wish to join us so Vic put up posters to see what response we would get. We advertised that we would start and finish at the George each Wednesday morning at 10am. The pub agreed that they would open earlier than normal so that we could have a coffee and perhaps an indulgent cake on our return. Slowly Shalfordians crept out of their houses and joined us. Numbers have grown each week as word has got out. Our highest number of attendees has been 13 so far so we split into groups of no more than 6. Some stragglers have been known to take a short cut if they’ve had enough. We don’t mind, we would rather people come out and enjoy each other’s company and of course our beautiful countryside. We have been fortunate that the weather has been kind to us so we have been able to sit outside the pub at the new table and chairs. We normally walk for about an hour or so. Depends if we get lost!! We are so happy that we have brought another way for our community to get together and make new friends. People are able to have some exercise and socialise at the same time. So please join us if you are free – we are a friendly bunch and no matter how fast or slow you walk there is always someone to walk with and to talk to. Marianna Marriot The walkers outside The George. Marianna does assure me that they do actually go walking! Bendlowe’s Charity no. 241285 Trustees: Alice Cox, Sally Welsh, Rev. Alex Shannon 2 Tales from the bowling mat... Alice has done it again, whilst chatting about the Bowls club she came up with the idea of me relating some amusing tales from our days of playing. BC (Before Covid) If I gave you suffi- cient time, you would guess what happened next. I couldn’t think of any! However, in my panic, I turned to those club members who have a better memory than me. Please give me a call and start with; “don’t you remember when?” In the meantime I can try to regale you with some of the activities that go on at our club. Friendly matches are always a good source of stories. Like the time Wendens Ambo turned up short of players. Out of the goodness of her heart, Diana volunteered to turncoat and make up the numbers. As they had only eight players in the Wendens Ambo team it meant they were obliged to play every game, without a break. We should have won easily. Unfortunately, we didn’t take ac- count of Diana’s competitive spirit and we were trounced. Wethersfield Village Hall play us twice a year in a "friendly" game of bowls. The only thing is they cheat! I realise that to accuse someone of cheating is contentious and those of you who know Lawrence will realise I am in danger of insulting an honest but more importantly a big man. Allow me time to explain myself. Carpet Bowls is our game played by eight players; using a total of sixteen woods; on a carpet thirty feet in length. Our only means of physical control is a pair of 4 x 2 x 5 inch blocks placed either side of the delivery area and a round wooden block 18 inches in diameter placed in the centre of the carpet. No player apart from the number three from each team is allowed on the carpet. Wethersfield play "Short Mat" carpet bowls in which the carpet is six feet longer than ours. Only four players are allowed to play because the bowls must be twice the size of ours and weigh twice as much. It takes us twice as much energy just to reach the other end. Although, Alan once managed to overcompensate and send a bowl all the way out into the carpark. He missed the target and somebody opened the entrance door just as the bowl got to it. It helps to be moving forward as you make your delivery which is contrary to carpet bowls where you take a solid stance and in short mat, you must place your back foot on a rubber mat positioned on the carpet. Finally they have a piece of furniture behind the jack that looks a bit likes the hearth of a fireplace. This allows for woods that have touched the jack and then roll out of bounds, over the back line, to be captured and counted towards the end result if closest to the jack. If this isn’t confusing enough, on the score board, they put the number of the end being played at the start of the end not at the end of the end as we do. I am not going to read that last paragraph back to myself, I got confused enough writing it! Bendlowe’s Charity no. 241285 Trustees: Alice Cox, Sally Welsh, Rev. Alex Shannon 3 It will come as no surprise that I cannot remember ever winning at Wethersfield and even with home advantage we have lost to them or fought a tight game. So allow me some sour grapes and be assured that we enjoy the company of our lovely neighbours both at home and away. At the end of friendly matches we enjoy refreshments of tea or coffee and a selection of sweet and savoury dishes provided by the home team members. In Shalford the request is that the ladies provide the food and the gentlemen provide a raffle prize. However, with gen- tlemen outnumbering ladies, some of the gentlemen are required to make up a shortfall. This has meant that we have been treated to Tony's very tasty lemon drizzle sponge. Other treats include Diana's peanut slices and Maureen's Victoria sponge. I like to think that on Bowls night, calories don't count. I did mention the raffle which is useful for helping to pay for hiring the village hall as we do not collect subscription fees on match nights. The prizes at both home and away matches are varied.