The Aftermath
10th September
Well, we can relax at last for another year! No more checking up on the watering system to the glasshouses, no more anxious nights worrying about whether my cucumbers will be long enough, and certainly no more baking for a while.
There was some last minute excitement on the way to the show. Spencer
was driving the Bentley along Pyotts Hill, with Marcus clutching onto my
flower arrangement for dear life, when a gentleman in a blue car backed out
from a house without looking, forcing Spencer to do an emergency stop.
You know who you are Sir! Poor Marcus arrived at the Village Hall
looking as though he had wet himself, as all the water from the arrangement
had run down his legs, but I quickly ascertained that there was no damage
done to the flowers and told him to go and mop himself dry in the toilets,
and nobody would notice. For the third time that morning Spencer said
that we weren’t doing this next year, and it was only 8.35 a.m! I
think that was mainly because I rather unfairly accused him of losing my
entry cards on the second trip when they were in the bottom of the
collapsible crate all along.
"How did the show go”, I hear you all cry (including my loyal reader from
out of the parish). Well personally it was a triumph, although not entirely unexpected I
must say. Before I go into detail, let me just say that our
illustrious Chairman, Jeff Owen, did rather steal the show with his huge
haul of cups and trophies, but yours truly will need to make a trip to the
engravers as well, with her own substantial silverware prize in one of the
sections. Not only that, but yet again my fruit won “best in show”,
and I have another RHS Bronze Medal to adorn the mantle piece at Paulet
Manor. I sometimes think that Spencer only married me for my pears.
Altogether my individual haul of 3 first places, 9 seconds and 3 thirds plus
a Highly Commended made the considerable effort on my part totally
worthwhile. I must say, however that the rest of the family didn’t
fare as well, with the exception of Violet Elizabeth, who won two firsts and
a second place. But as I told them “winning isn’t everything, it is
the taking part that counts”.
And didn’t you people of Old Basing rise splendidly to the challenge?
There were more entries than ever in the show this year, with increased
entries in the domestic and Flower sections as well as in the children’s
classes. The photographic class had a massive 26 entries alone, making
a record for Old Basing. This must be due, in part, to my little
column here on the Basinga Extra, which aimed to stimulate interest in the Old
Basing Village Show, and to increase the number of participants and
attendees. The show afternoon was very well attended, and the
Committee should be proud of themselves for staging such a spectacular
event. Jeff Owens’ comments that the Old Basing Show is being used as
a benchmark by the judges for other events up and down the country should
make us all justifiably proud of our efforts. To round it all off, Mrs
Maria Miller MP presented the prizes and I wished I had remembered to bring
my hat for the presentation itself, but I hadn’t really expected to win
anything at all.
What next, I hear you all clamour? Well I shall be taking a break from writing on the Basinga Extra, and might take a short trip with Spencer to our island in the Caribbean now that the children are back at boarding school. Of course, I shall be on the lookout all the time for ideas and tips for next years show, and as soon as the date is known I am sure that it will be published here on the Basinga Extra website. So to all of you who have enjoyed reading this, or maybe those of you who just went along on Sunday out of curiosity in the certain knowledge that you could do better, I hope that you were inspired enough to enter next year. Remember the Paulet-Halt family motto in eo habitis esse ut vincatis eum –for those of you who haven’t yet worked it out- “you have to be in it to win it!”