Wednesday 29th May - Silly Games Evening

Last night's meeting consisted of Tug of War practise starting at 7pm and a silly games evening starting at 7.30pm. 

For members taking part in the silly games evening there was apple bobbing, bean bag throwing, hula hooping, passing the balloon between the legs, three legged race and egg and spoon race to name just a few. 

Hula Hoop Challenge

Apple Bobbing 

Egg and Spoon Race

Three Legged Race

Practise for Three Legged Race

At the end of the evening the members were treated to cakes from the chairman!

Eastern Area Summer Competition Day

On Saturday 15th June at Park Farm, Sandpit Road, Thorney, Peterborough the Eastern Area Competitions day will be held!

The day will see Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire Young Farmers (The County Federations who are part of the Eastern Area Federation) compete against each other in a wide range of competitions. 

Silsoe themselves are representing Bedfordshire Young Farmers in:

• The Ladies Tug Of War Team 
• The Junior Tug of War Team
• Fence Erecting 
• The Cube Exhibit depicting the Best of British - in our case 'Beatrix Potter'
• Situations Vacant
• The Junior Video Clip designed to encourage new members to the club

Other Competitions to be held on the day are Ultimate Frisbee, Efficency with Safety and Ladies Rounders!!

Bedfordshire County will also be entering the Photography Competition whereby pictures from all 7 clubs in county have been collated to make a calendar.

In the evening there is a party with a DJ, Bar and Camping for all members. Entry is £10 and  tickets can be purchased on the door. 

RALLY DAY....

So the day has finally come and gone, the day that members have been busy preparing for the past three months.

Members booked in handicrafts, flowers and cookery entries showed stock and spent the morning doing visual and skills classes.

Showing Stock

Best of three Dairy Class

Reserve Champion lead by Andrew Redman, owned by William Timbury

Club Display

 Our Club Display also came first. This year the theme was best of british and so our display was all about beatrix potter. One Club member had completed 5 different crafts to put in the display such as the flowe rarrangement and the peter rabbit you can see in the picture. This now goes to the eastern area weekend in June to compete at the next stage in the competition. 

Skills Class - English Breakfast

Skills Class - Making a Bird Scarer

Skills Class - Making a Bird Scarer

Skills Class - Making a Bird Scarer

Skills Class - Poultry Trussing

 

Skills Class - Poultry Plucking

Skills Class - Making something out of Chicken Wire

Ellie Collett - 1st in Junior Class, an arrangement depicting a fairytale, where she recreated Rapunzel

Katie Parrish - 1st and Reserve best in show for her flower arrangement depicting a kingfisher

Flower Arrangement by Jack Tomkins

Emily Steaggles and Lucy Barnes with their Show Jumping Rosettes

Philip Barnes and Jack Tomkins taking part in the Grand National Competition in the Main Ring

The Float parade took place at the very end of the day. 7 floats pulled by tractors were driven around the main ring for the public and judges to see. Afterwards they were lined up in order and the flour and water fight began....

Silsoe Float - 4th Place

Leighton Float - 3rd Place

North Beds Float - 2nd Place

The day was a success for Silsoe as a whole! We did well in all sections of the Rally, won the ladies tug of war, won a fair few cups and overall came 2nd.

Results:

1st Leighton Buzzard

2nd Silsoe

3rd Biggleswade

4th North Beds

5th Woburn

6th Blunham

7th Bedford

1 day to go....

The rally is tomorrow!!!

 

Members are busy finishing off their handicrafts and preparing their cookery classes.

 

Tomorrow will see Silsoe Young Farmers compete in the biggest competition of the Young Farmers Calendar against all of the other 6 clubs in Bedfordshire.

 

The day will consist of stock, equine, skills, main ring classes and many more including flower arrangements which some members will be doing tonight.  

 

Most club members will be awake at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning and not in bed again until after the party finishes.

 

The event is open to the public so please come along, the rally poster can be found at the side of this blog.

 

Let's go Silsoe, GO!

 

 

Update from Last Night Executive Meeting...

Last night's Executive Meeting held at Shuttleworth College didn't last very long as members were all busy preparing for the Rally. 

Despite this an Eastern Area Report was given to alert members that Bedfordshire were no longer hosting the Eastern Area competition weekend on June 15th/16th and instead it will be held in Thorney, Cambridgeshire. This weekend will consists of Tug of War, Fence Erecting and other competitions in which teams from Bedfordshire will all be taking part!

There was also a report about the recent National AGM in which Lizzy Hunt (Bedfordshire County Chairman) explained that the owners of the hotel were very pleased and that there was no incidents or problems with any of the rooms. 

The next Executive Meeting is to be held on Monday 29th July at Shuttleworth College from 8pm! 

Silsoe Members busy weekend.....

So this weekend members have been doing various things..

A few car loads of Silsoe members attend the Hertfordshire after Rally Party last night. After travelling 45 minutes to the venue Silsoe joined Herts Young Farmers and some other Young Farmers from Bedfordshire for a boogie on the dance floor.

This morning it was an early start for the members doing Tug of War. Both the junior and ladies team arrived at College Farm at 10am to have a practise ready for next Saturday. Tony Wuidart (our coach) was busy teaching members lifts and drops and other techniques ready for the competition. Other members also attended the on-site meeting at the Rally site in Stewkley ready for next weekend.

Then at lunch time members were busy preparing the Float, screwing on boards and doing the last little bit of painting ready for the full rehearsal on Wednesday.

1 week to go....

Morning Silsoe!!

Just a quick reminder to let you all know (in case you hadn't realised) its a week until Rally!!

I hope all your classes are almost finished! If anyone needs a reminder of what classes they are doing just drop us an email at silsoeyfc@hotmail.co.uk

For those of you doing flower classes, a reminder that you are allowed to do them on the Friday Night from 5-9pm. 

Remember you will need a year book to get into the Rally, we still have some left over so if you want one let us know!

For those of you who are interested, there is an on site meeting tomorrow from 10.30am at Walducks Farm Stewkley, LU7 0DL so we can go and see where everything will take place. Scrapbooks for lambs and flower ring need to be given in at the onsite meeting. 

Keep up the good work Silsoe and see you all next Wednesday!! 

Wednesday 8th May - Rally Prep and Float Building

Rally preparations are truly on the way, as last night, members were busy practising for rally classes and adding some of the final bits and pieces to the Float. 

This year the title for the float is 'children's books' and Silsoe have gone for a classic which will be revealed to the public during the main ring parade at the end of rally. For those of you unaware after the parade members participate in a flour and water fight so arrive promptly if you wish to see the float at its best.

There are also other main ring competitions taking place beforehand if anyone wishes to come along and watch, Silsoe shall be participating in both the Junior and Ladies Final of the Tug of War Competition. 

Reminder to all members...

Rally year books are with us, they are £5 before the day and £7 on the day, you will need one EACH to get entry to the rally!

National Annual General Meeting

This morning 14 members will be joining 50+ other Bedfordshire Young Farmers on the coach to the National Annual General Meeting in Blackpool. 

The Annual General Meeting takes place over three days and three nights and involves counties and members from all over England and Wales. 

On Friday night the members will be dressing up smartly in their black dresses and black ties. Saturday night is the fancy dress night and this year members will be an image of red and white strips as they dress up as Where's Wally and on Sunday county shirts are to be worn with the tradition that people from different counties swap shirts.

During the weekend the National Annual General Meeting will be held along with the finals of the Drama Competition, Member of the Year in which a member from Leighton Buzzard will be participating in and also the Cheer Leading competition with a North Beds team going forward and representing Bedfordshire. 

Have fun!

Last Night's Meeting...

Last night's meeting was a mixture of Rally Prep and a talk from a new author, and fellow young farmer, Bel Ravenne. 

Together her and Bruce, another author, read part of their books to members and talked through some of the key aspects of the story and how they got their books published.

Bel and Bruce

Bruce reading part of his story

 Members also joined in some role play surrounding topics from within Bel's book 'Storme'. 

Members role playing

At the end of the meeting members had the chance to buy and get both Bel's and Bruce's books signed.

Next's Weeks Meeting: 

Wednesday 8th May, Rally Prep at College Farm Lower Gravenhurst, MK45 4HJ

Tonight's Meeting ....

Quick message from the Silsoe Secretary...

Please meet at Gravenhurst Village Hall 8pm tonight.

We have a lady coming to talk to us about getting a book published. She is a fellow young farmer and it will be very interesting to see how she did it and what her story is all about. Bring some money as she will be able to sign some copies of her book should you wish to take a copy.

Come along and have a look, we will be there as well to talk through rally classes, in particular skills classes that need to be done on the day. 16 days and 13 hours!