Chocolate Rally, Sanderstead 2011

Saturday, July 2nd we attended the HRGB South East Region Chocolate Rally held in Sanderstead Church Hall. Arriving at about 10:30am we set up our tables and donned our wigs/costumes. The day started with mass ringing of O’ Sole Mio, followed by team solos including When You Wish Upon a Star, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (complete with Fairy). As you can see from the photo the event was to dress up yourselves and/or tables with a chocolatey theme. So, naturally we chose Willy Wonka. In the week leading up to the rally it was a mad dash to try and get costumes on time, but we think we looked the part pretty well…you can judge that for yourself… Daniel was Willy Wonka, Sam was Charlie and Malcolm was Grandpa Joe. The rest of the team were the All Saint’s Oompa Loompas. The other mass ringing pieces were Dance of the Mirlitons (Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut advert) and For the Fruits of His Creation (All Through the Night). The pieces were arranged by Sandra Winter and Angela Jones who are members of Wandle Ringers who attended and conducted todays event. We played as our solo pieces To a Wild Rose and The Water is Wide (which we changed to The Chocolate River is Wide to coincide with the theme). The day was thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended.

Our next event is not until October so there will be a quiet few months on the site unless any bookings come up before then.

Photo used with kind permission of Liane Hoare Photography

Warlingham Fair

It was an overcast morning as we set up the tent for the Warlingham Fair.  We had our raffle game, “Drop a Clanger”, a cake raffle and a cake stall. After setting up, five of us headed over to Redvers Road to join our float in the parade. We paraded around Warlingham Green and on to Blanchmans Farm, ringing rounds as we went.  The sun came out and we were treated to a much warmer start to the afternoon.  During a lull in the arena events, we took the chance and played a few pieces in the tent as a demonstration of handbell ringing.  As the afternoon wore on, darker clouds gathered and we were treated to a short thunderstorm, during which the heavens open and torrential rain fell.  this lasted about 15 minutes, after which the sun came back out and stayed out for the rest of the afternoon.  We played again in the tent but after a couple of pieces, we were drowned out by the arena events.  The cake stall and “Drop a Clanger” game both sold out and the winner of the cake was overjoyed.  As we were packing up, Daniel managed to cut his hand open on a tent-peg and had to receive treatment from the St John’s Ambulance crew on duty.  Ready to leave, we suddenly had to come to the rescue as the tent next door blew over.

We thoroughly enjoyed the day and hope that everyone who attended did too.  A big thankyou has to go out to Dereck Pelling, Kerry Charlton and the team for helping set up, man and take down the stall and to Liane Hoare for documenting the day in Photographs.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone next year.

Photo (C) Liane Hoare Photography

Caterham Carnival

A big thank you for everyone who stopped by our stall at this year’s Caterham Carnival.

As always our game of Drop a Clanger went down well and the prizes you see on the table were virtually all gone by the end of the day.

The weather held out for us and the day was a success, it was good to see so many familiar faces out and about the masses of crowds.

A huge thank you goes to those who helped at our stall, we couldn’t have done it without you.

Thank you to Christine McGuire, Edna Pelling, Daniel Pelling, Sheila Wells, Malcolm & Pauline Dand and Samuel Pelling for all your help this afternoon. Also a big thank you to our roadie Kerry Charlton and props/technics guy Dereck Pelling for assisting as well.

We look forward to seeing you all again at next week’s Warlingham Fair on Blanchman’s Farm, Limpsfield Road where we will have our themed float.

A big well done to Mr. Gordon DeVille of Caterham Valley for having the closest guess of the weight of the cake. We hope you enjoy your prize.

Photographs used by Kind Permission of Liane Hoare Photography.

Caterham Festival Street Party 2011

Once again, we were asked “by popular demand” to perform at this year’s Caterham Street Party. Situated outside the Vivace Piano Shop it was interesting to say the least having to lug all our equipment from where we had it stowed in Chaldon Road through the masses of crowds that had congregated along the streets of Caterham Hill.

The weather was beautiful and the sunshine kept his hat on for us. Lots of people stopped to hear us play and the comments they made after we finished were very kind.

We didn’t have a full team this time round like we usually do wherever we play, but it was a successful set none the less.

At a 20 minute slot we had to squeeze in enough songs in that time. This was our set-list…

• On Wings of Song
• Aeolian Bells
• Tallis’ Canon
• She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain
• Aura Lee (More popularly known as Love Me Tender)
• Complin Chimes

Thank you once again to those who helped to organise the day and of course a huge thank you to the team for playing well considering we didn’t have much time to practice before hand after setting things up in the garden at home!

We will be at the Caterham Carnival where we have our stall “Drop a Clanger” and also featuring a Guess the Weight of the Cake game which costs 20p to participate. Hope to see you there! And of course you too Mr Sunshine!!

Photos Used by Kind Permission of Liane Hoare Photography.

Afternoon Tea at St. Mary’s Farleigh, May 2011

Afternoon Tea at St. Mary’s Church in Farleigh, Surrey, always goes down well with the residents of the surrounding area, so it was an honour to be asked back to play again.

After lots of practice in the weeks leading up to it, the team performed well despite a few hic-ups in places. But the audience were very accomodating and seemed to enjoy the “show”.

The weather was perfect, unlike last year when it rained so there was a bigger turn-out and the timing of the release of the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie couldn’t be better as we had planned to perform the theme music to that as part of our programme. Of course it was purely co-incidental that it just so happened to be a week after it came out that we included it in our set and not planned at all.

Our Set-List was…

• Immortal Invisible
• To a Wild Rose
• Delilah (Arranged by Daniel Pelling based on the Tom Jones hit)
• Of The Father’s Love Begotten
• The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
• Fantasy on Hyfrodol
• A Tudor Child (Arranged by Daniel Pelling based on “Greensleeves”)
• Fairest Lord Jesus (Arranged by Daniel Pelling)
• My Heart Will Go On
• Londonderry Air
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Lullaby
• Near the Cross
• Ring Out Wild Bells

We would like to say a big thank you to all those who were involved with the performance and we look forward to playing there again next year.

You will see us next at the Caterham Festival Street Party in a few weeks time.

Until then, thank you for stopping by and we hope to see you again very soon.

Photos supplied by kind permission of Liane Hoare Photography