Boughton News - Augst 2012

Are you a cyclist?

The Norfolk Churches Trust was founded in 1976 and makes grants to churches and chapels of all denominations towards repair and restoration costs. Since its beginnings the Trust has raised money to make grants to more than 580 different churches and chapels totalling over £3.6 million.Norfolkhas been part of the sponsored cycle ride since 1983 and 32 counties will be taking part, includingSuffolkandCambridge.

Boughton has benefited from this on more than one occasion; once when the tower (the oldest part of the church) needed restoration to keep it intact and more recently when we have been fundraising for repair and restoration of the East Window.  Cyclists or walkers are asked to seek sponsors who will undertake to pay an agreed sum of money for each place of worship visited by the cyclist on Saturday 8th September. We are fortunate that there are a large number within a fairly small area so it’s not that big a task. Even I did it for several years and I’m not noted for athleticism!  If you wish to explore a different area, you can drive to your starting point and then walk or cycle around your chosen churches. You can’t drive all the way! Half the money you raise will go to the Norfolk Churches Trust and the other half will benefit Boughton church.

If you can’t cycle or walk (wheelchairs are permitted), you could also be sponsored for sitting in the church to record and welcome the cyclists. Even if we only have a few people come to our church, remember others are welcoming our own cyclists. You don’t have to be a churchgoer, just someone who wants to preserve our heritage of beautiful buildings or simply to enjoy a good day out.

Please consider taking part and contact me on 01366 500429. I have all the necessary information, lists of churches, sponsor forms, day-glo badges to stick on………..

Pam

1. Boughton Cricket Club –Great News!!

If you are a regular reader of this magazine I am sure you will have seen from time to time our splendid match reports written by Hugh Jenkins and other news about our fundraising efforts. You may not know, and if not it gives me great pleasure to inform you, that the Cricket club has just been awarded a grant of £9994.00 from Sport England to develop the club and its membership.

SportEnglandis an organisation responsible for the fair distribution of funds raised from the national lottery to encourage more people to participate in sporting activities inEngland.

The cricket club had decided after last season that there was enough interest in the club and in the village and surrounding areas to try to push it forward and to transform our newly acquired field into a cricket pitch capable of holding a number of matches over the season that could be played in a safe and fairly contested manner. In order to do this we decided that a number of specialist pieces of equipment would be required, not least a heavy roller and high capacity outfield mower. This would involve spending sums running into the thousands which clearly would not be feasible to raise by normal fundraising events as well as looking after the normal expenditure involved in the running of the club. A capital injection would be required and so last Autumn Karen Short in her capacity as head of fundraising for the club, volunteered to begin the process of investigating grants that may be available.

She came up with the Sport England option which seemed to fit our requirements nicely being available up to a maximum of £10000.

Having secured the services of some of the more prominent names involved in Norfolkcricket circles Karen and I began the onerous task of completing the online application which ran to many pages with huge amounts of information being required and justifications written. Karen had been successful before in this type of task before, namely the grant which she secured for the playground equipment a few years ago and so always remained optimistic. I on the over hand, did have a few moments of frustration and thoughts of throwing the towel in. Anyway we finally completed the process in February and were told it would take up to 10 weeks to process the application. Sure enough in the eleventh week an e-mail arrived but with no decision only a confirmation that the application was being looked at and a request for even more clarification. This was duly provided and then finally on the 18th June a large white envelope arrived at The Old Stables with the Sport England logo plastered all over it. With trepidation I opened it and was absolutely delighted to read that our application had indeed been successful and we were going to get the full amount requested of £9994.

We are now waiting for the funds to arrive into our bank account and this will then enable us to get the roller, mower, a cover for the pitch and a site screen. These items will now allow us to move forward with the development of the club and this is something which we need to do now in order to adhere to the terms of the funding as, if you remember, the remit of Sport England is to encourage more participation in sport by supporting causes and clubs which are able to deliver this.

I would now like to take this opportunity to invite any of you, young or old, who used to play or had ever thought they may like to learn to play the game of cricket or to become involved in the social side of the club to contact us. The club is most definitely open to all and is a friendly safe environment for all to enjoy. I thought my days of playing cricket were numbered until last year when I was encouraged to get involved again and have thoroughly enjoyed all the games I have been involved in. You can get in touch by speaking to any member or contacting Dawn Reardon on 01366 500853 or e-mail reardons@stillandstar.co.uk Dawn will be able to give you all the information you need to get involved.

As a footnote, I have to say that although this grant application was a very long drawn out and detailed process we were successful in the end and I am pleased to think that our lottery money maybe does eventually end up in the right place and the powers that be maybe do come up with the right decisions sometimes –it’s up to us now to make it all happen so please don’t be shy and get involved.

Steve Short

2. Remembering Leslie…….

Many of you will have seen Leslie riding around the village on his mobile scooter, taking in the sights or stopping to talk to villagers he met along the way.

I first met Leslie that way, tootling his way round the pond whilst I was doing the annual spruce-up of the Village Sign. Stopping to talk to Leslie was a joy and we chatted for some time. He apologised for interrupting my work, but chatting to a fellow villager was far more pleasant.

We became good friends after that, along with many other people he met in the village. Seeing Leslie atBreakfastChurch, at Frank & Sandy’s for a glass outside the potting shed or just around the village were always happy times. I was fascinated by the life Leslie had led, as he regaled me with stories when we bumped into each other, almost literally, when I was leaving the churchyard on my cycle, and he was entering on his scooter. We sat for a while just chatting.

Last August Leslie wrote a piece in the G4 magazine telling of his arrival in Boughton, the early difficult times during his first winter, and the joy of getting his scooter for the first time. This is part of what he wrote.

‘Finally I was able to get out with the improving weather as I had bought a four wheeled scooter and that proved to be a boon. Up the road then and the first person I met was a gentleman cutting grass around the pond. He could not have been more pleasant and we chatted for a while and I left feeling much happier. Well that really set the tone, and as I met other people in the village they were equally kind and considerate. My worst fears were allayed thanks to the help of my family and the residents of Boughton and I look forward to making more friends and learning to love Boughton. Thank you all. Leslie.’

I believe Leslie did come to love Boughton as he made more friends on his travels around the village.

I understand Leslie had a bad fall and unfortunately had to go into residential care, where only a few weeks later he passed away in June 2012. At breakfast Church on the 8th July we remembered Leslie in our prayers. During the breakfast we were reminiscing about Leslie and recalling our memories of him. Someone said ‘he touched everyone he came into contact with.’ I think this is true, and that through our times talking to and being with Leslie, he has left a little of him with all of us. I hope he enjoyed his time in Boughton as much I did.

God Bless you Leslie.

Peter.