The Monmouth Branch striking contest was held on Saturday 17th May at Magor.
This year the judges were Brian and Barbara Wylde from Westonzoyland. We were fortunate to have a lovely and warm sunny day for the event. We decided to run a "Bring and Share" tea which worked really - each team was asked to provide some elements of the tea and for all to share.
There was plenty of food and best of all no charge made for the tea. We also very fortunate to have use of the Garden Room at Magor Church Hall which was a very pleasant location for us to have tea and listen to the ringing. Thanks very much to Ian Benton of Magor for his support.
We had two entries for the Rounds and Call Changes section and six for the method section. The result were as follows:
Rounds and call changes
1st: Shirenewton, 25 faults
2nd: St Mellons, 25 1/2 faults
This was an incredibly close run competition and congratulations to both teams to ringing very well.
Methods
1st: St Woolos, 7 1/4 faults
2nd: Rumney City, 13 1/2 faults
3rd: Shirenewton, 20 1/2 faults
4th: Caldicot, 26 1/2 faults
5th: Rumney United, 28 1/2 faults
6th: Bassaleg, 32 faults
Congratulations to St Woolos for taking back the trophy. And very special congratulations to Caldicot and Bassaleg for their efforts in entering.
We also had our second Great Cake Baking Competition. Last year I felt that given the high standard of entries one prize was not enough so this year I had three. Having thoroughly enjoyed sampling the cakes I was able to decide very quickly on the winners:
1st: Jen Mundy (St Mellons) won a bottle of wine for for a gorgeous caramel iced sponge cake
2nd: Jen Mundy (again) won a box of chocolates for a delicious lemon drizzle cake
3rd: Marion Bennett (St Woolos) win a box of chocolates for an excellent chocolate cake
This was great fun, but nobody owned up to opening and sampling the third prize during the tea!!
Jonathan Lewis
Monmouth Branch Master & Association Master
Photo: The Shirenewton Call Change Band
Photo: The St Woolos, Newport, Method Band
Photo: Anne Jones being presented with the Trophy by the Judges, Barbara and Brian Wylde
