Well, what a year at Stone, what with taking part in over 30 competitions, not to mention the Rally, AGM, Discos, Socials and Stone nights! I’ll start at the beginning.
We started the year practising a few competitions, namely football and carcass judging. We then decided to have a pub-crawl around Stone - purely educational of course! Then there was stone ploughing match in which Bryce won the district novice competition and Phil Sutton came 2nd in the YFC class. Oh, and we started our charity work thanks to Boomer’s chest hair, or lack of, when Tracey had finished, raising over £150 for Cancer Research UK.
October came crashing in next - almost literally, as we started the month nursing some bruises thanks to a Rugby 7’s Tournament in which we were placed 3rd. Next up was our annual new members night which went very well, attracting a good number of new members. We then took part in the Carcass judging Comp and came 3rd overall. This was followed by the County International Quiz in which John, Claire, Jeff and Simon beat off stiff competition to win, and each received a ticket to the Autumn Ball that followed on the Saturday. We ended October with our Annual Dinner Dance, which was an undoubted sell-out success.
November started with the County AGM at which Trev won the Stone Leader Trophy, whilst the Stone came 2nd in the Stone Efficiency and won the Small Stones Trophy. That was followed by challenging Leek to the Hammer, and beating them at Conkers. Next we went Ice Skating in Telford, and the usual bruises soon followed, however I think we need to get Rob a road atlas, as he nearly ended up in Wales on the journey home - just a slight detour then! Also this month we came 4th in the Go-Karting Competition, a Volleyball competition ended the month as we came 2nd again!!
We then moved swiftly into the Christmas month of December where we attended various discos, went to the cinema, Phil got to the semis in the pool comp, and we went for our Christmas meal at the Saracens Head. The most notable date was our very own Christmas Cracker Ball, held at Uttoxeter Racecourse, a fantastic night especially considering we only decided to hold it a month earlier! We hope it will become an annual event for many years.
In came the New Year and as our waists expanded our bank accounts shrunk, but this didn’t stop us seeing in the New Year in style at the New Years Ball, which was again a sell out at the Showground. Following that was the County Quiz won by John, Claire, Mark and Simon, no tickets this time but the chance to go to the National Pub Quiz Final was our reward! We took part in the Bowling Comp and came 2nd. We ended the month with a Charity Pub games night raising a further £108-00 for Charity.
As a very hectic February started we put practice into action at the Competitions day. Our Intermediate Brainstrust team came 3rd, Junior Public Speaking 2nd, Senior After Dinner Speaking 4th, Boomer won Junior Member of the Year, Jack came 3rd, I came 2nd in the Senior Member of the Year. We had a Stone Social night at the County Office, Dan Myatt won the Stone Darts Trophy. Followed by Boomer, Phil, Alex and Simon performing a Little Britain style sketch for the Stone Promotion Competition as we came 4th. We were then challenged to the Hammer by Cheadle (Reaction Shock test/game) which was a challenge we won. The following night we came 2nd in the Darts semi-final. We finished with the Clay Pigeon Competition, a good day but plenty of room for improvement. We also took part for the first time in the Indoor Cricket League and I doubt Freddie Flintoff or Kevin Pietersen will be worrying too much about their places.
March saw us start with Go-Karting - Rich and Jim won despite having part of their steering wheel missing. The Fence Erecting Competition was next, we built a good fence, just in the wrong line! March also saw our Annual Race Night at Fulford Village Hall raising a lot of money for Cancer Research and ourselves. We then had a Stone Pool Competition, went Beef Stock judging at Joe Eade’s and Dairy Stock judging at Simon Wilson’s which were both well attended nights.
April started with more excellent stock judging practices at Trev’s and Simon Stubbs’s. Jeff and Simon then attended a Leadership Development course in Leamington Spa. The Ley Competition was next up with Paul and Ed placed 2nd overall. We came 3rd in Dairy Stockjudging. Next up was the National AGM In Torquay, well attended by our Stone and we’ll leave it at that. Float building got underway as we decided on The Old Woman who lived in a Shoe.
Into May and straight into action in the Stockman of the Year competition, we came 2nd overall in the Junior cup, 3rd overall Senior/Intermediate team and 2nd Overall Stockjudging team. Next the action didn’t stop as we had a very successful County Rally and achieved the following successes; Overall Rally Cup 2nd, Most Improved 3rd, Junior Cup =2nd, Associate Cup 2nd, Eccleshall Shield 1st, Sports Cup =2nd, Tractor Handling 3rd, Tug of War Trophy 2nd, Leslie T Chester Trophy 3rd. Also Boomer and Simon took part in a Youth Celebration Show at Lichfield Cathedral as comperes for the evening. Bryce, John, Jack and Stuart took part in the County Efficiency with Safety competition and won. We finished with the Pre-Show Reception and Emma came 2nd in Stars in Their Eyes.
June started with the County Show, our male Tug of War team came 3rd and the girls were unlucky ending in 2nd place. In the Show Float competition we were placed 4th. Our Efficiency with Safety team went down to WMA and came back with 2nd place. The County Car Treasure hunt followed and was won by Hev, Jeff, Helen and Simon. Next we had an excellent Social and BBQ at Dan’s. The month ended at the County Social and winning the Mini Olympics.
July brought us a Scavenger Hunt at Max’s house and he decided to send us off after clues around Leigh, eventually won by Rich, Jim, Helen and Simon. We were again challenged for the Hammer; this time by Eccleshall whom we beat at a Krypton Factor style timed assault course. We finished the month in real style by paddling to victory in the County Raft Race ending with 4 teams in the top 5!
As County wound down for in August, we did the opposite. We went to Stanley Head on the Climbing Wall, learnt Ultimate Frisbee, went to the Golf Driving Range and had a go at Clay Pigeon Shooting at Simon’s. Oh, and the odd disco here and there!
We would like to end by thanking everyone who’s supported us this year. There are too many of you to name individually and we’re scared we’ll miss someone out. Thank you to all the top table members, and most importantly thanks to all our members, without you there wouldn’t be a Stone so thank you for a wonderful year.
Good luck to the new top table. Lets hope the successes keep coming our way over the next 12 months and reaffirm to everyone that Stone YFC is still a Stone on the move and on the up.