What a year for Stone YFC 2005/2006, all the male top table turned 21, the World Cup, England’s new football manager, a scorching hot summer, farmers feeding silage in July and petrol and diesel hit a pound a litre!
Socially we’ve had a Disco and Dinner Dance in October, Whist Drive in November, a Ball in December and the Club Christmas Meal at the Walton Inn. New Year brought our Charity Pub Games Night, NFU Advisory and YFC Skittles Evenings and Race night; Stone has been represented well at County events.
The usual weekly Tug of War practice took place from January, culminating in the Rally and the County Show, coming 3rd & 4th at the Rally and 2nd and 1st in the lads and ladies at the County Show. The Ladies team won the chance to go to the Three Counties Show to represent Staffordshire and achieved 2nd place.
We had a trip to both NWF’s Mill and Leek Brewery prior to starting Float building in the Redferns hay barn. Being typical Young Farmers, the initial building was done in the Greyhound at Burston – took a lot of thinking about to decide on our Disney film! Standards were very high; we’ll try harder next year so watch out.
We had a bright idea for a first in Stone this year – a Club Exchange. On June 16th, eleven North Elmham Young Farmers came with sleeping bags to find beds and floor space. Friday night we went to the Midsummer Madness Disco and Alton Towers was our chosen venue for Saturday and my house was the chosen venue for a BBQ, food cooked and provided by the Advisory. We learned some different versions of some well-known songs. With Norfolk being a very flat county, going up to Cheadle intrigued some members, they had not been anywhere before with bends and hills, they loved rolling down banks.
July 14th saw 12 of us return to Dereham for a weekend in Norfolk. We spent the weekend listening to bands, boating on the Norfolk Broads and their Rally Social on the Saturday night, Steve’s band Fun Frock were playing – an interesting bunch of lads in very flowery frocks! A brilliant experience for us all. No speeding tickets, although we did have the water police after us once, definitely one for the future.
Summer saw us yet again paddling away to get first and third in the Raft Race, it seems to be our forte; we’ve won for the past few years. Also a Treasure Hunt arranged by our now legendary experts Simon Wilson and Helen Goldstraw. The winners Jeff, Stuart and Heather claim that when Jeff got caught short and disappeared behind a wall he re-appeared with the winning thistle. Doubt he could see it from the road, though – the thistle clinched the one point to win!
Rally week was one to remember, what with sticking and gluing, and making cocktails on the Friday night and instructing Jim Newton on the finer art of last minute sci-fi clock making. What a weekend! We again won the county round of the National Cooking Competition, enabling Felicity Bowers, May Kite and Simon Stubbs to go to the National Cooking finals in October, another chance to experiment cocktail making for our film premiere meal. Dan Howell is very good at nail painting (if anyone wants any tips!) Ben Redfern can make a horse out of a wooden pallet, Alex and Trev can roll a churn and we have hidden talents in the static exhibits, we managed to retain the Eccleshall Shield.
During the year we have entered the Ploughing Marathon and won it, Phil Sutton retained his three cups, including the YFC class at Stone District Ploughing Match, 2nd in the Gate Hanging, We had the winning team in Safety with Efficiency and the 2nd best team at the WMA competition, we came first in Senior Public Speaking, got mentions in Stockjudging, Quiz’s, Go-Karting, Pool competitions, Silage and Ley Competitions, Carcase Judging, Football, Hockey, Basketball, Netball to name but a few. You name it, Stone will have a go.
Our charity for the year was the County Air Ambulance and we organised three events, which resulted in us presenting a cheque to them for £1,000 at the Summer Social.
Finally my thanks go to the County Office, officials and members of Stone. Members this year have put a lot of effort into the Club and they have been greatly rewarded with trophies and certificates.