Ballet Classes at Swavesey Village College
As from September these will no longer be run by Swavesey Village College community education department. The present teacher Mrs April Martin will be taking over the organisation of the classes and they will continue to be held on Thursdays for children ages 3+ to 16. For details about the classes and to enrol for the new term please contact April Martin on 01954 200533 or email a.r.martin@ntlworld.com. The new term commences in September and new pupils are welcome to join at any time in the term/year.

Village News and Club Reports ~ Bell Ringers
On Saturday 7th June 2003 Swavesey ringers took part in the Ely District (of the Ely Diocesan Association of Church Bell Ringers) Striking Competition. A striking competition is where teams of ringers have their ringing judged as to which team makes the best sound. The competition this year was held at St. James the Great, Stretham, Cambridgeshire. The competition has two sections, one for novice bands ringing call changes and one for more experienced ringers ringing method. As we have gained four new ringers in the last twelve months we were able to enter a team in each section. Phillip George from the Huntingdon District and his future son-in-law Mark Banner from Leicester judged the competition.

The results in the call change section were:

The ringers in the Swavesey band were:

The results in the method section were:

The ringers in the Swavesey band were:

The rules allow us to borrow one ringer; we borrowed Rosemary. Sheila joins us on Tuesday evenings. The remaining ringers are all Sunday Service ringers at St Andrews. Swavesey has never won either trophy before!!

This will be the sixth year of The David Hodson Memorial Trophy Competition and as in previous years will take place on Swavesey Green. Last year thanks to the support of the local businesses and community, who came along to support us at the matches, we were able to donate £600 to the Asthma Foundation. Please come along and support us again this year.
Previous winners of the Competition were:

1998 Willingham Football Club
1999 Over Sports Football Club
2000 Willingham Football Club
2001 Swavesey Institute Football Club
2002 Swavesey Institute Football Club

This year the first semi final will be played on Monday 18th August between Over and Cottenham followed by the second semi final on Tuesday 19th August between Swavesey and Willingham. The final will be on Friday 22nd August. All matches will kick off at 6:00 p.m.

Swavesey Billiards and Snooker Club
The finals of the clubs' two major competitions were recently played at the Memorial "Crucible" Hall. In the hushed surrounds, (no disco or Parish Council meeting below) the Bignell Cup billiards was contested by Clifford Wright (Swavesey) and Roger Miller (Over). Going for a hat-trick of wins in this competition, Roger started strongly, but, with a skilful string of breaks, Clifford built up a substantial lead to run out the eventual winner for the 5th time in the past 16 years. Pausing only for a "a quick visit" and a sip of water"! Roger then faced a different opponent in the final of the Percy Lee snooker over 3 frames. A confident Malcolm Mackinnon (Over) appearing in his first final at the club, seemed at ease, but the honours were destined to go Roger's way, as, following some inspired potting, he emerged victorious for the 1st time in this event.

Graeme Waites

Swavesey Camera Club
WATCH THIS SPACE

It's all change at Swavesey Camera Club. After a very successful four year period, for constitutional reasons our President, Bill Law, has stepped down and our excellent Secretary, Jane Greatorex, has been chosen to take his place. Bill will still be able to serve on the committee for one more year but otherwise it is "musical chairs" and several new faces; let us see if this means plenty of fresh ideas too.

Already the Committee has delegated two members to the new task of organising a special Summer Programme of outside visits to London, Wimpole Hall and a professional photographic studio. The new Autumn Programme appears in this copy's "Dates for your Diary"; the first evening meeting is on September 11th when we would like to invite you to a specially requested Audio visual show given by Derek Gatland of Hasselblad. We hope our new programme will have something for everyone so please come along any Thursday evening. A charge of £3 is made to non members but this is refunded in full against the annual fee if one joins the Club later.

Those of you who have received their Adult Education brochures will have seen that our own Mike Swain will be running introductory courses in Digital Photography as part of the Swavesey Village College Autumn Programme. I mention this as the Club has many enquiries from those who would like some more formal training than can be provided at the normal weekly meetings. One can learn a great deal and improve one's skills dramatically by attending Club meetings; the speakers are very generous with advice, and welcome questions at all times but of course these are primarily social evenings rather than classes.

Mo Hadfield
Swavesey'Camera Club.

Fen Drayton Pre - School Est. 1982
The Village Hall Fen Drayton

A limited number of places are now available for 2003/4. Open to all potty trained children (approx 2¾ years to school age). Fen Drayton Pre - School offers:

" Excellent staff/child ratio
" Small, friendly, community based environment
" Highly experienced staff
" Spacious facilities - located in Fen Drayton Village Hall
" Access to brand new outdoor play area
" Use of adjacent school swimming pool during summer term

For further information please call Katrina Gatley 01954 232303 or Diane Warboys 01954 230394

Swavesey Pre-School
We see the children start at Preschool, still only two years old, and before our very eyes they blossom into school children. They are another lovely group who have joined the Reception class at Primary School this year and we wish them every happiness and success there. We thank their parents for their support during their time at Preschool and look forward to seeing them in the school playground!

We celebrated summer with our annual Strawberry Teas in June. The children had a lot of fun on our Sponsored Assault Course and with all the games, bouncy castle, balloon race and of course strawberries and cream. Thank you to all of you who helped and supported this event.

Swavesey is proving as prolific as ever, and we have another bumper crop of children joining us in September. If in fact you have a child who is approaching two years old, would you like to ring us and put your child on our Admissions List? We can then keep in touch with you until it is time for your child to start. Please phone our Supervisor Cathy Dennis on 01954 203039. Happy holidays everyone.

In the early days it was possible for us to perform 4 or 5 shows each year, but alas, with the school curriculum and exam system changing so dramatically some years ago, we can now only put on two shows a year. However, we try and put on a varied programme mix of a yearly panto (traditional as well as some more modern productions) or family show and a Spring show such as a musical, a play, a review, music hall and the like.

Members build sets, paint scenery, make props, and generally support the on-stage activity. You don't 'have to walk the boards' to make a useful contribution, we can always do with people to help back-stage or front of house. We have a fairly active social side too, with a Fireworks Night party, summer barbeque, quiz nights, dinners and outings to see other drama groups.

We started our 30th year in April with Curtain Call, a comedy play by Bettine Mankelow. Our next production will be in January 2004 with a traditional pantomime Dick Whittington and to end our year next April with …that's a surprise, so watch this space.

If anyone is interested in joining us and men are especially welcome, please contact our Secretary Janet Maguire on 01954 230871 any time.