Christmas Craft

Sofie Watton (club secretary) demonstrated her expertise in florestry for our Christmas Craft night, helping members make festive wreaths to don their front doors. From the mess and echoing sound of holly pricked fingers, member's creativity shone through. Many thanks go to Sofie.

After Dinner Speaking - Final

Congratulations once again to Pippa Kempthorne, Jo Maynard, Tamsyn Bartlett, Dan Batten and Debbie Cornelius (borrowed from Camelford YFC!), who came 2nd overall in the after dinner speaking final at Fraddon. Their speeches were amazing, reflecting the hard work and preparation. Very well done to you all.

Carol Singing

Members sang their hearts, as they performed at the homes of Sofie Watton (secretary), Roger Parsons (president) and Janet Ham (vice president). This was of course merely a warm up for the County Carol service the following night at Truro cathedral.

Late Night Shopping

Arms and feet were left aching after a successful late night shop in Plymouth. It seems that members really are getting into the spirit of Christmas.

After Dinner Speaking

Huge congratulations go to Daniel Batten, Jo Maynard, Tamsyn Bartlett, Pippa Kempthorne and Debbie Cornelius, who came FIRST at the after dinner speaking competition this week. They now go through to the final (see the calendar for more details). Once again, we wish them the best of luck!

Annual Quiz

The annual quiz took place at Eagle House last night. With our club president, Roger Parsons, taking the role of quiz master, the four representatives from NFU, the Farmers Club and YFC battled it out to win the cup. With a range of interesting rounds, from capital cities to body parts, YFC came out victorious.  Many thanks to the other teams for attending and supporting.

New Members Evening and Water Aid Presentation

Our new members evening kicked off with a cheque presentation, thus showing the more serious side of the club. Having worked hard over the last 12 months, it was time to present a cheque to Water Aid, which was the club's chosen charity last year, and they were over the moon to receive just over £2,000 from our efforts. It was certainly clear how hard the charity work to provide clean water, safe sanitation and hygiene education to the world's poorest people.

Following this, an evening of entertainment was provided by our assistant club leaders, Rich Risdon and Jer Shute, along with advisory member Maff Shute. It was fantastic to see lots of new faces, which we hope to see again next week!

Hatherleigh Carnival

Congratulations once again to members who braved the cold weather on the carnival float, which was once again placed FIRST in both categories entered. The float will be on show for its final time this forthcoming Saturday (20th Nov) at Holsworthy, should you have missed it!

Indoor Sports Round

The indoor sports round for clubs situated in North Cornwall took place on November 11th at Bodmin Community College. Tyre rolling, beer can shy, frisbee and cricket were merely a few of the silly games that took place between numerous clubs. Finishing third overall, Launceston are now through to the final, being held in a few weeks time at Newquay (see the calendar above for exact date)!

Bonfire Night

With a huge bonfire, range of fireworks and BBQ to follow, the club's bonfire night was a great success. Many thanks to the Brookham family for holding the event at their farm and also Rich Risdon (assistant club leader) for setting off the fireworks, along with some members.

Camelford Carnival

Despite the rain, members pulled out all the stops once again for Camelford carnival, bringing home a trophy for yet another FIRST PRIZE! What a fantastic start to the new YFC year. Two carnivals left to go...!

Wooden Egg

Having beaten the NFU and Farmers Club at the annual 'Wooden Egg' this time last year, it was the turn of Launceston Young Farmers to hold this years competition. Therefore, to add variation to the usual skittles/ darts/ pool, 'The Generation Game' was bought back to life again, with Mr Graham Smale transforming into 'Brucie'! (...and what a smashing job he did too).

There was a game for everyone; shaping balloon animals (kindly demonstrated and judged by Richard Gribble), decorating cakes, using binbags to create a futuristic fashion, sewing on a button whilst wearing gardening gloves and nail banging to name just a few! Following a lot of mess, laughter and determination, the Young Farmers reclaimed the prize of the wooden egg.

Thank you to the NFU and Farmers Club for joining us in making it an enjoyable evening. Better luck next year!!

Okehampton Carnival

Another successful evening for Launceston YFC, whereby we were awarded FIRST PRIZE for the best young farmers float, plus FIRST PRIZE in class 18, entitled 'comic and visitors'. We hope the luck continues for the remaining carnivals (Camelford, Hatherleigh, Holsworthy - see calendar for dates).

Talk by a vet

Rachel Risdon, a local vet, gave the club an informative talk about the Westpoint Vetinary Practice that she helped to set up in 2007 at Trethorne (Kennards House). Rachel explained that Westpoint Veterinary Group is one of eleven practices in the UK and is the largest farm animal only veterinary practice in the UK. She advised members of ways they could use their vet more effectively, in relation to the changing farming practice and even provided a virtual tour of her surgery.

Launceston Carnival

Last Saturday saw the first of the carnivals for LYFC and where better to start than our home town. The tired, old trailer that Steve Thorne uses for bales, had been turned into the home of Mary Poppins. The hours and hours of hard work, painting, woodwork etc paid off for members, as the float was awarded FIRST PRIZE! Many thanks to the dedicated team of workers who gave up their time to achieve this.

Should you have missed seeing us upon the float this week, why not catch us at Okehampton carnival this forthcoming weekend (Oct 16th) or alternatively at Camelford, Hatherleigh, Holsworthy (see the calendar for dates!)

the end (for another year)

Well, thats it.

Last night was our Annual Club AGM, held at the White Hart, Launceston. Many thanks were said, many highlights were pointed out, and our new committee was elected - key positions:

President - Roger Parsons
Vice-President - Janet Ham
Chairman - Ed Humber
Vice-Chairman - Dan Batten
Secretary - Sofie Watton
Social Secretary - Nathan Dinnis & Jak Gubbin
Treasurer - Charlotte Parker
Programme Secretary - Karyn Kenyon, supported by Tim Kenyon

I hope that everyone enjoyed my slide show of the year, I've been asked to put it up here, so will ask our new Publicity Officer to do so.

I'd like to once again thank everyone for making this such a successful year yet again, and for all your support. Whilst I've found it to be hard work, I've loved (almost!) every minute of being your Club Chairman for this year, and am sad to finish the role, as well as finish as a member of the brilliant Young Farmers movement, along with Jonny, Fi, Tim, Ed, Burdie, Dan Risdon and Will Kingdon who are also now over age.

Keep up the good work, and best of luck for this future of the club.

d&d

Lifton Farm shop function suite was the venue for our Dinner & Dance this year, and what an evening it was.

A beautiful venue, tasty food, fine company and great speakers all added up to a very enjoyable evening. Many thanks to Stephen Kendall, Ian Davy, Peter Stenlake and Jen White for sparing their evenings to entertain us with great speeches.

presidents night

Sumo and Jive... what an unlikely combination for a presidents night! Luckily Club President Peter Stenlake had two employees who also do both of these activities on the side, and so in the white hart last week we had an hour of basic jive moves, then a sumo-wrestling tournament using those big foam suits.

Tam won for the girls, and Rich Northey for the boys (although being a Pelynt boy really it doesn't count and Oli won!). A really great evening, and fun end to the young farmers year. Many thanks to Peter and Liz both for the evening, and what they've one for the club this year, much appreciated.

harvest festival

Thanks to all who came to our Harvest Festival at North Hill Church last week, and all those that played a part in the evening. Pip and Fi did a great job decorating the church, and Ed's Cornish quiz went down well.

We're getting towards the end of the YFC year now and AGM is looming... keeping thinking about those new officer roles, whether it's a role for you or someone else who you think should step forwards.

Club Dinner and Dance this saturday - tickets still available from Pip!

ian tremaine

Some of you may know Ian from his days running Tremaine's feeds, or through Young Farmers. These days he's working on, among other things, working out how the world is going to have enough food when the world population gets both bigger and richer.

Last thursday he came and spoke to us, and the Friends of Lawrence house (joint meeting) on his travels around the world to look at food production in different countries, giving us photos, videos, graphs and stories along the way. I can honestly say the talk was a real journey and left everyone with something to think about; cause one day food will be expensive and less plentiful... Good news for farmers!

the castle

Who'd believe the best meeting turnout of the year would be to Launceston Castle?! When you think about it, we're quite fortunate to have a 1000 year old relic right in the centre of town, there's not that many places in the world with that much history so it's not suprising us locals were keen to go back for the first time in years.

Our guides gave us an intro talk, then walked us up to the top so we were right at the top at sunset which was quite special. Even if you hate history, go to the top to see the view of launceston; its quite unique.

club exchange - the return

After our trip down Praze way for a club exchange a few weeks ago, we re-paid the favour this weekend. Unfortunately it was an exceptionally sunny few days, meaning a lot of people down west were harvesting and so we were down on numbers.

However, that didn't stop us. Friday night we went to Widemouth Bay for a beach BBQ, including a bit of swim & surf for a few of us, followed by a pint at Widemouth Manor. Saturday PM, the Ham family kindly let us on a farm tour of Higher Basil, St Clether, where Andrew walked us round the buildings, their immaculately organised collection of gear, then took us on a ride round their fields behind the pickup truck.

Saturday night, a group of us had a meal at the White Horse, following which Praze YFC turned up and we started our 3-legged fancy dress pub tour of Launceston... Lots of fun.

lots of wind

Last thursday we visited Cold Northcott Wind Farm for a tour around by Dave and Grant. I was quite surprised to learn that the blades aren't made of some super space age material, but simply a bit of plywood and fibreglass! Grant then took us inside one of the generator housings, albeit on the ground to show us how they work, then let us look insidethe pole supporting a working windmill, which he switched on above our heads whilst stood there. All very exciting. The windfarm generates enough power for about 4,000 homes don't you know! Good visit.

travel

As our speaker from Genus pulled out last week, I decided to step in and give the members a talk on my 10 months away travelling, which I got back from a year ago. After showing a big whack of photos, all accompanied by a story or two, I finished up with a video made up of clips I took accompanied by a good soundtrack. Even if I did go on a bit, I think everyone enjoyed it, and there was discussion afterwards amongst a few about getting in gear and going travelling themselves!

catch the pigeon

Luke once again did a fine job organising our annual club clay pigeon shoot last night, held at his place. Despite it looking like it was going to hammer down all evening, the rain held off and we managed to give everyone 10 shots at the clays. Winners were Ben Kelly for Boys, and Amy Trehane for girls (the advice from father paid off!)

updated calendar

Just to let you know the club calendar is now right up to date, to my knowledge, with the latest club programme as there were some inaccuracies before. Clay Pigeon Shoot tomorrow night!

farm walk

Two dairy farm walks in a week for some of us! The first being on our club exchange, the second last night, courtesy of Rex Ward and family.

Rex has three farms based around Crackington Haven, all based around grazing and feed production for his 300 odd cow dairy unit.  And with us on a trailer on the back of his TM190, we saw them all... very quickly!

Upon return to Trehole Farm, we had a good look around their cubicles and parlour which were extremely well thought through and set out, and were shown a number of clever things they'd setup to increase efficiency and reduces costs. The most impressive bit for me was the backing gate which doubled as a scraper.

After a customary pasty and cake, we headed off to the Wilsey. Many thanks to the Wards for taking the time to show us around.

club exchange

Last weekend, for the first time in years, we did a club exchange with Praze YFC which went something like this:

Saturday morning: six of us met 8.45am, and travelled down to a dairy farm on the outskirts of Camborne for a farm walk around their NZ style setup. 270 acre farm recently converted from arable to organic dairy, 160 cows, and part of a group of four farms based near Exeter.

Pasty lunch, then down to Hayle sands for an afternoon on the beach, with Lanson members braving the sea, followed by beach games. Split into groups and split to three praze member's houses to shower and drop off bags.

Evening- Back to Penzance for a meal at the Meadery (a pirate themed restaurant). Everyone sat down with their friends, only to be split up by myself and Emma to mix everyone up which worked well! A few drinks followed.

Sunday - get taken to Bissoe near Truro, to cycle the 'mineral tramway' down to Portreath. where we met up with the others who got out of bed too late! Spot of lunch then a leisurly cycle back again before saying goodbye to everyone.

Brilliant weekend, lets do the same when Praze come up to us on the first weekend in September.

c&d

In our first proper meeting for a few weeks, last night's visit was to the offices of our 'local rag'; The Cornish & Devon Post.

Bill Roberts took us on a brief tour of the building, showing us the departments, then talked about the history of the newspaper, and his near 50 years there!

A few facts were that it's owned by the Tindle Group of papers (one of about 230 papers Tindle owns), about 14,000 copies are sold each week, and it's actually printed in Stoke-On-Trent and brought down.

Remember club exchange with Praze YFC this weekend!

summer ball

Thanks to everyone who came along to Launceston YFC's annual Summer Ball, this time held at our home farm, and for making it such a terrific night.

The rain managed to just about hold off, the electric didn't go out once (for a change!), the tent looked beautiful, and the Horse Band did a great set for us, followed by Pheonix Disco's DJ'ing taking us into the very early hours!

Much planning, many meetings, and lots of stress & preparation goes into organising our ball every year, and this year the holder of the organiser badge was Sarah Webber, who worked hard to get everything together. Thanks also to all the members who came out to the field on the days before, and sorted out all the food, which I think everyone will agree was better than ever. Other thanks go to my parents for use of the field, the Countryman Inn bar, Jess for selling tickets, and Graham, Ed, Verrin and Anthony for their work on the electrics.

Charlotte Parker still has 4 of the 5 raffle prizes, so speak to her if you want to know if you won!

This forthcoming weekend it our club exchange with Praze YFC, going down there fri night - I'm hoping for as many people to come along as poss for what will no doubt be a very fun weekend. Remember, you can still  come for part days if you're busy

we won rally!

Well done Launceston YFC, we've done the hat trick again! Competitions Day, Royal Cornwall Show, and now overall Winners of the County Rally!

After lots of late nights in the preceding days cooking, making, and setting up the rally field, It was great to see everyone's entries looking so good in the marquee, and a great turnout of members doing their bit in all the games throughout the day. Well done to all the other clubs as well who had some excellent entries beating us in many categories. Thankfully the weather held out (until the evening anyway), although it didn't stop people getting covered in eggs, flour and water.

The evening do was, as ever great fun. Thanks to everyone for all your hard work before and after, and remember the hard work doesn't finish until sunday, cause it's Summer Ball this sat! Talk it up!

launceston show

"Is this marquee bigger than normal?" "It must be, how on earth are we going to fill it?" mused Pip and myself last tuesday. Somehow it did get filled though, and looked great! I've had loads of positive feedback on our marquee so well done members.

The decades from 50's to 00's was the theme for our club cubicle competition this year, with my own version of crazy golf being the days entertainment, alongside sheaf pitching. A revised showground layout made things a bit fresh, and a great turnout and high standard of entries in our marquee was very pleasing to all.

The weather was the only sore point of the day, resulting in our its a knockout and the donkey derby being cancelled, but at least it was better than the predictions. A well attended and trouble-free Show Dance in the White Hart, Launceston ended the day nicely.

summer ball

On the last Saturday in July (31st- the week after YFC County Rally)...

Launceston YFC are holding our annual SUMMER BALL once again, this year at Trebartha Farm, North Hill

Tickets £24.50 in advance only (same as last year) from Jess on 07837 202792; includes Entry, Covers Band, Disco and Meal

Dress: Smart Tie/Frocks. No U-16's.

The best night of the summer!

wool wool wool

Possibly the shortest meeting of the year, was our visit last night to the Wool Board warehouse at Liskeard, one of only two in the southwest now. Phil the manager took us on a whistlestop tour, showing the wool-in, grading areas, bag packer and core sample machine. Afterwards we asked him a plethora of questions on everything to do with wool, and his life in the shed. 


Unexcitingly, when asked what the most interesting thing he ever found in a fleece bundle was, it was just some birds eggs, and a dead lamb. Oh well. We finished by risking a trip into the White Horse in Liskeard. No club next week as it's Launceston Show.

super sunday IV - car treasure hunt

Everyone loves a good car treasure hunt. Lets face it, all you do it sit down for a couple of hours with your mates and look for things.

And so yesterday I set five carloads off on a mystery tour, to answer fourty questions and scavenge five items. Going from Kennards House > Launceston > Lawitton > Treburley > Stone Climsland > Golberdon > Caradon Town > Upton Cross > Bathpool > Coads Green... and ending up at Lewannick.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and no one even got lost (even if they went forward and back on certain bits looking for clues. The winning team comprised Zara Hall, Ed Humber and Claire Butter.

Afterwards, we all had a good ol' game of rounders and a meal at the Archers Arms; a good afternoon all round.

not windy enough!

Our last club meeting was supposed to be a visit to a windfarm, but we had a call a few days before saying it wasn't windy enough to see any action. So we changed it to having a beach BBQ. Then it rained! So we ended up going bowling at Trethorne. After a couple of enjoyable games we had Rambo as the winner, followed by Griggy, with Dan in third.

Summer Ball tickets are now on sale, from Jess Brookham. It's on Saturday 31st July this year, at Trebartha Farm.

THIS SUNDAY is July's Supersunday... a Car Treasure Hunt, starting at Kennards House any time between 3.00 and 4.30pm... ending in a 'mystery' location! Hopefully see you all there- parents and friends welcome!

i scream

Many thanks to vice-chairman Ed for standing in for me thursday before last whilst I went off to a certain music festival for a long weekend...

The club visited Treleavans Ice Cream in Looe, which I understand resulted in a short factory tour, and a long tasting session, which most people obviously enjoyed a lot!

summer do & supersunday

Thanks to Paul and Simon Burden we held our Caribbean Summer do at Higher Tredundle last Saturday night. I've heard nothing for days but 'great do' and I agree, thanks to everyone who helped setup and take down.

After the cleanup operation the next day, fifteen of us headed off in convoy to Paignton for the next Supersunday instalment, on a trip to Splashdown... Splashdown is a big water park with loads of slides, including normal ones, rubber ring ones, and one very high and steep one, which Jess and Hannah were pretty much the first on! Everyone had a cracking day, a lot of course thanks to the weather.

 July's supersunday is next sun 4th July, and it's a car treasure hunt!

enviromental

Paul Cossens from the Environment Agency came to Eagle House last night to give us a talk on his work along the Inney, Kensey and Ottery rivers. Whilst as expected a few people were sceptical about hearing anything new, it was in fact pretty interesting.

He discussed crop breaks against rivers, breaking up maize fields after harvesting to allow rainwater to penetrate instead of causing soil erosion, and how covering your dung heap stops half the nitrogen content leaching out. One thing a lot of people took away with them is that the Agency isn't out to prosecute, and accepts accidents happen - it's whether you let them know it's happened and whether you do everything you can to try and rectify it - apparently fines don't happen as often if that's the case!

Hope to see everyone at Burdie's shed to prepare for tomorrow night... the LAUNCESTON YFC CARIBBEAN DISCO. Spread the word!

Also this sunday, it's the next Supersunday trip -we're off to Splashdown in Paignton - it looks like fun. We need as many as possible to help clearing up at Burdie's sunday morning, then we'll set off from there/Kennards at about 11.30am. Sorry this clashes with fathers day but it's just the way it worked out.

south west area competitions day

Well done to Ed, Pip and the others from across Cornwall who've been up to Compete at SW Comps Day. Ed came 7th in Stockman of the Year, we won the mini-cubicle which Pip organised, and amongst others, Helston got through to the National final with both male AND female Tug of War teams.

royal cornwall show

The cubicle competition is always a tough one to do well with at the show, but this year we managed to pull out all the stops and WIN IT! 1967 was the last time, I've been informed by a few people that Lanson did so. There were many many long evenings of hard work from a number of members, but it was all worth it in the end - thank you everyone for your time, ideas and effort.

However... the cubicle wasn't the only thing we did well at, with wins and high placings in stock judging, flower arranging, club promotion and painting giving us a total of six trophies (plus two shared ones) including most points overall! Well done members, something to be very proud of. Once again, a fun and enjoyable few days of Royal Cornwall.

agronomy

Last thursday Mr Anthony Ellis Esq. - Cornwall YFC Vice-Chairman and Agronomist for Matford Arable invited us to his home farm; Pensipple Farm, Liskeard for an Agronomy talk/farm walk. After an introduction, we walked to grass, barley, maize and oat fields, learning about about crop management, herbicides, pesticides, and how his house is actually heated by the 6 acres of oats in one of the fields!

A lot of the land is rented by Graham Whiting, who rears barley beef, so we got a second farm walk on the same night, looking at his modern and well ordered rearing unit.

Our Royal Cornwall Show cubicle is going well - we put it up last night, and have finishing touches to do at Wadebridge tonight, so only a couple of days 'til you all get to see it (lets hope the weather clears up). Thanks to everyone who has helped, for their hard work in preparing it.

See you at the show!

competitions day WINNERS!

Well done club members! Yet  again we have won the county competitions day, held near Grampound last saturday. With a number of first, seconds, thirds, and in one category all three (!), we ended up a long way ahead points wise of the other clubs.

In the evening, our tug of war team competed in the county qualifiers. After a really tough first pull against Helston (which we won), we ended up meeting them again in the final, where after a tight fought pull we couldn't quite make it, resulting in a Helston win. With over half the team over club age next year, this was really disappointing, as we've trained long and hard to try and have a blinding last year, but alas it was not meant to be.

Soon after the evening do started, where our team competed in the folk dancing competition, and despite a fantastic looking piece, we were pipped to first place by St Columb, excellent work anyway!

Thanks to EVERYONE for their hard work on comps day; lets keep it going for RCS, Lanson Show and Rally!

competitions prep evening

With all the big YFC comps coming up who is there better to give us guidance on how to win than a competitions judge?! Well last thursday, Alison Gribble gave us a talk and hands-on taste test of how to do your best with the cooking competitions, so hopefully there's no excuses now!

Scrap Book

Hi all, it's me again. Back from the U.S.A.

I just wanted to say thanks to Claire for writing the reports for me, also if anyone has any pictures, cuttings, tickets or any YFC regalia from the last 2 or 3 months since I've been away I'd really appreciate them for the scrap book.
Many thanks,
Oli

shiver me timbers

Last thursdays visit was to WH Bond at Trerulefoot, who sell timber, farm, landscape garden, hire plant amongst many other things. They've grown loads over the past few years and now turn over about £10 million a year, and have about 70 employees so it was interesting to hear the stories of where they've been and where they're going - their first venture was turning their farm into St Mellion golf course - not a bad start. Many thanks to the staff who stayed late to show us round, and for the quiz prizes!

executive committee meeting

I've just got back from the Cornwall YFC executive committee meeting, which is where myself and Ed get to represent our clubs views, keep up with whats going on at county and national level, and vote for any decisions to be made by county.

A few relevant things mentioned: (I'll read this out to club at the next suitable opportunity as well)

• Clubs were requested to put forward ideas for the posts of Junior County Chairman and GP Vice Chairman
• It was decided that at any do's at Pure nightclub or any indoor do there will be no entry after 12 midnight from now on
• Valentines Ball will be on a saturday next year - 5th feb - to try and boost attendance
• The Fresh Start training course was well recieved and they want to know who's keen for next year - its a course covering all the basics of running your own farm business (both Pip and Burdie did it and thought it was good)
• National AGM next year is at Blackpool, 6-9 May, weekend will cost around £210
• >16 & 17 year oldsare still fine for the SWA weekend next year (there was talk of stopping them attending a while back)
• The SWA competitions day in a few weeks is at shaftsbury and gillingham county showground
• Royal Cornwall - herdsmans bar will be closed from 6pm onwards each day to the general public - only those showing cattle or exhibiting (who will have wristbands) will be allowed to enter. This is predicted to cause chaos as a lot of people turn up evenings for a drink, and there's no where else to go nearby, and no alternative laid on!
• The royal cornwall campsite will be closely monitored this year for those not paying, causing trouble etc. Apparantly its filling up fast and you need to book in advance - not sure how true that is
• Harvest festival is at truro cathedral this year on 24th sept, with do after in Pure, Newquay
• Membership across the county is down on previous years, and we need to help get it up to a higher level. PLEASE if you havn't paid up, do so. If you have a friend, bring them. 
• Mole valley farmers asked if club members across Cornwall would do a 'welly conga' at RCS to set a guiness world record! However no-one felt they'd be able to get enough people together at the right time so its unlikely this will happen

pulling rope

Launceston YFC have always been known for our Tug of War team, being national champions for four years in a row (2003, '04, '05, '06), and with six of our team members about to reach the age limit we figured it was time to get some younger members keen, by hosting an evening at our Warbstow training ground.

From 2010, Club meetings

Despite a slow start to the evening, we ended up having loads of people having a go, including a whole car load of Rob Vine's mates from Duchy. There were a few reluctant people, but I think everyone enjoyed it in the end... I have noticed a number of people on Facebook mentioning they were feeling a little sore today!

Next cubicle meeting this sunday,7.30 at Steve's

super sunday II - camel trail

Have just got back from a nice sunday afternoon trip down the camel trail with a gang of 14 club members. After a bit of negotiation on bike prices, the girls set off on their nice leisure bikes, and the boys all hired tandems! Needless to say it was very funny.

We seemed to get from Wadebridge to Padstow in record time. Enough time for a look around, fish and chips, ice cream and a pint. Nice.



The next supersunday will be sunday 20th june, going to splashdown at Paignton - http://www.splashdownquaywest.co.uk/

rosebowl

It's been a while since the last Rosebowl, our annual club public speaking competition. Thursday's competition was run by Graham Smale and Peter Stenlake, who first started us of with a game of Articulate - a verbal form of Pictionary, then finished the night by picking the six best speakers, and asking them all to put forward a case for their made up political party (being election night!). Sofie Watton came out tops with her 'Welly Boot Party' manifesto - excellent work!



A rather long business meeting followed...

Something I've managed to get dates on at last - our club exchange with Praze YFC
7-8 August - us visiting Praze
4-5 September - Praze visiting us

truro cathedral

How old is Truro Cathedral? Well I don't think anyone would have guessed just over a hundred years. Suprise number one of last friday evening's visit (thats right, club on a friday).

Our two guides took us round and showed us all the fine details of this magnificent building that most people would never notice, such as the italian marble flooring, fine carvings, pieces of artwork and the crypt. Everyone found it fascinating, and will look at it in a different way when down there at the carol service this year.



Other news:
The next supersunday is a week today - cycling the Camel Trail (weather permitting)

Cubicle meeting is postponed 'til tuesday night now, 7.30 at my place.

For those involved - folk dancing practices will be tuesday's 11th, 18th and 25th May at Gemma's barn.

community project

I've just sorted out our community project this year, which will be for Vitalise - an outdoor centre that provides breaks for disabled people and their carers near Bodmin on 21 & 22nd August

SATURDAY we will be volunteering at the centre doing some clearing of vegetation/setting up things or something along those lines; details of which are to be confirmed by Emma at the centre. That night we'll be camping over in their grounds

SUNDAY in return for our services, Vitalise will provide a mixture of outdoor activities which may include abseiling, climbing, zip wiring, raft building, canoeing and archery - exact activities are to be discussed

Please note you won't be able to come on sunday unless you volunteer on saturday, and there will be a cap of 20 PEOPLE on the weekend so get you name down with Pip!

Website below
http://www.vitalise.org.uk/Vitalise-Centres-and-Services/Our-Centres/Churchtown-Cornwall.aspx

nice vue

This week's meeting was a trip to the Vue Cinema at Plymouth. Not much to be said apart from we split into groups and watched 'Date Night' and 'Cemetery Junction' and everyone enjoyed themselves!

After club, in the pub, we handed around the competitions booklets for Competitions day (30th April)  and Royal Cornwall Show (10th June) and everyone started picking out the comps they'd like to enter, please see myself or Pip to enter anything, or else you may be allocated an entry!

It's the National AGM weekend as we speak, however no-one from Lanson is going up, mostly due to the fact that SWA and National are both at Torquay this year, and the former was half the price of the other!

brown willy

I've decided this summer to organise a sunday trip once a month, and yesterday was the first - a walk up to Cornwall's highest point - Brown Willy tor. With excellent weather on our side, it took us just under 3 hrs to do the 4 mile walk, and with the great views, company and BBQ after at Rich Risdon's, we (and the dogs) had a great day out. A few more people on the next trip would be good please! (Sun 9th May - all dates on calendar).

stockjudging

"The best turnout for stock judging in years" someone said to me last night. It certainly was well attended.

We started off nr Otterham with Richard Parsons to train our members on dairy, then moving on to the Burden's, where Barry Gubbin taught beef, then Will Tucker showed everyone lamb judging. Overall winner was Tam Bartlett for the ladies and Ed Humber for the males (although local spy; Jonny Dymond from Liskeard YFC officially won but he doesn't count!). Lets have another cracking set of results in the forthcoming competitions.

This sunday, we'll be doing the first supersunday trip - walking up Cornwall's highest Tor - Brown Willy. We're meeting 2.30pm prompt at the Roughtor car park (go down past crowdy reservoir from Davidstow direction and turn left). It'll take about 3hrs, and we'll have a BBQ after - bring some meat etc - I'll have a cool bag for it. Hope to see you there!

PS photo section of website updated last week

boys entertain

After all the feminine activities us lads recieved at the Girls Entertain Boys evening, I felt it was only right we return the favour! So last night at Tregadillet Hall we did.



-Martin Grigg set up a weight lifting challenge
-Ed Humber organised a game called Swingletree, a bit like tug of war but one-on-one
-Tim Kenyon and Matt Dinnis got everyone to pick out all the vital parts under a car bonnet
-Luke Uglow demonstated and supervised log chopping
-I borrowed my brother's Playstation and had everyone playing the Guitar Hero game

I think eveyone enjoyed it, and they all joined in and did really well, however a mention must go to Kirsty Martin, Bryony Jasper and Sofie Watton who all excelled in various areas!

m&m

Unfortunately for some,and luckily for others, an M&M visit didn't mean visiting a chocolate factory, but a trip to M&M plant at Trethorne, where Michael Davy and Luke Harris showed us around the business.



After giving us some interesting background info, and some info about their other enterprises in Bristol & Poland, we got a tour around the premises, then a go on Luke's mini digger challenge which everyone seemed to enjoy, but no-one quite mastered- although Pip & Sam came very close!

yfc johnny cowling evening

A good gang of us popped down to Wadebridge last night for a county-organised Jonny Cowling evening. For those of you that haven't seen him before, he's a very funny chap, and I guess he's Kernow's best comedy export since Jethro.

Launceston bore the brunt of a few of his jokes, including Paul "Jerry Springer" Burder, Paul White (who sat right by the stage), and Tim Kenyon, who found that sprinting off to the toilet when the comedian's back was turned wasn't a good idea, and on his return had a big welcome!

Jonny is big on crowd interaction and was always getting us off our seats, or wandering around the crowd. Excellent evening.

having a brew

I thought our brewery visit would be the busiest club night of the year for some reason, but in the end only 23 of us went down the St Austell Brewery for a tour around. It was interesting to see how old the brewery was - still using the original buildings and some original machinery, much older than some of the other breweries I've visited. 

Unfortunately unlike those nice people at Skinners & Sharps, St Austell would only give us one pint each on completion of the tour, despite us paying £8 each and them having about half a million pints in stock! Oh well, at least its good stuff!

bee positive

Last night a few of us popped down to county office for a talk by Jack Russell, a motivational speaker. It was tied in with the NVQ leadership course Pip, Sarah Ed and myself are doing through YFC, but was open to anyone. I encouraged club members to go over the past couple of weeks but now I wished I forced them, he was that good!

He did some exercises, played some videos, got people up to do demonstations and encouraged people throughout the evening to be positive and encouraging both in your work, yfc and personal lives, instead of focusing on the negatives, and the benefits of stepping out of your comfort zone. Sounds a bit new age? It wasn't, it's just hard to put into words. Needless to say everyone left the building very happy and positive, and may even have a new outlook on life!

So when they organise a similar talk next year, GO!

homeleigh

Many thanks to Rob & Lisa Broad for showing us around Homeleigh Garden Centre last thursday night. I forgot just how big it is these days. Rob pulled out some very interesting facts and figures, a load of stories, showed us around and we finished up with a nice little spread in the cafe afterwards. Most shocking part for a few including me was seeing the size of Fiona the boa constrictor in the pets/aquatics department, she was a monster of a snake!

I'm Off!

I'm leaving first thing tomorrow morning, just wishing you all the best of luck in all competitions and such forth whilst I'm away.
Oli

motivational talk

OPEN TO ALL - FREE! Cornwall YFC have booked a speaker called Jack Russell for NEXT TUESDAY EVENING (23rd March) who sounds like a very interesting and accomplished chap, speaking at the Pavilion Centre, Royal Cornwall Showground. Please let Pip/County office know if you'd like to attend.

From county office: "We have invited renowned Leadership & Motivation expert, Jack Russell to speak to you. He has a very impressive CV having taken part in an expedition to the North Pole and having done talks for the BBC, Orange and the Royal Navy amongst others.

If you attend one training event this year - make sure it's this one, especially as it's FREE!

All Club Development Programme participants are expected to attend as part of the NVQ but it is open to all members/family and friends - just please let us know who's coming so we put out enough chairs!!!! 7pm for a 7:30pm start"

the girls entertain the boys

The males of Launceston YFC walked out of Trebullet hall last thursday feeling a little more in touch with their feminine side thanks to the efforts of our girls who, as you'll see below, put on a fun evening containing everything you'd never normally pursuade the lads to do!

We had:
Bryony - nail painting
Zara - edible flower making
Lynette & Helen - bun decorating
Tamsyn - card making
Laura - dancing
Charlotte - quiz

Thanks all

You lot wait 'til boys entertain girls. You just wait! (PS- we all had a lot of fun really)

south west area

Well what a weekend! Over twenty of us made the trip to Torquay for the annual South West Area convention, staying at the Rainbow hotel as ever. Aside from all the usual SWA antics, we also competed and did very well in a number of competitions which we'd qualified for previously.

• Brainstrust - well done to Oli Stephen. He got picked for the county team a few weeks ago on his first public speaking competition, and along with three Helston chaps won Brainstrust and are through to the national final!
• Debating - experienced speaker Jo Maynard was picked for the county team, who also won this event and are also through to national. Good work Jo!
• Hockey - our team of Kirsty Martin, Jer Blake, Nick Brookham, Tam Bartlett, Ed Humber, Jonny Shute and Steve Butter (plus Claire and Fleur Worden from Lostwithiel YFC), worked hard to get through to the final, but were beaten in the end by Devon YFC, who appeared to have some experienced regular players on the pitch, so well done team.

Although things got lively at times throughtout the weekend, everyone behaved themselves and hopefully the national AGM should go aheard in Torquay as planned. Not that anyone from Launceston is actually going...

update

So after months of practice, we went down to Penzance St Johns Hall for the Drama final. Despite all being confident of a Launceston win, it was not to be, with Praze YFC going though to the south west final. Well done everyone; it was a great performance, and lots of fun getting there. Many thanks to Rose Hill - our director - for all the time and effort she put in to help get us where we got to.

The next day we met at 9am for our Annual Dung Run in Launceston. Despite not having many orders the week before, we ended up selling everything we had, and went to do a quick bagging of another 100 on sunday afternoon, thanks to the Blakes for the short notice!

Well now that drama's over, we've got enough time to replace it with something equally punishing... see you at Tug of War training later!

drama final

Best of luck to everyone for the drama final in Penzance tonight! Lets hope we can get through to the south west final! Looking forward to seeing as many supporters as possible as well, make sure you get there nice and early to guarantee a seat.

Also, apologies for missing a couple of YFC evening this week as I had the flu, I'm back rearing to go again now!

Remember it's our dung run tommorow. Members, bring your club shirts and definitely waterproofs as it's supposed to be a little damp!

politics

Last night's meeting was a talk by Dan Rogerson. Now my opinion is that politics in Britain has a bad name amongst younger people - 'just a bunch or old men squabbling, and claiming stupid expenses' some would say, hence a few regular members not being present maybe? In fact last night was pretty interesting.

Dan spoke for about half an hour about his background, and the issues he deals with, then left us to throw as many questions at him as we so desired; on hunting, primary education, RPA, badgers, iraq and everything in between!

drama final tickets

County Office have not said you need tickets in advance for the drama final next week. We expect it to be busy, so can only suggest you turn up nice and early! It starts at 7pm, at St Johns Hall, Penzance

Tonights Meeting is a talk by Dan Rogerson MP, 7.30 at Eagle House

livelihood forum

One of the most interesting LYFC meetings I've attended, this one.

The Livelhood forum is a meeting held every year where three local businesspersons talk to us about their experiences in life and business, and pass on good advice. Last night was no exception.

First of all we had Mr Robert Tucker from Milton Abott, who whilst being a large scale sheep farmer, concentrated his talk on their B&B dirvesification, with many interesting stories.

Next was Mr Adam Fox-Edwards, of the Arundal Arms, Lifton. Adam talked us through his 20 year career in the RAF, including such stories as the time one of his jet engines failed over Iraq during the gulf war(!!!), and how it takes under 10 minutes to get from Lifton to Wales in a Tornado jet fighter. He finished by talking about his post-RAF career as a management consultant, and most recently his business; the Arundell. Fascinating.

Finally, Mr Terry Jones spoke to us about his experiences of dairy and sheep farming, contracting, and his great involvement with Launceston YFC over the years, which gave all members a great insight into his life, and where the club has come from.

I asked all of them to finish by giving any bit of advice in a minute of less, and the basis of all three speaker's answer was to seize every opportunity that comes along, whatever it may be, and make the most of it.

Remember that.

dung run

I'd like to inform you all that our annual charity Dung Run will be on Sunday 28th February, on the usual five routes around Launceston. This is the night after the drama final, so don't stay up too late!

Bags are £1.50 each, from Pip on 07576 697 795 (note this is a club mobile, not her personal one) and all profits are in aid of Water Aid, the club charity this year.

Unfortunately despite being sent in on time, the Cornish & Devon post doesn't appear to have put in our advert this week so please spread the word!

TONIGHT our club meeting is Livelyhood forum at Eagle House, 7.30 where three local businessmen will talk about their businesses and pass on good advice.

drama competition success

Yes, and I repeat, YES! We did it! We're through to the county drama competition final!

Our performance last night went well, and we received generally positive feedback from the judge and audience alike. Liskeard YFC gave an excellent performance before us and are also through to the final, along with Praze YFC. Thanks to all our supporters who came along to watch.

The final will be on Sat 27th February in St John's Hall, Penzance so I'm hoping to see much support there as possible!

On a separate note, our Brainstrust team will be competing this Tuesday night, 7.30 at Fraddon Village Hall, and once again supporters would be much appreciated.

dramas and pantomimes

Sorry for the lack or recent update, its been a very busy couple of weeks

Thursday before last was our annual Parents Evening. About 120 parents, friends and members turned up to Rilla Mill Hall to hear Pip and I run through the events of the past year, followed by the first performance of our drama production 'Half an Idea'. The play went well, everyone seemed to enjoy it and feedback was very good so fingers crossed for the competition, which is TONIGHT, 7.30 at Liskeard Public Hall.

Last thursday, in a change to our programme, we went and saw Coads Green's pantomime production 'Beauty and the Beast' which was most enjoyable, particularly the character played by our new club member Amy Trehane who was so evil it scared us! Booohissssssss. Colin Park Club welcomed us in for a cheap beer after.

See you tonight!

PARENTS EVENING

I can now confirm Parents Evening will be next Thursday; the 28th of January, being held at Rilla Mill Village Hall at 7.30pm - click here for map of location. It's half way down the hill on the right from Coads Green direction.

We've had a bit of a job getting a venue, and unfortunately it can only take 120 people seated, but it should be fine as we normally expect that sort of number for drama. As usual we'll have our first performance of our drama production 'Half an Idea, then a run through of the past year as well.

See you all there!

tommorow night

For anyone planning to come to hear my travel talk tommorow at Eagle House, I've been asked to tell you to arrive around 8.00pm now, not 9.00. Thanks

its all a big pantomime

Last thursday we popped down to Plymouth to see the Aladin pantomime at the Theatre Royal. Having never been to anything but a local panto I was most impressed, especially with the 3D stuff they had on stage. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and Ali Jones was pleased (I think) to have Christopher Biggins give her a big 'Happy Birthday Ali' over the PA!

PARENTS EVENING is a week thursday (28th Jan), comprising the run through of the year, and the first performance of our drama production which is the comedy 'Half An Idea' by Bob Larbey. Due to a few hitches we have yet to confirm a venue, but it looks like it may be Callington Town Hall, starting at 7.30 - check back again in a few days.

Finally, as you may be aware I spent most of last year down under, and so Launceston Farmers Club have asked me to give a talk on my travels. I'm sure they won't mind club members turning up so please come along. Their AGM is at 7.30pm and I'm talking afterwards from about 9pm, at Eagle House tommorow night (monday)

snow!

So for the first time in years we've cancelled a meeting completely. The roads were getting better, but weren't brilliant, and when the guy from the Cornish & Devon Post cancelled I didn't think there was any point putting on a replacement meeting.

Next MONDAY & WEDNESDAY drama practices will be in full flow, and with just 3 weeks 'til parents night everyone needs to turn up to every practice. Set is partly done, and we'll crack on again as soon as the roads improve so helpers please!

Nothing on YFC wise this weekend, so have a goodun whatever you do.

No meeting tonight...

No meeting tonight...

Thought I'd better get on here ASAP. There is no meeting tonight, 7th January due to the weather. Hope to see you all at panto next week.
Oli

happy new year!

We held our annual New Year's Eve disco at Trethorne on Thursday, with about 330 people there, which is reasonable, but considerably less than normal for some reason. Along with only half of our club members attending, only a couple from other clubs, just a handful of people in fancy dress, plus a couple of fights by the lovely local townspeople, I'd be lying if I said I thought it was a great success.

Regardless of this, we had a great laugh, and the bouncers and BK disco's did a great job as ever. Thanks to Sarah for her organising, plus Sam, Jess and Leanne for their hard work on the door.

Wishing everyone a happy and successful new year!