Dear subscriber
I was admonished at early beers last week for a humourless lacklustre newsletter. It's a fair cop but in my defence I mentioned there was a lot of news to cover and indeed no less than 5 news items to post last Friday morning alone before I could even think of a single pun. Only one news item this week though, it's about Magdalene Odundo, now a ceramics professor, revisiting 36 years later her alma mater, Grayshott Pottery, so no excuses...
Anyone for Polo? You no longer have to be minted to enjoy the 'sport of kings' and no need to slum it at Cowdray Park anymore either as Grayshott now boasts a Polo team and Polo field of its own down at Applegarth. Polo4 is the dreamchild of Tom and Estelle Benson and is now up and running and if you went to the Shakesperience the other day you will have already seen them in action.
Tomorrow is the second Polo match of the season and villagers are invited along to Applegarth to enjoy a traditional afternoon of chukka's with commentary from Johnny Barran. As you would expect at the Polo there are additional temptations in the food & drinks tent, but with Guy Wolley getting hot on the BBQ and musical entertainment from acclaimed Jazz singer Atila the Hunk, how can you possibly resist?
If you've ever fancied having a go at swinging a Polo mallet this is your big chance as Polo4 are running a free open day on Sunday 1st August where you can 'give it a go' or perhaps 'suck it and see'. Estelle tells me they will be doing 5-10 minute sessions where guests can sit on the ponies and practice hitting each others balls! Sounds like fun doesn't it and all this will be accompanied by another scrummy BBQ and concluded with a professional polo demonstration.
It's all happening at Applegarth these days and whilst you are at the polo you could take a stroll over to their farm shop, wander around the garden centre and nip into the potting shed where Lazy Days guarantee to give your lawn stripes. And afterwards hop into the new Chocolate Frog Furniture cabin to view some of their range of sustainable 100% oak furniture at truly wallet watering prices - they've just joined the growing list of grayshott.com sponsors and the Grayshott Virtual tour so it would be rude not to give them a plug.
Schools out for summer, and for a lucky few, forever, and parents looking for activities to keep the kids happy can book them into the Holiday Club at St Luke's being run next week with the usual mix of fun activities, games and songs, this year at 'Rocky's Plaice' the home of the Chip Shop Church.
Or if they are 'Bonkers about Balls' and particularly want to learn or improve their golf the sports summer holiday camps being run at Tri-Golf over the summer will be ideal - quote grayshott.com when booking for a £5 discount per child. I could do with some of that as my golf tends to be 'Balls about Bunkers'
Or get them in the swim with lifeguard and fun play equipment at Riva Sports swimming pool in Grayshott 10am to 11am every Tuesday in Jul & Aug for £5 per child.
Or there might even be room at the Raku day at Grayshott Pottery for them to learn about how the Japanese smoking technique doesn't necessarily involve nipping behind the bike shed.
Next Tuesday at 6pm we are BIGging up the Fox & Pelican and later at the Social Club our 'last Tuesday of the month' Jazz makes a welcome return - but ignore the usual website blurb as Billy, Denny & Richard are all off to Butlins and so we have instead the heady concoction of Mike Deighan, Big John Lee, David Doel & Mike Swoon - we certainly will.
Road Works. Now there's an oxymoron if ever there was one, as residents of Crossways Road will grumpily testify.
Driving us around the bend. Now there's possibly another, although I can't quite get my head round it, as the road has been closed since 12th July for drainage works and will be resurfaced today and tomorrow and so should reopen on Sunday.
Fixing the tsunami problem at the end of Boundary Road every time it drizzles - great! 'Operation Restore' - highly commendable, I'm sure, but perhaps next time they could give us a little advance warning, like telling us or something.
Road Ahead Closed. And you'd think that this sign would be fairly unequivocal but somehow we just can't believe it's telling us the truth so creep past it anyway only to be surprised that the road ahead is indeed closed. Of course it would have helped had they not 'cried wolf' for the first few days and left a tempting single carriageway for us to sneak through.
Follow the Diversions. Er what diversion? There doesn't appear to be any diversion sign in sight so perhaps we are meant to dive down Stoney Bottom and cut up through to Hill Road. Isn't it nice and quiet down there.
All this is just softening us up for the real deal when the A3 gets closed for a couple of weeks between Crossways Road and Hazel Grove roundabout on 2nd August. It'll be a cruise. And after that in October when they shut the real old A3 for a couple of weekends even ye olde stoatwobblers will simply take it in their stride.
Sometimes, it seems, poor old Grayshott has been descended on by the entire navigational engineering industry. Sometimes you just can't tarmacadam and leave it.
I guess I'll find out later whether I too have managed to makes amends.
Have a good week
22nd jul - Magdalene Odundo revisits Grayshott Pottery
16th jul - Where's your Kaighin and Daughter bag been?
16th jul - Grayshott Gardeners Summer Show 2010
16th jul - Grayshott Fathers & Sons raise £430 for Charity
29th jul
20th jun
20th jun
20th mar