2014 Darts Final: 26.03.14

We valiantly fought our way through the driving rain to compete in the Finals for the 2014 WI Darts Tournament tonight.  (Definitely a "book in front of the fire" night, but I don't think my suggestion of a medal just for turning up would go down too well!)

Our semi-final bout was against Newsham & Aislaby WI:

A lovely bunch of ladies who looked very professional in their WI uniform (though we were quick to flash our green Linthorpe WI rosettes!):

Linthorpe WI's 2014 Darts Semi-Final Team:  Marie, Dora, Pam, (to the rear is our scorer, Jenny), Carole and Paulene.  

We had a wonderful few games with them, a good chat and (more importantly) a good laugh.  Dora was our secret weapon for the night; scoring Double-1 in the first two games to seal our place into the 2014 Finals!

We had a break for supper, where we sat at the tables and were literally waited upon by our EXCELLENT hosts, Carlton WI.  We had a delicious mushroom soup with a choice of sandwiches (ham, egg, tuna), followed by fabulous homemade (of course!) cakes - lemon drizzle or chocolate.  All washed down with copious amounts of tea.  The conversation was lively and friendly - and a jolly good tea party was had by all!

Then it was back down to business!  The 2014 Darts Finalists: Linthorpe WI (for the second consecutive year) versus Levendale WI.  The first game was unfortunately over quite quickly: we didn't last long when our average 3-dart score was 40 and they were scoring up to 106!  Those ladies have obviously been practising!  

The darts didn't seem to want to play nicely tonight and insisted upon bouncing off the board - we had darts flying everywhere!  One very scary moment had us all palpitating when a dart bounced off the board and hit Levendale's scorer.  Thankfully it didn't break the skin, but I'm sure that I saw our hostesses reviewing their insurance policy as we continued to play!

Levendale were leading 1-0 as we started the second game, which was thankfully a lot more closely-matched.  We were both seeking Double-1 when they scored and won the Tournament.  A very deserving win.  

The 2014 WI Darts Champions - Levendale:

We were proudly presented with our second-place prizes:

We can genuinely say that we were thrilled to have made it to second place - what an achievement for two years running!  Here's a flashback to our 2013 second-place prize presentation:

We had a wonderful night, good food, a great laugh - we were thrilled.

A special thank you goes out to Carlton WI for hosting the Tournament and being such accommodating, friendly and excellent hostesses.  Now, I'm off to rummage in the attic for the kid's old dart board so that I can actually start practising for next year.....

Hana Bag & Kanzashi Brooch Workshop: 22.03.14

Katie Chaplin (or "the Japanese lady" as we call her) hosted this fabulously interesting workshop to teach us new Japanese craft skills.  As ever, she entertained and educated us with the background and customs of Japan as she taught us how to make these beautiful items.

We had a full class with a good turnout for the WI for this much-sought-after course.

We started the day by making Kanzashi Brooches.  The array of traditional Japanese fabrics to choose from was mind-boggling and for some it took longer to choose the fabric than to actually make the brooch!

We took a piece of beautiful fabric and with some clever folding and more than a little glue we formed petals:

Which then formed flowers!

Katie showed us some beautiful REAL Kanzashi which had been made into hair ornaments - so intricate and truly beautiful!  She explained that the hair ornaments worn by the Geisha start out very long but, as the lady works her way up the ranks, her hair ornaments get shorter and shorter until there is no drape at all.  She said that the very top Geisha don't even look like a Geisha but a 'normal' woman as they don't wear the bright costumes or extravagant hair adornments. 

It takes ten years of training to be able to make these flower petals (so we did well in one morning!)

After lunch we started on the Hana Bags!  Again, it took some tight to choose the fabrics for the bag as every piece was so beautiful!

We chose two co-ordinating or contrasting fabrics and performed some clever folding and stitching:

It was very therapeutic to just sit and chat while stitching something beautiful at the same time.  The finished bags were gorgeous, with a contrasting fabric 'secret' pocket on the back and the front, and undoing the drawstring gives you plenty of room inside.  This could become addictive!

We were all VERY interested to hear of a JAPAN DAY hosted by Kimono World to be held in Northallerton on 17th May 2014 and will definitely be discussing this as a WI event as it is an unmissable opportunity!

Supper Club at The Infinity Restaurant, Stockton: 20.03.14

The Infinity Restaurant is part of the Stockton Riverside College to give the catering students some experience/practice and to give the rest of us a really excellent meal and level of service.

We had such a good time that we didn't even think of taking photographs!

It was a sumptuous meal heralded in by bread rolls of various types. 

The starters were a choice of melon balls in port, soup, smoked mackerel or chicken. 

The main course was poached salmon with shrimps, roast pork or mushroom lasagne.  These were served with veg which were cauliflower cheese, roast potatoes and  mixed spiced strips of carrot and turnip 

The pudding was chocolate tart with vanilla ice cream, raspberry sorbet or ginger sponge with Crème Anglaise, all followed by coffee or tea.

The grand finale was very rich truffles with the coffee.

There were bottles of spring water on the table (still and sparkling).  The students were very nervous, but lovely and, as, ever, the company was lovely with plenty of chat and laughter.  This is not the first time that we've been to The Infinity Restaurant, and it should therefore come as no surprise that we would highly recommend the venue - and the company of Linthorpe WI!   

 

2014 WI Annual Darts Tournament: 19.03.14

Linthorpe WI entered two teams for the annual darts competition: Team A and Team B.  According to the WI rules, two teams had to sit out of the first heat and Linthorpe B was one of the teams pulled out of the hat to sit out of the first round.  Linthorpe A were scheduled to play Moorsholme WI.

Typically, practice scores looked like this, but once the game was afoot and the pressure was on it was a different story!

Our wonderfully entertaining scorer, Joyce, was dicing with death by meandering in front of the aiming players whilst deep in chatter, and pointing at the relevant part of the dartboard that we should be aiming for; plus we had numerous bouncing darts flying all over the place - one narrowly missing Jenny's foot.  But we thankfully managed to avoid serious bodily harm for another year.

An action shot as Theresa takes her place:

Barbara threw the winning dart in game 1 to give a score of Linthorpe 1 - Moorsholm 0.    In game 2 Mary secured the defeat of Moorsholm with a 2-0 score in favour of Linthorpe.

Team B watched with bated breath:

Linthorpe B were scheduled from the beginning to play the victors of the match - so that meant that Heat 2 was Linthorpe A v Linthorpe B - a win-win situation because it meant that Linthorpe WI was through to the semi-final, regardless of the result of this Heat!

Team A (l-r):  Jenny, Mary, Theresa, Barbara

Team B (l-r): Pauline, Pam (secret weapon), Carole, Dora, Marie, and our scorer Joyce.

First time for a delicious supper of Ploughmans salad followed by fruit cheesecake and tea.

All of the matches were close - Team A won the first, Team B won the second - and then the battle was on for the final game!  We were all on the edge of our seats - just look at Team A's expressions!

The winning dart was thrown by Pam (our secret weapon!) to secure a 2-1 victory for Team B over Team A.

The winning team (B) ready to return for the semi-finals next week!

Flying Geese Patchwork: 15.02.14

We started off with a cup of tea and a chance to take a look at the finished articles that we all aspire to.  On display was a cushion cover and a table runner:

Nona (the teacher) then took us all step-by-step in making a flying goose before we all attempted it with our own fabric:

Time to make a start!  Everyone chatted away quite happily while they stitched and it was a really friendly (and industrious) atmosphere.  We learned the fool-proof way to make this patchwork and how to assemble and finish off a quilt, pillow and table runner for perfect results.

A very enjoyable, informative and relaxing day!

International Day - China: 19.02.14

(This is a re-post [and therefore out of sequence] as it appears that the original posting has disappeared!)

Tai Chi Master:

 

Tai Chi students - The first lady to be introduced is 88 yrs old, the second is 85. Aren't they amazing??!   In fact, the 85 yr old was waitressing for the full day too!!

 

 

5 yr old James demonstrates hoe Tai Chi & martial arts utilise the same moves - but performed in a different way.   Isn't he cute? What the camera doesn't show is his mum giving him a big hug and kiss on the cheek when he leaves the stage, and him frantically scrubbing it off!

 

 

This champion drummer obviously loves his craft!! He actually stopped playing about 4 times ago but then re-started when he received applause. They eventually had to confiscate his drumsticks to get him off the stage!!   A great guy who is lucky enough to have found his passion and is obviously very much loved by his sister (with him on the stage). :oD

 

 

One of three songs that we were all clapping and toe-tapping along to. A thoroughly enjoyable performance! :oD

 

 

 

The people from the Chinese Centre were excellent hosts, very friendly and very hospitable.  A great day was had by all! :oD

Preston Park Gardener by Keith Hugill: 12.03.14

Gill (our President) regaled us with a blast from the past, in the form of  "The Good Wife's Guide" from Housekeeping Monthly, 13 May 1955 - take note ladies!

The ladies had brought in the pincushion cupcakes that they made at our recent Craft Club evening - they are absolutely beautiful!

 

Keith Hugill then gave us a wonderful look behind the scenes of Preston Park Museum's Victorian Walled Garden, which he has recently been restoring to it's original former glory.  It is amazing the lengths that they have gone to in order to make sure that it is exactly as it would have been in it's heyday - and this gentleman certainly seems to know his plants!  I'd never heard of most of the heritage plants that they have planted there - things like spherical courgettes and electric daisies!  They plant the heritage varieties alongside modern varieties so that visitors can taste both items and judge for themselves which is the better (invariably it is the heritage).

He explained how the Head Gardener would have organised his garden, and how young boys would start washing the plant pots and work their way up the ranks to be a gardener themselves.  The ultimate prestige in Victorian times was to be able to grow items out of season - especially things like melons and pineapples in the winter season - hence the reason why a pineapple would be the ultimate centrepiece decoration for the Christmas Dinner table.  Local women would be employed at the cost of 2p a day to weed the gardens, as the this released the gardener for more specialised tasks, and created extra work for the surrounding areas. 

The Victorian walled garden would be ideally suited as far from the house as possible to prevent the smells (manure) from invading the house.  Keith explained that the more prosperous the home owner was, the further away the kitchen garden would be situated (up to 2 miles) - not only would he have more land in order to move it away, but he would also have the means to employ someone to transport the items from the garden to the house.

Electric Daisies are plants that numb the mouth and give something of an electric shock to it.  He said that it is amusing to watch people eat this and then try to talk as it is impossible to do so.  When he described the taste as "stardust with a bit of crack added" - the looks on the assembled ladies faces was PRICELESS!!!!

However, the produce that Victorians most lusted after was rhubarb.  They couldn't get enough of it.  He explained how the rhubarb would be grown and harvested in the Rhubarb Triangle on the morning and then put onto the Rhubarb Express (it's true - I'm not making it up) to arrive in London and be on the market stalls for the afternoon.  There were literally hundreds of varieties of this humble plant.

After his very entertaining presentation it was time to judge the competition: A Gardening Tip....

As ever, a very pleasant evening was had by all.

 

Antiques Valuation Day: 28.02.14

A fabulous day yet again, with many compliments for our soup/sandwich/cake lunch.

David Harper was as charismatic as ever, chatting easily about the items taken in by members, and digressing into the histories of various artistic styles, and humorous stories, answering questions as he went.

This (below) is a pic of our member Jean - it is not her silver dish - she volunteered to look for identifying features and came up trumps!!!!  David was very impressed by her knowledge, and joked that he would employ her! 

 

Many of the attendees were able to identify some pieces - satsuma vase, cloisonne teapot, 9ct gold pocket watch etc, and even a piece of Linthorpe Pottery taken in by a member of another WI.  We, of course, were able to identify that, so I pointed out to him that he had 2 tables of Linthorpe WI in attendance!

Everyone had great fun and learned a little along the way.