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home arrow recent news arrow MARSHWOOD YFC WIN THROUGH TO NATIONAL FINAL
MARSHWOOD YFC WIN THROUGH TO NATIONAL FINAL PDF Print E-mail
Written by office   
Wednesday, 31 March 2010

Marshwood Vale YFC created a bit of history on Saturday afternoon in Weston-super-Mare when they won the South of England semi-final of the National drama competition, to be the first club from Dorset to reach the National Final in over 30 years. Marshwood Vale are the second smallest Young Farmers' club in Dorset having only 25 members with 15 of them in the cast.


Every year the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs holds an entertainment contest and this year the brief was to produce a play. After much debate the club decided to present “Guess who's coming to tea?” by Sandy Tayler, produced by Kevin Goodfellow and set in Bakewell's cake factory. The leading character is Mr. Spratt, a bossy foreman played by Richard Rowe, currently the club chairman. The factory is making a cake for the Queen and when Spike, a 'punk' (Robin Goodfellow) loses an earring, the cast fear that it is in the special cake. They sneak back after hours to make a replacement cake and discover that Mr. Bakewell (Stuart Curtis) is having an affair with his attractive secretary (Laura Foot), with the humorous consequences you would expect from the situation. Another love interest was well portrayed between Sydney (Ali Hill) and Lettuce (Rosie Betherton), while Bradley Bowman gave a convincing performance as a stuttering Kevin on the production line.

 


The  club have been rehearsing since early November with their first performance winning the county title over rivals Sturminster Newton by only three points. Now representing the county they travelled to Paignton and the South-West Area round where they were competing against counties from Cornwall to Gloucestershire on March 5th. The top two teams qualify for the Southern Area semi-final and, much to their surprise, Marshwood went through as runners-up to Devon. Competing now against teams from Hereford and Shropshire, as well as Devon, it was a four way competition with only one club being crowned champion and going on to the final. All the plays were, as you would expect, performed to a very high standard. Whilst the judges were very critical of even the smallest details in their analysis of each play, the efforts of Marshwood's backstage helpers, Jenny & Anna Curtis, Kath & Ed Goodfellow and Andy Haggerty were well appreciated. Before announcing the overall result, they made the awards for best actor and actress. Marshwood were successful here too, with Ed Rabbetts adding this Best Actor award to those he won at County and, South-West Area, for his role as Leslie, a camp head baker. The cast, on a high from this accolade, sat back down for the main result. The judges built the suspense by announcing only the top two positions and, having previously lost out to Devon,  when Shropshire were announced as second, Marshwood were convinced that their moment had gone, and was in stunned disbelief that they heard that they had won. After a pause to take it in, the applause and cheering from the cast, helpers and supporters erupted. They now go on to the Annual General Meeting weekend of the YFC, which this year is being held in Torquay on April 25th , to represent the South of England against the North and Wales, with the winners to be crowned National Champions.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 31 March 2010 )
 
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