The Cattistock 200 Club

 The arm of Grace

As I note with some reluctance I am but a few days from achieving 70 years of age, and increasingly prone to waking up and finding bits not working as they should and being warned of bits susceptible to breakage. My children refer to me as slowly becoming more decrepit but as I say to them I remain entitled to free repairs as necessary until the inevitable. Sadly this is not the same for the Church buildings which are even older than me (and all of you reading these musings) and also are prone to needing repairs which are neither cheap nor generally free.

With this in mind a number of years ago the 200 club was formed and since inception has provided about £1k per annum towards Church funding. In essence it’s a lottery with an annual subscription of £15 and weekly prizes of £5, £3 and £2 supplemented by twice yearly £50, £30 and £20. The draws take place monthly usually in the Fox and Hounds. There are a team of collectors who do most of the work including collecting funds and distributing winning envelopes, I on the other hand have the pleasure of drinking beer in the pub whilst watching the winning balls being drawn by an unsuspecting volunteer who happened to be in the pub.

In the May draw this was Grace whose delicate arm is revealed in the photograph drawing a winning ball. After this I merely have to stagger home, annotate the envelopes (as shown for the May draw) add the cash and send notification to The Chimes and the Village website. And thus for the last few years this has run like a well-oiled machine (or maybe people are too polite to say it’s broken).

The team are Sue Caddy 320953, Sally Wood 07815 413129, Peter Hunt 321392 , Rose Barker 07879842355,  Julian English 320028, Marcus Soldini 7702182050 , and me Andy Staples 320360. If there is anyone reading this who would like to help that would be much appreciated so please contact one of us. Again noting the name of the club (200) we are sadly barely over 100 members, this is where you come in! As I recently heard Frank Skinner in conversation with his local vicar concerning church roof repairs the vicar observed he had adequate funding the only problem was the funds were in Franks bank account. So, I should appeal to all those who are not members to join in, it’s a bit of fun and the membership is but £15 per ticket per year. The atmosphere in the village is almost electric on a monthly basis as everyone awaits the possibility of someone knocking at the door or someone ringing the bell, and twice a year when the big draws happen people need lightening conducters to ensure the electric atmosphere doesn’t morph into anything serious! Please contact one of us and we will gladly add you to the membership. As Mr Tesco says every little helps.