WILLIAMSON HALL
THE FETE

Question: should it be fete, to rhyme with ‘wet’ or fete to rhyme with ‘great’? That wee, sharp shower just as we got started this year had me convinced it would be the former but, thankfully, it passed quickly and turned out to be a great fete, however you choose to pronounce it!!

 Williamson Hall relies heavily on the fete to raise funds towards its upkeep and on-going maintenance. This year’s grand total is £2382 – absolutely fantastic! Thank you to everyone who came along and supported the event. We hope you had a great day. Well done to all the fancy dressers. The winners of the shield again this year were the Rainbows and Brownies with their circus. Jennifer Cook won the individual category and Phoebe Sandler had the best decorated hat.

 As always we have many people to thank for making things happen again this year:-

 The very hard working organising committee. It takes many weeks of effort and huge amounts of determination to pull together three hours of fete and it’s made a whole lot easier thanks to the people involved.

 The great squad of gazebo builders. This job seems to get harder every year as the numbers wear off the poles and the stitching wears out on the covers! Many people come back to help year after year though – that’s how much they love it!! It was also great to have a few new faces along this year. Thank you all very much for your enthusiasm and for keeping your sense of humour!!

The army of ‘volunteers’ who came along in the afternoon to run stalls, paint faces and make tea. Again, it was great to see the ‘weel kent faces’ as well as some new recruits and all your hard work is hugely appreciated.

• Evelyn Scobie for taking on the huge responsibility of judging the fancy dress!
• Our sponsors,
• Branston Ltd, Breedon Aggregates  
• Kingdom Housing,
• everyone who donated home baking, raffle prizes and bottles – thank you!
•  Stuart McKandie for the soundtrack to the afternoon! Great music that really added to the party atmosphere.
•  Everyone who hung around to take tents down, wash dishes, sweep floors and clear up.
•  Leslie Bisset for allowing us to use his pick-up again. It would have been a long walk from the guide hut carrying all that stuff!!
•  Anyone who helped in any way that I may have over-looked above! Sorry for the omission and a huge thank you!!

Saturday evening brought the 625s back to Abernethy and they did us proud as always!! It was hard to tell if the band or the crowd had the most fun but we are hugely grateful to the guys once again and to their support band, The Hain Bob-Bombs for a brilliant night.

For those with any energy left, Sunday brought us the hill race. Thanks to Colin Morrison for organising again this year and a huge thank you to everyone who helped with marshalling, registrations and time-keeping. There were sixty athletes taking part and it was great to see so many youngsters getting involved. Well done to Keir Allen for realising a long held ambition and winning the race and to Ella McElnea who set a new record for girls under 12 years. The full results were:-  

Girls Under 12:-   
1st Ella McElnea 22.13, 2nd Hannah Morrison 24.31, 3rd Rachel Stewart 28.28

Boys Under 12:-
1st Saul Robinson 21.43, 2nd Ruari Mair 22.11,
3rd Archie Butler 22.42

Girls Under 16:-
1st Katrina Fyfe 25.03
Boys Under 16:-
1st David McCrory 17.49, 2nd Finlay McElnea 21.55, 3rd Fingal Oswald 26.59

Ladies:-
1st Fiona Manson 23.04, 2nd Carol Cadger 24.46,
3rd Fiona Stewart 28.36

Men:-
1st Keir Allen 17.28,  2nd Brian Cooper 18.00,
3rd George Illingworth 19.34

Another brilliant fete weekend and another great example of what Abernethy is capable of!! As I mentioned above, organising the fete takes a lot of work but it’s also great fun. If you would like to be involved in next year’s event or any other aspect of running the hall, please get in touch (phone 850087). We’d love to hear from you!!

                                                    Jill Young,