Ilketshall St Margaret

Colourful flower displays in vases on a long table in a wood-panelled room. The displays are accompanied by information cards and some have red and yellow rosettes next to them. In the background is another table with displays of vegetables. The tables are draped with black cloths. some silver cups and shields are visible to the left in the background.

Ilketshall St Margaret Village Show, Saturday 15th July 2023

The weather forecast leading up to the Show was looking grim and we were anticipating gales and rain. Miraculously, we escaped the news media hype and experienced a most wonderful, sunny day within the sheltered grounds of the village hall.

We attracted exhibitors and visitors far and wide. As usual, the village hall was at full capacity, resulting in a wonderful display from the Vegetables, Cooking & Homecraft, Flowers, Handicraft and Photography classes. Outside, as well as numerous stalls, we were entertained by the wonderful Rumburgh Morris Dancers, the engaging Animus Puppetry, along with a display from the Bungay Taekwon-Do club. The BBQ, Beer & Tea tents worked hard to keep the 200 or so vistors fed and watered and were kept busy as usual right to the very end. Coupled with entertaining commentary from our new President Alec McCluskey, the eagerly anticipated Spud Bucket weigh-in didn’t disappoint with a record number of 40 entries. To end it all, High Street won 2-1 in the keenly contested Tug of War against Low Street - underfoot, a very slippery outcome!

In all, there were 56 exhibitors and 207 exhibits, raising £1350 for the village hall funds. The standard of entries across all classes was excellent and attracted much praise from the judges and visiting public alike. The committee would also like to thank everyone who volunteered to help make this event a success and the local business that contributed to the great raffle prizes. Have a great summer!

Report by Show Secretary, Roger Webb