AMATEUR THEATRICAL SOCIETY: The society's latest production played to capacity audiences last week and was greeted with great and well-deserved enthusiasm. Their choice of play-a comedy/farce by Ray Cooney entitled Out of Order - was ambitious, farce being notoriously difficult for amateur companies to do successfully, but they did succeed, brilliantly. The set was economically but attractively designed and excellent use of its limited space was achieved by director Ken Knight. Particular praise must be given to whoever designed and operated a sash widow which was crucial to the plot - it never missed a cue or an opportunity to startle its audience. Full marks to it and to the cast who played in and out of it for two fascinating hours. All are to be congratulated on the characters they portrayed and the laughter they created by their machinations, lying, deceit and greed figuring largely among them - and all under the shadow of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament! The play won the Comedy of the Year Award in 1991 and, having seen HATS presentations of it, we could all recognise why this would have been so. Congratulations to all concerned!

REMEMBRANCE: Two services took place over the weekend, the first in the village school on Friday when a short but moving ceremony included having the children come forward to lay their poppies on a table beneath a cross. The simple service was conducted by Tony Phillips who is lay-reader at St James' Church, the Last Post was played by the school's music teacher Helen Fishbourne, and it was clear that the children, staff and visitors alike were conscious of the meaning and the solemnity of the well-planned occasion. It was a privilege to be present. The formal act of Remembrance was the focal point of the morning service on Sunday at St James' Church when all members of the congregation were led out to the cenotaph to hear the familiar words, the prayers, the names of the fallen and to stand silently under a cloudless sky before laying wreaths and poppies at the foot of the memorial. Michael Hemming, a young member of the congregation, played the Last Post, after which, quietly and visibly moved, the company returned to church to continue with the communion service.

THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY: The AGM will take place next Wednesday, but there will be no speaker on this occasion. Prizes will be presented for various competitions and then members will partake of wine and nibbles as they discuss next year's programme and reflect on the success they have had this year, not the least of which was the glorious spectacle of the spring bulbs in the churchyard.