Letters to the Editors
BURWELL TIGERS UPDATE
Dear Editors,
In response to Steve Kent-Phillips letter in the last edition of The Crier I
would firstly like to thank him for his kind words of support but would also
like to allay anyone's fears that Tigers were discouraged by the turn out
at the Tigers presentation at the Village Hall.
To the contrary, the club were pleased with the turn out and the support we received on the night. We got the chance to answer a number of questions and hopefully put to rest some of the worries some people had about the development.
To be honest, due to the slow progress of securing the lease due to legal issues I can understand why people would not want to venture out on a cold, wet February night for a project they were not sure would happen! It is now our job to prove to your readers our dream will become reality! Sooner rather then later too!
Work has started with the ditches being cleared, undergrowth cut back and the rubbish being cleared up too. Newmarket Plant Hire has supplied the manpower and the machinery to start the work and in return they will have advertising at the new ground when it's complete. Easter weekend will be a busy weekend when a lot more clearing up will be done.
We have received planning permission for the project and big thanks for that goes to Frank Redhead for all the work he has done for us with this. This now allows us to push on with the funding applications which obviously are key to the whole project and it is a lot of hard work. We have left no stone unturned and have sought a lot of advice. Meeting after meeting with experts in different fields is tiring and time consuming but as a club we have decided that its important to put the work in now and get it right. Other clubs have tried to cut corners and are now paying the price.
The first grant applications have been submitted and now we have to wait whilst they are processed, so do not panic if you do not see a lot of action as we have to wait for the money. We have to say what the grants are for in the applications and any work can not be carried out until we get the ok otherwise grants become `retrospective` and will be turned down. When work begins it will happen quickly. We have divided the project up into three stages.1- Site Security.2 - Car parking and pitches.3 - The pavilion will then finalise the development!
It will happen and as people see real progress I'm sure more people would like to offer help. Feel free to contact Tigers via the Tigers website - www.burwelltigers.co.uk .
Once again I would like to thank everyone for the support we have had so far and to the Crier for helping us get our message across. Let us not forget the reason for this project. The children. We want as many kids to play football as possible. Boys and girls. If you are interested please contact us.
Thanks again
Who is at Fault?
Dear Editors
Mr K-P doesn't know much about the village if he thinks a Crier reporter turns up at every meeting. Most clubs and societies are self-help and do not thrash around trying to find someone to blame for totally inadequate publicity.
Where were the posters, where was the advance publicity, how many phone calls were made, how much effort was put in to attracting people? Mr K-P mentions he had three people from the two committees on which he sits, a few from The Red Lion where he drinks, a couple of neighbours, together with the PC Clerk and her husband. That didn't take much effort and wasn't much of an outreach either - especially from someone who claims to know what 99.99% of the village think. I suggest he just talks to someone organizing Church events to know how to advertise.
Sadly, even if Mr K-P had advertised effectively the results may not have been much better - as people who organise meetings/events often find. Does Mr K-P go to events/meetings in which he has no or little interest?
But it wasn't just the Crier which had its knuckles rapped. There was also a moan "that nobody from the youth club, school. church (any of them), cubs (at any level), Village Hall committee or PTA attended, despite the oft-stated aim (in the Crier) of the Tigers to contribute (for free) the facilities available to those groups." Was the Crier really so supportive - and did I hear a very faint teeny weeny thanks? And why were the Gardening Club and the WI, let alone the Quilters and Tea Club, left out for not doing their bit?
While Burwell Tigers may have moved to Swaffham Prior I understood it is a facility for the whole area and one wonders whether there has been any coverage in the magazines of Reach, Burwell, Bulbeck, Bottisham and Lode. And also what support have they had from these villages? Maybe this will be revealed in the first 'Tigers Diary' as people (maybe not 99.99%) would really like to know.
Free Speech and Participation
Dear Editors,
Whoa, fellers - before you go giving long-running absurdity and pointless antagonism a thumping, how about picking on a decent-sized target and taking out The Archers? - then I wouldn't have to turn Radio 4 off at 7.02pm every day. Of course what I wrote was ridiculous. In the interests of balance, I have responded to - always responded rather than instigated - unlikely arguments, with more unlikely ones.
I took arguments that are used about Shakespeare and follow them down to their logically bonkers conclusions. I also took the ways people in Shakespeare's time who thought they were clever (and possibly they thought they were big, and maybe even thought themselves funny sometimes) would use word devices to hide meanings in their writing. Those were genuine tricks, we know they used them: I followed them down too, to equally ludicrous conclusions. (They liked puns, too, but even I have standards to uphold).
It was a simple point, really - if you construct your own argument to support your own point of view, it becomes personal and you can convince yourself of anything you want to. That's not so unlikely: there are people who believe the moon landings didn't take place, and have found all the evidence they need. There are plenty more mad ideas where that kind of thinking came from: Oswald didn't shoot Kennedy, Elvis isn't dead, and there was enough proof that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq for an invasion, to name a few.
I have revelations for you all. It will probably mean the end of dialogue on this subject, but heck, that's what you want.
- First, I don't care really who wrote Shakespeare's plays. I wrote that years ago, but perhaps you didn't notice.
- Second: Mr Everitt and I are not mortal enemies, except on paper. Last time we bumped into one another we had a cheerful chat about it all. Having said that, I would volunteer for duel - as a fundraising event for the church or similar worthy cause, just as I suggested in my previous missive, it wasn't all rubbish like you thought it was - but I'm not going to put my paper opponent on the spot by asking him to say the same; in any case, the village 'do' always falls on a Saturday when I'm away on an examination meeting so that's out, anyway.
Argument and counter-argument is the basis for both our judicial system and our governmental decision-making process. A bit more participation by all would increase the quality of democracy and invigorate our culture, say our political leaders (except that they don't want you to challenge their arguments, they want you to validate them by voting).
Moreover, I have followed a dispute in the Crier not so long back, incomprehensible to me because I was not involved. At least Mr E & I laid out our arguments for the consideration of others. Nobody had any obligation to read what we wrote anyway. We filled a bit of space that otherwise would've been blank. We didn't bump anyone else off a page. Why fret?
So here's to you, fellers: participate more! You contribute more to theCrier, and I for one will happily write less. But if I don't see you all getting those articles in, I'll be back.. .
PS Who said 'Those who stand for nothing fall for anything'? At least we stood, me & Mr E. Let's hear some more voices with something to say.