CHRISTOPHER Heath wanted to celebrate his 80th birthday and decided with is wife Pauline to have a buffet and drinks in the village hall with a small group of invited family and friends and to invite “The Yetties” along to entertain them afterwards.

Knowing how popular this Dorset group are, he thought it might be rather good to open the evening to the residents of Portesham to come along and enjoy these county favourites from Yetminster to join them.

What a wonderful entertaining evening we all enjoyed, with these Dorset yokels and their love of our county coming through strongly in their songs, jokes and monologues.

I was one of the lucky ones to get hold of a ticket: the hall was packed and the happiness and pleasure of the audience was evident by the keen joining in of all the choruses to many of their songs and ditties and hilarious laughter rang through the hall with their many country-type jokes made funnier with their broad Dorset accents.

A grand night out that everyone enjoyed and were talking about the following morning: I haven’t laughed so much in years and by the volume of laughter during the course of the evening and the big smiling faces neither had many others there!

Thank you Christopher for arranging The Yetties to come to Portesham and allowing everyone to enjoy them too and we wish you a very happy 80th birthday and many good year to follow.

  • ATTENDING our now well-established Village Café, being organised this time by the Portesham Bridge Club, on arrival was introduced to a surprise visitor in the name of Peter Maddern who had dropped in for breakfast on the first leg of his cycle marathon of approximately 5,000 miles around the coast of Britain.

Peter retired early from his teaching post as Primary head teacher in Leedstown, Cornwall. he lives in Penzance, and took up the hobby of cycling to become an addict of long distance journeys to raise money for charities.

He cycled 1,200 miles in 2007 up the West coast and in 2008 he completed a 2,400-mile trip around the “high bits of England and Scotland and round the Orkneys”.

One day, whilst fishing off the rocks with some friends in Cornwall, his mate Tony Newson suffered a heart attack and managed to alert the Air Ambulance to rescue his friend whilst trying to resuscitate him meanwhile. Unfortunately, Tony died but Peter decided he would to this sponsored cycle ride around the coast of Britain to raise awareness and money for the Cornwall Air Ambulance.

Two things he is keeping a record of during his trip is how many ferries he uses to cut across bays and to small islands and how many real ales he drinks on his travels which he reckoned on his trip last year to have drunk “a pint to every 23 miles”.

Peter has a web site if you wish to read about his trip or keep up with his progress, which is: www.petermaddern.weebly.com.

Good luck Peter, happy safe cycling and we wish you luck in your efforts to raise money for such a good cause.

  • ON Thursday, May 7 Di Ludlow is once again opening up her garden at the Friar Waddon Farmhouse (between Upwey and Portesham) for a Grand Plant Sale from 10.30am-2.00pm.

On sale will be annuals, perennials, shrubs, vegetable plants and house plants, and there will be morning coffee and light lunches served with a cake stall, produce stall and raffle.

Entrance fee is £1 and all proceeds will go to the RNLI.

  • THE Walking Group have their monthly walk also on Thursday, May 7 meeting at 10.00am in Winters Close or 10.30am in the car park at Higher Bockhampton by Hardy’s Cottage.

The walk is planned in and around parts of Puddletown Forest followed by a lunch at “The Wise Men” and West Stafford.