A WONDERFUL community atmosphere attended this year’s Marhamchurch Revel, as locals, visitors and villagers flocked to attend the crowning of the queen, Caitlin O’Reilly, by Old Father Time, who gave his traditional speech in the village square.

A beautiful white horse carried the queen, who opened the revel. The Gittisham Hall Jazz Band, led by Bob Manuel, with Graham Trevarton on trumpet, led the procession around the village.

The marshall of the revel, Leo West, attended the queen, accompanied by her page, Finley Nicklen, flower girl, Chloe Grigg, and maids Georgina Harris, Chelsea Tape, Kelsi Heywood and Lillia Rice.

On their return to the square, the party was greeted by bough boys who waved their green branches as a welcome. The regal party were followed by children from the village performing a traditional Cornish dance all the way to the revel field, to be cheered and welcomed by the awaiting crowd.

The queen and her party sat on the stage in the main arena, and overlooked the children’s fancy dress competition and MFactor talent competition. The prizes were awarded by this year’s judges, Sue and Neil Butler and Miriam and Peter Green.

There was only one entry in the fancy dress competition this year, so Holly Corbin, a truly beautiful princess, took first prize.

For MFactor, Zoe Gilhespy came first singing and playing her guitar. Elodie Bennett came second with a confident and unaccompanied rendering of Molly Malone, and Jasmine, Katie and Sophie Wallis were the three sisters who came third with their excellent gymnastic routine. The crowd also enjoyed some singing from the talented Natasha Jayne.

There were over two dozen stalls, ranging from the traditional coconut shy, tombola and hoop-la to crockery smashing for letting off steam and a ‘bigger than ever’ bouncy castle.

The revel grand prize draw offered some great prizes. The sun sent everyone queuing for drinks and ice creams, and the Scouts’ barbecue tent had to warn the crowd that burgers and sausages were running out fast! The Bray Institute served cream teas from 3pm to 5.30pm, and the royal party had a special tea on the stage.

Excitement built as the entries to the traditional pram race assembled in the square.

In the junior class the Best Decorated Pram was ‘The Beach Boys’, led by Finley Rice; second was ‘Let’s Go Surfing’, led by Liam Mills; and third was ‘Ghost Busters’, with Hayley and Emma Jarvis. Junior race around the village was first ‘Ghostbusters’, second ‘Let’s Go Surfing’, and third Dylan Theakstone’s ‘Rainbow Squids’.

In the highly contested senior event, the Best Decorated Pram Award went to the ‘Super Heroes’, emerging in all their beauty from the hunt’s conveniently placed garage; second was ‘Meals on Wheels’, a spectacular table pram, complete with a vase of flowers, led by the mysterious Paul R; and third came ‘Shrek and Fiona’, with the unmistakable and unmissable Buller’s Arms team of Eric Westlake and Nikki Unger.

The senior race around the village was fast and furious, with a couple of the teams accidentally doing the circuit three times instead of two in a hail of water bombs. Winners were first, late entry ‘Hagrid Scrap’, second Keiron Ward’s team, ‘Botch Job’, and close third, Emma Whitehouse’s ‘Team Beans’.

The Buller’s Arms had a hog roast waiting for hungry revellers in the garden and over the road, Il Forno Pizza were donating a generous 10% of their take to the revel.

Sheer Khanage entertained revellers with live music in the function room at the Buller’s.

This year the revel held a photo competition with some beautiful entries. The children’s class was won by Leon Lomax and second Phoebe Schroder.

In the adults’ class, Mike Moore came first, Ian Dennier second and third, Mike Moore again with a further entry. The entries were all on display at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition in the methodist hall, which, as always, was a wonderful display of local talent.

This year’s scarecrow competition was judged by the public as they followed their maps around the Scarecrow Trail. Winners were first, ‘Fisherman and monster fish’, by Gary Richards, second, ‘Figures and deckchair’, by Claire Rice, and third, ‘the Turtle’, by Julie Smaile, with a more serious note demonstrating the dangers of littering the sea.

All proceeds of the revel go to local organisations, and Marhamchurch has expressed thanks to all the volunteers, stall holders and helpers whose hard work has made the 2016 revel such a great success, and, of course, all those who came out to participate and enjoy the day.