LAUNCESTON YFC again enjoyed a busy Christmas starting with the late night shopping trip to Plymouth, followed by Christmas craft where members made table decorations for the winter ‘Snow Ball’.

The Snow Ball was held on December 12, when 180 people packed out the town hall, which had been tastefully decorated, and guests were given a reception of mulled wine, and mingled before sitting down to a roast meal.

Fleeting Glimpse and DJ Pasty played tunes to satisfy all tastes.

The following week they were carol singing in the local area, as well as in Truro Cathedral, and Christmas was rounded off with the Christmas party on December 30 at Kensey Vale Bowling Club.

This year started off with a visit to Plymouth pantomime to see Cinderella, which featured Gok Wan as the ‘Fairy Gok Mother’ and Paul Zerdin (America’s Got Talent winner) as Buttons. As to be expected, the night was filled with laughs and silly jokes, and was well worth seeing.

The following week it was the annual parents’ evening, a night they put on to show family and friends what they have been doing for the previous year. It also gave the choir and dancing teams a chance to perform in front of an audience before the competitions begin.

The winter competitions have been underway in the new year, with Launceston YFC’s eight ballroom dancers, and 17 choristers — not forgetting Tom Sharman at the piano — winning the show dance and choir competitions at the county finals. Member of the year competitions were also held at St Ives, where club chairman Oliver Stephens won senior member of the year.

Congratulations were also expressed to Nick Uglow, who reached second place in the junior member for the year, a very respectable result.

January 21 saw the annual quiz, where four members of the YFC, Farmers’ Club, and NFU compete to see who will win the cup for the year. The NFU team put in a solid performance to win the competition. The questions were tough, but covered a wide range of topics. Thanks were expressed to club president,Tim Bebbington for being the quizmaster for the evening.

The following week the club held its interclub challenge at Trethorne. They invited several local clubs to take part in games such as bowling, darts, jenga and twister. This acts as a practice for the Cornwall YFC competitions evening, and Launceston YFC came away victorious.

February started with a talk from Rodda’s Dairy. Mr Rodda started by telling them about the history of the business and how it started, and went on to show a short video about the processes and techniques.

He went on to say that although the technology has moved on, the process of making cream has not really changed, and he let members take home some of his products.

The month continued with a visit to Crediton Milling, an animal feed mill where they produce all types of animal feed. The guides explained all the different ingredients that go into the different feeds, and showed them the storage facilities of the raw materials.

They were then guided through how the system works and looked at the machines working.

Launceston YFC is now looking forward to the South West Area weekend in Weymouth at the beginning of March, where its choir, dancers and member of the year will be representing Cornwall.

Ahead of their performances, they will be holding an open rehearsal on March 2 at the White Hart Hotel at 7.30pm.

It will give them the opportunity to perform in front of an audience again, and those unable to travel to Weymouth to see them.

An invite is extended to all friends and family. Keep an eye out on the website and Facebook page to find out how they do.