Doddington Village Sports and Carnival Blog

Some-how, I have been given the role of ‘the Naughty Elf’, which means that I was the one locked up in the back of the truck that pulls Santa’s Sleigh around the village.  (Although saying that, last night’s freezing temperatures made me quite glad I was the one stuck in there!) Essentially, my job during the Santa Run as ‘the Naughty Elf’, is to control the music and microphone levels through the powered amplifier in the back of the truck with me. Different Christmas music tracks need different volume adjustments, but also controlling Santa’s microphone is another job - I’m sure he waits until I’m least expecting a ‘Ho! Ho! HO!’ blast from him, and he catches me off-guard and the levels go through the roof! For years, and irrespective of where I’ve lived at the time, I’ve seen various Santa Sleighs taken around to see the boys and girls, and hadn’t given it too much of a thought about how it all works.  But since joining the Doddington Village Sports and Carnival committee a...

The Santa Run has already begun! Last night, we took Mr Claus out on his sleigh around the village to see the boys and girls! We had music a-playing, lights a-flashing and, rightly or wrongly, we gave Santa a microphone so that you could hear his mighty ‘Ho! Ho! Ho!’s from miles! miles! miles! away..! Lots of people came out to see us, despite the FREEZING temperatures last night, but we’re really glad that you all did.  Tonight, we’re starting out on Wood Street at 5:30pm, and making our way around more of the village, finishing off tomorrow evening.  But check out our website for full route details, Santa Tracking and also a LIVE video of our trip out! 100% of the money donated by you in all of our activities go directly to next year’s Carnival and Sports Day.  For more information, please check out the ‘Your donations’ section of our website .

Santa Claus is coming… to Doddington!! Well, we know that on Christmas Day Santa will be visiting EVERY house in the ENTIRE WORLD, but we’re talking specifically about him coming to visit the boys and girls of Doddington ahead of the big day, mostly to find out what everyone would like for Christmas. As mention in our previous blog post , we’ve booked him for a tour of Doddington on the 8th, 9th and 10th of December this year.  But here’s the thing… YOU CAN SEE WHERE SANTA IS, and find out how long it’ll be before he comes to your house!! How? Well… the kind elves have lent us one of Santa’s tracking units, and our Carnival IT-Geeks have attached this to our website, meaning that all you have to do, is go to the Doddington Carnival website ( www.doddingtoncarnival.co.uk ) on your computer, laptop, tablet or smart phone, and you’ll see a map of where Santa is right now!  As we drive him through the village, the map will auto-update and show his latest location! Magic!

Every year, we, at the Doddington Village Sports and Carnival committee, put in a call in with the Big Guy with the red suit and white beard, and ask him (very politely) if we could show him around Doddington, and do a little meet n’ greet with the Naughty and Nice children of the village. As always, he’s super-keen to make his presence heard with some very loud Christmassy anthems to get everyone into the holiday mood, and who are we to deny him? So, we’re already busy preparing the Sleigh, dotting the Christmas i’s and crossing the festive T’s, and generally getting ready for the Santa Run 2017 ! We’ll be publishing routes on telegraph poles. on our website and Facebook Page , etc, in more detail, but essentially, we’ll be showing Santa the sights on the following nights: Friday 8th December Saturday 9th December Sunday 10th December Keep an eye and ear out for us. And definitely come out and say hello to Santa!

We. LOVE. Doddington Diary! We do. We loved the old Doings, and we were sad to see it go. BUT NOW, a new team of ‘Newsletter Ninjas’ are picking-up their word processors, ripping old the old and cutting-out a new future for our village mutterings. With a team filled fill of (volunteer!) experts, the first newsletter is due out in November 2017, which we know everyone is excited about, so it’s not long until the Doddington Diary is a regular thing to land on your doormat. Their website is over at www.doddingtondiary.co.uk – PLEASE help support them – adverts, columns, jokes, gossips, whatever – send them in, as I’m sure that they’d love to hear from you!  Let’s all help them make a fantastic start to the new Doddington Diary!

Sounds strange to have a title of ‘Another year done!’, given that we’re only part-way through October, but in Carnival-years, we’re now into the planning of the next one! For us, our Annual General Meeting, held earlier this month, marks the end of one year and the start of another, which we’re planning on being even more fantastic than last year. This year. You get it. The committee has a couple of new folks and says goodbye to some others, but by and large, we’re good.  The ‘officers’ were re-voted and the same ugly mugs are in the same roles as this time last year, which is good not only from a consistency point of view, but also from the fact that the rest of the team think that things are working well enough to vote them back in. We’ll be unveiling the new theme for the 2018 Carnival very shortly, so that should get people’s thoughts flowing in terms of what to dress up as, or what floats will look like. But first up, is the Santa Run 2017 – we’ve spoken to the Big Man and he...

Another Carnival day has been and, quite quickly…. gone! That sounds like a very obvious thing to say, but having helped work on it for my first complete year now, it sort of sneaks up on you, and then dashes away again, until next year.  But then, having said that, there’s still lots of ‘stuff’ on my “to-do” list that I want and need to do, to tidy up from the weekend’s efforts.  For me, personally, I have: Winners details to put up onto the Doddington Carnival website Facebook posts to draft and send (and then Share, Share, SHARE!) Emails to thank stall holders (that I’ve been harrassing for weeks!) …and lots more. Lots of the others on Team Doddington have other things in their “to-do” lists, whether it’s counting this, folding and tidying that, etc.,  so the day might be over, but it’s not over-over yet. One of the post-Carnival-Day jobs that the village doesn’t see. Our chaps taking down the signs in the village… and still smiling! People I speak to about the Dodding...

So, don’t know if you’re aware, but the Doddington Village Sports and Carnival is on this weekend! The whole of the Carnival committee have been flat-out, getting ready for the big day. This is only my second year helping out, and I’m constantly amazed at the list of jobs that need doing, in order for a few lorries to drive slowly through the village, followed by a bunch of children running races in the afternoon. Obviously, there’s LOTS more to it than that, and that’s why the people of Doddington love the carnival as much we do.  In fact, we get visitors from Chatteris, March, Wimblington, Manea and more, all coming to the village and seeing what they’re missing out on, by living elsewhere!  We have a GREAT sense of community in this little village. But, sometimes we need help.  We know we make it look easy and all, but the truth is that it takes a lot of people to pull this all off, and that’s where you come in. If you want to help, even a little bit, just let us know....

The Doddington Village Sports and Carnival committee is a great team to work with, but like many other groups, we have had our fair share of issues in communicating within our 20+ team. We would use email, SMS and more recently, WhatsApp, to send questions, comments and reminders within the group, and with a group larger than about 4 or 5, this can start to get a little out of control. Take for example, a simple emailed question about the cost of entry to the event, from me to Erica, the Treasurer, but I might have CC'd Jason the Chairman on it, for his reference. Erica might 'Reply All' to the email, but add Ian onto it as well, as he may has asked that question separately. But then Jason replies, asking to confirm the opening time is 13:30 . Ian replies to this, and soon a different conversation begins. Each time, emails are getting longer and longer, and the history of each thread of the conversation is carried around with the reply at each stage, meaning that, as a reci...

The Doddington Carnival and Sports Day isn’t far off, and Team Carnival are out pounding the streets of the village once again, in a bid to sell Programmes and Raffle Tickets ahead of the big day. Programmes are 50p each, and is your free entry per adult to the Sports Fields with it. In addition, keep your programme handy to see if you win the Lucky Programme draw! Raffle Tickets are £1 each, an d the prizes are as follows: 3rd Prize is £50 2nd Prize is £100 1st Prize is £150 We’ve  divided up the village into sections and someone will be knocking on your door soon, if not already.  But if you’ve missed us, then head on over to The Three Tuns , where you can get yours, or buy them at the Sports Field on Saturday 1st July. Good luck!

YES! It’s that time again! You may have been resting, or having a lazy Sunday (Father’s Day) morning in bed, but ‘Team Carnival’ were out in force, getting the bunting up around the village, which is very definitely a sign that the Sports and Carnival Day is definitely getting closer! We started at 07:30 this morning and it’s taken until 11:30 to stretch-out all of the bunting we have around the place.  (Admittedly, we did stop for a quick breather and a drink half-way through, but we think that’s acceptable!)  The sun, however, was relentless – all morning it was beating down on us! Luckily, we were sun-creamed-up! The guys in the cage are up there actually doing the fixing of the bunting to houses, poles and wires, and the rest of us were on the ground helping to direct traffic, as at times, the tele-hoist occupied most of the road! Not so bad if the odd car wants to squeeze by, but artic lorries are a little more of a problem!   A little teamwork a...

Photograph Competition! Are you the next accidental David Bailey? Can you take a fantastic photo on Carnival day? Check your phone snaps – you could be the winner! We’re looking for the best photo taken on the Saturday 1st July 2017, and one that fully shows the day off to it’s best. You may not be the best ‘technical’ photographer, nor have the best camera equipment, but we all know that sometimes those accidental snaps are the best.  You know, those phone or snappy-cam shots when you weren’t trying to take the perfect picture. The prize for this year’s Photograph Competition, has been generously donated by the Wimblington Photography Society, and is as follows: A FULL COMPLIMENTORY SEASON MEMBERSHIP to the Wimblington Photography Society There are two winners places available: The Public’s Choice The Expert’s Choice All photography submitted will go onto the website, allowing the public to vote for their preferred photograph, but the folks at the Wimblington Photog...

Hello and welcome to our brand new blog! For those of you that may not know what this means, it’s basically a place whereby we can keep you posted with the news and information on the Doddington Village Sports and Carnival, based in Doddington, Cambridgeshire, UK.  We still have our website ( www.doddingtoncarnival.co.uk ), and we will keep adding information on what is happening for the carnival and sports day on there, but this is to try to give you more of an insider’s angle on it all. Because the Doddington Village Sports and Carnival is so great, and attended by so many, it’s easy to forget that the small team that run it are doing so in their spare time.  Lots of fundraising events, planning, discussions and so-on, everything takes a year to plan for the next! We’re hoping to give you a glimpse of what goes on within the committee, as well as share some of the successes that we’ve had out of it. So, be sure to check back regularly, and we’ll try to keep the infor...