There was an atmosphere of tense excitement and eager anticipation, with just a little trepidation amongst some of the teams, in a packed Village Hall on the evening of the Tournament.

Mr Tony Rye opened the proceedings by introducing the question person, Miss Margaret LeMare, who commented with some feeling that she was question master. Mr Rye’s immediate riposte, “Miss LeMare, you’re not switched on!” turned out later to be a comment on the microphone arrangements.

Unflustered, Miss LeMare went on to do an excellent job, as always, providing questions that were both interesting and suitably taxing. The competitors brought to their task an amazing fund of general knowledge and a witty commonsense that enabled Mr Roger Lambert, for example, to answer that the reason why the Queen had been into hospital recently was to visit Princess Diana, and Mr John Smith to state that the venue of the S.D.P. conference had been a railway train.

There was a_slight change to the proceedings this year with, in addition to individual questions, 60 seconds for each team to answer as many questions as it could. The Folk Dance team visibly brightened when told that it had 60 minutes, but to their chagrin, this was quickly corrected. It was a close fought battle with every team doing credit to its organisation. In the end the Parish Church team could not quite hold on to the trophy: it scored an excellent 45 points, but was pipped at the post by the Horticultural Society with a superb 52. So a somewhat embarrassed Tony Rye had to present the cup to his own team., with the hope that it would not go down with blackspot or mildew.

Those of us who were present had a thoroughly enjoyable evening and would like to thank all those who took part, the officials who ensured that it went so smoothly and the Youth Club for providing most welcome refreshments.

R.A.