Flower show was blooming success

COVE Burgh Hall opened its doors for the popular annual village flower show.
Hundreds of garden enthusiasts flocked to the hall with produce for the competitions or just to see what other gardeners have been doing.
The floral arrangements were spectacular, and although the weather had taken its toll this year, entries for the floral categories were greatly appreciated by everyone.
Home baking attracted its usual large entry with fierce competition and the children’s categories were well competed by youngsters of all age groups.
The show is organised by the ladies of the local RNLI Guild and it is traditional that all the entries are sold after the prize-giving to raise funds for the life saving charity.
When all the sums were done at the end of the day, the branch had raised more than £1,400 for the lifeboat charity.
Chairman Jean Gaughan said: “We were very pleased with the turn out and delighted with the amount raised.”
Special guest for the day was Tamsin Ferrier from the RNLI head office and she took the opportunity to talk to the audience and explaining something of the work of the charity before the prize-giving.
This year there were more trophies than in recent years and competition was fierce.
The Silvers Marine Trophy for the overall points winner of the day went to Jeanette Caldwell who had also won three of the six trophies in the floral section.
She won the Beechgrove Garden Cup for a variety of cut flowers, the Cafe at Kilcreggan Salver for a small flower arrangement and the Janet Hamilton Rosebowl for a flower arrangement in a basket.
Jeannie Easton won the Peninsula Magazine trophy for an arrangement of foliage and berries, Marion Burns took the Lovedale Trophy for a flower arrangement on the theme of “A Royal Event” and Jane Davies won the much coveted Kay Turner Cup for a single rose.
The Billy Cowan Memorial Trophy for vegetables classes 14 to 28 was won by M Hardie, the Dorothy Geddes Trophy for four fresh herbs went to Liz Taylor and the Dorothy and Alan Will Trophy for an arrangement of six vegetables was won by Alan Payne.
Gwyn Simon was this year’s winner of the Friendship Cup for jams and jellies and the Ardardan Cup for home baking went to Catherine Tucket.
The RNLI Trophy for children aged between 10 and 14 years went to Ryan Barbour, the RNLI Trophy for children aged five to nine years was won by Jessica Noble and four-year-old Carly O’Donnell won the RNLI Trophy for children aged between two and four years.
The ladies of the village branch of the SWRI took control of the tearoom as is their custom and did a roaring trade throughout the afternoon.
The committee would like to thank them for their continued support which is greatly appreciated.
The next event on the local RNLI fund raising agenda will be the annual, Christmas Card sale which is held in the Cove Sailing Club.