A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR MEMBERS

On behalf of the Cambridgeshire Cat Club Committee, may I wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. 

The club has suffered a few ups and downs over the last year; the biggest “down”, of course, was the cancellation of our show due to the foot and mouth crisis.  However, we are on track for Saturday 23 March 2002 at Wood Green so we look forward to seeing you there. 

The show schedules will be a week or two later going out this year, but copies will be sent automatically to all members.

On the subject of the show, some of you may have heard rumour that the show will be moving to Kettering in 2003.  We are now able to confirm this.  Wood Green are unfortunately unable to honour our date in 2003 so an alternative venue had to be found.  The good news is that we will be able to take more cats at Kettering and have more stalls.  The venue is easily reached from the A14 and is approximately mid-way between the A1 at Huntingdon and the junction of the M1/M6 motorway.  We hope to see as many of your as possible there.

Congratulations!

Our heartiest congratulations go to Nicola Bass, a long-time member of the club, on her tremendous success at the Supreme.  Her Red Burmese boy won the ultimate accolade and became Supreme UK Grand Champion Oakenshield Buster Bertie. 

Congratulations also go to Mr and Mrs Trevor Young whose cream Burmese neuter, Cracker, who is Bertie’s dad, “did the double” and became UK Grand Champion & UK Grand Premier Traviesco Corncracker.  Cracker was also Best Burmese at the National two weeks later. 

Well done to all concerned, including Bertie’s breeder, Mrs C Kempe.

We ran a Best Decorated Pen competition at the Supreme, offering rosettes to the winners and runners-up in both the Pedigree and Non-Pedigree sections.  And the winners are …..

Pedigree section, 1^st Mrs Linda Ward,  Runner-up Mrs Carolyn Clark. 

Non-Pedigree section, 1^st Mrs Julia Morton,  Runner-up Miss Jill Hurn. 

Well done to all, hopefully you have received your special rosettes. 

Finally, congratulations go to Mark Pearman, a long-term committee member, on becoming a probationer judge on the Self Persian BAC.  Well done, Mark, we will be seeing you on the other side of the trolley in 2002!

Monthly Meetings

Due to the falling numbers attending the monthly meetings, the committee has reluctantly taken the decision to reduce the number of meetings in 2002.  Dates for the forthcoming year are:

14 January – Show Meeting.  If you are willing to help at the show in March, please come along.

11 March – Peter Lilburn from Novartis will be coming to talk about Program and it use in flea control and ringworm, and Fortekor, a newly licensed drug, and its use in chronic renal failure in cats.

8 April - Show Forum.  Come and air your views about the show. 

May/June – Meeting or outing; to be confirmed at a later date.  It has been suggested that we run a trip to London for the day, taking in the London Eye.  Please let Marion know as soon as possible if you would be interested.  Dates would depend on availability of tickets but it would have to be booked SOON.

July – Annual Garden Party.  Date to be confirmed. 

9 September – AGM

9 December – Christmas Party

Coach to the National

We had a full house on the coach to the National in December and everyone seemed to enjoy the day.  All the cats on the coach received a present from Santa, and on the way home there was mince pies, sausage rolls and wine for the humans.  The raffle raised in excess of £50 so a big thank-you to everyone for your support.  It does seem a little early to be talking about this already, but the coach and Fred, our superb driver, have already been booked for Saturday 14 December 2002.  Tickets will be in the region of £8-£8.50 (unless there is a huge rise in the cost of coach hire!) and it is never too early to book!  Tickets will be on a first-come-first-served basis and the maximum we can take is 53.

 e-mails …

If you would like to receive your Cam Chat and other news periodically, please let me have your correct e-mail address.

Cat of the Year Competition

Don’t forget to keep a tally of your GCCF show wins for the Cat of the Year Competition.  This ends on 23 February with results from the Coventry and Leicester and other GCCF shows held on that date.  Completed forms must be reach me by Saturday 9 March to be considered.  Please send to Iona Pettit. 30 Symonds Lane Linton Cambridge. CB1 6HY

Stewards’ Training Day

Those of us who steward at shows often have people say to us that they would like to have a go but would not have a clue what to do.  If you are one of those people, here is your chance!  The club will be holding a training day on Sunday 24 February for anyone interested in stewarding.  Gretta Hall-Tamlyn will be running the training day so please contact her on 01799-599684 if you would like a place.  The venue is yet to be confirmed but should be in the Great Chesterford area, south of Cambridge, close to the M11/A11. The cost will be £10 for the day, including lunch.  This will be an informal day with plenty of opportunity to handle some cats and gain knowledge of the paperwork involved.  Gretta ran one of these days a few years back which Graham and I attended.  We had only just begun showing cats and it was a very relaxed, enjoyable and informative day.  Of course, once you have gained the skills and know-how of stewarding, you could always volunteer to put it into practice at our show in March!

Year Book

Yes, this is the usual (now desperate) plea for items for the Year Book.  I had hoped to have it finished by now but it is still looking rather sparse.  So, if you do not want to read articles just written by me, please put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and send me your stuff.  Let me know your stories, poems, recipes, your successes, even how your came by your prefix – in fact, anything relevant and printable!  Adverts are available at £10 per page and I will even compile it for you free of charge!  Send to Iona Pettit. Contact first on 01223 893160

And finally ….

Just a reminder that membership fees have gone up for 2002.  They are Single £5.00, Joint £8.00, Junior £1.00 and became payable on 1 January.  Please send to Barbara.