Report of Meeting held on September 2nd 2010

Craster Women’s Institute Meeting Thursday 2nd September.

Knights of armour come in many forms.  Ours arrived carrying an accordion and a keyboard.  Craster W.I was very grateful when our relatively new vicar agreed to be our replacement speaker for the September meeting.  He had been instructed by our president Rosemary Gibbs to “entertain us” and he certainly did that.  We were presented with an hour of music and reminiscences.
 Music plays an important part in the lives of a great many people and it was evident that this was the case with Philip Harret.  Apparently his grandfather was a piano tuner by trade and one of his jobs was to tune the piano of a certain Eric Coates.  Philip himself has had piano lessons since the age of eight and was presented with an accordion on his eighteenth birthday.  His enthusiasm shone through the whole of his act.  We were entertained by a selection of pieces played on the keyboard and the accordion.  One of the highlights was surely his rendition of the “Battle March of Delhi” This Victorian piano piece is an example of "descriptive fantasia," in which the sheet music contains references to the various events being represented (here, it is the relief of Delhi).  Eg we were informed that the clock at the great Mogul Palace struck four.
     As the evening drew on Philip even burst into song and encouraged us to sing along with him finishing with a rendition of “In a Monastery Garden”

Craster WI have a busy few weeks in front of us as we have invitations from two local W.I.s, a coffee morning and a trip to Beamish to look forward to.  The competition is a really close contest this year and there are not many points separating the top contenders.  Fiona Craster obtained first place with her Victorian Vesta Case.  Sybil Dawson was second and Ann Mallen third.

Meeting Reports