Sheila Dibnah 2009

Group Convenor, Carol Hill, opened the meeting and welcomed members and guests; she read a report from Fotherby WI on the absorbing course on bird song our bursary winner had enjoyed at Denman College. North Somercotes WI acted as hostesses, welcoming our guest speaker and making sure she was well looked after. Saltfleetby WI organised the raffle with a range of lovely prizes for the lucky winners. Tetney WI organised the welcome refreshments and Utterby WI delivered the vote of thanks to Sheila Dibnah.

After her talk, Sheila Dibnah judged the competition and stayed to enjoy the raffle, refreshments and chatting to members.

The competition, conceived as a tribute to Fred Dibnah, was ably stewarded by Manby & Grimoldby WI; WIs were invited to create:-

There were no restrictions placed on the competition in order to encourage imaginative entries. This strategy certainly worked! The entries were inspired and in judging, Sheila chose what she felt best represented Fred, in consequence rating Saltfleetby WI's entry as 1st, Utterby's as 2nd and North Thoresby's 3rd. Pictures of the competition entries and other happy memories of an excellent evening are below.

"The Somercotes Group Meeting which my husband and I went to last night was a delight. Maybe it was something to do with the fact that we are fellow Lancastrians (in origin - we now consider ourselves as much Lincolnshire as Lancashire after 43 years here) that we found Sheila Dibnah so wonderfully entertaining.
"Her strong Bolton accent was just like Fred's, so her recreation of his voice and conversation was uncanny and so nostalgic if you used to enjoy his absorbing programmes about all sorts of things from sky-high factory chimneys to steam engines to architecture. Sheila added another dimension - of Fred as an intuitive and resourceful engineer who, alarmed by the prospect of having no braces to ensure the safety of his hired morning suit on the day of his investiture at Buckingham Palace, punched holes round the waistline to allow the addition of blue steeplejack-type rope as makeshift braces ... of getting hot water out of his steam engine at the end of a mucky day's travelling to provide a tin bath for the whole family in a secluded part of a pub car park. Sheila was just partaking of this when two guys jumped out of the bushes with cameras - to photograph the steam engine ... and so it went on and on. Marvellous.
"I had some inkling of fellow feeling when I did our WI's entry in the flower arrangement competition. I plundered my husband's workshop to put nuts and bolts and a spanner around the flowers. I thought to myself as I did it, bet Fred would have enjoyed that! We certainly did."

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