The Paper Boat Race Day in Pencester.

30 June 2008

 

The Annual Paper Boat race, once the brainchild of Town Centre Management, was revived at the weekend by Terry Nunn and the London Road Community Forum. The idea was to raise as much money as possible for the Pilgims Hospice. Sadly the event ,despite the brave efforts of Terry and crew, was poorly attended ,even though there had been a good level of publicity for it , and even though newly sponsored by the Dover Mercury. This event, for the nautically aspirational, doesnt appear to have much life left in it unless it can radically re-invent itself. Full marks though to those guys who always turn up to these types of occasions around town to try and make them work. Guys like Ian Lillford, Stewart Dimmock, Roger Walkden, Chris Precious, Nigel Collor and so on. It's always the same faces in the photos because its always the same people who try to make these things work, by giving their support.

The picture above shows Team Tory in action...but hark what's this I see..yours truly's daughter in there with the Team Tory..well I never! But it's all great fun and her boat is already in the lead as you can see, and this is not biased reporting either!

On the left we have James Skilling, a political science student ,who came to the event with next man along Charlie Elphicke, the Conservative candidate for the Dover and Deal seat,then Briony Boland Medical Student in waiting, then the ever good humoured Cllr Roger Walkden, and Chris Precious coming up on the rails. Watching on from the raging torrent below is waderman Ian Lillford.

 

Deputy Mayor Sue Jones opened proceedings and is always a joy to see and photograph. Here she is with that man Charlie again, with Charlie clutching a gaggle of small boats in his hand as he prepares for the off. Prior to any race of course is always a tense time for those taking part, one needs to limber up mentally for the great task ahead!

The picture on the right shows two councillors together...Ronnie Philpott and Roger Walkden. Ronnie is one of these excellent background workers and has her finger in many an organisational pie, which is always vital in small town community life.Roger of course is head of the Dover Loyalty Scheme which is highly active in it's support for local business.
What can we say about this man? Yes on the left there it's Ian Lillford himself, and all will know about Ian's passion for the river and indeed for the town itself. Ian is always on hand to lend very cheerful support for any and every event and is full of enthusiasm for same. Well done Ian as ever...good to see you again at the weekend.

Also of course a big well done to Terry Nunn and the London Road Community Forum. Ive just seen a post from Terry in our Letters Club section mentioning that £197 was raised for the charity. Excellent!

Your Comment is always welcome..see below.

• Jeane Trend-Hill, Essex wrote:
  Lovely photos, looks like it was a great day. Nice to 'see' Ian and Roger again.
• Terry Nunn wrote:
  Thanks for putting that up Paul. You are so right in what you say. I really get fed up with people complaining that someone or other has got their picture in the papers again. Yes, but it's only because they have the initiative to get out there and do something. Dover would be a poorer place without them.
  
  Take Stewart Dimmock for instance, he's always willing to lend a hand to any organisation. Steadfastly reliable, that's Stewart.
  
  Terry
• Nathan, Dovser wrote:
  Hi... briefly passed the Boatrace on Saturday... was working so couldn't pop down for a long period of time. For what I saw, seemed to be a great day and that Pencester Boat Race seemed to show a lot of interest. Personally I think this is what DOVER needs... townfolk like the mention Stewart, Terry,Mandie,Karole, Jan,PaulB,Sue J, Ronnie etcwho are willing to participate in organising events for the town and making it like the boatrace be successfull.
  
  I am fully supportive of any cause like this
  
• Sheila Amos, Dover wrote:
  Hi Terry
  Its a pity you did'nt incorporate it with our Funday, you know you would have been more than welcome
  Sheila
• Terry Nunn wrote:
  That was considered Shiela. However, it would have meant tying up the pa system for about an hour and a half. It wouldn't have fitted alongside your own activities. The original idea was to incorporate it into the Hospice Fete but that fell through.
  
  Next year it will be bigger and different.
  
  When is the PF Fun Day by the way?
  
  Terry
• Terry Nunn wrote:
  Sorry Sheila, latent dyslexia rises again!
  
  Terry
• Guest 641 wrote:
  Well Done Terry, Ian, Nigel, Stewart, Chris, Ronnie, Roger and all who put a lot of hard and conscientious work into this annual event, Dover would be a lot poorer without the support that you give freely and willingly. Great Pictures PaulB!
• howard mcsweeney1 wrote:
  i do not know why it was so poorly attended.
  i spoke to many people locally in the week leading up, everyone agreed it sounded a right hoot.
  didn't see any of them there though.
  
  centre of the town, saturday noon with good weather!!
  
  it does not do justice to terry and his volunteers.
• Guest 656 wrote:
  Unfortunately I missed the boat race for the first time this year. Well Done Terry and all, Wow! my daughter BrionyB on the Tory team that must have made her Dad's day lol! I hope everyone had a great time, I wonder who won?
• Terry Nunn wrote:
  I think you've put your finger on it Howard. A paper boat race is just old hat. Playing poo sticks or paper boats doesn't match up to Nintendo or Playstation. What we need to do next year is, to use the parlance, something "value added".
  
  Watch this space! I'll be in touch!
  
  Terry
• Guest 663 wrote:
  Photos look good I'm sure it was enjoyed by all sorry was not able to get there but well done all.
• sheila amos, Dover wrote:
  Hi Terry,
  I daresay we would have fitted you in, do not like to turn anyone away, our FUNDAY is on the 12th July, week Saturday, starting at 10am opened by The Admiral Lord Boyce
  Sheila
• Johnboy, Dover wrote:
  Unfortunately as per usual in this town no publicity was given to this particular event which I would have attended if I had known about it. But why should I be suprised eh? The cost of installing a notice board sited perhaps near the town hall would probably break the bank and use up countless hours in meetings and commitees and sub-commitees proving the idea worthless. It strikes me that a small group of locals are privy to this sort of information while the rest of the population are kept in the dark. Bizzare really when there are those who wish to bring everyone closer together in this town.
  Ok I'll try once more then.
  Please can we have a public notice board advertising events so that everyone can see what is happening?
• Terry Nunn wrote:
  First off Johnboy I totally agree with you about the public notice board. The DTC one by the Town Hall just has "official" notices. The DDC have some "Community" boards at various places. I have used these in the past. However I have been "warned" about them. Apparently they are booked up well into next year which baffles me as they always seem to have very ancient info on them! It is a fly posting offence to use them without authorisation.
  
  As to publicity, what else could I have done? Although the Dover Express were not involved this year they did mention it. It was in the Mercury during the run up and on page 3 of that week's edition and on the front page of the Extra. I flogged it to death on on here and the other two Forums.
  
  
  Terry
• Mandie, Dover wrote:
  Terry I can empathise with what you are saying. there is only so much you can do.
  
  Now take us and Carnival. There are huge yellow signs all over town.
  There are posters.
  
  It's advertised on here and other local forums,
  It's on our website.
  
  The papers cover it and advertise it in the run up.
  
  All local radio stations plug it, and yet there are always some who say
  
  " I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS ON" Where have they been MARS??
  
  A community events notice board would be good. It would give tourists as well as locals chance to see what is on, at least it is another tool to help with promotion of an event.
  
  Oh!! Just in case anyone doesn't know.
  
  
  CARNIVAL IS THIS SATURDAY JULY 5TH
  
  6PM STARTING AT RIVER.
  
• Barry Williams, Dover wrote:
  I sympathise too.
  
  For Hellfire Corner we had stories in both main local newspapers for the 2/3 weeks before and before that. We had stories in the freebies and even an ad in one. Plus on-line website information, leaflets being distribution in the town and at local and national (1940's) events.... We also booked the Community information boards and had notices up .... I dont know if it was broadcast on the radio as I didnt listen in but they got their press releases too....Local tv stations were also informed and as far as I know they ignored us!
  
  We still had people say they did not know it was on!!!
  
  Even some (extended) members of my family said they 'forgot' or didnt know it was on....
  
  No wonder I am bald!!!
• johnboy, Dover wrote:
  I can understand the frustration of those who do their best to advertise events in the town but to labour a point I still think that the good old fashioned notice board cannot be beaten.
  As one who doesn't choose to buy a local newspaper that particular avenue is closed off for me to gleen information in respect of what events are lined up. Even if I did it would involve scrutinising the paper on every page and column something which I would find a pain to do.
  As regards websites, the target audience is relatively small in this regard and would only appeal to a small number of people.
  TV and radio? I hate local radio and local tv is so depressing and badly made full of inane stories regarding lost cats and charity parachute jumps by ninety year olds that once more I would still remain clueless.
  Years ago well before I was born towns like Dover had a town cryer. These people no longer exist so the only foolproof way to let the locals what is happening in their area is a notice board.
  It wouldn't have to be interactive with a touch screen merely a securely house piece of fibre board in which A4 would be stuck to.
• Mandie, Dover wrote:
  I understand what you are saying John boy, but
  
  Even if there were a notice board, there would still be people who wouldn't read it, and still complain they knew nothing about the event.
  
  I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but those of us who organsie events can only do so much in the way of advertising, and to be fair we are all doing the best we can with the resources available to us.
• Guest 651 wrote:
  Agree, ditto, ditto, ditto.....
  
  We had about 1,400 people to the Heights last month, people from as far afield as Yorkshire, Suffolk and Isles of Wight I have heard over the past couple of years... then people local say they didn't know !!!
  
  An ideal location would be to replace the boards on the front of the Museum that suffered with vandalism as they are now gone. Perhaps we (as the various groups) should approach DHB to have something on the Seafront ??
• Roger, Dover wrote:
  There are two big notice/advertising boards by the Market Square that could be used; one is by the kebab shop and the other is close to where Horace works when the cruise-ships are in.
  
  I asked DDC if I could have one side of one to promote the members of the scheme (after all it is promoting Dover and it's businesses) but that was met with a flat NO.
  
  In many cases, people simply don't read the "bleedin obvious" and miss so much.
  
  
  
  
  Roger
• Mandie, Dover wrote:
  That is pretty typical of the response from DDC. They are only interested in putting on their own events, and sod everyone else.
  
  Back in March/April I offered on behalf of DCAL to take the new tourism brochure out to carnivals across the country. I was told someone would be in touch, and to this day no one has ever bothered.
  
  DDC simply do not care about Dover in my opinion. A great opportunity was missed by them to promote our town and events, and despite having mentioned the fact that I have never received any reply to my offer, still no-one came forward from DDC to take me up on what I had suggested.
  
  I am disgusted in them for that.
  
  Wonder where that brochure is right now!!!