Marketeers Carnival Club

The Cupboard Monster
Official News Letter of the world’s biggest homeless carnival club

MARKETEERS CARNIVAL CLUB

Chairman: Steve Wright Captain: Alan Windsor Treasurer: Dave Kirk Jnr Secretary: Adrian Horne

Hello there, hope everyone is ok, as you can imagine it has been a busy few months for the officers of the carnival club.

As you will all know, back in April we received notice from the landlord of the Halfway Inn to vacate the premises. Since that time we have been busy in meetings with solicitors, bank managers, members of the carnival committee and of course each other.

At the EGM which was held late April at the Bar 27, the whole club made the decision that we should leave the Halfway Inn as soon as possible and find a new place to build. Obviously with funds needed to help build the new shed, another vote was taken and It was proposed that this year the club will look at reducing the size of the entry (this was to divert as much funds as possible into the shed relocation fund and secure the future of the club) this again was agreed by all persons there.

Since that date, the club has secured a plot of land in which we can build for this year (in moorland next to Pentathlon CC) but unfortunately due to the size of the property, we will only be able to build the cart 60’ long (lorry and Generator unit). At a recent meeting, the club agreed to this and this year’s entry will be built at the Moorland site.

Since the EGM a small minority of the club has been working extremely hard to get the site at the Halfway cleared of our property, the response to this has been majorly disappointing for all involved. To achieve our goal of clearing our site, moving to Bristol road and still entering the stage show and carnivals, the club needs as much help as possible from as many people who can get there, there’s no technical work involved, just manual labour, and a gang of 8-10 guys simply cannot do it on there own. Therefore if you are available please please come and help us in what Chunk has described as ‘our darkest hour’ if you want to know when people are at either of the sites please contact me (number below)

As well as the movement of all our belongings, the club has also received prices from various companies to dismantle our shed and re-erect at the Bristol road site, as soon as a lease has been signed by the club we can start work on the new site. And hope to have it ready for use late 09/early 2010. However we have recently received bad news this time from the bank in respect that they won’t lend us the money we need to pay for it, therefore the club has made the decision to place a large sum of money from the cart and stage budgets into the shed building fund and also to double our fundraising efforts.

With this in mind, the club has founded a buy a brick scheme. These bricks will be professionally engraved and built into a special part of the new shed at the Bristol Road site (all details attached). The company we are using is a local company who have also engraved sponsored bricks for
Coventry City F.Cs Ricoh Arena and Glasgow Celtic F.Cs Celtic Park Stadium. We feel that this venture will allow more people to help raise funds for the clubs new shed, and also allow people to club together to buy a part of Marketeers History.

As you are aware, the club also has an interest free loan scheme running (details available on www.marketeerscc.co.uk).

The club would like to offer a massive thank you to everyone that has so far contributed to the shed relocation fund, without your generosity the club would not have been able to progress as far as we have. All persons that have already donated monies to Marketeers cc will receive a brick courtesy of the club.

On a personal note, I would like to give a massive thanks to both Mike West and Gary Ridgement for their invaluable help during the last couple of months.

In other news, the club has also been busy fundraising, the Cabaret was another successful night for the clubs coffers and the club also took on some stewarding over a 4 day period in Bruton.

Both were hard work, but very worthwhile with a lot of money being earned for the shed building fund.

The club also took a trip to The Railway in Meare (the home of Masqueraders CC) for a cup swap night,
25 – 30 of us jumped aboard a couple of fun buses and headed into the unknown. The night that followed was one that could not have been planned, guppy unable to speak by 9pm, Grover naked (not by his own choice) by 10pm, a butter fight and of course the chance to irritate chunk for a solid 5 hours. All this whilst the Masqueraders stood around open mouthed watching our antics. Dan Cullen saw the landlord of the Railway in Glastonbury later that weekend and he informed him that our club drunk more in one night than Masqueraders managed over the whole of carnival. Not bad going.

A night out was also enjoyed to celebrate the birth of Adrian & Liz Hornes first child. This took place on the late May Bank Holiday Sunday, with Manchester United already crowned Champions of England for the 18th time, we were all able to sit down and enjoy the football without any angst or knots in the stomach. An enjoyable afternoon watching the football passed and we soon made our way around town stopping at various watering holes that took our fancy. A good night was had by all Adrian said he would like to thank all who turned up by buying them all a pint at Cavaliers pram race.

Right I think that’s about it for now. If and when anything happens on the shed relocation front, I’ll keep everyone updated.

Once again a big thank you to people who have already donated to the fund, without your help and support we wouldn’t be in the position we are in today.

Mastermind – the next Quiz night is being held Friday 17th July at the Blake Arms Hotel Function room, please make an effort to attend and help to raise the club some much needed funds.
Cabaret Showtime – The next Cabaret is Sat 19th September; once again, we will be looking for extra help from all aspects of the club on the night of the Cabaret. This is vitally important as the last cabaret was such a success due to the help and support we received from all aspects of the club. Please please make a note of the date in your diaries and come down to lend us a hand.
Upcoming Bars – The club have bars on the following dates - 11th July, 8th August, 19th Sept & 27th September if anyone is available to help at any of these, please contact a committee member
Somer-rock – 25th July 2009 @ Bridgwater Sports & Social club, we are still looking for stewards and Bar staff to help at this event, if you can help in anyway please contact either Alan Windsor or Steve Wright
Sponsored Lorry Pull – in an effort to raise some much needed funds, the club will be doing a lorry pull on August 15th. Andy Vallender is currently liaising with the relative police authorities to
50th Anniversary celebrations – a date and a venue have been booked, Saturday 5th June 2010 @ Chilton Trinity School, we have invited a guest speaker (who has agreed) and also booked a comedian. Prices will be made available very shortly.

This Month’s edition focuses on our 2 of our more rotund contingent, Daniel Cullen & Andrew ‘Derick’ White
Dan Cullen

Name – Dan Cullen

Reason you joined – my boy best friend and I decided upon a new challenge (as we had buggered up every other club we been in) and came along to the Halfway in early 1998

Involvement with Club – Extremely bad at welding, shouting a lot and trying to eat more than Wrighter and Gadger put together

Favourite memory of your time with the Club – When something that I welded actually managed to stay together for more than 32.5 seconds

Ambition for the future – to replace welding with blu tack, it’s a lot stronger than anything I’ve ever done!

Reason you joined – being from Highbridge it was my dream to follow in the footsteps of Dapman and Dobbin

Involvement with Club – Drinking Diet coke and putting up with all of Dans Bulls**t

Favourite memory of your time with the Club –When I was seriously ill in hospital with Pneumonia and Grover got me the worlds best ‘get well soon’ card

Ambition for the future – scotch eggs to be given away on the NHS and for chunky dunster to be voted in as conservative mayor of Highbridge

2009 Club Officers
President – Gerrard ‘Chunky’ Dunster
Chairman – Steve Wright –
Captain – Alan Windsor –
Treasurer – David ‘Jones’ Kirk Jnr –
Secretary –Adrian Horne–

Thanks for reading the newsletter, I hope it was an enjoyable read and informative, hope to see you soon – Alan Windsor