Llysworney Weekend
This is a reminder to keep the weekend of 11th to 13th July free. Firstly on Friday 11th July there will be the Arts Festival. Then on Saturday 12th July a Hog Roast. To complete the weekend on Sunday 13th July there will be a Treasure Hunt followed by a BBQ. See full details below.

Friday 11th July
The Llysworney Performing Arts Festival takes place in St Tydfil's Church starting at 7.30pm. It will be a celebration of the great and varied talent we are so lucky to have in the village; covering music recitals, songs, drama and much more.

As always, space in the church will be at a premium so to be sure of your seat, get your tickets early. Tickets are £8 each for adults, £4 for children, which includes a glass of wine at the Cheese and Wine Event in the village marquee at The Paddocks after the performance.

Tickets are available from: Hilary Sheldon, David Edwards and Melanie Hurst.

Proceeds from the performance part of the ticket price will be divided between the LCA and Church Funds.

Saturday 12th July
There will be a Hog Roast and Disco in the village marquee at The Paddocks, starting at 7.30pm. Tickets are £10 each, which includes food, available from LCA members.

Sunday 13th July
Children’s Treasure Hunt with BBQ. Starting at The Paddocks 11.30am. Followed by informal BBQ starting at approx 1.30pm. Everyone bring their own food.

Carne Arms Charity Race Night
The Carne Arms will be holding a Charity race night on the 21st of July, horses and jockeys will be on sale for £2 each up until the event then you can bet on the night. The carne Arms will be putting on some free nibbles for the night, hope to see you all there. All money from the sale of horses and jockeys will go to the save the hospices fund.

Cinderella on Ice – Early Notification
The Llysworney Community Association is planning a theatre trip to see Cinderella on Ice on Saturday 20th December 2008 at 2.30 pm at the Millennium Centre Cardiff.

The Ice Show is performed by The Imperial Ice Stars, featuring World, European and National Championship Skaters. Cinderella on Ice is set to a sumptuous, magical score.

There are 49 seats available which will be sold on a first come first served basis. The price per ticket is £27.20 and the seats are in the raised stalls.

The Llysworney Community Association will be providing a coach to the Millennium Centre which will be free of charge. If you are interested please ring Hilary Sheldon.
Hilary Sheldon

Newsletter Deadline
The deadline for receiving contributions for the September 2008 Newsletter is 25th August 2008. Could everyone please send your contribution to me by that date. If the deadline is missed it will be published in the next month’s Newsletter.
Bryn Miles

Village AGM 19th May 2008 Chairperson’s Report 2008
Llysworney community association is one of a number of groups working and thriving within our community, there are book clubs, music groups, scouts, brownies, guides, little fish, bridge, rugby, soccer, the Church and other clubs too numerous to mention that all intersect with our lives here. As the Chair of the LCA I have the relatively easy job of listing the progress made by your committee, the events put on over the last year and planned for the future.

Last Year’s Village events
Since the present committee took over the reins of the LCA last May we have organised number of different events within the village.

Some of the LCA committee helped with the Open Gardens event in June, I am aware that this event was not organised by the LCA but nevertheless shows the community spirit of the village and is worth celebrating and recording as a very successful venture.

In July the villagers took to the lanes and byways of the Vale in a frenzy of sporting prowess with organised walks (some short, some even shorter) and cycle rides (some organised and on time some less organised and less on time) but all events were enjoyed and were followed by a superb lunch in the Carne Arms.

September saw the committee put on a Late Summer Marquee event in the grounds of the Carne Arms with beer and wine supplied by the Carne. The marquee events have always been popular and successful events and remain a firm favourite with the villagers, these marquee events are sure to be repeated year on year.

In October the committee, at relatively short notice organised an open forum on Llandow Newydd in the Parish Church of St Tydfil. This was very well attended and thanks are due to Martyn Hurst for clearly laying out what is known, and importantly, what is not known about the Llandow Newydd proposition. There was some discussion amongst the committee members whether the organisation of this meeting was the role of the LCA but in the end we were pleased to be able to facilitate discussion.

December saw the traditional events that the LCA has organised to great acclaim for many years, the tree was decorated and lit, a symbolic present was placed under the tree to remind us of Operation Christmas Child, (32 Christmas shoe boxes were sent to children in poor countries) Father Christmas visited in the Carne Arms and once again a heavenly host gathered in late December to sing Carols around the pond, drink mulled wine and eat mince pies. Thanks are due to Catharine Bray for allowing her kitchen to be used for this event and to Jim and Penny Churchman for mulling the wine. (Collection to Multiple Sclerosis Society).

More sports in early April when there was a village walk and pub lunch in the Carne and in the dying days of April the committee organised a Village Darts Tournament again in the Carne Arms.

A bird box, donated by The Vale of Glamorgan Council has been placed in the pines outside the church if you see any signs of activity please report to Bryn Miles who will include it in the newsletter.

This year’s Village events.
Whilst the LCA are happy to receive your plaudits for past events we would prefer to receive your support for the events that we have planned for the months ahead. What has your committee got lined up for the rest of the year?

In a first for this year the LCA has organised a full weekend of activity over the 11th-13th of July. To kick off we are delighted to announce the welcome return of the Llysworney Village Arts Festival on Friday July 11th. This (nearly) biannual event is a showcase for all the artistic talent within the village and will once again take place in the Church (for which once again Deo Gratia) the post theatre nibbles and drinks will be organised by this committee and will take place in the Marquee. Please check your newsletter for more information nearer to the date. The following day (12th July), more sports, we are trying to organise a golf day followed by a Hog Roast in the Marquee and to wrap up the weekend on the Sunday there will be a Children's treasure hunt and an informal (i.e bring your own meat etc) bar-b-que.

The village has not been entered into the best kept village competition this year as it was felt by the committee that Llysworney is a rural working village that has great beauty and some outstanding features but that it has been compared unfavourably in the past with villages which might be described as being prettier. Despite not entering this competition the LCA are keen to ensure that the village looks its best and will organise a village tidy up in the summer and in the autumn, details, as ever, in the newsletter.

Following on from the success of the history tour of the Vale we are exploring the possibilities of a history tour / talk at Nash Manor in September and in October we hope to repeat the Sports day (Village cycle and walk) but include some more challenging distances as well as the easier and more leisurely walks.

December will see the traditional activities that are the staple of the committee at this time of year Christmas tree, carols around the pond, Santa in the pub and in addition we have secured tickets for Cinderella on Ice in the Wales Millennium Centre. Please see your newsletter for more details of this and any other forthcoming events in and around Llysworney.

The LCA want to put on social events that will be well attended and cater to the entire demographic of Llysworney and to that end we distributed a questionnaire with the last edition of the village newsletter asking for your opinion. What do you want to see in terms of social events or village entertainment and how many would attend any given event. Please fill in the questionnaires and leave them with any of the committee members.

The Village Marquees
The village Marquees are now a number of years old, have been erected and dismantled by a highly trained band of village volunteers on countless occasions, have been through wind, rain and storm and are now showing their age. At the end of last summer the covers of one of the marquees were considered beyond economic repair and condemned. The committee have purchased a replacement cover and this will be put to the test in the first of the marquee events in July.

Llandow Community Council
Llysworney Community Association have reinforced contact with Llandow community council and the community council now regularly either attend meetings of the LCA or send in updates. As an example of this improved communication the LCA have allocated some time, during this AGM, for a report from Steve Huish, one of the Llandow Community Councillors living in Llysworney. The LCA will continue to forge links with Llandow Community Council

Finance
I refer you to the treasurer’s report but am happy to say that the LCA finances were handed over to the present committee in surplus and remain in a robust state. The purpose of the LCA is not to make money but to use what money we have in the interests of community social events.

Votes of thanks
It is my pleasure as chair of Llysworney Community Association to able to thank a number of people on behalf of the village and the LCA. You will have noticed that through this report the Carne Arms has been mentioned a number of times. James and Luke took over the running of the Carne Arms a year ago and we are delighted that they are doing well and are obviously enjoying being part of our community. A village like Llysworney is enhanced by a flourishing local pub and, in turn, a good number of villagers enhance the back bar and the dining room of the pub. Llysworney Community Association is happy to continue to work with the pub to everyone’s advantage. Particular thanks are due for the buffet supper yesterday to celebrate their first year.

Thanks are again due to Peter Leonard the vicar of St Tydfil’s for the generous way in which he allows the community to use the church. St Tydfil’s lies at the centre of our village and village life flows around the church and in and out of it’s doors, whether for prayer, arts festivals, choir practice or meetings; the villagers and the LCA are grateful for being allowed to use these facilities.

Thanks are due to the Booth family for allowing their paddock to be used for the various marquee events; it is more than generous of them to continue to allow the marquees to be erected in, and the villagers to traipse through, their garden.

Thanks in advance to Martyn Hurst for taking the driving role in the Llysworney Arts Festival, if previous years are anything to go by then it will be a resounding success.

Carols around the pond is always counted on as one of the LCA’s “bankers” a sure fire winner every year. It would not happen without the work put in by David Gordon and the rest of the Gordon family a very musical thanks to you.

The Llysworney Newsletter and Llysworney website are the means through which we communicate within and without the village and are the work of one man, Bryn Miles; thank you Bryn. I know that Bryn would also like me to mention that any and all contributions to the village newsletter are always welcomed. Results of rugby, darts, or bridge games, the deliberations of LaRGA, the thoughts of the various book clubs and the musings of poets, wine lovers and chefs all are welcome contributions to the village newsletter.

There are many others who contribute to the life of the village and deserve thanks, you know who you are and you should all give yourselves a pat on the back

Finally it is my pleasure to thank on your behalf the members of the Llysworney Community Association. The LCA committee members may seem a quiet and reserved bunch but I can assure you that there would be nothing to report in this AGM and no village events, without their unstinting service. You should be aware that if you agree to serve on the LCA your entire family is also co-opted and therefore thanks should also go to the committee member’s families who turn out tirelessly to help with everything that we put on. A particular vote of thanks goes to my fellow officers the LCA secretary Diane Bluck and the treasurer David Edwards both of whom work far harder than I and deserve twice the thanks.

Llysworney Community Association Committee
I am pleased to report that at the time of the last LCA meeting the committee members were all willing to continue for another year but we are always interested in new members, if any feel that they would like to contribute to the work of the LCA please see any of the committee members after the meeting.
Thank You
Andy Bray
Llysworney Community Association Chair
19th May 2008

Llysworney Community Association Year Planner
Listed below are the set events that are held in the village on a regular basis. New ideas are always welcome.

MARCH   Village walk.

APRIL Village tidy up.

MAY   Meal for the older residents of the village.

JUNE   Mid Summer soiree.

JULY   Family fun day (biannually). Go-Karting/breakfast/brunch.

SEPTEMBER   Village rounders or cricket (biannually). Village bike ride. Childrens treasure hunt.

OCTOBER   Arts festival (biannually).

NOVEMBER   Village tidy up.

DECEMBER   Advent Sunday-decorate Christmas tree. Carols by the pond.