Features and Reviews

A day of celebration for Cow Town

On Saturday June 9 th St Mary's Park filled up throughout the afternoon with families all set to enjoy the Fun Day and Carnival. In glorious sunshine many sat around having picnics, sunbathing and watching the planned events which included a tug- of- war competition, a dog show and the Teddy Bears Picnic.

Around the park stalls including the R.N.L.I. mobile unit, the Brixham Lion's stand, and Cards and More selling small children's items were mixed with a scattering of food stalls offering up the fragrance of hot doughnuts and bags of candy floss. Donkey Days offered children rides around part of the field, Indigos whilst Go Wild had their tent set up with the Berserkers doing battle in their costumes.

The tug-of-war event was hugely popular with the crowd with 4 teams going for the Trophy and some cases of beer. The starting teams were the Brixham Fitness Centre Gym teams 1 and 2 with red and white gym t-shirts and rippling muscles. They were followed by the Berserkers in their costumes and the OAP's- a group from the audience who were that slightly bit older than the other teams. After several bouts the overall winners was the Gym2 team picking up the Trophy from St Mary's Community Police Officer, Olly.

With the recent formation of the Town Council, Councillor Chris Lomas was on hand to chat to people in a booth, later joined the Carnival, whilst Sure Start presented a selection of games and play items next to the large bouncy inflatable slides. For those wanting to give up smoking, the Torbay Stop Smoking Service was also on hand to give advice.

The Puppy Class which looked at dogs between 6 and 18 months of age 13 in total took some judging with Paris winning.In the Best Condition Class Sassy took first, whilst Tilly was the Best Veteran Class dogs over 7 years old Best Cross Breed was won by a Bullseye a Staff crossed with a English Bull Terrier. The last category was The Dog with the ‘Waggiest Tail' was eventually won by Daisy after a lot of fussing, talking and encouraging by the owners to get their dogs tails to wag whilst The Best of Show went to Janet Holmes with Sassy and the runner up was Rebecca Lee with Paris.

Some were surprised to find Father Christmas on holiday in St Mary's Park, Brixham and more but amazed that he and Mother Christmas were resting in deck chairs with their feet in the sand! They arrived by taxi and Mother Christmas looked relaxed in open toe sandals whilst Father Christmas had his shades on. In true Father Christmas style even though on holiday he was still working little children gifts of cold chocolate and strawberry trifles, sweets and balloons.

The Teddy Bear Picnic was a big success with 5 competitions for the children to enter into. The Smartest Teddy Bear was won by Angel with her unnamed bear. The Teddy Bear in the best Fancy Dress was won by a bear dressed as a pirate by Joe. At between 65 and 70 years old the Oldest Teddy Bear category was won by a bear called Brumas. The Biggest Bear was of course Rupert the Bear and he was taller than most of the children entering the competition! Finally the Most Loved Bear category was won by Lexi with Huck C winning another bear that she named Rick.

The Cow Town Mayor was the first for 11 years and John Davis took the honorary position having been elected by the Friends of St Mary's Park. John already had the Official Mayor robes after being in the Torbay Council up until May. John had also helped the Friends of St Mary's Park group set up. At the age of 5 John was one of the first to use the original swings placed into the Park which have probably not been upgraded since then. John said, ‘We need all the support from people for the Fun Day so that we can continue to upgrade the children's facilities here'.

Starting at 6.30pm The Town Crier introduced The Cow Town Carnival as it headed into town stopping at Burton Road and Greenswood Road traffic lights where the Cow Town Mayor met with those representing Fish Town. As in years gone by the tradition of exchanging fish and vegetables between members of the two sides of Brixham was restored as John Lovell presented Cow Town Mayor with fish, provided by Mark Ellis from the trawler Marina, and Howard Binham ,also Brixham ‘born and bred' received the vegetables from Mayor John Davies. All the produce were donated afterwards to Laywell House.

The streets were lined with families enjoying the warm evening sunshine with members of the community police team clearing the way for the procession which included fire engines and a series of floats. Park Princess Katie was followed by Miss Torbay and further back Miss Harbertonford.

All Saints Church created a modern version of Noah's Ark with a rib boat filled with children as animals, Mrs Noah and a few characters with umbrellas walking alongside, reminding everyone of Noah and the flood when God sent the rainbow to show that he would not destroy the earth again by flooding.

Indigo's Go Wild won several cups at the Carnival as they took up the theme of the rainbow in their colourful float by basing their entry on the story of Rainbow Warriors mythical heroes who come to save the planet. With beautiful costumes including butterflies, trees, fairies and the image of the sun they created a stunning fantasy vision of a world that needs redemption. There entry won several cups in the Carnival including best float.

Torbay Lifeboat Kids were also a float in their wonderful full sailed Pirates Ship. Full of “Shiver me timbers ,” sword waving and Jolly Rogers flags, the Breakwater Battlers made their way around the port of Brixham down Middle ST and along Fore St before heading back to the Park.

With the Brixham Heritage Battery Group winning the adult float entry as their World War 2 characters paraded in Land Rovers, Father and Mother Christmas made their final appearance of the day and the Paignton Majorettes gave a display dancing and twirling in time to the music. The Torbay Carers also marched drawing attention to their group, whilst the Brixham Family Group created the Ugly Bug Ball with a giant spider in the back of their van.People watching were pleased to receive sweets given out by some of the floats whilst those collecting donations were overwhelmed by the generosity of the crowds.