The weekend of July 23rd saw Aston Abbotts stage a number of events to mark the 60th anniversary of VE day. In this article Peter Shorrock reports on the weeknds activities.

A Vit Weekend

Vit Kriklan took several photographs of his parents dancing: it was the first time he had ever seen them do so in his 15 - shortly to be 16 - years. Such was the combined effect of Aston Abbotts and the Dad's Army Jazz Band that performed at our 1940's Dinner-Dance. (Indeed Vit said it was the first time they had danced together in 20 years, but having regard to his age, I am treating this as youthful hyberbole). Vit (pronounced "Wit" - hence the pun above) was staying in the village together with his parents, Tomas & Anna Kriklan as our guests for the weekend, having travelled over from their home in Dolni Bella, near Pilsner, in the Czech Republic.

Originally the Kriklan family were only planning to visit Normandy in order to see the WW2 battlefields, landing beaches and cemeteries there, but having received a report from a friend who had come to the first Czechoslovakian week-end, they decided to extend their holiday to include a visit to Aston Abbotts for the second instalment.

The Dinner-Dance took place in a marquee on the Rec. on Saturday, 23rd July, and I think I can say, without false modesty (being a member of the organising committee) was an unqualified success. The food - a hog roast - combined with a spread organised by Francesca & April - was superb, and was washed down with an abundance of beer & wine. Since we were not able to sell this, we put free bottles of wine on every table, and invited guests to make a contribution towards the cost of the equipment for the children's playground for any subsequent supplies they needed - which they did to some effect! The Dad's Army Jazz Band were wonderful, both for their musicality and their showmanship, and I saw several people dancing that evening who, like Vit's parents, were not often seen on a dance floor!

Vit had already experienced one earlier shock to the system, having watched the Whitchurch Morris Men performing at the Fête, which was clearly very different to folk dancing as the Czechs know it; and he and his parents clearly enjoyed their first ever English fête.
The marvellous weather that we enjoyed on the Saturday unhappily did not last, and Sunday was a day of almost continuous drizzle and rain. However this did not spoil Vit's weekend. In the morning he played football as a guest player for the Slovak Embassy in their 7-a-side match against an Aston Abbotts team. Despite the rain, a good time was had by all - especially by the visitors, since they ran out winners by a score of 5-1. The best goal of the game was scored by the Slovak's other guest player, Petr Miller of the Czech Embassy, who had been the liaison man between the Embassy and the village in connection with both Czech Weekends.

There then followed a reception for our Czech & other visitors, and the two football teams, and members of the 6.30 Club organised a barbecue selling hamburgers & hot dogs.
Vit and the rest of us then enjoyed an afternoon's entertainment on the Rec. - which, thanks to the beneficence of Home Front Recall (part of the National Lottery Fund) we were able to appreciate in the warm and dry of the marquee that had been obtained for the Dinner-Dance. (Had it not been for this the afternoon would have been a fairly wet and miserable affair; and while the weather was very disappointing, and clearly kept away the influx of visitors we were expecting, the fact that we had the marquee was an absolute Godsend).

The afternoon kicked off with a Slovak troupe of musicians & dancers, Karpaty, performing traditional Slovak music & folk dances, who put on an exuberant & exhilarating display. We then had a thoroughly enjoyable hour long review called "Keep Smilin' Through", performed by a theatrical group called The Heydays Theatre Company " - which was a potted history of the Second World War, including sketches, songs, impersonations and jokes, encompassing the poignancy of the War years and the humour of radio variety theatre. Karpaty then came back for a further session at the end of the afternoon. In the midst of the afternoon it was discovered that Sunday was the day of young Vit's 17th birthday; so in the best British tradition the audience (led by Nigel as MC) sang "Happy Birthday to You" to him.

The big disappointment was that the weather meant that the Re-enactment Display which we had organised, and which was mainly taking place in the open, was less well attended than we had expected, as was the collection of WW2 vehicles we had obtained. It did clear up around 4.00, so that the audience from the marquee were able to go round and see what was on offer, and talk to the Re-enactors, but the appearance of the sun came too late to bring in the visitors from outside the village who had been expected. Nevertheless a good time was had by all, assisted by the copious amounts of cheap beer & wine that remained from the previous evening, and the afternoon teas that were served in the Marquee at the end of the afternoon.

Martin & Angela Olley were kind enough to allow me to take a group of (mainly Czech) visitors around their garden, so that they could see the lime tree planted by President Benes in 1943, and see close up the house in which he had lived and the surrounding grounds.
In the evening a service was held in St. Mary's Church, with the choir from St. Mary's Church in Aylesbury taking part. Finally, to round off the day Neil Rees & his friend Steve Holdsworth put on another film show in the Church Room, at which they showed some film footage never seen before in this country of President Benes at The Abbey during the war years, followed by film that was made some years ago about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich and its aftermath, called "Operation Daybreak", which starred a young Martin Shaw.

As she did for the first Czech Weekend, Clare arranged an exhibition which was open on both Saturday & Sunday, of photographs, postcards and other memorabilia, relating to the War and the Czechs & Slovaks who were in Britain during it: this time in the Church itself, since the Church Room was already being used over the weekend. This was again visited by a gratifyingly large number of people.

A final post script about Vit. Clare & I bought a CD of The Dad's Army Jazz Band performing, and sent this to the Kriklans in The Czech Republic, as a momento of their visit. In the e-mail which Tomas Kriklan sent thanking us, he said that Vit was having great difficulty in deciding whether to listen to this or his favourite German heavy metal group, Ramstein! And, when I last heard from him at the end of August, Tomas said that Dad's Army were still winning!
In conclusion, the committee would like to thank Home Front Recall for the generous grant that they gave us to enable us to put on the weekend's entertainment, and also to thank everyone who helped make the weekend such a success. I would particularly mention:-
April for doing most of the organisation; Francesca for (as always) helping with the catering; Phil Spooner for helping with all the electrics and sound system (and for the time he spent helping to run the bar on Sunday); Lol for arranging the football; Kevin for lending and erecting his gazebo for the use of the Re-enactors on Sunday; Geoff for spending so much time the wrong side of the bar on Saturday; Ivan & Liz for letting us use their electrical supply & water; Michael Page, Elizabeth McManus & Juan Gutierrez for letting us use their land for parking; Juan and Brigitte for doing much of the washing up of glasses and plates with their machine, and Clare, April & Rita who did the rest of the washing up; Carol Spooner for setting tables and work behind the bar on Sunday; Adam Shorrock for helping behind the bar; Frank for loan of a gazebo to keep the hog roast dry; Dave for running the electrical cable from Liz's house to the Rec; Shirley for organising a rota of people to man (or woman?) the exhibition - and everyone who was on that rota; Andy & the 6.30 Club members who ran the barbecue; the ladies who made cakes for, and served, the afternoon teas on Sunday; and Neil Rees and his girl friend Kirsty for their enthusiasm and help over the weekend, including again leading a party of interested Czech & Slovak visitors around places in the area of historical interest to the Czech & Slovak peoples, and, in the case of Kirsty, making & lending to us a collection of banners with words and pictures/photographs about the activities of Czechs & Slovaks in Buckinghamshire during the war, which were used in the decoration of the marquee.
I would also like to mention that as some of you will know, Neil has produced a lavishly illustrated book about the Czechs & Slovaks who were in Britain during the War, called "The Czech Connection, and he has very kindly given over 400 copies to us to sell in order to raise money for village charities. This is an extremely generous gesture, since every copy we sell means one less that he can. The book sells at £7.50, and if anyone would like a copy, would they please get in touch with Clare or me. At the moment all proceeds will go to the playground appeal.

If there is anyone who deserved a mention whom I have forgotten, please blame me and not the committee. I apologise, and assure you that your contribution was valued at the time.

~ Peter Shorrock

Thanks are also due, of course, to Peter Shorrock who played a big part organising the event. Congratulations to all concerned upon the success of the weekend, which was clearly enjoyed by all who attended it.