Centre West Club Report

Centre West Club

Secretary’s Report - Clare Price

What a year for us all and one that we could never have predicted. A normal year would have seen us gather together as a group for our annual AGM, but unfortunately due to Coronavirus this didn’t happen. Appointments for 2020 stayed the same as 2019 and are:

Chairman – Mark Sallis Vice Chairman – David Savins Treasurer – John Fellows Secretary – Clare Price

Due to this pandemic, we were unable to organise some of our usual events, including a farm visit, Quiz, the Annual Herd Competition, and our usual entertaining Christmas Dinner and Raffle. Hopefully 2021 might be a little kinder to us and enable us to get back together with friends, enabling us to share our common interest in the breed. 2020 should have seen the 50th Anniversary of the breed, which was obviously altered due to COVID-19. What a shame this happened! The virtual show certainly seemed well supported and well done to those that entered. With very little to report, we thought we would turn back time and look back at some of the good times shared over the years, including how the Centre West Club came about.

The Centre West Club was formed in 1988, after a meeting of the Wales and Mid-West Club at Boddington Manor with Stephen Hitchins acting as Chairman. The membership felt that such a large geographic area made attending meetings difficult, therefore a proposal to form a new club resulted in the formation of the Centre West. The club’s first AGM was held at Hereford market on the eve of the bull sale. Jane Smith was elected chairman; Sarah Roberts was secretary, and Robert Hewlett treasurer. All those years ago, the Centre West club was a strong membership of 36, which set the club going on its journey.

Under the Chairmanship of the late David Bell in 1993, the first Centre West Calf Show and Young Handlers Competition took place, which was an idea from Graham Fishlock (Boddington Estate Stockman). The competition was always well supported and the highlight of the day was the BBQ, where friends came together for a catch up and talked Simmentals. Unfortunately, Foot and Mouth hit, which resulted in the competition being moved to a livestock market, as restrictions meant we could no longer meet on farm.

As a club, we have hosted a number of visits from other regions of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. We have also been honoured to host breeders from overseas. In 2008 the closing ceremony of the Simmental World Congress, hosted by the UK, was held in our area.

The club became involved with Warwickshire College during the 1990’s as a bull performance test centre. This was managed by David Savins and was a valuable learning resource for students getting them involved in training and monitoring DLWG, with the end result being a stock show held at the college. The event was part of the college’s annual open day and those breeders that supported the programme attended the event to see their bulls halter broken and shown, showcasing the Simmental breed.

Over the past 32 years the club members and non- members have shared some really good times and here’s hoping we can get back to this again soon.

Now people are getting to grips with the likes of ZOOM we will get together remotely and make plans for what can be achieved this year within whatever restrictions are thrown at us.