On the 20 July, Twin Rivers Coleshill Women’s Institute Group (TRWI) entered themselves into the Whitacres and Shustoke Horticultural show to highlight their member’s crafting abilities. And what a day it was for them!

The day began with setting up their table to enter the Inter WI Team Competition. This category is designed to pitch local WI’s against one another with seven makes on each table plus a complimentary flower arrangement. This time, TRWI were using their new blue staging which made a real difference visually as to how everything presented. It was a great improvement on the year before!

The table included a painting of a highland cow by Di, a hand-crafted crochet bag by Chris, an intricately embroidered baby’s bonnet by Trisha, a festive beaded bauble by Dee, a joyfully colourful flower wreath by Tina, hand knitted socks by Amanda (which she generously gifted to someone afterwards), and an Elizabethan inspired jointed teddy bear made by Dawn. The colourful flowers particularly glued the whole ensemble together, beautifully arranged by Jane.

Your local WI walked away with the first place trophy for the table display, but also the rose bowl as overall points winner for their individual entries. And talking about individual entries… 

Twin Rivers members’ also entered individually in a number of categories in the main show winning a plethora of further first, second and third prizes in categories such as baking, photography, gardening, gin making, crocheting, flower arranging and sewing.

Arguably the highlight of the day was the overall best in show winner who also came from the TRWI ranks. Dawn Denham entered her Great Uncle Bulgaria womble primarily to see how her work would stand up next to other stuffed toy makers. Not only did she win first prize for the soft toy category, but she also won the entire handicraft section and then the Best in Horticultural Show!

Dawn was utterly flabbergasted and delighted to have won the prestigious trophy (lots of air punching). What apparently swung it was not only the build quality of the toy, but the tiny Times newspaper that she recreated for Great Uncle Bulgaria to carry which included an advert for the show, a tiny crossword, a sports page, and articles all dedicated to the Wombles. In Dawn’s words: “I beat everyone, including onions, boiled eggs and curly carrots. How did THAT happen?”

Everyone was thrilled with the outcome of this year’s show, they could not have performed any better. Plans are already afoot for what the crafty team at Twin River’s will create for next year’s show. Fingers crossed they will continue their silverware winning streak!