Scarecrows

The Scarecrow Festival was started eight years ago, and has had themes ranging from Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes, to Characters from History and Roald Dahl’s books, that being the theme for 2018. It is now run bi-annually, with the next competition in June 2020, when the theme is likely to be …………….. watch this space!

Each year the entries have been inspired, and a great deal of fun has been had by the very imaginative makers. Residents and visitors alike have enjoyed visiting the entries.

And the winners are…drumroll please…

Winner — ‘Colin the Covid Scientist’ by Karen Bolam, 18 Dove House Close

2nd Place — ‘Old McDonald’ by Joanne Oxenbould, 15 Sursham Avenue

3rd Place — ‘T&S Thomas, Butcher’. Lesley Rayner, 7 West Street

Highly Commended Awards go to:

‘Kevin the Nurse’ by Oscar, Ralph & Theo Greagg, 51 London Road
‘Scientist’ by Sally Maddocks, 1 London Road
‘Hardworking Farmer’ by The Hucklesby Family, 31 Stokes Drive
‘The Year of the Midwife, 2020’ by Sally Maddocks, 18 Fishers Way
‘Our Postman’ by Dylan Peacock, 13 Kisby Avenue
‘Doris Doctor’ by Dawn Jefferson, 7 Martin Close

Godmanchester in Bloom would like to say a huge thank you to the 54 households who took part in this year’s Scarecrow competition, with the theme being in honour of our amazing Key Workers. You have done all our Key Workers proud, as well as the Town, and we thank you all for all of your efforts and hard work in achieving such fantastic scarecrows.

The standard this year was extremely high, resulting in a fantastic array of scarecrows from farmers to scientists, shop assistants to teachers, and refuse collectors to doctors, making it incredibly difficult to judge. The 54 entries were judged initially by three independent judges who drew up a shortlist of nine finalists. These were then passed over to Cllr Dick Taplin, Mayor of Godmanchester, who was given the honour and unenviable task of deciding our winner and runners up.

Dick Taplin said ‘My congratulations to all who have entered – they all help to brighten up the community as we emerge, blinking, into the light! I think that this has been a tremendous effort by the community, and the number of entries has been truly outstanding.’

GMCiB would also like to thank our wonderful judges, Mary Stokes, Bizz Thackray and Jacqueline Barringer, for agreeing to take on this huge task, taking the time to judge and shortlist our nine finalists. They thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to judge all 54 entries, and were really taken aback by the quality, creativity and range of scarecrows. We know that shortlisting the final nine was a real challenge, so thank you all.

Thanks also goes to Mal Cohen for the marketing of the event on Facebook, and collating the entries to create a Scarecrow List for people to follow when out.

So, as the Godmanchester in Bloom Scarecrow Competition 2020 draws to an end, GMCiB would again like to thank everyone who took part this year – you have exceeded all expectations, brightened up the Town for residents and visitors, and shown once again what a wonderful community we live in.

Well done to each and everyone one of you!

Scarecrow Entries 2020

Contact

Rachel Greagg
rachel.greagg@hotmail.co.uk