CHERITON and Tedburn Young Farmers’ Club may be a small club but members get up to all sorts of activities including public speaking, sports and charity fundraising to name a few.

Recently 22 members have been taking to the stage, competing in the YFC entertainments competition.

The cast consisted of all ages, from 10-27, and the whole production was a real club effort.

Katie Grist, club secretary, said: “Our performance, produced by Richard Tucker and Dan Grist, is called ’Play that County Song!’ and consists of seven scenes based on a country theme ranging from a levitation act to a farmyard ’stomp’ routine.

“The competition started back in February with our group round in Crediton and from there we went on to win the County round in Exmouth against five other clubs from across Devon.

“This took us through to the South West area round where we were up against three other teams; Dorset, Somerset and Cornwall, performing at the Hall for Cornwall, Truro.

“We managed to come runners-up to Cornwall by five points, but luckily this time two teams went through so we travelled to Cheltenham for the Southern Area round against Herefordshire and of course Cornwall.

“However, this time we managed to beat the Cornish by a massive 16 points! This was a huge achievement for our club, beating a team who audition for the very best acts from across their whole county rather than a single club effort.

“Not only have we seen great success as a whole team, but we also have some very talented individuals! Amy Richardson, aged 10, won best actress at the Group, County and South West Area round, and Dan Grist, aged 21, managed to pick up best actor at the Group, County, South West Area AND Southern Area rounds!

“We are now extremely excited to be performing at the National Finals on April 22 at the Princess Theatre, Torquay, where we will be flying the flag for Southern England, competing against four other teams from across England and Wales.

“We never imagined that we would get this far, and this is a great achievement as we have now made it through to the national finals three times in the last four years; we are hoping to beat our best result three years ago where we came runners-up to the Welsh in the same competition.”

Katie added that as a warm up for the big competition, Cheriton and Tedburn YFC will be performing again on April 12 at the New Hall, Tiverton, curtain up at 7.30pm.

Alan Quick