We now have a cast for our radio play, Welcome To Our Village, Please invade Carefully. This play is a comedy, where the Buckinghamshire village of Cresdon Green has been invaded by an alien race called the Geonin. The village has been cut off from the outside world. Most of the village are actually quite happy to have the aliens around, who are being very friendly and polite and making sure that the village has everything it needs. The only person who isn’t happy is Katrina, who was visiting her parents when the invasion happened and is now trapped. Rehearsals will be starting next week. Please keep an eye out for further details on how to listen to the show.

• The Cast
• Liz Sinclair – minion, old person, villager, printer
• Sue Molyneux – Computer
• Paola Burgess – Katrina
• Amy Spiller – Lucy
• Margot Konitzer – Margaret Lysons
• Peter Hornsby – Richard Lysons, Scottish Doctor
• Richard Clifford – Uljabaan
• Brian Drew – Graham
• Ian Mabon – Chris
• Kelvin Fay – Ron
• Jim Goodman – Lawrence

At the very last minute, that the route has been changed, and will now be going around the cricket green, passed the golf club and along the High Street ( A30 ) towards Basingstoke. Therefore I think it’s necessary for us to move down to the other end of the green, by the roundabout where we have our show banners, so we see it go by along the A30. HAG and HAG Rocks! members will be gathering at around 9.30am on the 10^th July to say farewell to our friend Lesley Parish, so please join us if you would like to.

The family have asked for no black to be worn at the service, so I’m thinking that HAG polo shirts, and our choir red tops and bright colours will be therefore be appropriate.

An update for you all on Lesley Parish’s funeral, please see below information which Lesley’s daughter Nella recently posted on Facebook:

FUNERAL SERVICE
Mum’s funeral is going to be held at Basingstoke crematorium on Friday 10th July. For obvious reasons numbers are limited but we intend to hold a huge party in celebration of her life when all this Covid19 and social distancing stuff is over. However, if you would like to pay your respects on the day, we have arranged with the funeral directors for mums coffin to be driven from the family home, up through St John’s Road, past the allotments and down the fleet road (past St John’s church and the green space on the common) before heading off to the crematorium, that way everyone who knew mum can stand by the roadside to say their goodbyes as she passes. We will leave the family home at 09:30.

DONATIONS
Although mum loved flowers, we would like to ask that instead of sending flowers, donations are made to either the Woodland Trust or St Michael’s Hospice. It was one of mum’s missions to plant several trees this year and we feel a donation to the woodland trust would go some way to honouring her intentions. We also want to thank St Michael’s Hospice for all the love and care they gave mum in her final days. The funeral directors have created an online donation page for mum on their website. To use this facility please visit the Holmes Funeral Service website at: http://www.holmesfunerals.com and click the donate button. You will then be asked to enter Lesley Parish’s name in order to gain access to her unique donation page. Please feel free to donate as much or as little as you like (or maybe not at all) to either charity.

Thank you once again for all your kind and lovely comments, I’m sure mum, aka Mrs P, would have felt very special to know how much she meant to you all (I know we, her family) do.
Nella, Charlie, Josh, Kate and Mike (dad) It was suggested at the AGM that perhaps HAG and Choir members may feel they would like to gather together on the common, as the hearse is to be driven down and through the village that morning. Choir ladies might like to wear their red tops, and if others have HAG logo polo shirts they might like to wear those, so we can join together to say our final goodbyes.

Finally, as mentioned above, the family have requested donations in lieu of flowers to the Woodland Trust or St Michael’s Hospice and have provided details on how to do this.

I want to share with you some very devastating and upsetting news. For those of you who haven’t heard, our dear friend Lesley Parish lost her battle with cancer at St Michael’s Hospice on June 17^th.

Lesley was a founder member of HAG 45 years ago, and since then her contribution to the group, her enthusiasm and her energy have been immeasurable. She has sat on the Committee several times, acted on stage, directed, ran our Youngstars Group and made so many beautiful costumes that we have a store room bulging with them. Over the years and especially of late she has been instrumental in our fundraising activities. She spent many hours working on securing multiple grants to help us pay for our much needed technical upgrades. We now have brand new lighting and sound equipment which will benefit the group for many years to come. None of this would have been possible without her hard work and determination.

She was also a prominent member of our HAG Rocks! Choir, in the front row of the Altos, and I find it hard to imagine standing conducting the Choir without her being in front of me. Over the 17 years I have been a member of HAG we have worked on numerous shows together. I cannot put into words how grateful I am personally to her for all the help and support she has given me over this time.

I would not, I think, be overstating anything if I said that she was a village “icon”.  So very many people from all the various activities she was associated with over the years will feel her loss.

Our hearts and thoughts go out to her husband Mike and all her family at this very sad time.

We at HAG, the group she loved so much, will consider how we can honour her memory.

With Very Best Wishes,
Lesley Nicholls 
Chair: Hartley Arts Group.