What could be better for a group of 11 year old primary school leavers than to spend an evening tearing round the beautiful gardens of Chilland House?  Yes, on Sunday night we had the UTX summer BBQ at which the new year of leavers from Itchen Abbas Primary School are invited to attend the last UTX (our parish youth club) evening of the year, all brilliantly organised by Kelly and Mike Gibson.  Hurtling from tennis to badminton past the giant jenga and croquet, nothing seemed more fun than playing ‘Manhunt’ in the capacious gardens. The Foxes certainly looked as if they were enjoying themselves. And the older teenagers looked on indulgently!  In all we had 19 UTXers at our Summer BBQ which must be a record.

‘How old is that house?’ was one question and fortunately Andrew Impey was on hand to answer all questions.  Thank you so much to Andrew and Katherine for letting us rampage across your lawns!

All the excitement was I think a bit fuelled by the hamburgers skilfully cooked by Gerry Stacey and probably something to do with the fizzy drinks as well.

For the older members of UTX, the girls and boys, the pace was not so frenetic – a spot of Badminton here and there and a good opportunity to chat.  Also, there was the chance to do a bit of leading and encouraging the younger ones – thank you so much to George and Johnnie in particular.  A very special thank you to Elloise, a UTX Alumna who came back to help Kelly and Mike.

It has been such a privilege for me and for Kelly, Mike, Gerry  to see these young people developing into such wonderful young men and women.  What a huge contribution they are all going to make to the world!

Thank you so much to Kelly and Mike who have worked tirelessly on UTX for the whole of this year.  You are such great role models and such fun.  You manage to make our UTX events entirely unique, lots of fun but without being like school or even a party at home.  Thank you.

Revd Alex Pease