A change of plans ...

In my last post I described the kinds of things that we do during the last few hours before the Donkey Derby. Well, this has been a busy week-end, but rather different from what we had planned. This morning, Sandhurst Town Council decided that the event could not go ahead - recent rain has left some areas on the Car Park field too soft for use.

Our fall back date is Sunday 24 June, so I and other members of the Committee have been anxiously ringing around today to let stallholders and others know that they need not turn up tomorrow.

Let's hope that the weather is rather kinder to us in June so that we can raise that money for charity.

Last minute preparations

The Committee meets periodically throughout the year to make sure that most things are in place for this week-end. Those few remaining hours are hugely busy.

Today we send over a large truck to the Military Academy to pick up tables, chairs, fence posts and rope - this would be a difficult event to put together without the support of the Academy and we are hugely grateful.

Saturday, not much happens except that we open the field to let the funfair in.

Sunday, we mark out the field and the Car Park

Monday, we start setting up the field at 7:00 and we won't leave it until the rubbish has been cleared away about 12 hours later. Then it is home to get cleaned up and swear that we will never do another one!

Tuesday, the posts, rope, tables and chairs go back to the RMA. The truck goes back to another of our sponsors and then we just have to finalise the accounts to work out how much money we have raised.

The most important meeting takes place in June when we attempt to have a formal wash-up and lessons learnt exercise so that we build on our experience and try not to make the same mistakes twice. Even though the Donkey Derby raises funds for charities, unless it is run as a business then there won't sufficient focus on reducing costs and making the experience as good as possible for visitors and stallholders.

41st Donkey Derby timings

Don't forget to come. It's a great family day out and one of the largest events of its kind in east Berkshire. As always, it is on the late May Bank Holiday Monday - 28 May - and will take place at the Bull & Butcher field (the junction of the A321 with Yorktown Road in Sandhurst), opposite the Rackstraw.

We now have bookings for about 80 stalls as well as the funfair. Here are the outline timings for the afternoon:

• 12:00 Official Opening
• 12:15 Sandhurst RMA band
• 1:00 1st race - the John Nike gallop
• 1:20 2nd race - Church Racing Partnership Canter
• 1:40 3rd race - Linatex Chase
• 2:00 4th race - Our Lady's Baby Unit - Toddlers' Chase
• 2:15 - Sandhurst Corps of Drums
• 3:15 - The Taverner's Trot Challenge Cup Sulkey heats
• 3:40 - The Taverner's Trot Challenge Cup Final
• 3:50 5th race - The Eagle House Gallop
• 4:10 6th race - Richard Worth Property Plate
• 4:30 7th race - Champion Jockey Stakes