Former England and West Ham United footballer presents trophies at Littlehampton Sports Awards

Former England and West Ham United footballer Sir Trevor Brooking CBE was present to award trophies to the winners and give a fascinating talk on his history and achievements, and gave time for a questions and answers session too.

It was wonderful to see so many being recognised for their hard work and achievements in their chosen sporting field and I cannot wait to see where this takes them in the future.

Congratulations to all of the winners and nominees for contributing to a fantastic year of sport for the town.

Later in the week I was invited to attended a service for Her Majesty’s judges, magistrates and representatives of the voluntary and statutory organisations working for the community in West Sussex, hosted by the High Sheriff of West Sussex, Caroline Nicholls.

Prior to commencement of the service I and fellow dignitaries from across the area lined up ready for a short procession into Christ Church in Worthing where the service was being held.

The office of high sheriff is more than 1,000 years old and this is the first time a service of this type has been held in Worthing, which is the home town of our current high sheriff.

The original ‘shire reeves’ were royal officials appointed to enforce the monarch’s interests in a county, to collect revenues and enforce law and order. High sheriffs are still appointed by the Queen through warrant of the Privy Council.

Today’s high sheriffs give active support to the police and emergency services, to the courts, including magistrates, probation and prison services and other agencies involved with crime prevention.

The service conducted by the Rev David Renshaw and the Rev Canon Jonathan Baldwin included excellently selected prayers, readings and hymns all giving meaning to the occasion.

|Also in the news - a woman was attacked and robbed on the beach at East Preston; firefighters responded to a car colliding with a car wash in Rustington; and thrill seekers raised more than £13,000 by abseiling down the 180ft Bake House Tower at Arundel Castle|

The following day I was invited to Crafters’ Corner where a new range was being launched in the store and, while I have not normally attended product launches, as I knew this particular item was not only being sold in Littlehampton but produced locally, I was keen to find out more.

On arrival Jan, the owner of Crafters’ Corner, introduced me to DJ who was in store to unveil his own new range of Penny Ledger Werqs Bespoke Shirts, named after his own drag alter ego, Penny Ledger.

You can select your own fabric and buttons from the wide range available in store or even bring your own in that you have found elsewhere.

Being a bespoke item you can have details done to suit yourself and it will be a complete one of a kind at £38 for short sleeved or £43 for long sleeved.

On talking with him and several of the other crafters, I found out that this new exciting venture has come about as DJ would come into the shop and buy fabric, and over time Jan and the team found out that this was for the shirts he was making.

With my mother having been a seamstress at Curtis Clothing for many years, I have been shown what to look for and can say when looking at the shirts he had available in store as samples of his work, I was very impressed. The details are of a very high standard and finish.

DJ told me how he is currently on benefits and, while the Job Centre has been very supportive to him, he has found finding work difficult due to his autism.

However he does not want to see that stop him in life and hopes to see his talent in shirt making support him in the future. He is making sure the Job Centre is aware of any money he is making through sales, and is putting money back into new fabric, buttons and trims.

As if I couldn’t get any more impressed by DJ, he is also selling a range of embellishments in the store and a donation from the sale of each one will benefit the Terrence Higgins Trust.

If you are looking to buy a shirt for yourself or as a gift please do pop into Crafters’ Corner to find out more, I cannot do them justice in words so you really do need to have a look yourself.

Finally, on Saturday evening the Edwin James Festival Choir and the Littlehampton Twinning Society were jointly hosting a shuffleboard evening at the Guide Hall in Duke Street to which I had been invited and it was lovely to have the opportunity to meet and chat with members in a relaxed environment.

I’ve never played shuffleboard before so didn’t really know what to expect, however I was not alone in this and once the rules were explained we were all ready to have a bit of fun and do our best to win.

The basic premise is you have three people to a team and a number of wooden discs that you glide down a board which has four holes in the end, each worth between one and four points, if you get your disc through the hole you get the points but every time you get a disc through all four of the holes you get twenty points.

It took a while to get the hang of it but our team came a respectable fifth place and everyone had a lot of fun, so if you do see a group organising one of these I highly recommend it.

Lastly I would just like to say that with December quickly approaching please do get in touch if you would like me to come to any carol concerts, choir performances, tree festivals, or nativities as my diary will begin to fill up very quickly soon.

You can contact by calling the mayor’s office on 01903 732063 or by visiting www.littlehampton-tc.gov.uk/mayor

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