By Community Correspondent Richard Sharp

Hampton Hill’s ‘Mr Fix Its’ Colin Boltbee and Pete Lawrence of Build-on-the-Hill put themselves up for a long and gruelling day at Hampton Hill’s Summer Festival on Saturday 17th July. It all started with the intrepid pair laying on the external power supply for the Greenwood Centre’s stage for the ‘World of Music’ on the forecourt of the former Farmers’ City Market site.

Then it was off to the stocks, well to finish building them! Colin and Pete have been great supporters of the Festival right from the outset and decided to run a wet sponge throwing event at The Star to raise money for The Shooting Star Children’s Hospice. They knew they were in for a dowsing!

Crowds flocked to The Star’s car park to take their turn in drenching the duo in the stocks at £1 for three throws. Nichole Boltbee and Sue Lawrence were on hand to ensure fair play and get in some trial throwing themselves! ‘PJ’, landlord of The Star said, “It was a wonderful atmosphere and it was great to see so many people. It all added a bit more fun to what was a super Festival. Pete and Colin raised £162 for Shooting Star.”

Then it was off to Bushy Park for the tug of war organised by PJ and Mary of The Star. Team One from 1stExpress Maintenance of Hampton Hill and Team Two, PJ & Mary’s Muscle Men, included Colin and Pete of course! Both teams had put in weeks of intensive training to get ready for the pulls, quite a lot of it involved downing pints!

Master of Ceremonies PJ got the teams to their marks and whistled them off. Much pulling and straining ensued and after three dramatic tugs, The Muscle Men were declared the winners. The Star’s customers took part and bought raffle tickets to back the winning team. One winning ticket was then drawn. The winner, a visitor to Hampton Hill for the day, won a free round of drinks. £131 was raised from the ticket sales and shared between The Greenwood Centre and Shooting Star.

Bushy Park Manager Ray Brodie said, “I was pleased to let the park be used for African Revival’s Beat the Goalie contest, the display of African Arts, Amy Hatton’s great face painting and then The Star’s tug of war. I’m so glad Bushy Park was part of Hampton Hill’s first Summer Festival. It was all very well organised and publicised, even agreeing the Risk Assessment for the tug of war was fun!”

The Hampton Hill Festival was sponsored by the Parker Car Service with support from The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.