Clapham Village Hall
With the web’person’ being AWOL this weekend, I’m having to depend on lots of lovely comments and photos from our fellow campers. I’ll be adding more as you send in your comments via Facebook or secretary@westsussexda.co.uk. (Hopefully) we’ll see you next Meet.
We welcomed campers from West Sussex, East Sussex, East Essex, Surrey, Waterside, Solent and East Kent all coming together for a fantastic weekend.
Friday evening things kicked off with Chris & Pat hosting a lively card bingo fun night, setting the tone with plenty of laughs.
On Saturday morning, around 20 walkers set off with Ken on a quest to find the bluebell woods - well worth the effort. By the evening, the atmosphere in the hall was electric as Roz delivered fantastic live music, with everyone singing and dancing. Easily one of our best nights ever - roll on the next one at Lancing! Kirsten was also celebrating the eve of her birthday, adding to the festivities.
Sunday morning saw some keen walkers head out again, this time tackling the hills in the opposite direction. At lunch time, everyone came together for a brilliant international communcal meal, with dishes from Britain, France and Italy.
Sunday evening brought more fun with a raffle and a lively quiz, won by Vicki, Alan & Temperance.
The weekend wrapped up on Monday with a coffee morning, rounding off a truly memorable few days - helped along by great weather throughout - Pat
Thank you to Pat & Chris and everyone else involved in organising the lovely weekend at Clapham. We all had a great time, look forward to seeing you all at Duncton - Marilyn
Thank you for a great rally, great fun, see you soon, Steve and Tina xx
Thank you Chris & Pat for stewarding & the social events. A great weekend, & to Lindsay for organising the raffle. Also, nice to meet some new campers, hope you enjoyed the weekend & hopefully we will see you again soon - Lin
Thankyou Pat, Chris and other helpers/ members for such a well organised and fun weekend. We were given such a warm welcome by everyone as it was our 1st event and we hope to see evefyone at Lancing & other events.
Also enjoyed a couple of walks including one to Clapham church - Tina
Great fun , very enjoyable lunch - Cath
Looks great well done on making and wearing your fab costumes - Joseph
Thanks to the stewards and all helpers for a great time at Clapham, great fun - Tina
June - it was a brilliant weekend! Organisation; Site/Scenery and Walking Access, Attendance, Weather. Entertainment ( Outstanding) - so thanks from Linda and Me for the #1 WSDA Team - Ian
Wild Heart Hill
And the season of 2026 has kicked off with a wonderful hot and sunny weekend at Wild Heart Hill; to be honest, there was still a little nip in the air but it didn’t stop us from enjoying ourselves. With many campers taking advantage of the beautiful walks in this area our very own Mr. Ken Pumphrey took a bunch of campers for a hike, although there was some denial it is believed a beverage was enjoyed (and well deserved) part way round.
It was fantastic to meet lots of new (to us) campers and to hear the lovely things you had to say. 24 camping units in total - overall a really great turnout for our first Meet of the season.
“Thanks to the stewards and all involved with the “Wild Heart Hill” rally this weekend.
First time we’ve been here, and what a lovely location it is.
Local village has a friendly butchers shop along with a community run village Post Office and stores, and we treated ourselves to a full English cooked breakfast at a “locals” cafe just three miles down the road.
We parked up at West Worthing promenade (free parking!) then cycled on a very cycle friendly route along the promenade to Shoreham-On-Sea and back.
I’m more of a football man then cricket, but having said that it was nice to sit outside our van with cake and tea and watch an English traditional game.
Thanks to the stewards also for arranging the good weather, we’ll definitely be returning.” - Tim Cooper
Excellent first DA event been too. We had a great relaxing few days. Will definitely be back again.. Tracey and Robert, Dave and Angie (Kent DA)
Thank you Ken and Cath for looking after us. Lovely first outing for us this year, here's to a successful year of camping. Lovely meeting up with our friends. Pat and Ken xx
2025
Left early this morning so didn't say goodbye. Thanks to stewards and organisers of the meet. What a lovely site in a beautiful area. - Richard
Missed our latest event?
• Wondering what you missed?
• Here's what some of our fabulous Members had to say......
Missed our latest event? • Wondering what you missed? • Here's what some of our fabulous Members had to say......
Jean - We enjoyed Lancing College THS and catch ups very much. Many thanks to stewards and all helpers that made it happen Xx
Maureen - Thank you for the most wonderful 4 days. You have all done an amazing job.
Alan - It was an amazing month, nearly. Thanks to you and the rest of the West Sussex DA for the organisation and the stewarding. Looking forward to next year, and hopefully I'll have better luck in the raffle. Lol!
Cath - Big thanks to everyone for a wonderful time. Celebrating the 40th Year in style. Great fun
Sheila - Thank you all we had a fab time celebrating with you. See you next year.
Jim - Just had 6 days holiday at the West Sussex THS Lancing. Absolutely fabulous time, entertainment over the weekend was great, Abba tribute and Last Night of the Proms with the Club Band. Big thank you to all the Committee and Volunteers.
Georgina - It’s been great fun, thanks guys! xx
Sue - Thank you to all the team for 4 amazing weekends.
Paul - Thanks to everyone at WSDA for a fantastic 40th THS celebration.
Lindsay - Fabulous holiday at the THS Lancing College camping.
We had a lovely time. Thank you all, for all your hard work making it extra special this year!
Very much appreciated.
Anne - What a fabulous 40th anniversary weekend. It was absolutely brilliant, love the Abba tribute and the brass band were beyond amazing-Keith and I loved it all. Such great organisation and team work plus all so welcoming to visitors from out of our area. Give yourselves a big pat on the back and perhaps an odd drinkie or two! I know you've still got 1 week to go but well done all.
Judith - Fab 3 weeks, looking forward to next year, thank you for all your hard work
Tina - We had a great time at Lancing celebrating the 40th anniversary, great entertainment, very well organised, great weather, thanks to all stewards and helpers for making it happen
Vikki - Thank you so much for an amazing time
Mariilyn - What a lovely THS at Lancing this year, we’ve had a wonderful time!
Thank you to the stewards and everyone who was involved and put in so much hard work to make it such fun. See you again soon
Ingrid - know we haven’t been able to join you all this year but I’m proud to say that we belong to this DA.
Mary - Amazing night made you proud to be British the band was awesome thank you.
Mary - A huge thank you to Pat, Chris and their team of volunteers. From the moment we drove on the field at Lancing THS, we were made to feel most welcome. We have had a lovely relaxing time, met some lovely people and we will definetly be back next year. The weather and entertainment was exceptional.Thank you
Patricia - Lovely weekend and thank you to all of the committee and helpers for all your hard work making it perfect and the band too. Pat and Ken
This edition of What You Missed will be slightly different because there really is so much. I’ll slowly be updating in a week-by-week update with as many photos as I possible can - there’s quite a few to get through. I thought I’d post some photos of ‘behind the scenes’ as I’m sure you’ll understand that Lancing THS doesn’t happen overnight, but is months and months in the planning and is a great deal of work for our wonderful stewards, committee and team of helpers. Please don’t forget to send me any photos you have at www.webmaster@westsussexda.co.uk.
With a turnout of 57 caravans/motorhomes etc. all arriving on Day 1 of our Lancing THS the Stewards were kept very busy. The beautiful field(s) here at Lancing had been marked out to make sure the regulations were adhered to. Blue and red alternating pitches. Pat, Chris, Steve, Lin, Sheila, Val, Roy, Charlie, Derek, Tim, Vicki, Alan and of course T had done a sterling job putting up 3 marquees and 2 party tents enabling us to have more space for our entertainments and a dance floor. The committee couldn’t ask for a better result and a great start to our THS.
In the evening we had entertainment laid on by Buckler’s Reel – the second time we’ve been entertained by this fantastic group of musicians, playing and singing traditional Irish Ceili music along with music from the 70s and 80s. Many enjoyed just sitting, clapping and listening, whilst others were on their feet – not sure who the back row were 😊 but well done for swinging those lamps!
Overall, the first day was a huge success and the Committee went to bed with smiles on their faces and shouts of “what a great evening!” What more could you ask for….. well maybe another 25 days 😊
Our entertainment kicked off with the always popular Delstarr karaoke in the marquee. There was the expected first night nerves but the marquee was soon rocking to some of our favourite tunes such as Ring of Fire by our Chairman and ended up with Sweet Caroline and of course, Delilah, sang by our Vice Chairman Roy. Roy likes to impersonate the one and only Tom Jones, however, the only resemblance he has are the ladies knickers being thrown at him. You had to be there….
Some of us committee members are quite ‘crafty’ and we thought it would be nice to give our campers the chance to show their skills in a Craft Workshop here on site. Led by Lyndsay, Sheila and June, our campers young and old had a chance to paint/draw some still life flowers, make some friendship bracelets and create some beautiful cards in a card making/die cutting class. The morning was very successful and very well attended and campers left with some really lovely ‘makes’.
Saturday night more entertainment, this time from Karl & Danny, two great guitarists who played lots of songs from the past and present. There was even a few campers who joined them for a sing song.
All of this entertainment takes a lot of thought, preparation and planning by Pat and the Committee. So come Sunday morning, the Committee had an impromptu meeting to discuss the following weekend! As Phil Jackson (American former basketball player and coach) once said “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team”. Hours of planning and preparation has been put into our 40th Birthday Weekend and we’re very excited – let’s hope our campers enjoy it…..
Things don’t go quiet during the week. We have daily visits from Mack’s Ice Cream, as if his chimes aren’t loud enough these are often shared with shouts of “is he coming over here?” and “I hope I haven’t missed him!”. Thursday night is Spud Shack 2 night. The queue was so long that we ended up giving out tickets so that we were able to let them know how many potatoes to bring.
Wednesday night is Bingo night with Chris, always a very popular event. Followed one week by a quiz night led by some of our campers. Well done to all our winners.
The Committee Collywobbles had well and truly set in by Friday morning, but as we had all been given our responsibilities we were able to get started on the Big Weekend Bash preparations. The Club Silver Band had been arriving over the past couple of days and we could hear them rehearsing all over the campsite. Some of the committee walked the campsite in the afternoon making sure everyone had raffle tickets for the Pimms Party on Saturday afternoon – big thanks to Cath for helping out on a hot afternoon.
Friday evening arrived and many of our campers dressed the part for an absolutely fantastic evening with Chiquittita – a fabulous Abba tribute band. The marquees were soon rocking with sounds of Waterloo, Dancing Queen and Money, Money, Money. The dance floor was packed and campers were sitting inside and outside in the warm evening air. What another wonderful evening at Lancing THS.
Now, the planning and co-ordinating of all these events takes time but it also wouldn’t happen without the enthusiasm of our committee. Bright and early on Saturday morning the marquees were transformed from Disco Queen to Last Night of the Proms! Pat, Chris, Lyndsay, June, Keith, Maz, Del, Vicki and of course, T, were up bright and early to turn the place red, white & blue! Once again, big thanks to Steve, Maz, Del & T for stepping in and helping the committee. So here’s some more photos of behind the scenes…..
No sooner had we finished than the Silver Band moved in and the Pimms Party began. We catered for 250 people – Celia and Ian arrived with 120 cupcakes (incl. gluten free), Sheila, Val, Vicki and T spent hours cutting up the fruit for the Pimms – big thanks to Alan for going out on Saturday and buying the fruit. Lin collected tickets and guided people to the queue, Lyndsay for manning the souvenirs table and of course, the fabulous Club Silver Band for playing some beautiful traditional and popular music.
Finally it has arrived…………….
And so this brings us to Saturday night, the evening months and months of planning was finally coming to fruition. The marquees emblazoned in red, white & blue, smiling happy campers – mostly wearing their red, white and blue costumes and the Club Silver Band all made up what can only be described as ‘simply fantastic’. Oh What a Night! West Sussex you know how to party!
To complete what had been a very successful weekend our Vice Chairman Roy, Nigel, Richard and Justin fired up the Cadac’s and campers joined us for bacon baps and tea/coffee and some final wonderful tunes from the Club Silver Band. Once again, big thanks to T for helping the committee members serve the bacon baps and to Tina for keeping the urn filled.
And finally…………
All week campers have been arriving and here we are on our last weekend nearly full to capacity again – a really wonderful testament to us, your committee. An incredible amount of planning and work goes into our THS and to see happy smiley campers and to hear all the ‘thank yous’ is much appreciated and forever remembered.
And so here we are, our last weekend. On the Friday evening some wonderful campers decided to give the committee a break and organised a fun packed evening of quizzes and even a silly game or two. Big thank you to Georgina & Richard, Vicky & Jez and Julie & Ian.
Our final Saturday, the marquees were packed and we campers spilled out onto the grass for the final evening of entertainment by Alto Duo - a really top class father & son duo, who kept us singing, dancing and laughing all evening. The marquees were packed and we even spilled out onto the grass outside for our final evening at Lancing 2025.
