iCranleigh

This month I have been all over the place.

I was privileged enough to have a look around the new Cranleigh Medical Centre site recently, in preparation for a ceramics project we are working on. Imposing as it is from the outside, inside is even more impressive, with high interior walls and great access to natural light. It’s going to be a real asset to Cranleigh when it formally opens after the summer.

I’ve also been out and about with our season brochure and flyers for forthcoming events. It’s the best way to hear what local people have to say about the Arts Centre, all of it positive I’m pleased to say.

We are currently creating a new distribution list so we can get word of all our activities to as many people as possible. It’s key for our survival to make sure we’re selling tickets, so promotion is a huge part of what we do.

Andy, who joined us at the beginning of the year has been working on plans to improve our coffee bar. We’ve been considering new products, new signage and new ways of bringing in new people.

It’s easy when it’s sunny outside, because we sell the best ice creams in Cranleigh, but when it’s cold and wet, do people know about our hot chocolate with extras for instance?

And before our quieter period in July, we have a frantic June, with more events that in previous years. This week we have two best-selling authors here, a top name comedian, some classical music with a twist plus a George Clooney film, so who needs to leave Cranleigh? Not us!

Whilst searching the Runner’s World website recently for some events (I’ve taken up running this year and have already entered the Cranleigh 10k in July!), I spotted an interesting triathlon taking place in Cranleigh this summer.

The Vachery Triathlon Festival takes place at Vachery Estate from 25th to 27th August 2012. Whilst I won’t be ready for a triathlon by August, a few of my friends who have completed triathlons before are very keen to enter.

Here are some more details about the event.

Vachery Pond (pictured) is an open water swimmers dream. It’s a tree lined spring fed 900m long private reservoir and it’s the swim venue for the Vachery Triathlon Festival.

It’s an astonishing fact that this beautiful expanse of open water remains unknown to the public at large when it is only minutes from London and its major motorways and it is located right in the middle of the British Triathlon Federation’s South East region with the country’s highest levels of triathlon participation in the country.

The Festival organisers hope that this remarkable stretch of water and its convenient location will help the 25-27 August Bank Holiday’s Vachery Triathlon Festival, a weekend of road and Xtri cross triathlon racing, with camping and fun activities for kids of all ages become an annual must do event for the region’s triathletes.

Vachery pond is part of the 12th century Vachery Estate near Cranleigh, Surrey. The estate is located in the shadow of the Surrey Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The surrounding country lanes are well known and loved by cyclists of all abilities and without doubt they’ll be even more famous if Mark Cavendish can stay with the leaders as they repeatedly climb the ZigZags on nearby Box Hill to win a gold medal at the Olympic road race later this year.

The Olympic connection doesn’t stop there.

As you would imagine with such an ancient unspoilt expanse of water Vachery Pond has not got permanent access, a slipway or steps to deal with the large number of swimmers the event will attract. The organisers chanced upon a handy solution by hiring the actual pontoon that the London Olympic triathletes and Long distance swimmers will dive from into the Serpentine and Olympic history.

The moment the London Olympic event ends it will be packed up and transported directly to The Vachery Estate where it will be stored before being floated on the Pond. Fingers crossed if one of the Brownlees bros or Helen Jenkins win gold the opportunity to follow in their footsteps on that pontoon will inspire some great swimming at Vachery Pond.

The weekend fun begins at midday on Saturday 25th August when the campsite (immediately next door to the transition area and race village) opens. Athletes for the following day’s races are able to register then or up to an hour before their race start.

The Saturday afternoon and evening is all about relaxing, enjoying the location and maybe a pre-race drink at the bar with family and friends

The road triathlon race programme starts early on Sunday morning 26th August with Sprint and Standard distance events for individuals and a relay for teams. The road triathlon bike courses are on country roads that are relatively flat and feature new smooth tarmac surfaces.

Cross triathletes get a very rare pre-race lie in, because the Festival’s cross tri action which includes the only round of The Scott Xtri series in the South of England starts in the afternoon after the roadies have finished racing.

The swim section is the same as their road counterparts. However the cross bike section is on a 15km lap route designed by eight times XTERRA world championship round winner Sam Gardner. His fast lap course features water’s edge single-track and uses tracks and trails to visit every area of woodland on the large estate.

Road and off-road triathlons use the same 5 and 10km run courses which are on relatively flat tracks, trails and paths including part of the nearby Downs Link, a disused railway line forming part of the 37 miles (59km) long-distance path linking St Martha’s Hill, near Guildford, to near Shoreham on the south coast.

More information about the event on the 25-27th August is available at www.vacherytriathlon.com.

The Vachery Triathlon Festival 25th – 27th August features the following races on Sunday 26th August 2012
Morning race schedule (road-triathlon)

• Road individual Sprint distance triathlon – 750m swim; 16km bike and 5km run – £40 BTF member, £44 non member

• Road individual Standard distance triathlon – 1500m swim; 40km bike and 10km run – £50 BTF member, £54 non member

• Road team relay Standard distance triathlon – 1500m swim; 40km bike and 10km run – £60 a team
Afternoon race schedule (cross-triathlon)

• Individual cross triathlon sprint distance – 750m swim; 15km bike and 5km run – £40 BTF member, £44 non member

• Individual Scott Xtri Series standard distance – 1500m swim; 30km bike and 10km run – £50 BTF member, £54 non member

• Relay Team Xtri standard distance – 1500m swim; 30km bike and 10km run – £70

Will any of our iCranleigh website visitors be taking part?

Good old May, month of rain and beer festivals! And so it was this year, only this time Cranleigh Arts Centre got in on the act with our own Ale Trail, in partnership with the Richard Onslow.

A rainy start made us question whether we’d make a terrible mistake, but at about 11am the clouds drifted away and we had a wonderful afternoon. The only sad note for me was that we ran out of our specially-made beer sausages, so there was nothing for dinner when I got home, except for the one I dropped on the floor that the dog enjoyed!
 
Our Film Festival is now in full swing. There’s a great deal of anticipation amongst the volunteers as to which film will be chosen from our public vote to be the film on 18 May.

I voted for Lawrence of Arabia. I’ve only seen it once before, at 12 years old it was part of a film festival at the local independent cinema and I vowed then never to watch it on a television in case it lost any of its incredible impact.

Having recently visited Lawrence’s digs at Qasr al-Azraq in Jordan and his other haunts, I can’t wait to see them again in the film. If you haven’t voted yet, you can make your vote count here.
 
I finally got to see a show here last week – an almost sold-out children’s show The Elves and the Shoemaker. There was just one ticket left, so I squeezed in with the kids and had a fantastic time, with a little bit of singing and waving my shoes about.

Next month I’m going to go one step further and take part in one of our new classes, but I can’t decide between willowcraft and creative carving! Suggestions???

Photo credit: Flickr/Cambridge Brewing Co.

April showers – who says life isn’t predictable?

We’ve just returned from a nice, long weekend off for Easter. Things slow down for us a little in the holidays as many of our regular classes are taking a break. This week we’re all working hard to post out our summer brochure in time for booking which opens next Tuesday. There are several thousand to hand-stuff as we can’t afford to pay to have it done! It is a good chance for us to sit down and have a good natter though, so it’s not too arduous!

I’m trying to decide which of our new workshops I might try. Ruth has worked her socks off to find us some very different activities, including raku pottery, pinhole photography, willowcraft and creative carving. I’d most like to make a relief panel in the carving workshop, but I’m sitting here with two plasters on my fingers because I don’t even have a good relationship with my kitchen knives!
 
There’s one class I really do want to try, but it’s for children only! Miniature Landscapes invites children to come along with their favourite little toy to make a whole world for them to live in! It’s messy stuff, but it’s my sort of thing!
 
We’re just in the final stages of completing our first room hire brochure so we can show off our great facilities to potential hirers. We get a lot of requests for private parties and anniversary celebrations which are great fun to look after. Hopefully we can entice more companies to use our facilities using our brand new updated projector and cinema facilities. Maybe even a film premiere….!