Club celebrates 25 years of fulfilling vision of founders
‘YOUNGER MEMBERS’ ACHIEVEMENTS PROOF OF CLUB SUCCESS’
IN 1996 clippers were being sharpened and cows shampooed after a new club was established for Holstein-Friesian enthusiasts in North Wales.
As well as hosting activities and outings for established breeders, the club’s aim was to provide a showing platform for young farmers – and to encourage their interest in the breed.
On Sunday the North Wales Holstein Club (NWHC) clocked up 25 years – having firmly fulfilled the vision founder members.
“The achievements of the young members are proof positive of the club’s success,” said secretary Dyfrig Hughes.
“Many have used the skills and knowledge of its gained from club activities to forge successful careers both in and outside agriculture.”
Originally called the North Wales Holstein Friesian Breeders Club, its name was shortened following the merger of the Holstein-Friesian and Holstein Societies – one of the first clubs in the UK to do so.
It was founded on March 7, 1996, by herd owners across North Wales, including Philip Davies and Harri Evans of the Gornal and Rhosbadrig herds respectively.
They hatched the idea on a train journey across France en route to the Space Show in Brittany, motivated by a growing interest in genetics among the region’s dairy farmers.
Launch days were staged at Hendy, Caernarfon; Llwydfaen, Talycafn; and Mathan Uchaf, Boduan, Pwllheli.
Appointed inaugural secretary was Melfyn Williams from Betws yn Rhos, who with the newlyformed committee set about organising the inaugural YMA calf show at
Ruthin market.
Judge on that day was James Pickford of the Pictson herd, who would go on to breed Picston Shottle, one of the greatest dairy bulls of all time.
Shottle was to become a leading global sire for Genus ABS in Ruthin, where former NWHC young member Larissa Jones, Rossett, now works on the breeding operation.
The club’s first herd competition was organised in 1999 and other than last year, and the foot-and-mouth year of 2001, it has been staged ever since.
Over this time it has attracted several notable judges, with winners going on to represent North Wales in the UK Premier Herd Competition – a title that has been won by the Gornal herd from Llanymynech, Powys.
Other luminaries have included WJ Williams, Clwch, who claimed the Master Breeder Award, and Osian Rhys and Alun Jones, Holstein Young Breeders (HYB) who were Linear class winners at the Royal Show before its demise.
Among the notable bovine graduates was Ceinwen Bonze, the first in the UK to collect 10 excellence awards from Holstein UK.
The club also stages annual on-farm evenings to help members finesse the art of stockjudging. Among those to graduate to Holstein UK’s national judging panels was Aled Jones, Hendy, Caernarfon.
Current HYB members include four-year-old Aneira Williams, Abennig, and special constable Gwen Jones, 21, of the Môn herd, who is currently studying a policing degree.
Another is Dafydd Wyn Jones, 22, of the Goldstar and Meinal herds, who may yet lay claim to being the club’s highest profile success: he’s currently at the Royal College of Music studying to become a professional opera singer.
“The success of our younger members is a fitting tribute to the individuals who made it all possible,” added Mr Hughes.
ATOP music festival that’s going virtual for the first time in its history will be paying homage to globally renowned harpist Osian Ellis who died earlier this year. The 2020 Wales Harp Festival had to be cancelled at the last minute following the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic but this year the organisers are determined that the show will go on.
In a marathon effort of ingenuity and technical know-how, from their headquarters in Caernarfon, Canolfan Gerdd William Mathias (William Mathias Music Centre) orchestrated a way to transfer the entire programme of festival events online.
They were more determined than ever that the 2021 festival on March 30 and 31 should go ahead because it is dedicated to the memory of Osian Ellis, who passed away in January, aged 92.
The festival will also be paying tribute to two other illustrious harpists, Ann Griffiths and Mair Jones, who died during the past 12 months.
The event would normally be staged live at Galeri, Caernarfon, but ongoing pandemic and lockdown rules make this impossible.
It’s hoped the festival will reach an even wider audience this year with talented harpists from Hong Kong, Patagonia and Ireland queuing up to take part.
The festival concert will feature a performance of Osian Ellis’ final composition written in 2019, Lachrymae (Tears), by its director, Elinor Bennett.
She will also be joined by her former pupil at Canolfan Gerdd William Mathias, Elen Hydref to perform his “Diversions” for two harps.
Elen Hydref will also play the Suite for Harp by Benjamin Britten which was written for Osian Ellis.
Another internationally acclaimed Welsh harpist, Sioned Williams, will give a performance of words and music reflecting on the inspiration she received from tutors including Osian, Mair Jones and Ann Griffiths.
The festival also includes a recording of a lecture given by Osian Ellis at the 2017 Wales Harp Festival about his collaboration with Benjamin Britten, and there will be dedicated sessions for friends, colleagues and fellow musicians to pay tribute to Osian.
Meinir Llwyd Roberts, the director of Canolfan Gerdd William Mathias, said: “A consequence of the move online is that it opens up the festival to participants from all over the globe enabling harpists from Wales and other countries to join in with the online tutoring sessions which will be a key part of the programme.
“We have already had an application from a harpist in Hong Kong and there is another young Welsh-speaking pupil in Patagonia, Argentina, extremely keen to take part.”
“The festival offers beginners and more advanced harpists of all ages the opportunity to learn
from the best”
They can apply to take part in 90 minutes group workshops taught by top professional tutors Elinor Bennett, her ex-pupil Elen Hydref and Ann Jones who were all taught by Osian Ellis at some stage of their musical career.
The harp tutor, Ann Jones, who was Osian Ellis’ pupil at the Royal Academy of Music and former principal harpist with the RTE Radio Orchestra in Dublin, will overcome lockdown travel restrictions by giving lessons online, direct from her home in Ireland.
Elinor Bennett was especially keen that the 2021 festival should go ahead so she and others could pay their personal tributes to Osian Ellis who was the Honorary President of the festival.
He was a talented musician from an early age and grew up to become an outstanding international harpist, teacher, composer and arranger. He was principal harpist of the London Symphony Orchestra and had the honour of having had classical composer Benjamin Britten write works especially for him.
Generations of harpists whom he inspired have themselves gone on to teach young students.
Elinor was one of his pupils at the Royal Academy of Music from which she graduated and went on to become a prominent harp soloist, master instructor and founder of the Harp College of Wales.
She has performed regularly with the English Chamber Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra, as well as giving recitals on radio and television.
She said: “I am hugely excited that the festival is able to go on and at the prospect of it potentially reaching a global audience through the online technology being employed this year. The technical assistance I have had from CGWM staff has been invaluable. They have jumped all sorts of hurdles to make this happen.”
Elinor will be holding an online masterclass and there will also be an opportunity for harpists from grades 1-7 to join online Zoom classes in small groups with one of the harp tutors, Ann Jones, Elen Hydref and Elinor herself.
She said: “To make things easier this year we are asking participants of the workshops to send us recordings of the pieces they are learning so that the tutors can listen to their performances beforehand. This will ensure that each harpist gets the greatest benefit out of the classes and will also be a great back-up, should there be any connection problems or glitches on the day.”
Full details of the festival programme can be found at the website: www.walesharpfestival.co.uk.
TWELVE months ago Dr Pauline Cutting, a veteran war-zone surgeon, again found herself on the frontline.
This time the enemy carried no guns but the casualties were mounting and Dr Cutting, now 69, could sense the tension rising among her colleagues.
As a doctor in the Emergency Department at Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, she was among hundreds of staff suddenly thrust into the Covid19 maelstrom.
A new war was underway, but one very different to her experiences in Lebanon in the 1980s, when she found herself under siege in a refugee camp whose occupants were being systematically starved to death.
“For me it felt like going back into the danger zone,” said Dr Cutting, recalling the start of the Covid crisis.
“At the beginning of the pandemic everyone was very anxious. Everyone’s greatest fear was touching something, catching the virus and taking it home to their families.
“In fact several of my colleagues did catch Covid and were very unwell.
“At the same time it was very different. The buildings were safe, there were no bombs, but there was definitely an underlying apprehension.”
It’s a moot point as to whether Dr Cutting chases wars, or whether wars follow her around.
Certainly, she says, she enjoys the challenges of conflict surgery, the prospect of putting damaged lives back together again.
In the mid 1980s she was a volunteer surgeon with Medical Aid for Palestine (MAP).
For 18 months she worked in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, treating the sick and performing emergency surgery in makeshift operating theatres.
It was there that she found herself in the Bourj al Bourajneh refugee camp, cut off from the outside world by rival armed factions in the country’s civil war.
With doctors and nurses from all parts of the world, she fought to save lives, supporting the camp’s interns under constant bombardment and sniper fire.
As supplies of food and drugs dwindled away, desperation set in. Residents resorted to eating rats. Mothers fed grass to their starving children. A Sunni cleric sought clarification on whether eating human flesh was permissible.
Dr Cutting suffered with them, her weight dropping to six-and-ahalf stone.
No one believed what was going on – until Dr Cutting stepped and spoke up on behalf of the residents, bringing the crisis to the attention of the wider world.
“A lot of people were dying,” she recalled. “We were all afraid.
“Someone fixed up a radio antenna to an old car battery so I could speak to journalists and explain how desperate things were.
“In some way it was those journalists who saved my life.”
Famously, she told those listening: “We will stay with the people of the camp until the danger is over.
“We will remain with them – to live or die with them.”
The quote reverberated the world.
After 18 months of hell, the siege was lifted and Dr Cutting was able to return home to Amsterdam with Dutch husband Ben Alofs.
Undeterred, the pair would return to the Gaza Strip for a six-month stint while Ben awaited entry to medical college. Dr Cutting was around