“We stopped to watch as the birds looked quite unusual, and then we saw a fin”, said Walker. “We all thought it was a shark to begin with,” said Warrior. “By the way it was thrashing, we knew it was stuck in a gulley.”

Gale said: “When we got closer, we could see it wasn’t a shark but a dolphin or maybe a porpoise.”

Tough Going

Walker and Warrior ran down the rocks and plunged in, while Gale stayed on land to take photos and run for help if necessary. The two women struggled for 20 minutes against the incoming tide to reposition the stuck creature, later identified as a common dolphin.

“It was pretty tough going because the sea was rough and we couldn’t get a sure footing on the seabed because of the rocks”, said Walker. “The tide was coming in, so we were getting knocked over and having to pick each other up, as well as trying not to stress the dolphin even more. I was telling her she would be ok. We were at the tail end because we weren’t sure if she would bite us – she was quite heavy.”

“Because the water was choppy, we couldn’t see the rocks beneath, so it took about five minutes of both of us manoeuvring the dolphin before I was able to turn her and finally release her”, said Warrior. “It was definitely a two- woman job – but then we are always a team at Hastings Rounders.”

Carrie Warrior hands on (right). Photo: Sarah Gale

Warrior later contacted British Divers Marine Life Rescue to report the incident. An officer told her: “It’s natural to think of putting them back in the water, however a healthy cetacean very rarely strands. There is usually an underlying cause. Hopefully it’s a happy ending and it’s gone back out. Thank you for letting us know, as our teams can now prepare if it strands again.”

“So we hope we did the right thing,” said Walker. “People have asked me what the dolphin’s tail felt like, and honestly the closest thing is the base of a rounders post! Seeing her swim off into the distance was a really beautiful moment. She swam in a big arc surfacing a couple of times and headed towards Bexhill.”

The Hastings Rounders group was established in 2022, playing the game through the summer in Alexandra Park. More recently they have been awarded a Sports England grant which has enabled them to continue indoors over the winter at Hastings Academy, and from this month at St Leonards Academy as well. They already have 35 players ranging in age from 19 to 70+ but are keen to find more.

The group can be accessed on facebook or via https://eequ.org/experience/2515 or at hastingsrounders@gmail.com

Sometimes artists get a bad press. They are occasionally depicted as narcissistic types obsessed with their own ideas and neurotic about reviews and, of course, sales. But the
Art Auction held by HIP in December proved all that to be utter nonsense. In fact, the generosity of local artists in their willingness to donate for free was quite staggering. The Auction raised more than £5k. A sum that is a considerable boost to the paper for 2022. A huge ‘thank you’ goes out to absolutely everyone involved.

Curiously, on the day itself, the omens were not good. In the afternoon a storm hit the town and brought such heavy rain and wind that many of us felt no one would brave such elements just for pretty pictures. (On top of that, 7 December was also the 80th anniversary of the Pearl Harbour air raid – not really relevant, but hardly an encouraging sign.) But, amazingly, the weather calmed by late afternoon and the people of Hastings came in search of artistic treasure in great numbers.

Kate and Richard in action

HIP would like to take this opportunity to thank a couple of individuals by name. Dave, the proprietor of ‘The Horse and Groom’ in Mercatoria, was an absolute star: he let us wander in and out of the back room in the days before the auction as we saw fit and really could not have been more helpful. Although at one point on the day of the auction, the pub had to bolt its door to keep the wind at bay. Carrying large paintings from car to pub in the afternoon risked the artwork being flung into the wild air. Another hero of the artistic hour was Richard Fryer, local writer, seafarer and brilliant furniture maker who also, it turned out, was a great auctioneer. He was ably assisted by the multi-talented Kate Tym who engaged the audience with wit and not a little good-humoured verbal prodding.

Pondering the paintwork

The range of art on show was amazing. The auction had everything, from the brilliant to the baffling or bizarre and all stations in between. There were all sorts of paintings from the small and intricate to the vast. There were numerous artists in this field, and among them were Oska Lappin, Katherine Reekie, Russell Baker, Ian Barraclough, James Mackinnon, Tom Banks, Daisy Clarke, Stewart Walton, Robin Holtom, Martin Bradshaw, Danny Mooney, Claudia de Grandi and many, many more. Photography included Ian O’Leary, John Coles, Alex Brattell, Alexandra Vacaroiu, Patricia Webb and Sonny Levitt. Print and mixed media was very lively, including works from Alan Rankle and Laetitia Yhap, Hazel Brook and Peter Quinell but also more pop-punky pieces from Carrie Warrior, Georgie Wheeler, Chris Milton and Jude Montague. Ben Eine’s street art came courtesy of Steph at ‘Stella Dore’ and many thanks to her for that. In what might be called the conceptual category we had the wonderfully intriguing Becky Beasley. Adrienne Hunter’s piece seemed to dynamically straddle drawing and painting. There was also a strong showing in ceramics, from Mudworks, Annabel Faraday, Bernard McGuigan, Liz Emtage and Jane Loftin. We even had a charming cartoon by the late, great Martin Honeysett. Local shops were also generous in donating prizes for the raffle, and Catriona Lafferty was heroic in jumping in, last-minute, to run it. 

In total, more than fifty artists contributed and apologies to those not mentioned due to lack of space. Thanks also to the unsung heroes who did the lugging in the rain and the fixing to the walls. Including Claire-Marie Moore and our own Fiona McGarry, Rod Webb, Kent Barker, Suzie McFie and Ben Cornwell. Overall, as they say in very silly circles, everyone was a winner. 

• See the full list of works for sale here

Opening just before Christmas 2017, there is a new place to buy flowers in central St Leonards. That place is Warrior Flowers, situated opposite Christ Church on London Road. It is owned and run by Carrie Warrior, who has over twenty years of floristry experience in her former home in Kent. The shop itself displays both small decorative pots and a range of flowers to be formed into bouquets. While the size of the shop limits what can be prepared and shown there, Carrie has a home studio where she is able to put together larger displays for events.

But flowers are not the only things that the shop sells. Having retrained as an artist eight years ago, Carrie also displays and sells some of her own art. This is in a variety of styles, from realistic portraiture to abstract prints, and even lenticular art. With the shop having an extremely large ceiling, there is significant wall space above the flora for hanging more pictures. She fully intends to make good use of this space to not only sell her own pieces but as a gallery and sale-room for other local artists. Indeed, there were a handful of items from other people on display when I visited the shop.

Though the shop itself provides a relatively small space to start a business, Carrie undoubtedly has big dreams.

• If you want to find out more, you can visit the shop itself at 45B London Road, St Leonards, check out the website at warriorflowers.co.uk or call the shop on 01424 547859.

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