Luke Gamble of Worldwide Veterinary Service is used to assessing pets but nevertheless was almost flummoxed when asked to compare them to their owners. Luke kindly adjudicated the final class of the Virtual Village Fete – Class 7 – Pet most like its owner. Here are the results!

In third place, a good likeness though “not quite hairy enough” – its John Hill entered by Susie Hill. Its hard to believe but Susie says they are both both wilful and difficult at times!

In second place, a merging of dog and owner, its Susie Hill and Annie!

And in first place, a deserving winning entry from Rachael Frew, its Otis and Jeff – but which one is Otis and which one is Jeff?

The similarities are unmistakable! Well done to all entrants in this and all of the other classes. If you had even half the fun compiling your entries that we (VetNI) had opening them, then we must formally declare this Virtual Village Fete a resounding success. Roll on next year’s event!

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have realised that there are two NIVA Virtual Village Fete classes whose winners have not been announced. This was due to the busy lifestyle of the judges that we approached. TV vet Luke Gamble of the Worldwide Veterinary Service is obviously a very busy man too, yet he kindly found time to adjudicate Classes 5 and 7 for us. Thanks Luke! Watch his adjudication of both classes HERE.

As a reminder, the lockdown task in Class 5 was to recreate a famous artwork or celebrity photograph using whoever and whatever was available in the home or workplace. One family excelled at this task – its almost a clean sweep!

In joint third place, two entries that both revel in the macabre . . . Susan Cunningham managed to persuade her son Hugh to replicate Death of Marat by Jaques-Louis David and Jo Gibson arranged her family to recreate Caravaggio’s “Salome with the head of John the Baptist”

In second place, another stunning entry from Susan as the Cunningham boys – Hugh, Ralph and Miles – brilliantly re-create the Bronte “sisters” as painted by their brother Branwell.

and in first place (can you spot the trend?!) Susan Cunningham and family trip down the yellow brick road in the Wizard of Oz. The “real” lion is husband Johnny, taking a break from practising the Welly Darts.

Congratulations to all our entrants, most of whom were Cunninghams – now that’s a family that enjoys dressing up!

Covid Cake – now this would have been the class to judge provided all the entries could be tasted! Sadly our celebrity adjudicator had to make his choice from a beautiful range of cakes based entirely on photographic evidence. Our thanks go to chef Paul Rankin for taking the time to judge this class. I’m sure you all have all used some of his recipes or products at one time or another and you can see that he’s a class act in front of the camera from his very watchable adjudication video which can be found HERE.

So . . . in third place, Isla Doherty (5 years old) with a little help from Simon Doherty (much older!)

In second place, Sarah McEvoy (10 years old)

and in first place, Rachael Frew

Don’t they look both beautiful and delicious?! Well done to our winners and to all other entrants.

Stepping forward to judge his second fete class is renowned Irish artist Trevor Brown. What a difficult class to judge! It attracted the second highest number of entries including pottery, drawing, photography, flower arranging, crochet, book art and needle felting. Well done Trevor – how ever did you choose your winners from such a varied array of creativity?!

Trevor says: “In third place, Entry 8 – ‘Needle felted mice gathering provisions for miceolation!’ – So many little details and you can see the amount of work that has gone into this scene.

In second place, Entry 11 – Photography. – Most photographs are happy accidents but you can feel Spring from this photo. The lamb looks content and happy in it’s new world.

And the winner is Entry 9 – ‘A pin cushion, hand thrown pot, pit fired to colour using plants from my garden then needle felted scene.’ – The colours are beautiful and the glazes work really well on this piece. You can see it is made by hand and suits its purpose well.”

So . . . in third place, Eve Young

In second place, Rhonda Shiels

In first place, Eve Young

Congratulations to ALL entrants – we knew you were great vets but you kept your artistic talents hidden from us until now!

Who better to judge Class 2, Art and Craft for artists 10 years old and under, than an established and renowned Irish artist. NIVA thanks Trevor Brown for taking the time to judge both Class 2 and Class 3. Its obvious from his comments (below) that he loved the entries from our younger artists. What a talented bunch . . .

Trevor says “In third place ‘All about the Mournes’ – Great to see what’s beneath our feet, a really informative entry that would grace the walls of any good science class.

In second place ‘The Liraffe (lion- giraffe combination)’ – Animals are always really interesting but made-up ones are even MORE interesting. It also helps that giraffes are my favourite animal. 

In first place, ‘The view from my window’ – The composition and the colour really spoke to me from this painting, I love the way the window panes segment the view. “

So . . . in third place, Tilly Little

So . . . in second place, Daisy Little

So . . . in first place, Sarah McEvoy

Congratulations to all our young artists!

For Class 6 – worst lockdown hair or best DIY haircut – no adjudicator was needed! There were NO entries in this class so either you are all too vain to send us your “scarecrow” lock looks or you are so good with the clippers and scissors that you thought we would doubt the picture was taken during lockdown. So as not to disappoint totally, we include a picture of a four legged friend having a bad hair day . . .