Lock ‘n’ Load or “will I ever get to read that book?” With the start of the lockdown in March there was no Tennis Club or Table Tennis Club to run; both having been shut down until further notice. Will I be bored? No, I thought - now is the time for me to start all those jobs that have been waiting to get done, then I can relax and read a few books while sitting in the immaculate garden. The campaign began, all the seeds sown in the greenhouse were potted up, borders were tidied and shrubs pruned within an inch of their lives. I stood back and admired the results, then the unseasonal heatwave hit. I spent loads of time everyday watering to save the plants from dying from thirst; why did I sow and pot up so many? My burnt shoulders from the blazing sun dictated I do something indoors for a while so I oiled up my sewing machine and overlocker and made eight cushions for our new garden chairs. Right, now to get that book and try them out … No – before I could open the first page, Phillimore garden centre opened up so I rushed down to get my tomato growbags and get the tomato plants in and settled. Where did that two months go? Right, where’s that book ... No – as soon as I had fished it out the call came out from Papworth Hospital: Help! all you sewers, we need scrubs, our supplies are dangerously low. A whole group of us from Meldreth and Royston Tennis Clubs set ourselves up to respond to the call. One of us who didn’t have a sewing machine, elected to be the collector and deliverer of the outfits and off we went: we “locked ’n’ loaded” our sewing machines and started cutting, overlocking, sewing, hemming, swearing when the cotton broke or the two front trouser legs were sewn together … The real cottage industry spirit hit us all. The material started coming through from neighbours, friends and the charity office at Papworth. There were pink polka dots, outrageous flowery prints, Thomas the Tank Engine and Mr Men duvets and orange, yellow and red spotted prints. Surely no one wanted to wear those, but no, the brighter the better to cheer up patients isolated in hospital wards. The Papworth scrubs fashion catwalk had begun. The Great British Sewing B came back on the telly during all this and
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