LAST Saturday night, the past and present of Newton Abbot YFC came together to celebrate 90 years of the club. 

As one of the largest rural youth organisations in the UK, Young Farmers groups have become something of a community institution across the country, and the Newton Abbot group is certainly no different. 

Formed in 1933, the Newton Abbot YFC is among the oldest groups in the country.

The evening kicked off with a President’s welcome address from Helen Pearse. 

After a lavish three-course dinner, guests listened to speeches and commemorated the group’s birthday by cutting the cake.

Rendells auctioneer Jonathon Bell then proceeded with an auction of promises, in which lots kindly donated by sponsors and members were sold to the highest bidder, all to raise money for the Young Farmers and Dartmoor Search and Rescue. 

The top lot of the night, a two-night stay in a Dartmoor holiday cottage, kindly donated by Russell and Carol Retallick, sold for £460.

Annaliese Retallick, the current chair of Newton Abbot Young Farmers, said: ‘We had 7 main sponsors of our event, so big thank you to Ranjit Farming, Helpful Holidays, Phoenix Tools, Mead Garage, the Gun Room, Swansons and Redpost Equestrian for the support and for making it possible for us to put on such a great evening. 

‘The evening shared memories from the past where Lloyd Mortimore gave a speech around his days of being a member of the club. 

‘Our oldest previous member attended this event too, Audrey Mortimore is 94 years old and did us the honours of cutting the anniversary cake. 

‘We held an auction of promises where we auctioned off 21 prizes so thank you all to our prize donators we raised around £2000 and this will be split between club funds and the Dartmoor rescue group. 

‘The evening finished off with the Josh Wheaton band where past and present members came together on the dance floor. 

‘It was a great evening to look back over the past 90 years of club success!’