After a brief conversation while out walking with friends, Mayra – wife of Camerton Community Hall Chairman, Clive Turner – learned about a Sri Lankan man who would come out to the country from Bristol to put on an evening of Sri Lankan food.

Clive ran with this idea, and invited Sri Lankan chef, Sam Gunaratne, to come to the Camerton Hall, starting out as quite low-key affair catering for around forty.

After announcing the event at the Mendip Male Voice Choir concert and the Easter Fun Day, things got a little out of hand, with over seventy applications for places.

What a great night it was; Sam and helpers from the committee took all day preparing the food and decorating the hall with Sri Lankan flags and posters.

Over seventy people were catered for. Sam gave an outline of the food he had prepared – there must have been enough food for 100! Everyone was well fed.

Sam dished up mouth-watering curries and vegetarian delights to please everyone, tables were called up one by one to help themselves to the splendid Sri Lankan dishes.

Wine and beer flowed throughout the evening; there was a large draw and a reverse bingo, with Eric Smith winning the prize of three bottles of wine.

One of the parishioners in attendance said: “Great food and company – we all had a great time. Lovely to see so many friends from local villages together, that’s what a community hall should do and it was done very well. The hall looked amazing and the sun shone, showing the field off to its best.”

Clive Turner thanked Sam and everyone who came along and all the committee, who had spent many hours helping with ticket, draw and bingo sales, plus decorating the hall and preparing the food.

The committee would like to thank Andrew Dando for supplying the round tables, which really made a difference to the ambience of the hall.

Bryn Hawkins