At Lemon Zest we like to source local fresh ingredients but that’s maybe a step too far

Charlotte Cherry our junior co-ordinator has an unusual pastime when she is not busy planning events. She is in a member of the Banbury & District Aunt Sally league. If like me you thought that Aunt Sally was the unrequited love of Wurzel Gummidge then think again.

It’s is a traditional throwing game and was played in central English pubs and fairgrounds. One theory of how the game started is that a live chicken was placed on the post, and people would throw sticks, which resemble small rolling pins, at the bird. Whoever killed it, won the game and took home the poultry prize. Now, here at Lemon Zest we like to source local fresh ingredients but that’s maybe a step too far.

In the modern game the chicken has been replaced by a wooden ‘Doll’ which looks like a short squat skittle and is painted bright white. This needs to be knocked off the iron post cleanly in order to score, each player has six attempts per leg (of which there are 3) to dislodge the doll from its pedestal. The sticks are thrown from a distance of 30 feet or just over 9 meters.

Why impart this information on our blog you may think? Well Charlotte won the Oxford ladies cup final last week hitting a maximum six from six in her last ‘leg’. Apparently she is the only lady in the league to have thrown a maximum so far this season. As a close-knit team we are proud of individual staff achievements and thought that this performance was worthy of a few words here.

Well done Charlotte, it just goes to show that it’s not just the chefs who can wield a ‘rolling pin’!!