The parish of St Clement have picked up the top award, the Prix d’Honneur, for the last two years, but have not entered a junior float since 2004.
Since April, a team of 22 young people – aged between four and 17 – and ten adult
supervisors have been working on the 17-ft long junior entry, Tick Tock.
The team are being led by Michelle Ollivro, whose daughter Rachael Ollivro-Du Heaume (17) designed the float last year, aged 16.
‘I used to be the secretary of the St Saviour Battle committee, even though I always lived in St Clement, and I had wanted to do a parish float for a long time,’ explained Michelle. ‘My daughter came up with this design last year and she said: “Come on Mum, let’s do it!”‘
‘The parish had stopped entering a junior exhibit eight years ago because it takes up a lot of time and nobody wanted to organise it. I thought it was about time St Clement got off their backsides and did a junior float again, so I decided to take it on.
‘When we started back in April we had absolutely nothing. We had to retrieve our old base, which was buried under a tonne of rubbish, and get it sanded down. We have done really well with the building though and everything is now pretty much in place ready for the flowers to arrive. Lots of people have been involved and there’s been a lovely community spirit.’
And she said that the parish’s junior return is not simply a one-off. ‘We are back for good now and already have our designs ready for the next three years,’ said Michelle.
It was decided that the junior float should tie in with the parish’s senior entry, Neverland, which is based on Peter Pan. Tick Tock depicts Hook and Smee rowing to Skull Island with an Indian village in the distance and Michelle said that the most impressive parts of the float are a crocodile and a totem pole, both of which have been harestailed.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to find anywhere big enough to build both the junior and senior parish floats, so St Clement Juniors have been working alone at parishioner Trevor Le Brun’s shed at Homefields. The team have been working on the float every Sunday afternoon.
‘I’ve heard from a lot of parishioners who are really happy that we’re entering a junior float again,’ said Michelle. ‘It’s just a great pity that we can’t build in the same place as the seniors, as our junior team is the future of the seniors.
‘Hopefully we will be able to live up to the reputation of our senior team though and come top of our class.’
