TAVISTOCK Parish Church is this week preparing for a weekend of festivities to celebrate an important day in the local calendar, the day of its patron saint, Eustachius.

St Eustachius' day falls on September 20, and St Eustachius' church is marking the occasion with a range of enjoyable events and services this Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, a parish cricket match is being held, beginning at 2pm, at The Ring, the home of Tavistock Cricket Club. Men and women, young and old, will be on the field for a friendly game overlooking the spectacular view.

All parishioners are warmly invited to spectate, to share in a free, sumptuous tea which will be served half-way through the afternoon, and to join the players at the bar after the match. Parishioners from Gulworthy will be umpiring and scoring, in order to ensure fair play.

On Sunday, a special family service will be held at the parish church at 9.45am. At 6pm there will be a festival service with a guest preacher — the Rev Fiona de Quidt, who is on the staff of St Paul's, Kingston Hill in South London, and the daughter of the late Ian Walkington, a resident of Tavistock and a staunch Friend of St Eustachius'. The Friends of St Eustachius' will be celebrating the day with their own cream tea in the parish centre before the evening service.

St Eustachius, or St Eustace, is a very rare patron saint for a parish church — besides Tavistock, there is only one other church in the country wholly dedicated to him.

'Have you ever wondered who on earth he was?' asked the priest-in-charge of Tavistock, the Rev Michael Brierley.

'Find out this weekend! All are warmly invited to the cricket match and services — it promises to be a marvellous celebration.'