BB Monthly Reports - 2002

Monthly reports from the year 2002
Read them all or go straight to : JAN - MAR   PRE SEASON PREAMBLE   APR - MAY   JUN - SEP   25TH WEEKEND REPORT  OCT  NOV - DEC

JAN - MAR 2002

New year, new challenges, new ambitions, new mountains to climb, new rivers to be swum, etc - for many teams. BB however are carrying on as normal in 2002.

One event to report on so far, which was an appearance at the Haddenham ceilidh on 2nd Feb, with 2 spots during the ceilidh with band Malarkey. Despite some difficulties getting the breeches on again for some of the team, the spots went well, and the music flowed forth just as it always did (Sue benefiting from those long nights out in the open on the African plains during the English winter, with only her melodeon and some lions, bears and snakes for company. Amazing how those Morris tunes scared off all the dangerous predators).

Meanwhile the practice season is continuing with some signs of a new dance emerging for later in the year, and the potential return of an old member, at a stroke doubling the number of Malcolms in the team. Welcome back, bonny lad.

Everyone is looking forward to our own 25th birthday weekend, July 12 - 14, and plans are proceeding apace, albeit a slow pace. But the team is on the case, and the booking of the bus for the Luton tour for one of our guest sides is imminent. Roll on summer .....  

2002 PRE-SEASON PRE-AMBLE

As the new 2002 dance season dawns - what are the team members hopes for it?

Fiddly Jane - "I'm really hoping the website will fulfil my request to have a 'rear of the month' feature, though I appreciate that for some of the teams we dance with a widescreen monitor would be necessary for viewing"
Scaredy Rob - "I want us to dance with greater precision. I'm determined to set an example and having been undergoing special arm-levelling exercises"
Posh Jerry - (actually Jerry didn't answer directly - this is what we could glean from his butler) - "Jerry's hopes for the season are that all the hard work from the practice season pays off and leads to some sparkling performances. The only things he is really concerned about are the stepping, the lines, the team work, the co-ordination, the arm movements, the ability to remember how the dances go, the ability to remember all items of kit, and the ability"
Smiler Simon - "I'm just hoping we have an opportunity to use up all the 12,763 coconut halves I have been preparing during the winter. Glass of coconut milk, anyone?"
Baby Paul - "I'm hoping all my hard work doing circuits will enable me to fulfil my potential this season, and I may even be ready to tackle dances which last longer than 2 minutes"
Bev Lee - "I get a shiver down my spine every time we sing 'Going Away' at the end of each performance. This is usually accompanied by an acute feeling of nausea. Still I understand the side may be trying out my new words, if they ever get round to learning them"
Ripper John - "I don't care what we do so long as I get to go in my cloak again. Wheeee.... Whoooo........ Wheeee....... I'm flying...... Wheeeoooohh....."
Blondie Sue - "I still haven't worked out yet if this lot are entirely serious. Probably not. Still, soon be the winter again and time for another 4 months danger and excitement - and we're not talking the BB practice season here...."
Poser Jameson - "I'm really looking forward to giving my all to just one team this year. Not for me the days of tarting between loads of teams at the drop of a hat or the flash of a Sidmouth season ticket - no sirree, those days are past". "What's that, you're one short for Saturday? Oh all right then...."
Bob Jen - "One two three four, one two three four, shake my eggs, one two three four". "What was the question again? - oh, I just hope they give me a proper drum solo to do this season ..."
Biker Mike - "My wishes for the season are to completely master at least 6 dances in the repertoire, though I fully realise if I do this I will be some way ahead of everyone else in the side ..."
Shorty Malcolm - "Following my recent lay off due to my operation I'm looking forward to Getting Down and Getting With It, to C'mon and Feel the Noize. Why? Coz I Luv You, and anyway, Mama, We're All Crazee Now. But musn't overdo it, or you'll be saying Look Wot You Dun, and you'll have to Take Me Bak Ome - and I'd have to say Goodbye to Jane, and before you know where you are its Merry Xmas Everybody"
Ten Teas Tim - "Me? I'm looking forward to continuing to get the Teas in. Did I tell you about my new diet? Oh sorry, am I speaking out loud?"

APR / MAY 2002

The season opened in its usual way on Thurs 25th April with the usual visit to the Queens Oak where we entertained the usual huge audience to the usual repertoire which went much as it usually does. Well, its traditional isn't it? The only real difference this year was that instead of not visiting Bob's Fish n chip shop first, this year we didn't visit Bob's Fish n chip n Tandoori shop. Yet we didn't let this alter the spirit of the occasion.

2 days later we were off to Adderbury to join the Adderbury Day of Dance. And as soon as someone who was there tells me how it went I will bring the eagerly awaited news to website readers.

Sat 4th May saw us at Rochester, where our shortage of numbers on the day meant that for once we were quite glad to see the familiar sight of John's cloak heading up Rochester High Street towards us. We had a good day overall, with the highlights being shared spots with Hook Eagle (who also borrowed Tim and Jameson for a couple of dances, though they insisted unnecessarily on giving them back afterwards) , and shared spots and banter with Witchmen, to whom we dedicated, perhaps unwisely given the size of some of them, our Dance of the Little Fairies. A particular highlight was the comment from one of the Maenads ladies that 'Berkshire Bedlam have the best bums I've seen so far this year'. Nice lady, but she really ought to get out more.

Thurs 9th May saw us at The Bell at Aldworth for an evening with Old Speckled Hen. Nice evening, good dance spot, very pleasant hosts, and a pile of sandwiches afterwards. Now that's what we call entertainment.

The final event of May was an appearance on Sat 25th at Sergeant Musgraves 21st birthday weekend at Hose, in the Vale of Belvoir. The day consisted of coach tours of a variety of pubs followed by a massed stand at Newark Castle, where BB just managed to complete their spot before the heavens opened on the next side up, which was Redbornstoke. Terrible shame, lads (excuse me while I try to stop laughing). Sgt Musgraves had set the sides a task for the day while on tour - to collect something relating to every letter of the alphabet. Tim solved the problem for us by collecting a red onion and finding something relating to every letter of the alphabet from it e.g. - 'M' - the middle of the onion, 'N' - not the middle of the onion, and so on. And no, 'O' wasn't what you might think it was. In the evening Tim received his prize during the ceilidh - a withering look from the organisers.

JUN - SEP 2002 

What a stunner of a summer.....

Wet weather? Naah, not when BB are around. While the rest of the country and other morris sides suffered with a large amount of unseasonal inclemency, BB led a charmed existence throughout summer 2002. Even when there was the odd spot of drizzle in the air we found that a quick look the other way accompanied by the words 'it never rains on BB' did the trick. That, and running to the nearest shelter.

Our first event in June was the Old Palace Clog weekend of dance (or for us, day) with a walking tour of London's South Bank. Its always interesting to wander through London looking at some of the old relics which have seen better days. Still, enough about the other teams. It was a splendidly hot day with an unusual atmosphere as there was a lunchtime World Cup match on featuring England, which helped provide a carnival atmosphere, especially as England beat Denmark 3-0. Some of the people started singing '3 lions on our shirts...' while Paul just had 3 rosettes on his due to a nasty mishap with his velcro. Nice day though.

The following Friday saw us out for the second year running on midsummer solstice evening with Holt Morris, renowned for their fine dancing, fine singing, and dodgy headgear. Once again this was at the Red Lion at Avebury - well, to start with anyway, until the landlord decided that what everyone really needed was an early night. After some scratching of heads a revised plan was hastily evolved of proceeding to another nearby pub where the dancing and particularly the singing continued till late. Sadly for the second year in a row Holt whopped us at the singing despite (or because of) Tim's inspired version of 'Little bunny fou-fou'. Thanks Tim, we'll let you know (but the answer's going to be no).

On Thursday 27 Jun we were at the Wellington Arms in Sandhurst with Mayflower. Sue made a splendid entrance as she arrived in her truck, Yorkie bars liberally festooned all over the dashboard, resplendent in her truckers gear. So much more practical than this white stuff we normally have.

Next up was Mortimer's weekend, based at Ambergate Social Club in the Peak District, along with Hammersmith for the whole weekend and Wakefield and Persephone for the day on Saturday. Smashing weekend, starting with dancing in Cromford on Saturday morning, followed by a trip on the cable car up to the Heights of Abraham in the afternoon. Jameson, not normally good at heights, overcame his usual 'wuss'-ness and even managed to open his eyes on the cable car ride. Back down in Matlock Bath we performed one dance each before returning to Ambergate to get ready for the evening's entertainment, 'A Night at the Oscars'.
Basically Mortimer's had planned an Oscar supper followed by a series of spots for the evening, based loosely around musicals, and several foolhardy souls dressed up for the evening in Oscar night type gear, though in some cases this was just the top or bottom bits. Mortimer's own main offering was an inspired version of 'Grease', featuring men and women pouting and posing in a variety of girls dresses. Lovely, especially the boys. Hammersmith then did something featuring their lower bodies encased in a variety of grass skirts made out of newspaper and knocked up in the bar a few minutes earlier, the something being a game consisting of passing spoons on the end of long pieces of string up and down the clothing of people in teams standing in a line, though basically it was an excuse to feel people up while helping the spoons along their way up, down and around people's nether regions. After that it was time for our spot for which we had been given a choice of themes 'Mary Poppins' or 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show'. Despite the cross dressing and leather opportunities posed by Rocky Horror, due to a lack of practice time beforehand we had opted for yet another version of The Cockney Dance, this time done to the tune of 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious', as rendered by the fine band of Jane on fiddle, Sue on melodeon, Bob on claves and Malcolm murdering the vocal. Still, not as much as the dancers murdered the dance.
The evening culminated with Mortimer's presentation of Oscars for various things associated with the weekend, with the recipients receiving Oscar-like trophies made out of severely mutilated Action Man and Barbie dolls which had been covered in not quite dry gold acrylic paint. We were awarded 2 of these slightly doubtful honours, one to the whole team for jumping high, and one for the best VPL of the day, which Lee had the cheek to win (think about it...). Great fun though.
On Sunday morning most people went for a really nice walk up and down a dale or two before assembling at a tricky to find (for some of us anyway) pub at Alderwasley for a relaxed lunchtime dance session for the 3 teams - very pleasant way to end the weekend.

Next - BB's very own 25th birthday weekend. This momentous event, which caused even our own laid back Paul to show some teensy signs of stress (we have the e-mail evidence, Paul), but which turned out better than any of us dared hope due to a mix of hard work and the way all the other teams also entered into the spirit of things, deserves a special report all of its own :

12-14 JULY 2002 - BB's 25th ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND

The planning for the weekend started late in 2001, when a small team of Paul, Jane, Rob and Lee, conceived the master plans which would eventually lead to the most successful weekend BB have hosted since its 21st some 4 years earlier. Actually the only weekend but that's by the by.

With hindsight their most inspired decision (amongst many other inspired decisions) was to use the base found by Miriam and Rob of St. Mary's School, Mortimer, with an overall theme for the weekend of 'Back to School'. In fact the school turned out to be an excellent base, with ample room in the grounds at the back of the school for camping, a reasonable size hall for eating and the ceilidh, and unrestricted access to the school sports facilities including their small but perfectly formed and heated swimming pool. We had been worried for several days beforehand that the recent wet weather (several weeks of it) would severely restrict what we could do and prevent access by cars to the campsite which would have provided severe logistical difficulties for car parking, but in fact the weather was almost perfect throughout the whole weekend which certainly helped though we would have had a good time anyway.

Proceeding started on the Friday evening when we were joined at the school by camping guests from Betty Luptons, Bullnose, Pigsty, Redbornstoke and Stroud. They would be joined on Saturday by teams from Jackstraws, Insword and Chiltern Hundreds, and on Sunday by Windsor. All fine teams in their own right, and who combined over the weekend to bring out the best in each other. But back to the Friday night when the fine weather, Jerry's Soup of the Day and Rob's gazebo bar got proceedings off to a relaxed start - well, very relaxed in some cases.

On to Saturday morning when all the teams just managed to squeeze onto the various charabancs provided by Stewarts Coaches of Mortimer, a couple of which were driven by BB. First stop was Reading, with the teams divided up between 2 spots in Broad Street plus the Town Hall. These proved surprisingly good places to perform since the full pedestrianisation of Broad Street, and the sunny weather helped draw good and appreciative audiences. The first hitch of the day though occurred when Cliff from Redbornstoke felt unwell and had to be taken to the Royal Berks Hospital - he turned out to be fine in the end but it added a bit of drama for everyone else! After this the sides split for lunch between The Bull at Barkham and our very own Queens Oak at Finchampstead, and then on into our home town of Wokingham to perform outside Waitrose and a massed stand in the Market Place to the bemusement of the good people of Wokingham, unused to seeing 150 fine quality morris dancers crammed into their home town. Not a hotbed of traditional English activity, the centre of Wokingham, or indeed any activity in particular since the big supermarkets started building their new stores on the edge of town, thereby killing the town centre, well that and the inability of the local council to come up with a sensible plan for the centre for the last 20 years which amongst other things would resolve the major traffic problems through having through traffic pass directly through the shopping area on roads which used to struggle to accommodate wagons and carts a hundred years ago. Anyway, where was I? - oh yes, the massed stand went very well, and BB finished off with 'Little Fairies' with particularly inspiring musicianship from Jane, Sue and Bob.

After the massed stand everyone retreated back to Mortimer's school for Simon and Yvonne's tea and biscuits, and 'School Sports Day', led by Tim with help from Bob. Suitably dressed in headmasters gown and wielding a big stick, Tim successfully organised a series of events for the smaller boys and girls, and then the bigger boys and girls, with Bob's stickers for prizes and everything, which was going really well until some of the bigger boys decided they had had enough of being bossed around and chucked him in the swimming pool. We were all naturally very concerned for his wellbeing, but it has to be said he did make a very satisfactory sort of splashing noise as he went in. After this he did carry on organising more games but somehow the edge just seemed to have been taken off his authority ......

Various impromptu games and some imbibing continued until the first of 2 sittings for supper, organised very effectively by Jerry, with just a teensy bit of help from other loyal BB kitchen staff - oh, and the local pub, who actually cooked and delivered most of the food. Somehow while this was going on, a fairly vigorous game of almost real hockey was going on outside on the playground, later hailed by some of our guests as the highlight of their weekend, which I suppose doesn't say a lot for the Morris. 

By this time, many of the attendees had changed into school clothing ready for the evening. This included some particularly outrageous outfits, though special mention must be given to Redbornstoke's team effort - its amazing just how good some of them look with their hair done nicely and a bit of lippy. The evening featured a ceilidh with the incomparable Bismarcks as the band, all of whom had also entered into the school theme spirit, with Ed looking particularly menacing in his mortar board, Nina looking particularly naughty in short skirt and pigtails, and Gareth looking like a big bloke dressed up as he plinked and plonked away all night. As caller we had Jethro, who also got into the bossy headmasterly role with worrying ease, but called some excellent dances.

It wouldn't have been a BB occasion though without some spot entertainment. During the first break, Jameson and Lee reprised their Sand Dance, first and last seen at the 2001 Bunfight, but performed again with great panache, though Jameson's stick on eyebrows developed a life of their own during it. This was followed by an excellent spot from Betty Luptons, dressed as schoolgirls at Hockey practice (with jolly hockey sticks too), and performing one of their dances suitably adapted with frequent interruptions while someone (deliberately) went wrong - great fun, even with the none too subtle dig at BB's Fairies dance "plenty of eye-contact girls! Its very important!". Also during the first break, Tim awarded a prize for the quiz he had been running during the day, where every team had been asked to answer questions of local information, the answers of which could have been spotted during the day if everyone had their eyes open, though this became harder for some teams as the alcohol levels grew during the day.

In the second break, Sue Graham won the prize for identifying the most Bedlams from their baby photographs which had been on display, though most people had been convinced that Mike and Jameson were girls, though of course this is only true part of the time. And then it was time for BB's main spot, which had been decided to be a reprise of our 1995 Bunfight smash hit 'YMCA', better known as 'In The Bedlams', but incorporating references to some of our other favourite spots over the years. Malcolm had put together a tape with suitable snatches of spot music, so first on were Simon and Jane as the Schwarzkopf Formation display team doing some of the Bavarian Woodchopper Boys dance including obligatory bottom slapping, followed by John at his most Rolf-like with a very authentic 3-legged Jake the Peg, then a sinister looking Tim in his element Flashdancing, next Sue and Bob as cheerful cheeky Cockney chappies, doffing and twanging like there was no tomorrow, and then the biggest drake of them all, Jameson, preening himself and flocking around like the big flocker he is. At last the opening strains of YMCA started and on came the 'real' Village People lookalikes with Paul as cute cowboy, Rob as cute red indian, Jerry as naval officer, Mike as construction worker, and Lee shoehorned into a 2 sizes too small traffic cop outfit. While Malcolm then strangled the vocal, everyone attempted to do the dance which had been choreographed at practice 2 days earlier, though about 30 seconds into it most people forgot what that was and just stuck to the vigorous pointing. It didn't matter though, it went down very well, with most of the audience singing and clapping along, and as soon as we had exited we were called back to do it again - just as well really as that's what we had planned - and some of the side swapped hats for the second version, with Paul producing for some reason best known to himself a Viking helmet. However someone started the karaoke tape a bit early so our re-entrance was a bit high speed, and the second time through was even less structured than the first - but did we care? - naah, not by that stage! After the second performance, we were called back again, this time by the guest sides to say thanks for the weekend and for Adrian from Redbornstoke to present us with some wine as a birthday present - aaah, thanks chaps!

All great fun, and after the spots were done we still had time to enjoy more of the Bismarcks before it was time to wind down the evening.

That took us to Sunday, and planned spots in Windsor. Once again the weather was excellent for us, and we enjoyed good spots in Peascod Street and the Two Brewers until a final massed stand after lunch at the Donkey House, after which it was time to say goodbye to all our guests, all of whom in turn said how much they had enjoyed the weekend. It was also time to say thanks to Paul for putting so much in to organising the weekend, and to say how much we were looking forward to him organising the next one. (Joke, Paul, joke...).

The weekend hadn't quite finished though - all the Bedlams and partners, including Mike and Lyn who had been working on the Sunday, returned to St. Mary's School for a final clear up and then final swim in the pool and late afternoon chill session with some of the remaining wine and beer followed by some mutual self congratulation in typical BB style - but perhaps for once deserved!

In fact the weekend was a success because of a number of factors but not least because of the way everyone in the side, and their partners, all made really valuable contributions in their own way. However a special mention should go to Jane and especially Paul for doing the majority of the organising, arranging the programme, and liasing with other teams.

Finally, Yvonne was our very own 'David Bailey' for the weekend, literally snapping at everyone's heels throughout, and she and Simon produced a fantastic album of the weekend crammed with photos and other memorabilia which is a great souvenir of the whole event. No doubt it will be dug out by future generations to look at in wonder, awe, and amazement in years to come "look at that lot, no wonder morris dancing died out early in the 21st century ..... "

END JUL - SEP 2002

Two weeks later it was off to Warwick for our biannual appearance at the Warwick Festival, which lived up to its usual standards, and once again had some excellent weather. Saturday saw us dancing at the campsite, around town, and in the procession which so many of us always enjoy, especially our lady on the fiddle. But one of the best bits of the day was BB's own evening pizza party on the campsite, courtesy of Rob's multi-purpose gazebo, Domino's pizza (after some difficulties with the telephone order - 'you are a pizza shop, aren't you?' enquired Lee less than helpfully halfway through the ordering process), and the back of Malcolm's car. This was just a nice, laid back affair with several guests who joined us for a variety of reasons including Jack and his family, and Annie and Ed. And we didn't have to dance or do spots or anything.
Sunday saw us back in town again, and then doing some of our best stuff of the weekend in front of a fairly appreciative audience at the Zetland. As we lined up to start one dance though, we had an interruption from an over-zealous member of Insword who took the opportunity of a slight downward slope to scooter herself right through the middle of the set just as the music was about to start, much to the crowd's amusement (well timed, to be fair, but not to be repeated Bob). Finally, Shooting to finish back at the campsite without a single dropped stick - no, I couldn't believe it either.

Next up was a team appearance on the seafront at the Sidmouth festival on Sunday morning / lunchtime, which would not have been possible if Tim had not slogged all the way down down for the day, as although we had 6 other dancers staying for the weekend or full week, one of them spent a long time on Sunday dressed as an animal of the nanny species, though he denied it afterwards in a sort of bleaty and horny way. At one point Bill the nice JKL video man asked if he could film our next dance, so we changed our planned dance to something more interesting for the video, only to find halfway through that he had stopped filming us in order to film the air/sea rescue helicopter flying overhead. This ought to have provided fruitful material for some big chopper jokes if any of us had been quick enough, but this is BB we are talking about, not a bunch of comedians. What do you mean they are the same thing?
After the lunchtime seafront performance, Jameson and Simon put in an appearance at the jig competition at the Manor Pavilion in order to reprise their prize winning double jig from last year, once again accompanied by Gareth, this time wearing some nice C&A slacks as he flitted between soundchecks and gigs. Was it my imagination or did the boys ham it up even more than last year....?

After Sidmouth a break for the team until a 'whoops where has the summer gone' Tuesday evening on Sept 3 at the Plough at Little London with Basingclog and Hook. Nice relaxed evening, good teams, good tunes and good sandwiches, just like last year. And then it was the start of autumn and the practice season again .......

OCT 2002 - COURSES AND WEDDINGS

After the main dance out season it was back to the 4 week BB course during October. While not overwhelmed by the huge numbers wishing to join us, we had attendance throughout the course from Ken, Linda, and young Bob. By the end, the course had covered several dances in the repertoire to an excellent standard, and had more than one of the current team looking nervously on as they realised how it should be done. For the last evening of the course we welcomed back Gareth, helping us out again while Sue takes a sabbatical on the other side of the world. It was great to see him back in his accustomed place, alongside Simon asking him how the tunes went.

Just after the end of the course on 26th October came a momentous event in the Bedlam diary, the wedding of Mike and Lyn. This took place at a church just outside Newbury, with many at the ceremony in Morris kit, followed by a reception immediately afterwards at the church hall, and then an evening ceilidh at the school opposite with Random and Chris Pitt. 

All went well at the ceremony, Lyn and Mike looked resplendent in cream and green, and best man Jameson, also in green frock coat, spent the day telling everyone how wonderful he looked, and also managed to work it into his best man's speech at the reception, along with a reference to the fact that Mike had obviously carefully chosen the date as the clocks were due to go back that night, their wedding night, and at his age he could use the extra hour.

After the speeches the sides present performed a dance each in the church hall, with Mike and Lyn joining in with various teams including Berkshire Bedlam (once again featuring Gareth, who had earlier caused a small sensation by baring torso outside the church while getting changed), Old Speckled Hen, Kintbury, Pigsty, Red-or-deadbornstoke (winter tradition), a Stroud jig, and Mike Boston's Great Western style massed Princess Royal for everyone not in kit. Then the families adjourned for a belated lunch while the Morris teams adjourned for a belated pint to the Swan at Thatcham where the dancing continued until it got too cold and late. BB's efforts included a performance of Laughing Cavalier, and as all 3 of the stalwarts of the October course happened to be there, in a variety of outfits and heels, they were duly roped in, and responded magnificently. Later on a friendly and attractive young member of the barstaff, demonstrably feeling the effects of a chilly day, was persuaded to join Tim and others performing an improvised Shepherd's Hey (not sure the teapot chorus is traditional, Tim) - actually she was very good and the side was immediately prepared to relax its 'male dancers only' rule which had stood for the previous 25 years although sadly she declined the invitation.

Finally it was back to Newbury for the excellent evening ceilidh, with Random playing, Chris Pitt calling, Mike and Lyn looking relaxed, and some of BB by now looking the worse for wear. But overall a great day, and a thoroughly enjoyable celebration of Lyn and Mike's happy event.

NOV - DEC 02 - WINTER WARMERS

November as always was dominated by preparation for the Bunfight, our annual ceilidh dance featuring a 'spot' which we spend much of the year talking about and November practising for. This year we got the main idea quite quickly, though we had to ditch the original plan involving scooters when it became clear that 'suitable for children up to 6 stone' was for a good, weight related reason. Shame though, as John was demonstrating very effectively the comic potential of 3rd degree carpet burns during practice.

Despite some advance concern about reduced attendances, when the Bunfight eventually happened (Sat 30 Nov) it proved to be just as successful as ever. The theme for the night was 'The Underground', and as usual this was open to a number of misinterpretations. We had a variety of London Underground stations, including several Angels, some underground workers, and a couple of WW2 Underground Resistance members, straight out of an audition for Allo Allo (its a popular light entertainment programme, Jerry). Our traditional band for the evening, Phungus, also sported 'Mind The Gap' T-shirts though why they were so concerned about an overpriced clothes retailer we never did find out.

The first spot of the evening featured BB in 'normal' fancy dress gear performing 'Jolly Jockey Sticks' particularly badly, even by our own pretty low standards. But eventually it was time for the second spot, and after enduring Tim spinning out the Irish bingo as long as he possibly could (Tim, if you are ever called on in the future, remember to try to wrap it up just before people have lost the will to live rather than after), it was time for our 633 Squadron spot. Now, its not easy to describe this except to say imagine a number of over excited schoolboys running around a room in vague formation with their arms stuck out pretending to be aeroplanes and making plane-y noises, done to the accompaniment of a stirring brass band version of '633 Squadron'.

Once the main music had finished, with us on one knee, arms outstretched, the opening strains of 'The Dambusters' started up. Now of you've ever listened to this, after a stirring opening with cymbally bits, it goes into a particularly camp bit of tune, which seemed just right for a mincing, prancing sort of step by which to exit. As we came off, it seemed inconceivable that such a pile of old tosh would merit calls for an encore, but (helped in no small way by Hugh Crabtree) we were duly summonsed back to do it again. We had taken the precaution of handing out lots of party poppers for the second time through so as we came to the bomb-y bits, we were duly poppered. Ah well, another easy-to-prepare spot to add to the repertoire. Now, what about next year?

This year, the Bunfight fell the day before the Wokingham Winter Carnival, so the very next day (Sun 1st Dec) we were out again on the streets, ably supported by Jane and Gareth, subjecting the denizens of Wokingham to some of the very finest entertainment to be found anywhere in the vicinity of Woolworths on that particular day. We also took part in a much shorter procession than in previous years, though we did have the usual bit of trouble with a goat. Still, better than that bloke with the cloak, eh?

And December finished off in its usual style, with the Xmas meal at the Hideout followed by the St. Thomas's Day performance on Sat 21st Dec in Wokingham Market Place, joined again this year by Gareth who for once did not have his post company dinner Xmas hangover, which in previous years has made him forget some of the tunes. This year he forgot the tunes for completely different reasons. Yvonne had also done a great job in getting some advance publicity for this in the local press, though it has to be said that despite this we were not overwhelmed with spectators. Still, their loss was the pigeons gain.

And so on to 2003, where will no doubt be soon be more tales of fun, laughter, joy, comradeship, and great performances to be told. And some of them could even be about us...... 

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