The weekend of 12th and 13th July was our annual ‘Dorset Tour’, this year visiting Somerset and Wiltshire, causing the weekend to be renamed for obvious reasons ‘Not The Dorset Tour’. Jerry had put together a great programme for the weekend, based (for those camping) at the Pine Tree campsite just outside Wookey, and Saturday’s programme started with a dance spot on Cathedral Green in Wells, in the shadow of the imposing 13th century Wells Cathedral. Even older than some of the side. The dancers were accompanied by Sue, Bob, and (initially at least) glorious sunshine, and set off at a good pace to try to beat last year’s record of 54 dances performed over a weekend, including all the then accepted repertoire of 39 dances. This meant of course bringing out some of the rarely performed repertoire including the more obscure jigs, which it has to be said caused some occasional head scratching.
After the Cathedral, and a short refreshment break at the Kings Head, dancing moved to Union Street, just outside Wells’ Public Library – cue much shushing before and after dances. Next was a lunch break, followed by dancing in the grounds of the Bishop’s Palace, where we drew surprisingly large crowds, possibly on account of being adjacent to the outdoor cafe. A trip to Cheddar followed, where we performed outside the White Hart and polished off a few more obscure parts of the repertoire. Included in the spot there though was the first public performance of the new (still nameless) triangular stick dance, and on the basis no one fell over during it, the dance was deemed a success. The spot there concluded with Knees Up, notable for being accompanied by some soldiers on a weekend break and in fancy dress – although after swapping their hats for some BB ones they looked more the part.
During the day the debate had been shall we / shan’t we go ahead with the planned barbeque in view of the threatened heavy rain. Back at the campsite the decision was taken to carry on with it in view of the non-appearance of the rain. The Outside Capering Crew, booked for the weekend at the nearby Priddy Festival, duly joined us as planned for it – the barbeques were lit – the smoke started rising – we stood around congratulating ourselves for having decided to go ahead – and then the heavens opened. And carried on opening. The good news was that Rob’s large gazebo more or less provided shelter for those under it – the bad news was that by now the party had grown to a size slightly larger than the gazebo. Never mind, the rain and smoke eventually cleared, David’s meat eventually cooked, and the event was declared a great success. It was also the prelude to an evening dancing with the Crew at the nearby pub, The Pheasant, where we took the opportunity to rehearse some joint dances as well as both sides performing on their own.
Next day Jerry had arranged for us to dance in the morning in Lacock, about halfway home for most people, and in front of the Abbey we duly polished off the rest of the repertoire, albeit to not many spectators. Eventually we called time on the spot, and headed off for beer and coffee before a final picnic to conclude the weekend. The final tally of dances done over the weekend by the 11 participating dancers was 47, slightly down on the previous year’s total, but with slightly less dancing opportunities. However all 40 dances in the 2014 repertoire had been done at least once, and the weekend was officially declared a great success, with huge thanks to Jerry for masterminding the excellent arrangements.
The following Thursday (17th) the best turnout of dancers of the season so far saw us able to put up 2 sets for several dances on a warm evening at the Queens Head in Wokingham with Customs and Exiles, who also had good numbers attending. Eventually though a rather ambitious 10 man Dance of Chance landed Paul in the gutter, and the 12 were reduced to 11 for the rest of evening. A good session though, with the Magic Arch proving popular as always these days.
