Only one event in July due to the need to practice for Sidmouth, but what an excellent Dorset Tour it was, ably organised once again by Rob on a beautiful sunny weekend.
We started at the Smiths Arms in Godmanstone, where our old friend the landlord had opened up especially early for us despite being limited in his activities these days due to a recent stroke. We trotted out one or two of the old stalwart dances and would have stopped there except that one or two people turned up, morally obliging us to carry on dancing for a bit longer even though they were not actually watching us.
After that we moved on to the excellent Chalk and Cheese at Maiden Newton, a relatively newly rebuilt pub with a good menu, well organised, and good outdoor space where we congregated and danced, including the first public performance of the new ‘Flame’ dance, albeit with sticks.
Next we moved to the local station from where we caught a train into Weymouth for our more or less traditional appearance on the prom, under the giant Clock Tower, facing a fresh breeze and a not totally captivated audience though we did our best, including another appearance of the Flame dance. After some free time in Weymouth it was back to the Giants Head camp site near Cerne Abbas for the grand BB barbeque, where we had hours of fun attempting to light our disposable barbeques in the face of a Force 9 gale. But eventually all the meat was nicely blackened, after which it was time for the traditional trek down the hill to Cerne Abbas for dancing outside the Royal Oak (another version of Flame) and drinking and skittling inside the Red Lion. And then the ‘gloworm walk’ back up the hill to the camp site during which we saw the same number of gloworms we do every year, zero.
On the Sunday Rob had arranged for us to join in the Tolpuddle Rally, a TUC sponsored event celebrating the birth of Trade Unionism arising from the case of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. This was a big event with guest speakers, various live music, and later in the day a march with banners through the village. Our contribution was 2 dance sets at the Martyrs Inn, which went down well, especially our finishing dance, yet another hammed up Flame dance, which by now was starting to look pretty good. This concluded the Tour, which yet again was hailed as a great success – nice one, Rob!