Only 2 events in July, but it was a month of quality not quantity …
On the evening of 20 July we were at the Black Horse in Checkendon, with Eynsham Morris. This was the first time we had danced out with Eynsham for 9 years, and many of the team remember the rather disastrous evening we had last time with them, just before Sidmouth 1995, when we acquitted ourselves very poorly and subsequently wondered whether we ought to skip the Sidmouth appearance and stay at home with a good book, like ‘The Beginners Guide to Morris Dancing’. This time round however we had a much better evening, and it was also a pleasure to watch Eynsham go through their own fine repertoire of dances, all done with great energy and not a little gusto.
The Black Horse is also an excellent venue, on a very quiet country road but with a good outdoor dancing area with plenty of seating for the decent sized audience to watch. However, just after both teams had finished, a visiting party of Americans arrived, necessitating us both kitting up again and performing a suitable party piece (‘Coconuts’ for us, aided and abetted by one of their party in a kilt. As you do).
Then on the weekend of 24th / 25th July we were at the Warwick Festival, where we last were 2 years ago. For the first time this season we had a full complement of dancers and musicians, and the combination of this together with the good weather, the quality and friendliness of the other teams we were with, and the general excellence of the Festival overall, made for a great weekend. During the day on Saturday we performed at various spots around the main site (once again based at the Warwick School) and in town, and also took part in the procession using our recently developed posing skills to the full wherever possible. After this it was back to the campsite and BB’s camping enclave for a (now traditional) BB campsite takeaway pizza – very good, but perhaps just a tad too much hot n’spicy. And with hindsight, stuffing ourselves full of pizza is probably not the best preparation for our subsequent ceilidh spot during the excellent Whapweasel ceilidh in the Guy Nelson Hall – however, our spot did seem to be extremely well received. We opened with Wheel of Fortune (dressed in normal kit), and then did the Big Goblins stick dance, followed by Go and Enlist from Jameson and Simon, and then the Matachins sword dance, by which time we had all changed into sword kit i.e. flouncy shirt, white breeches, dark blue socks and black shoes. This was also the kit Jameson and Simon did their double jig in, which got them several whoos before they started (helped, it must be said, by a completely disproportionate amount of over the top, posey swaggering when they appeared). Anyway, this was the first time this year we had performed our sword dance in public, and also the first time out for our new swords, which it must be said glinted and flashed beautifully throughout (we do love flashing in public). During practice the previous Thursday we had noted how there was a tendency for the blades to work loose during the dance, and had all tightened our nuts accordingly. However on the final ‘Cavalier’ chorus, almost at the end of the dance, Lee’s nuts finally gave way and his blade flew off rather alarmingly towards the audience. For a fleeting moment there was a question of whether our £5 million public liability insurance would be adequate for decapitation but fortunately the blade slid along the floor harmlessly, though it certainly got a nice oooh from the audience. Anyway, overall the spot went very well, benefiting also from great musical accompaniment from Sue, Jane and Bob, and we got some excellent feedback afterwards, not just for the sword dance but for the way the whole set had worked.
Sunday saw us back in town in the Market Square and at the Zetland Arms before a final set back at the main site where we trotted out Little Fairies to finish what had been another excellent weekend. Roll on our next Warwick invitation!