BB made only token appearances at the wonderful 50th Sidmouth International Festival in the first week of August, although several of the team were there in other guises, notably Jameson who cemented his well deserved reputation as King Tart by dancing with Rumworth, Seven Champions, and the Rose Moresk, as well as displaying last years winning double jig with Simon at the start of this year’s jig competition – nominally as Berkshire Bedlam, but wearing our sword dance kit with frilly shirts so they could strut around quite a lot after coming on. Strictly speaking the full BB kit only appeared once during the week when Malcolm carried the leading banner in the final night’s torchlight procession wearing it – alongside young Bob, cunningly disguised as a girl in Windsor kit.
The only team event in August came on Sat 21st when we were invited by Millers Gin to take part in a promotional event in the form of a village fete, on the village green in Lurgashall, West Sussex. The event was aimed at their trade partners and customers, but was also freely available to locals to join in. Apart from a number of village fete type stalls, they had a jazz band and (of course) morris dancers. The weather was perfect, and it was a very pleasant afternoon, improved steadily as the afternoon wore on by the free availability of copious quantities of Miller’s (London Dry) gin, served stylishly with ice and a slice of lime, or even more stylishly with other mixers, or just more gin. Many of the stalls featured either full sized or miniature gin bottles as prizes, including the huge lucky dip box into which Jerry was later seen disappearing head first in search of even more gin, though why he needed any more at that stage is open to question. Despite the gin we did manage to perform and also do a demonstration version of Coconuts which 4 teams of volunteers had to repeat for an internal competition. At the end of the afternoon Jerry persuaded the organisers to let the team have a case of gin to sample in the privacy of our own homes, and let me assure anyone reading this that Miller’s is a truly excellent gin, and we’re not just saying this because we want to be invited again next year, though that’s certainly a factor (isn’t it Jerry and Lee).
Two weeks later, on Sat 4 September, we were at the Wallingford Bunkfest, a weekend festival now in its third year and getting bigger and better each year. Another beautiful day of weather (did we mention elsewhere on this website it never rains on Berkshire Bedlam?) and an excellent Morris programme, well organised around the town, and with a good mix of teams taking part, as well as all the features you might expect to see at bigger festivals. We enjoyed some good spots, culminating in an upbeat performance in the covered concert / display area on the main site. And then later in the afternoon at Jameson’s insistence we got to go on a train ride on the Cholsey and Wallingford railway, aptly named as the journey was from Wallingford to Cholsey – and back. Sadly the train was not pulled by a true revival (steam) engine, which was off elsewhere being revived again, and it was also notable for its lack of speed and lack of ventilation. But it was actually a jolly good little outing, and we got to perform Mazurka at Cholsey, inches away from the platform edge where proper trains were passing through. Lee and Jameson also got to perform Rosa on the train on the way home, and then Jameson got a few engine numbers to add to his collection. Later still in the afternoon a few Bedlams repaired to Sue’s abode a couple of miles away near Shillingford for tea and an astonishing amount of tinned pineapple chunks with evap milk in her peaceful garden, as you do. A perfect day out really…..
And then to the last summer event, our by now traditional evening out on Tues 7 Sept with Basingclog and Hook Eagle at the Plough, Little London. This pub has the distinction of always being a good 15 minutes further away than you think it is going to be, no matter where you start from, but when we eventually assembled a bare 6, they put on some kit and performed some of the highlights of the repertoire for the last time of the 2004 summer season. At this time of the year, most of the evening dancing is in the dark, as are most of the team throughout. Still we kept going until the traditional sandwiches appeared at the end of the evening, perhaps marking the point at which the team can relax their strict athletes summer diet and get stuck into the body bulk building autumnal lard and chips butties. Yummy.
But as always the team has its landmark Bunfight ceilidh evening to come at the end of November, and they are sure that this year’s spot, when they think of it, will be on a par with previous efforts. Will it be? – the only way to find out is to be there….