And then, after years in the planning, months in the rehearsing, and endless hours in the ‘Fun Committee’ meetings, it was time for the most momentous event in our 2012 calendar – BB’s 35th Birthday Weekend of Dance and Other Stuff from July 6-8. BB are not generally very organised at organising their own weekend – once every 5 years has seemed about enough given some of the angst involved in organising past weekends. However it had been decided the previous September to really go for it this time, and after some deliberation invitations to join us for the full weekend were sent to 7 very fine teams from all around the country. Choosing who to invite was tricky – we decided from the outset to exclude teams that any of BB were also members of which immediately limited the field considerably. But we were very pleased that all those we did invite said yes – Betty Luptons Ladle Laikers, Boggarts Breakfast, Flag & Bone Gang, Fools Gambit, Great Western, Holt Morris, and Mortimers. Together with Windsor joining us on the Sunday, this gave us a great line up and a wide range of dance styles. We also had to decide on a format for the weekend and with the London Olympics looming it was a no-brainer decision (literally) to go for an Olympic theme throughout with sports events, medal ceremonies and an Olympic themed party evening on the Saturday.
The weekend was based at Trevelyan Middle School on the outskirts of Windsor, where Emma teaches, and which was also the venue in 2011 for Jameson and Emma’s wedding celebrations. It’s an excellent base for a morris weekend, having extensive grounds for camping, though it does have the drawback of being on some of Heathrow’s flight paths which can give rise to engine noise at anti-social times of the day, night, and early morning. However suitably armed with ear plugs our guests started arriving on the Friday evening with a wide variety of tents, camper vans, and caravans. They were greeted by BB members resplendent in their ‘BB 35th’ uniforms of red polo shirts, and a very pleasant social evening followed with a light supper, copious volumes of beer and wine, and a ‘Spot The Morris Team’ picture quiz.
The recent weather had been truly appalling, with almost continuous rain during May and June flushing away the threat of drought from earlier in the year, and the portents for the weekend had been for more unsettled weather throughout. So it was with some trepidation everyone set off from the school on Saturday morning for dancing in Windsor, and indeed during the first dance spots there were some sudden heavy downpours which soaked those unlucky enough to be dancing at the time. However, undeterred the dancing continued until the 8 teams split into 2 groups, one taking a boat trip down the Thames to Staines while the other group went by coach, and then after lunch the groups swapping for the return journey. To provide some further entertainment on the boat journey, 2 activities had been prepared. Firstly, Bob had provided each side with appropriate materials to make a team flag (on a large piece of card) to be used in the later medal ceremonies (of which more later), while Lee had provided straws and other materials for making a model of the Orbit Tower. Several of each team took to this with considerable enthusiasm, and with some very artistic results. Meanwhile though the rain held off for the afternoon, allowing dancing to continue outside the Old Town Hall in Staines, and later by the Windsor Wheel in Windsor, and then Bachelors Acre for all the teams.
Back at the school on Saturday afternoon it was time for some team sports. Firstly came the coloured water relay race, appropriately using coconut shells to transport small amounts of water down the course to empty sweet jars, and won by Mortimers depsite some fairly serious cheating by Great Western. Then came the ‘ski-ing’ race, consisting of 3 people walking astride 2 planks, with Great Western legitimately winning this time after mastering a suitable technique. Finally it was the Spacehopper Relay race, which basically consisted of men and women who should perhaps have known better falling off Spacehoppers while everyone else laughed at them.
Then it was time for the evening ‘entertainment’ to begin in the main school hall. After an excellent barbeque supper organised by John, the opening ceremony commenced, starting with the parading of Rob’s fabulous Olympic torch around the hall, carried by Alun with a phalanx of BBs on either side. The torch was then used to ‘light’ Rob’s equally fabulous Olympic flame (with thanks to Emma for flicking the switch backstage). After this Andy, our very own ‘Boris’ for the evening with beautifully appropriate green hair (not quite the planned colour apparently but it still worked), formally opened proceedings with an excellent nonsensical speech, partly in Latin, and insulting Great Western along the way – always a good idea. This was the signal for the BB cheerleaders to appear for their mighty cheerleader dance routine, a reprise of the spot first done at the 2009 Bunfight, and once again it went down a storm – thanks for the choreography and patience in instruction, Steph!
The evening was then taken up with a succession of spots from guest teams, more indoor sports, and medal ceremonies for various events. The spots included synchronised swimming on the stage from Mortimers (we were all waiting for the upside down legs and weren’t disappointed), gladiatorial ancient Greek-ish contests from Fools Gambit, Betty Luptons silent Holy Mothers, Flag & Bone’s at times highly dangerous line up of alternative athlete’s careers, Holt’s acapella antics (loved the wigs), and a succession of games from Great Western rigged so that the masked royals won every time – a bit like real life. These were interspersed with medal ceremonies, where team’s flags (made earlier on the boat trip) were held aloft while a suitable national anthem was played according to where the team came from (e.g. Ilkley Moor, I’ve got a Brand New Combine Harvester, Robin Hood etc) while the audience stood, hands clasped to hearts, singing lustily. It made everyone feel very humble (well, that was the general idea anyway). And somewhere in the middle of all this was a ceremonial BB 35th cake cutting ceremony, with Boris striking a mean pose and wielding a mean knife while spouting some meaningless drivel, again in a fine simulation of real life.
Overseeing all this mayhem as M/C for the evening was Paul, resplendent in the blazer of responsibility. Miraculously he somehow held it all together until it was time for the closing ceremony which started with Boris, still looking a little green, handing over the torch to Vladimir Rob Putin, suitably suited and booted for the occasion. He was of course representing Russia, home of the next Winter Olympics in 2014 (OK, it should have been to a representative of the next summer games in 2016 in Rio but that wouldn’t have suited what we’d planned next). After this a series of BB Russian Cossacks appeared, and the stirring Russian national anthem was played (loudly – thanks Emma) before the ‘Kopak’ music started and the Russians were off on a variation of the dance last seen at the 2006 Bunfight, including Rob’s infamous cartwheels (performed better than ever despite the handicap of a suit). And after a final fast polka, that was it for the evening!
And then on to Sunday, which turned out to be the best day weatherwise for some time, with clear blue sky for much of the day and only 1 brief shower at lunchtime which didn’t interrupt the dancing. We had chosen to go to Reading for the day, which proved to be a surprisingly good place to dance, and (now joined by Windsor for the day) teams danced in groups of 3 in the morning in Forbury Gardens, the Market Place, outside the Town Hall, and in Broad Street where we had some good audiences. The day culminated with dancing for all teams in the outside performance area at The Oracle, effectively an amphitheatre where the tiered steps and surrounding bridges and walkways alongside the canalised River Kennet provide excellent viewing opportunities for spectators, of which we had plenty. All the teams taking part managed to pull out something special when it was their turn, meaning the weekend was able to finish on a real high for everyone.
So overall a very successful weekend, with huge thanks to all the guest teams for throwing themselves so enthusiastically into whatever situations arose, and providing such high standards of dancing as well. Within BB, huge thanks to everyone in the side for their contributions, large and small, and also to a few non team members – Emma for massive contributions in lots of ways, Linda for cake making, Sue G for help with cake decorating, Angela for videoing, and other partners for their forbearance. Bring on the 40th!
See all the photos – The dancing and Sports, Spots & More!