Another year of rich promise for BB started with a by now annual visit to Oxford on Sat 26 April for the Oxford Folk Weekend. A smaller than usual BB side (numbers, not height) danced in Radcliffe Square, at the Ashmolean Museum, and at Gloucester Green. There was also an unscheduled lunchtime dance spot at The Bear in Alfred Street, the oldest pub in Oxford, where in an appropriate juxtaposition we chanced upon Summertown Morris, one of the youngest sides present on the day. BB’s dancing on the day was marshalled for the first time by our new squire David – generally an excellent choices of dances though an unrehearsed 1 to 6 had some interesting moments.
After that a break until 29th May when we had a very pleasant evening with Mayflower Morris at the Queens Oak, Finchampstead. Next up was another trip to the Kirtlington Lamb Ale, always a great morris day, which we had missed last year. This year we even had 6 dancers for the first procession of the day at 10.00 a.m. from the outskirts of the village through the middle of it to the church. After the church service there was another shorter procession through the village, and slightly against some of the team’s better judgement, both processions were led by Mark and Will. Oh well, the side got to see parts of the village (and gardens) that it hadn’t done before. After more dancing round the village, we finished with Goblins (of course with added bounce) for our show spot in the school playground.
The 24th June saw us out for an evening in Windsor with Windsor Morris and a visiting US team Pinewoods Morris Men, some of whom we had met previously, in particular at last year’s Marlboro Ale in the US. It was a beautifully warm evening, and the 3 teams shared some excellent dance spots, finishing at the Carpenters Arms by the Guildhall. BB’s highlight of the evening was an almost flawless 10 person Jolly Jockey – not the first time it had been attempted in public but the first time it hadn’t resulted in carnage…
