Although Sidmouth in August had been a real high for the team there was still plenty to come for the season.
On Tues 2nd Sept it was a now traditional evening with Basingclog at the Plough, Little London, followed by a very different weekend with the Witchmen, based at Hengrave Hall, a nunnery, near Bury St. Edmunds. The main events were on the Saturday, when firstly our hosts and the visiting teams (ourselves, Persephone, Iron Men & Golden Star) went to Ely for some relaxed dancing by the river, in town and by the cathedral. A very pleasant day, though hard work for our tarting drummer Bob. After returning to Hengrave Hall for tea and cake, the next part of the day was in line with Witchmen’s ‘gothic’ theme. Firstly we were all invited to Witchmen’s Dave and Jo’s handfasting ceremony. By now everyone was dressed accordingly (e.g. straight gothic, straight gothic but with pale faces, rather Dracula-ish, or the complete Adams family for the Hiscotts) and the ceremony was a seriously observed and moving occasion, held in a very appropriate leafy glade in the grounds, and culminating in a ceremonial fastening of wrists together for the rest of the evening.
After this Dave and Jo had provided an excellent supper and bar, along with a ceilidh with Ock n Dough. This was interrupted by a break for spots from all of the teams present, supposedly in line with the theme. After much head scratching in previous weeks we had decided to do a version of Albermarle’s hop, featuring vampires on one side and victims on the other. We certainly weren’t overrehearsed, and I’m not sure it will go down as one of our finest, though there were a couple of high spots when Simon’s stake very noticeably fell out of his coat pocket prior to inserting it in Jameson and therefore revealing somewhat prematurely the punch line to a somewhat bemused audience who had thought we did good spots, and at the very end when Paul, having also been staked out and having collapsed dramatically at the end, crawled off the floor at an agonisingly slow pace long after everyone else had got off, hamming it up all the way. Well, we liked it Paul, and you shouldn’t be discouraged by the lack of applause. Or the booing.
The weekend continued on the Sunday morning at Hengrave, though BB were down to a jig team. But overall an excellent and very different weekend, and a great effort by Terry Dix and all of the Witchmen.
Two weeks later it was the Morris Federation weekend, hosted by Iron Men and Seven Guilders at Much Wenlock in Shropshire. Another excellent day of dancing on the Saturday, culminating in a procession across the iron bridge at Ironbridge (bit of a coincidence, that), with a ceilidh in the evening featuring All Blacked Up.