But after the excitement of our 35th weekend it was ever onwards (and ideally upwards) for BB, and on Thurs 19 Jul we were at one of our favourite locations again, The Cricketers at Hartley Wintney, for an excellent evening with Mayflower Morris. This was followed on Sun 5 August by a lunchtime appearance on the Sidmouth seafront along with many other sides. The afternoon featured the annual Jig competition, which had an exceptionally high standard this year, but BB audience members were delighted to see success from our younger members, albeit as Fools Gambits. Firstly Alun put on a great show in the solo jig, coming third overall with his musician Tom Wright, and then Will M and Mark performed a very elegant double jig, with Ollie King as their musician, which deservedly won them second place.
August Bank holiday weekend, 25th to 27th, saw us at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival, where the weather was mainly very kind apart from one short monsoon like downpour. Amongst other high profile dance displays, we found ourselves with a 10 minute spot in the ‘Global Dance Project’ show on the main stage, a 90 minute dance show featuring English, Scottish, Irish, African, Caribbean and Bhangra dancers as well as some knockout drummers. Despite being initially introduced on stage by the compere Hannah James as “Shropshire Bedlams!” (hastily corrected), we were able to put together a good 3 dance spot (Princess Royal, Cavalier with swords and Coconuts) as well as take part in a frenetic finale with everyone crowded on stage attempting to do something (anything) in time to the drumbeats. But with Hammersmith and Windsor also taking part the Cotswold flag was flying high, though the other dance traditions were also very well represented including Declan, the Irish stepper with feet considerably faster than Usain Bolt’s. Apart from the dance show, over the 3 days we also had good spots on the Village Stage and in the town, as well as a procession and other impromptu stuff, though sadly Alun lost out in an unoffical leapfrog contest with Chris Campbell of Hammersmith (yes, thanks Hammersmith, but we knew we weren’t singing any more – in fact, we hadn’t actually started).
