2004 - After the Bomb Went Off, We Ate Cheese
Leicester can hold their heads high having done a good job hosting the now legendary Morris 18-30 weekend. There were a mix of old and new faces with chaps from Stafford, Harthill, Hammersmith, Men of Wight (when will he stop coming? he's so bloody old!), Icknield Way, Whitchurch, Kennet, Packington, the Ring Squire's son from Chalice and the hosts; Leicester.
The food was good, the beer was good, the barmaid was very good and the bomb was loud. We also danced a bit.
The shoppers in Leicester watched in awe as we lept and danced with heavy heads from the night before. Sunday saw the return of the "bloody great big flaming stick things" as we amazed two passers by and a dog by the canal.
The feast on Saturday night was superbly cooked by Charlie, who isn't quite under 30, but I'll forgive him. Nick presented a 17 pint pot to the assembled company which will be handed on to the next organiser year on year. Post dinner entertainment ranged from the Sublime to the funny to the surreal to the down right disgusting.
Next year we'll be in Leeds as Alastair vollunteered his services. He doesn't actually dance with a male team, but why should that stop him?
2003 -
Hmmm. Can't really remember. Must have been good then!
2002 - Blood, Sweat and Herons
It was all set to be a complete disaster; for weeks before the weather was awful, the cook for the feast had double booked herself, the hall was double booked, some of the pubs had changed hands just before the weekend and knew nothing of our visit and to top it all we were set to make a loss.
However, it was absolutely blinding. I'm not sure if it could have gone any better. The other hall booking was cancelled, we found another (better) cook, the weather was fantastic (if a little windy on the Sunday!), the new Landlords were so up for it and to top it all we collected a fortune.
As soon as seven chaps had arrived on the Friday night the dancing started, working out which dances we all knew and trying to get us dancing in a similarish style. Getting slightly carried away dinner was quite late followed by a trip to the Chester Arms. Some playing, singing and dancing in the pub ensured there was free beer from the landlord. Back at the hall more beer was had and folks finally went to bed at 27 O'clock or something, I dunno, I can't really remember.
Saturday morning started by a big lardy fry up and another bit of a dance to get a few more regional variations ironed out. Oxford Brookes University quite typically caused the biggest cock up of the weekend by locking me in the Students' Union and loosing the minibus keys so getting to town involved plan B, the no. 4 bus. Where I'm told a pro-fox hunting song went down a treat. The first dance spot was by the Bear, Oxford's oldest pub dating back to a long time ago. Shame it was shut really.
From there we took Cornmarket Street by storm. Cornmarket is crammed with people and has just enough room to dance when the crowds are told to move by a guy with a big stick. Everything was going splendidly, so I expected a huge problem to arise soon. Gloucester Green market square was totally empty of people, but is such a good area for dancing that we danced for the pigeons. Well, the ones which hadn't been injured by the Leicester lads. The problem with Oxford is that you can either have lots of people or plenty of space so apart from Cornmarket everywhere was a little low on the crowd front.
Sitting in the warm late October sun we ate lunch by the Old School. There seemed to be quite a crowd gathering outside this pub. It soon emerged that this was the beginning of a tourists' walking tour. From here on the planned tour kind of disintegrated and we just played it by ear. Going back to Cornmarket to collect loads of wogga to fund next years event and going in random pubs because they looked nice. A request was made to dance in Christchurch Meadow which was a splendid idea, I should have thought of it myself really. The back of Christchurch College is obscenely pretty and the perfect place for that "late afternoon when everyone is knackered and mellow" dance spot. From there we toddled to the Head of the River pub to await the Pleasure Boat that would take us back to Donnington Bridge and our humble abode. The funniest safety announcement you've ever heard was soon followed by a few dances on the top deck and the odd wave and cheer for the female rowers practicing on the river.
The Foster family cooked a superb feast for the dancers from Leicester, Kennet, Ebor, Jockey, Rumford, Men of Wight, Packington, Harthill and the hosts Icknield Way.
Sunday saw a disappointing turn out from the local teams, where were you all? Fallen trees kept a few away and Icknield Way produced a side but as for the others, they missed an enjoyable Sunday tour. Walking along the towpath we reached the Isis Tavern, where a stag party greeted us with great enthusiasm and joined in Leicester's audience participation dance. After free beer from the Landlady we walked across Iffley Lock and arrived at the Prince Of Wales. Those that had any energy left danced a bit and then had lunch and a session. The Landlord was so happy with what we had done, he couldn't thank me enough and gave us more free beer than we could drink.
In all, a totally awesome weekend, it certainly was a laugh, even the men who knew very few dances had a brilliant weekend. There were many discussions about future years and it was left that Oxford would be the location for next year to really get the event established with Leicester keen to host it in 2004. What's needed now is for the good word to be spread. Many guys contacted me in the last few weeks before the weekend having only just heard about it despite the fact that they dance with one or more Ring teams and so should have heard about the event in May!! Come on Bagmen! Why are you not passing this information on?
Morris 18-30 2003 will be on September 26th-28th 2003. Be there if think you're hard enough
As for the Herons, well I guess you just had to be there.
