By Saturday afternoon, moorings were at a premium and spaces were created from nowhere. The final tally of boats or crews represented was “57”, almost half the club’s membership!! Your Committee must be doing SOMETHING right!
Saturday morning saw the first event, which was ‘tent walking ’. This involved approx. 28-30 people, each taking position at a tent pole, lifting it on command from Dennis and waltzing the smaller marquee through 90 degrees so as to create more space in the ‘ballroom’.
New barbecues had been purchased in time for Eynsham and proved their worth, (no queues!!).
7.45 p.m. and the tents were bursting at the seams, which meant a certain amount of containment had to be carried out. (Almost 200 people in the arena)
Two marquees still proved insufficient (what ARE we gonna do??)
John Hill returned this year to ably entertain the throng with his ‘old time-new time’ sing song.
This was followed by the now traditional charity raffle drawn by our Commodore and his lady, tickets having been touted tirelessly all day by Louise & Kevin.
9,15 p.m. ‘The Pegasus Allstars’ appeared on stage (or grass), and fired their way into a set of rock-n-roll numbers , instantly filling the ‘oh too small’ dance area. They were joined by Chris Winter as first special guest proving his guitar talents and holding his own with the boys on 2 songs. Andy Douse, on acoustic guitar was then joined by Steph Underdown , who sang a beautiful version of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” and a raunchy unrehearsed rendition of “Trouble” (by Elvis).
The surprise of the night, was the entry of: ‘The Tiller Girls’. Tiller, in the dictionary, is… ‘An inanimate wooden object at the rear of a boat for steering’!! (sounds about right!).
The boys were superb performing a well-rehearsed dance routine which proved a testament to the strength of the elastic industry, Well done, Tom, Steve, Chris, Dave and Nigel). Ann Summers underwear will never have the same appeal again!! John Hill followed the band with his karaoke set up and many alcoholic songs were performed to varying talent levels!
The Eynsham barbecue is, of course, the one event in the season that is dedicated to a charity namely: Sobell House Hospice.
Eventually all sanity was lost in the name of good causes, and Chris Winter succumbed to being “the sacrificial lamb”, this being in the form of him losing all traces of his long service beard (and all other facial hair), whilst wearing a “tutu”. Nearly £200 was raised through this act of lunacy, but all seemed happy with the result.
Monies raised through all events at the weekend meant we could present Sobell House with a cheque for £700, which is a tremendous amount proving the generosity of all who attended and how much they enjoyed the evening. (Editors Note: We hope to have a representative from Sobell House and a local newspaper at the AGM where we will present the Cheque officially)
Organised entertainment stopped at 1 a.m.!!
Once again a successful weekend - what ARE we gonna do next year (suggestions to your committee please)
John Douse
