Glemsford's Gala: 1 July 2006

Mustering in the Lion for the traditional avant-danse gathering, the men had time to reflect on the exertions to come.

Doods meanwhile had to sit and reflect on his failure, for the first time in many years, to score any tickets for the Cambridge Folk Festival. he was not happy.

It goes without saying that the Summer of 2006 has been the hottest since time immemorial, and even before the idiot Daniel Corbett started talking about "high numbers" instead of high temperatures.

Nothing daunted however, and after a suitable acclimatisation period in the South of France, Little Egypt were prepared to risk heat exhaustion and sweaty armpits for the sake of their art.

As always, the Squre acted as an undemonstrative master of ceremonies

and Keith was happy to respect the No Smoking rule imposed as a result of the major fire risk in these drought conditions.

This was, of course, the year that dark glasses became an essential part of the Little Egypt uniform. Bob and Nunu felt safe in their anonymity, ...

... while Bill hoped he could hide his disappointment at only having half a pint of warm beer in the thought that, soon, he would be able to play the bodhran.

Martin was careful to position himself near the stick trolley to avoid its being impounded by the undercover surveillance team sent by the ODPM as part of their anti-rural pastimes agenda.

Greg, on the other hand, had been visiting a craft stall which specialised in the ancient Suffolk art of Beard Painting and Head-Shrinking

Neville was insistent on gathering evidence for his purge of non-standard uniform items, even resorting to bribes to persuade Harriet to wear disguise while acting as his undercover snapper ...

... but somehow, Graham's cloaking device managed to avoid the detection of the fact that he was, indeed, wearing unlicensed shorts.
Mr Prescott and Ms Kelly have been informed.

As always I am indebted to the Mill Hill team for the photographs, and this slightly more prosaic version of events:

... Some pics from ... Fun Day, starting with the men limbering up in the Lion moving on to them displaying their sticks in all their glory.

The black shirted Graham was given special dispensation from Whites because he was also taking part in the Tug O' War competition, representing the Black Lion.
The final followed immediately after our dancing.
And, the Black Lion team won!!

Greg, still wearing his bright green waistcoat decided on matching green beard.
Keith won 30-something pounds in a draw which was rapidly spent on buying a round for the chaps and the band.

There's no truth in the rumour that Squire went to the back of the queue and thus managed to get two pints from one round.