It was windy from the word go, so the North-South Cup guys went to the Mynd to have a speed gliding contest. Head-to-head, two pilots had to go 500m along the ridge and back. I think the South won again. We were going to go up the Mynd so Geoff could fly the hang glider, but the wind picked up and there was the odd bit of rain, so we just did party preparation. Thankfully Paul, Yaz, Mick, Hayley and Ellie turned up early and we set up the DJ booth and lighting rig. We were going to put up the LMSC marquee to protect the lights, but once there was a really heavy shower, we decided to rig up a tarpaulin that would stretch out from the garage towards the house. Once the PizzaVia van arrived we had to get the trailer up on the raised area and cut down half a tree. It was all fun, interspersed with (too weak!) tea.

Our last job was to cut up the remaining wood for the braziers and Malc Davies thankfully brought his chainsaw to do it. When he called to ask if he should bring anything for the party, he expected me to say sausage rolls, not a chainsaw!

People started arriving shortly before 8pm and the pizza queue swelled immediately. It was expected that people would arrive in dribs and drabs after flying, but with the weather being bad, people were sitting in the camp site waiting to come. Had we known, we would have called people to come early and give us a hand and start eating sooner too.

Once people started arriving, it was a great turnout with over 100 people there. Paul and Sam did a great job with the music and the braziers were well worth the effort, keeping the non-dancers warm. We had a North-South dance-off that I was supposed to be judging, but only three southerners (Viv, Phil and Frankie Coltman) took up the challenge and although I was going to eliminate anyone from below the Watford gap as a matter of principle, Phil told me not to dare! Frankie got a special award at the prize giving the next day for her efforts. Good on her, she’s only about 8!

After that it was all a blur of chatting, dancing (thanks particularly to Marra and Barney, and everybody else who endured being dragged onto the dance floor by me) and boozing. Even Geoff was up bopping (but only once).

Because a task briefing had been called for 8 am the next day, people drifted off at a sensible time, although some who’d watched the forecast (waste of time for Sunday), stayed and partied on into the small hours. By dawn there were only a few heavyweights left and before we knew it, the sun was shining and the pizza van guys needed help getting the trailer back down the ramps. After a preliminary tidy-up, I finally got to bed at 11 am.

It was a really great night. Thanks so much to everyone who came and helped make it such a blast. I was so busy enjoying myself I didn’t take a single photo. If anyone who was there has some, could I have a copy?

See Paul’s photos of tonight.

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