Highside Longsword Logbook 2018
HUNDRED and TWENTY THIRD PUBLIC PERFORMANCE 14th January 2018
PERFORMERS :-
Musician – Ray Waite
Captain - Peter Meese
1 Ted Dodsworth
2 Roy Waite
3 Colin Fine
4 Rob Thew
5 Iain Thew
6 Keith Worden
Kirkby Malzeard plough blessing. Our favourite dance out. There seemed to be a smaller congregation than usual but it was nice to see Joan Clark there as we missed her on Boxing Day. We had met at Colin's house for a run through and decided that we could do the Double Sword Down figure.
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The service went well and the dance started well, then disaster struck and during DSD we went very wrong and took a while to get back into a hilt and point. The rest of the dance went really well with rousing applause.
Afterwards we beheaded Carolyn as it was her last plough service before retiring. She claimed to be nearly 60!
A few people noticed that we went wrong which was heartening in a way because it meant they were watching!
We retired to the Water Rat in Ripon for our annual meal.
HUNDRED and TWENTY FOURTH PUBLIC PERFORMANCE 14th January 2018
PERFORMERS :-
Musician – Ray Waite
Captain - Peter Meese
1 Ted Dodsworth
2 Roy Waite
3 Colin Fine
4 Rob Thew
5 Iain Thew
6 Keith Worden
On to Ripon Cathedral, after the Water Rat. We were rushed to the big window at the back of the Cathedral for a photo shoot by the Yorkshire Post photographer. This involved us posing quite a bit, a photograph of which appeared on the front page the following day. We also posed outside with the big tractor and plough a picture of which appeared in this week's Ripon Gazette. A photo also appeared in the Leeds Diosecean online newsletter together with a film of us dancing.
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When we eventually danced all went well, we had practiced outside the Water Rat. Peter's voice echoed around the Cathedral but eventually the crowd settled and listened and watched.
HUNDRED and TWENTY FIFTH PUBLIC PERFORMANCE 21st January 2018
PERFORMERS :-
Musician – Ted Dodsworth
Captain - Peter Meese
1 Jim Coulson
2 Roy Waite
3 Colin Fine
4 Rob Thew
5 Iain Thew
6 Keith Worden
Masham plough service was on a different day to Kirkby and Ripon's this year. It apparently is always on the the 3rd Sunday in January. Ray was ill with flu so I had to play again. This meant giving away some tickets to a concert I had planned to go to! It was quite a snowy evening.
I have no idea how the dance went as I was too busy concentrating on playing! They got a decent clap so I assume it was ok. Iain had asked us to behead his Indian friend so I asked for a volunteer of who had come furthest to the service. It turned out he was from York!
Sausages and mulled wine were great and afterwards we visited the White Bear.
HUNDRED and TWENTY SIXTH PUBLIC PERFORMANCE 26th December 2018
PERFORMERS :-
Musician – Ted Dodsworth
Captain - Peter Meese
1 Keith Worden
2 Roy Waite
3 Colin Fine
4 Iain Thew
5 Jim Coulson
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The mildest Boxing Day that we have ever danced on, we met at the Queen's Head in Kirkby Malzeard to dance just after 1pm. The area around the Cross has been newly tarmaced, so a nice surface to dance on. Peter arrived in his new pink waistcoat, with ribbons sewn on and pink ribbons around his hat!
The dancing was not of the best despite a practice at St. Wilfrid's Community Centre the week before. Quite an appreciative crowd and a willing participant in the beheading.
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We then went to the Ringbeck turning and danced again to a small but very keen audience, lots of questions and a bit of a collection.
We would normally have gone to the Green to dance for Joan Clark's family at this point but sadly she died during the year and the rest of them were too upset and asked us not to go.
Instead we danced next to the Pinfold where again a small but interested crowd gathered and asked questions after. We 'beheaded' a small girl who lived at the other side of the Queen's to Colin.
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We went back to the Queen's where we were treated to a drink from the landlady.
Then on to the Crown at Grewelthorpe which had recently changed hands. The landlord hadn't been terribly keen to have us when I rang but all was ok. Due to the new layout of the furniture we danced in the dining room to a great crowd. The 'beheading' was a man (Ed Shaw, a kind of relative) travelling to Edinburgh who had seen Grenoside recently and knew all the words to Colin's Tom Lehrear, comic songs. A nice little session afterwards was greatly enjoyed by the locals.
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