Highside Longsword Logbook
HUNDRED and FORTY EIGHTH PUBLIC PERFORMANCE 7th January 2024
PERFORMERS :-
Musicians – Ted Dodsworth, Janice Hopkinson
Captain – Peter Meese
1 Rob
Thew
2 John Creedon
3 Colin Fine
4 Andrew Bodey
5 Jim Coulson
6 Iain Thew
Masham Plough Blessing – another day of reasonable weather and the St Mary's was warm inside. We had a practice on the Wednesday beforehand in Studley Roger Village Hall which went well.
The service was very nice with new vicar Jane Ball giving a pleasant sermon, lots of singing and a good atmosphere. The dance started and finished very well indeed but had a memorable incident in the middle. In Double Sword Down, Jim caught his foot on a high sword and stumbled off the stage. He says he jumped straight back into the dance but from my position it looked like the ladies of the choir pushed him back on stage! It was quite dramatic and resulted in Jim bleeding a bit but otherwise unhurt and impressively back into the dance. There isn't much room in front of the altar and it's a wonder one of us hasn't fallen off before.
Massive round of applause and the 'beheading' of Jane who was a great sport and took her white garment off in case it got blood on it (Jim's)!
Mulled wine, sausages and pigs in blankets after. Lots of talk with the congregation including David Scrutton, who is interested in learning the dance.
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HUNDRED and FORTY NINTH PUBLIC PERFORMANCE 14th January 2024
PERFORMERS :-
Musicians – Ted Dodsworth, Janice Hopkinson
Captain – Peter Meese
1 Rob Thew
2 Keith Worden
3 Colin Fine
4 Andrew Bodey
5 Jim Coulson
6 Iain Thew
Kirkby Malzeard plough blessing, always a lovely event for us. Met at Colin's house for a Double Sword Down and lock practice for Keith at 2. All went well.
Met the new vicar Andrew and processed down the aisle with the farmers and the plough. For the last couple of years there hasn't been a choir at Kirkby so we have sat in their stalls to the left of the altar and the farmers to the right but Rob was leading us and went to the right! Not enough space for all of us, so Janice and I sat by ourselves on the left.
Quite a small congregation this year but the service was nice, the dance went very well. Didn't notice Keith's slight stumble until watching the video afterwards.
Beheaded Andrew who was good sport and very complimentary about our performance. Loads of food to eat and lots of people wanting to talk about the history and even about learning the dance.
HUNDRED and FIFTIETH PUBLIC PERFORMANCE 14th January 2024
PERFORMERS :-
Musicians – Ted Dodsworth, Janice Hopkinson
Captain – Peter Meese
1 Rob Thew
2 Johm Creedon
3 Colin Fine
4 Andrew Bodey
5 Jim Coulson
6 Iain Thew
Ripon Cathedral – we we're asked to dance near the entrance this year instead of our usual spot, I took this to mean inside the doors! Janice and I had a little practice of a second tune (Rattling Bog) and Charlie Brown the sound engineer for the Cathedral came over and told us we couldn't do it in the doorway for health and safety reasons! We went to find Canon Matthew and he said we should dance outside as it was too busy where we normally danced. As the weather was particularly cold, we said no and ended up dancing in a small corner of the Cathedral.
There were very few people watching but Keith was there and took a good video of us from quite high up. Nice to see something different. We beheaded Lucas who is Ray's grandson, therefore Bob Waite's, (the musician in the '20s and '30s) great grandson. There was also 2 Canadians from Vancouver who were intrigued by our performance so we remade the lock and beheaded them too!
Some of us went to the Royal Oak to discuss as to whether we wanted to dance in the Cathedral again after rather poor treatment this year.