Saturday 6 August 2011

Thanks to Andrew for introducing us to another pub that hasn’t been pokified [I think he means “filled with pokie machines” — Ed] and they sell 2 types of cider on tap too. It is up past Kapunda at Allendale North, so we can’t exactly pop over for a quickie after practice. The publican is Bryan Cullen who is an old friend of Arther Bower, a concertina player and founding member of the yellow and purple morris dancing team in 1976 which grew into the AMM at Xmas 1989. Bryan produced a photo of the AMM from approx 1987 with Geoff, Mike Bowe and Neville. He also roused up lots of locals to be a very appreciative audience so we will try to build it into future northern tours. See http://www.wheatsheafpub.com.au

Dancing outside The Wheatsheaf Hotel, Allendale North

We had a great turnout with Mike, Roger, Ian G, Matt F, Geoff, Ian M, Greg, Bill, Andrew and Ashleigh, plus Bob came from Swan Hill via Melbourne.

The dancing surface was a little rough, which is only to be expected when you cover dirt with ball bearing sized stones but that problem was fixed after the downpour when the ground turned soft and threatened to engulf the top couple. Speaking of the downpour, there was a fantastic image of the session on the verandah with the rain pelting down behind them, it’s a pity the photographers were all playing at the time.

This was only Matthew Fenech’s second footup with us, so we conned him into trying SA’s contribution to gourmet cuisine, a pie floater. See his nervous expression in the photo.

We attempt to convince Matt Fenech that the pie floater is a South Australian delicacy

After lunch, we bid a reluctant farewell and drove 10 minutes to Greenock, where we were able to dance inside the pub. The wooden floorboards were a wonderful surface and echoed superbly, so we did lots of dances involving banging the sticks on the ground. As Bob put it after the musos stepped up the pace in Beaux of London City (Badby), “That’s the quickest Bonk I’ve ever had.” This audience appreciated us too and even sang along to the chorus of Postman’s Knock. There was a downside to dancing inside the pub, have you ever tried a leapfrog with a lintel just over your head?

Dancing outside the Greenock Creek Tavern, Greenock

Bob applied his measure for happiness, which is that he expects at least one dance per hour of driving to be happy. He managed 26 dances in the day, so he was ecstatic.

A very weary team made our way to Andrew’s house in Gawler. For future reference he is at number 32. Roger didn’t really need to climb on the fence and shout, nor did Hillary need to bowl inside like she owned the place – both at the wrong number. Andrew discouraged future attempts at taking over by proudly showing us his underground well where he will keep future home invaders, but then forgave us by providing scrumptious soups and home grown bread.

A great day was had by all, I was particularly happy as we did several dances from God’s Own Tradition, aka Bledington. We even managed Oranges in Bloom, Sherbourn, the style wasn’t exactly perfect due to the years since we had danced it and the ground attempting to suck us into the depths. There were some great comments during the day but you know the old saying “What happens on tour, stays on tour”, i.e. I’ve forgotten the best ones.