Sacrewell Rally from the Stewards Eve view.

For once I was able to get to a rally early and even then there were five units already on site plus a few sheep. The majority of units turned up in daylight, and what a fine sunny day it was. One or two turned up in the dark and a further few arrived the next morning. Whenever people arrived it was noticeable that there were always others lurking about ready to help if required. I tried lurking but ended up running around like a scared rabbit trying to site people, answer queries, get the hall ready and make myself cups of tea, the latter much to the chagrin of our many more professional stewards who thought I should be making tea for the arrivals.

Maureen and Sue did, however, provide refreshments in the hall on Friday evening. Everyone spent a really sociable couple of hours whilst I continued my scared rabbit routine and posted lookouts.

We were very lucky with the weather, which remained dry over the whole weekend. Alan and Sue Smith led a walk to Ferry Meadows, which I know was enjoyed by those who went. They only managed to lose one couple! Other people drifted off to look round Peter borough, Stamford, the Nene Valley Railway and other places of interest. The scared rabbit was still running around although the pace had slowed somewhat and came to a halt at the arrival of the 37th and last unit to arrive. Another six or so hadn't turned up so an eye still had to be kept on the entrance just in case.

The hall was prepared for the evening party. Everybody had brought items for the buffet and what a fine spread it was It amazed me how many different foods there were, it could very easily have ended up as tables full of sausage rolls. The party took the form of a quiz with dances (from old time to modern), games (little Lauren Oakes won a bucketful of money) and chaos between rounds and got rowdier as the evening wore on. Janet Goodwin, the captain of the winning team, was delighted with her pig lamp prize or at least I thought she was! A good time was had by all.

I rose on Sunday morning accompanied by a headache and we both

decided to have the flag meet as close to the Dandy as possible. There was a huge array of raffie prizes and a surprise for Alan and Sue Smith. They were presented with special plaques to mark the fact that they held the record of attending most consecutive rallies since the inaugural rally (32 in all). The weather remained dry and Dandys came down all over the place. It is always a shame that the weekend has to end but my headache told me to get my Dandy down as well. It takes much longer to get off site than one might think. Janet and Dave Goodwin had their Dandy all packed up at 11am and said they were off home. They eventually left the site at 2.30pm. Saying goodbye on the last rally of the season takes much longer than usual and is much more heart wrenching. My headache wrenched me home during the afternoon. I went to sleep as soon as I arrived and woke up on Tuesday morning, well I don't remember much about Monday.

All in all another enjoyable rally and a good end to the season. 

Dave