By midday on Friday there were a lot people already there but……..no burger van and after Blacky spending hours on the phone talking to their answer machine it was obvious that we were going to suffer from this years VSOC trait……… “Let down by caterers.”

There’s nothing you can do about it. At Bromsgrove there was a great carvery next door to the site, at Esher there was the Archway café down the road, but at Banwell it’s a bit trickier, the local Chinese fish & chip shop could keep you alive if you ignored the taste, but that’s about it. Archie and Pat went off to track down some vendors that they knew of and by 6pm Bandit had someone coming up from Exeter. Dai the Chop even found someone willing to come over from Wales for the weekend. By 9 pm Bandit’s pal was set up and the first burger was being eaten.

Whilst all these phone calls were being made we hit another snag that absolutely no one could have foreseen…….. A tribe of pikeys had set up camp on the far side of the farm and in one night 8 caravans had been stolen in the local area. During that afternoon some of the pikey children got into the complex and were running amok in the café. All it took was a show of strength by Bandit, Phil the Fence, Bill the Bear and a few others and they were gone. The Scrumpies being who they are set up night time “Pikey watch” and there was no shortage of volunteers. Apart from a couple of times when we spotted then watching us from afar, they kept their distance and nothing got stolen from us.

None of this actually had a bad effect on the party, if anything it was the opposite and we all had a brilliant weekend.

The Welsh have now progressed from cloning sheep to children and have stolen Holly’s DNA to make “Dolly”. This is all part of their plan to use these unfortunates in making false claims for child benefit, tax credits and student loans. However, the Scrumpies have rescued Dolly from her fate and she is now in our custody.

Our latest satellite centre was launched, Centre 17 and nine inches. This is now our fourth and this one has it’s own merchandiser! Maybe we could make a few quid selling Scrumpie franchises?

To quote their founding members “Other centres just don’t measure up”

Furthest travelled had to be the Yorkies
 

Steve and Gerbil have probably been coming here the longest and Steve picked up his 15 year badge that night.

Pirates, Welsh, Vultures, Axemen,

Road Runners, Lost Riders, Yorkies,

Saxons and lastly those shy retiring ones,

NINE INCHES

God did it rain

Sorry if you couldn’t be with us

Blackjack.bob