Moonshiners MCC

"Unplugged"

A chuffin' good rally

15th - 17th  March.   2024

    Well it's that time of year again, so without further ado it's off down to the banks of the river Severn.   We'd had a lot of rain over the last few weeks, but luckily the river was on the way down rather than up.  This still didn't mean the field was dry.  The right hand side of the field was well under water, but it still left us plenty of room to camp.  As per normal, putting the control tent up was a "work of art", though I ain't saying what kind of artists were performing it.

    Before long the tent was up and the kettle was on.  We did have a bit of a niggle earlier on when we found that the boards we use as table tops were no longer available, so it was half a dozen scaffold boards to the rescue.  We'd also made a few more "duck boards" to go on the floor 'cos we knew what that mud was like.  Weather-wise we did OK with only one heavy shower all day Friday.  Quite a few folks had turned up - things were looking good.   Having got all that done, it was off to the pub for dinner.  The pub meals were certainly on the large side, with quite a few folks admitting defeat, unable to finish it all.  Once again the pub was serving "Moonshiners Chuffin' Good Ale" - which I must say was a most excellent pint.

    Saturday saw quite a few folks heading for Bridgnorth on the steam train.  The trains had not been running on our two previous rallies, so this was good news.  I spent the day either sitting in the control tent or sitting in the pub.  Once again, weather-wise, it was a decent day, though the forecast for tonight didn't sound so good. . . . .still, it's dry in the pub.  Around nine o'clock it was raffle time.  This year we went for fewer prizes, but better prizes.  This prevents the raffle going on for hours, and you get something that's worth winning ( we hope ).  Following the raffle it was award time.  With any luck, I've got the right names on the right pictures . . . if not, I dare say someone will let me know.

Best Bike  -  Kawasaki VN2000 - Mike Taylor from The Toads and Dogends RC.

Rat Bike  -  Kawasaki Z750   -  Shuff from The Toads and Dogends RC.

Female long distance 76miles  - Joy Cooper from the Taliesin Brotherhood

Male long distance 265 miles   -  Tony Lawson from The Rampant Squirrels

Club turnout - those Rampant Squirrels with 16 of 'em.

     The rest of Saturday evening went as it should, with folks drinking, eating, and generally talking bollocks.  I thought folks were looking too happy, so I grabbed my trusty ukulele and made 'em all suffer for an hour or so.

    Sunday morning and it appeared the weather forecast had been correct.  We had some seriously heavy rain overnight.  Now the question was, should we wait for the sun to come out, or should we pack the control tent away wet ?  Seeing as drying the tent out later would be a problem, we waited, and sure enough the sun broke through.  We still needed our wellies 'cos of the mud, but the tent managed to go away dry-ish.  Of course, it wouldn't be our rally if we didn't have at least one item of lost property.  This year it was someone's specs - from Specsavers, of all places.  So if you recognize these glasses, let us know and we'll find a way of getting 'em back to you.

EDIT - it looks like the glasses have now found their way back - one of those Anvil MCC lot.

    Right, that seems to be about it.  Many thanks to the folks that turned up and suffered both the mud and my uke playing.  With any luck, we might just do it all again next year.

Cheers

^..^