Big Andys Scootering Site

I somehow persuaded work to let me have an early finish, so at 13:30 myself and my yamaha XJ600 were doing over 100mph down the A38 so that i could get home, jump on me scoot and set off on the long, ardeous journey to Weston on Trent to join up with my ii buddies in rally land. The plan was going well except as soon as i garaged my XJ600 and pulled out my trusty steed (in the shape of a px200), the heavens opened. Now Run To The Shires might only be 10 miles from my front doorstep but i was not going out in the rain, i was not going to all the trouble of putting on my waterproofs just go 15 mins down the road. So i sent Dawn off in the car to pick up Newports Bitter & Twisted S.C. Sue & Ju from the railway station, then go to the Shires and pitch the tent, the plan being i would join them as soon as it stopped raining.The only proplem with this plan was that every time i was about to set off it started raining again, so at 5:15 i finally set off, arriving about 5:45 due to hitting rush hour traffic on the way

I arrived to find that Dawn had not only put up our tent but my lad kevins tent and the gazebo were up too, although they were all in the wrong place. I had told her to pitch at the front of the chapel, like we had the last 2 years, but having arrived to find Teresa and Andy had pitched in the trees at the bottom of the chapel she pitched up next to them. I know, i know....leave a woman to do a mans job. Also there were Dean, Ann & tribe,.. Joy,Steve, Gary and Steph from Can't Start Wont Start S.C.,...Taxi and Alia from the Alliance M&SC, Davy & Lynn from the Edinburgh Blues S.C.with Earl and Sarah from the Wreckless Souls S.C.& Tony 'one shirt' & Karen,.... Big N and Bill and of course Mick from Leicester with I-Spy also from Leicester on his Lambretta Frisbee. Oajj was also there setting up his gazebo and a wind break as a portable kitchen at the front of Teresa and Andys tent.

I had judged my journey to perfection, because 2 minutes after arriving the heavens opened and we all piled into our gazebos, the CSWSSC gazebo being used as a portable garage to keep the rain off our scooters.

The rain finally stopped about 7:30 but we hadn't wasted our time as we had been consuming a large amount of alcohol whilst under the gazebo and catching up on all the latest gossip and news. We then all trooped up the road to the main building for our night time debaucheries. On the way up we bumped into Brew and his son as well as Roger & Steph from the Brewers. Also close by were the crew from Ripley Harriers.I also saw Savage staggering around later on.The smaller hall being used as the soul room was already busy with peeps doing their 'thing' but we headed for the main hall. On entering we found the room had plenty of peeps in there but as it was still early it was no-where near full, so finding a table was no problem. I was greeted by a very drunk Andrea from Calverton Hornets who looked like she could bearly stand up (see photo 2 below).

Later on The Itch came on stage to entertain us and i, for one, thought they were alright (ive seen worse....see rhyl report to start with), but i personnally was looking forward to seeing I Can't Believe Its Not Punk, as i think they are one of the best bands on the scooter scene, but unfortunately and extremely rare for me, the rest of the night was lost in the bottom of my vodka & orange bottle as i got wrecked and remember very little about the rest of the night. I reckon someone spiked my drinks. I just hope i didn't make too much of a fool of myself, but if i did..... tough...thats what being on a rally is all about. I am reliably informed though that some of our ii family resorted to table top dancing later in the night, so i wasn't the only one worse for the vodka.

I'm not sure why but saturday morning started with me awakening, shivering in the front seat of our car. Now the arrangement was that Sophie was to sleep in the car but she was fast asleep in my tent...the cheek of it.I wandered up to the snack vans for a cuppa and had a good natter with Nigel and his mates from Lincoln who were seated around the vans. On my return, i found Dawn cooking our brekkie on a small portable bbq. It sounds daft but actually it was really nice having our bacon and sausage bbqed. Now i know Teresa cooks the ii brekkie but as she had quite a large contingent hovering around her tent we decided to lighten her load by doing our own brekkie. I'm sure Teresas brekkie was up to its usual good standard. I was moaning to anyone that would listen to me, that i was really peed off about missing I Cant Believe Its Not Punk the previous night, but on checking my camera for the piccies i had taken i discovered i had taken some pictures of them so i must of seen them play, even if i don't remember seeing them,

The camp site was, by now filling up fast and to make up for yesterday, mr sun was beaming down on us as well. The rest of the morning was taken up by mooching around the site and saying hello to friends, old and new, including Dave and his mates from Strangetown S.C.,Kreskin,Muzzer and some other Wreckless Souls and the mad lads from Ital scooters in Worcester.

My job for the afternoon was to help with the bungee pull. Trying to get people, other than kids, to have a go on the bungee is sometimes like trying to get people to holiday in Iraq, nigh on impossible, still we managed to get a few peeps to have a go including Dean and Steve from CSWSSC. Before they had a go a gave my camera and my watch to my wife, explaining that as i was going to make sure the pair of them got soaked, i fully expected some sort of retribusion, though true to form they did it craftily by sneaking up behind me and emptying a full bucket of water over my head.

Once the bungee finished (through running out of beer) i wandered back to my tent and retired inside for 40 winks, awakening to Dawn cooking kebabs on our bbq....lovely. Those that had joined us by now included Pashy, Olly, Beanie, Mark the Mod & his son and also from CSWSSC were Smit & Ang. Also, enlarging the Brewers contingent were Ian & Bev, Paul, Mark E, and some new members that i unfortunately haven't yet learned their names.

Fully fed and with the falling down juice in steady flow, we headed upwards towards the main buiding. Tonights band was 20 Dead Camels and i was looking forward to seeing them as i had not seen them since Brewers Droop last year when i booked them as a last minute replacement for Rufff Kutz and had thoroughly enjoyed them. The room was heaving and extremely sweaty but i was determined to stop inside and watch the band and was rewarded by an excellent gig. The Camels had been joined by a female vocalist who made them even better entertainment. There was another band on later on but unfortunately i missed them as the heat and humidity of the main room was too much for me and i spent most of the rest of the night outside chatting to peeps, including a enjoyable discussion with some jock who now lives in Bridlington. We eventually returned to our tents at around 3am only to find Ann, Steve and Smit sat outside chatting, so as not to appear rude, we sat with them for a while before retiring to our abode.

Sunday morning we awoke to a noisy ii brekkie queue in glorious sunshine. Myself and Dawn wandered up to the snack vans for a cuppa, before returning for brekkie and the horrible job of packing away. We said our goodbyes to those that were leaving, with the exception of Alia and Taxi who left without me saying goodbye to them..(how rude is that) and Oajj, but i managed to jump infront of his car to stop him as he was leaving.

As Dawn had to take the Newport gals to the train station, i sat with Davy, Lynn & Earl talking rubbish and persuading them to come to Brewers Droop, untill Dawn arrived back and loaded up the car. I said my goodbyes and headed my trusty stead back to Derby arriving home about 11:30am.

The Shires this year had been excellent (S. Foster reckoned their being 2000 people there but it seemed more like 3000) The company, as usual, were a pleasure to spent time with, the bands and the DJs had been excellent and the weather,Friday apart, had been hot, i shall look back on this rally with a great deal of pleasure as it ,for me, had been the best this year, UP TO NOW.

So a big, big thank you to Steve Foster and the V.F.M.* crew for putting on another top, top rally, where would scootering be without them. Also a big thank you to all the Brewers in attendence and very big thank you to the ii family for being you. See you all at Cleethorpes or, failing that, christmas at Burton.

SAFE SCOOTERING

Andy (BBSC)