The 2005 autumn rally was held at Bradley Wood camp site near Huddersfield on bonfire weekend and 16 members of Scogui attended. The fun bus left about 6:30pm and we were all treated to firework displays all around on the journey and a game of text eye-spy between the minibus and Daz’s car. We arrived at a reasonable time, especially as people from other clubs were arriving up until 4am!
There was a small camp fire on the Friday evening (rumour was that there was no wood to burn!) and a sober Scogui started off the singing.
Despite the weather forecast, Saturday got off to a bright start. The camp site was woken up at 7:45 for breakfast and although the early birds had to wait a while before the food was served, we were glad we didn’t come down late and have to queue up for an hour! After breakfast the activities began and, unusual for me, there were two activities to choose for morning and afternoon. Scogui was well represented at the ‘Extreme Pub Quiz’ held in the afternoon in Brighouse (probably called extreme because the walking around was around 6km!). All of the pubs visited had character, be it the ‘Retro disco with Daz’, the Ukrainian satellite TV or the church organ in Weatherspoons and it was a really great afternoon out.
The evening meal and barn dance was held on site and members of staff from the camp site served us copious amounts of alcohol throughout the evening. The food was very nice: chicken of some sort followed by pie for desert. The barn dance band were good as always and the accordion players seemed to be enjoying themselves a lot. The highlight of the dance was when 3 members of Scogui started dancing Saturday Night to the barn dance music, only to find after a revolution that all 227 dancers had decided to copy them. Afterwards they proceeded to start a conga round the building which at one point emptied the dance floor.
Unfortunately the fancy dress competitons were not won by Scogui although many people commented that our miner’s strike costumes were excellent.
After the music stopped, everyone made their way down to an improved camp fire where much singing took place (often being run by Scogui and Medic Mike) and almost record breakingly long renditions of Chicago department store and a song about animals..
Sunday was showery which meant all our kit had to be packed away wet and covered in bits of forest. Many people did not make it to breakfast so everyone that did turn up got seconds, and thirds and the rest was served up as extra lunch. After an exciting EGM where the new SSAGO constitution was approved, silly games took place in which many people ended up getting very wet, very blue and very floury. The closing ceremony was held afterwards with many thankyous being said and modified mascots being returned before we all set off home. After an excellent weekend, it was nice to be able to have a nap on the bus home!
Written by Pete Everett
