Boring Old Farts Rally

1989

29th September 1989 - White Lion MCC

I'll start with the badge. There was nothing wrong with the image on the badge, just the material it was made out of. It was very thin aluminium sheet, only just a bit thicker than foil. There was a safety pin on the back held on with a sticky pad - for a while. Every time you put your jacket down, it bent. Then after a day or two, the pad gave way and fell off. It was easy enough though, to bash a hole or two in the badge to sew it to your jacket.

I only mention the badge as nothing much happened on the Friday night. We were in one room of the pub, which may have been called the White Lion, but definitely was in Melchbourne, (another muddy sounding name), which wasn't too bad as it was a fairly limited rally and the mild weather meant you could stand outside without much discomfort. The table skittle game proved quite popular and I could see why games of that type have large nets at the back.

On Saturday the rest of my club turned up, including the guy who had bought my RS200, (the one that snapped its chain in two places). The pub garden, where we were camped, filled up quite quickly and there was only just enough room for the games, such as they were, which didn't take too long.

In the evening there was supposed to have been a band, but they failed to show. Then, when the organisers discovered that Spam and Shrub, two of my club members, had brought their musical instruments with them, they asked them to provide a musical interlude, in the otherwise quiet pub room. They were joined by another rallyist after a while, who provided percussion by banging a watering can vaguely rhythmically.

At the end of the evening, there was a minor display around the bonfire and eventually, we drifted off to bed.

The Sunday was fairly overcast, but at least not windy. Packing up was done quite quickly, as I had some assistance from the young lady I took with me. The ride back was uneventful.

- Phil (the Spill) Drackley