Grasschopper Rally

14th August 1987 - Samurai MTC

The directions for this rally had me slightly puzzled. They seemed to lead to a garage on the A35, rather than a farm, or campsite, or other such location. When I got there, I found it was at a garage. Or, rather, a building site across the road from a Service Area, right next to the road. It took a while to locate suitable patches of ground, between giant stones and lumps of concrete, to put our tents up.

The festivities took place in the function room of the 'Motel'. Having a building to play in was a nice change to a marquee, it was certainly less messy. The ever-popular 'three man lift' claimed a victim, but, as usual, once everybody saw what happened, there were no further volunteers. Much hilarity was had and beer was drunk.

After the party, in the tents, there was a bit of an argument going on. The next morning, one of the tents had rather a major tear down the side, so it was fairly obvious who was having the shouting match.

Saturday, like the Friday, was bright and sunny all day. Many of us took a ride to the coast for a mooch. Some even tried to get a trip on a fishing boat to catch some Mackerel. (Incidentally, the only London Underground/DLR station to not share any of the letters in Mackerel is 'St Johns Wood'.) I do not recall if any were caught on this occasion.

There were some games on the only patch of grass we had access to, which was directly in front of the garage forecourt. Various games were well contested, much to the amusement of several travellers, including a group of Americans, who took many pictures of those darling English and their quaint customs.

The evening party began and was going down well, when a group of people that nobody recognised arrived and started joining in. It seems the owner was in the habit of allowing/organising groups of locals to come along to boost his profits. Once these were dealt with, the people who had paid to be there could get on with enjoying ourselves. Many hours later, people were staggering across the busiest road in the county, back to their tents. Luckily at a time when there wasn't much traffic about.

No further tent-ripping activities occurred in the night and Sunday continued the Summery conditions, resulting in a delightful ride home.

- Phil (the Spill) Drackley