We assembled as usual, outside The Bell at 12.30pm for our traditional post-Christmas celebration of dance but as Nicola and Andy had decided to open a little later in the day, we decamped to The Coach and Horses, where landlord, Tony, was delighted to welcome us.

With musicians Donald and Malcolm setting a brisk tempo, our dancers warmed up rather more quickly than the large crowd of family, friends and interested passers-by who stayed to watch our antics. Over the next hour or so, a group ranging from six to 70 years of age performed 11 of our core dances with barely a false step, despite some members being a little rusty and at least one suffering the effects of over-consumption of Wadworth’s Old Timer (5.8%).

It was good to have two dancers of primary school age, including Dylan’s young brother Rhys who performed his first Shepherd’s Hey dance in public. More importantly for the future of the side is the fact that two of our regular dancers, Theo and Dylan, are still at The Warriner School and they certainly danced as well as anyone yesterday. In particular, they impressed in Postman’s Knock and in Jockey to the Fair, where three pairs of dancers attempt to out caper each other in this demanding double jig. Our traditional audience participation invitation dance, Shepherd’s Hey Jig drew some novices from the crowd as well as more experienced performers to make up a cheery throng of 16 dancers.

As tradition demands, we concluded proceedings with Brighton Camp, featuring whistle player Malcolm as a dancer, before heading home to warm fires and turkey sandwiches.

On reflection, what brings us together on occasions like the post-Christmas dance out is a shared love of music, laughter, dance, song, fellowship and a unique tradition. Long may this continue. Morris On!

A Happy New Year to all our friends.

John Ekers

Seasons greetings one and all! It’s the most wonderful time of the year – when Adderbury Village Morris Men have a chance to dance in St. Mary’s Church as part of the Adderbury Christmas Tree Festival. A beautiful plethora of trees decorated by various clubs and organisations throughout the village (including ours) were on display and were the perfect accompaniment for a spot of afternoon dancing.

Facing the Altar we warmed up with Sweet Jenny Jones and Haste to the Wedding. It was only appropriate to then dance the Bluebells of Scotland, which the church bells ring out every Wednesday. We finished our first half an hour with Stourton Wake, and truly appreciated the amazing acoustics of the Church. It was incredible to hear our sticking, singing and jingling (the last of which is actually pretty seasonally appropriate) echo throughout the church.

A brief coffee break and time to admire all the excellently decorated trees was followed by the Beaux of London City – we promise we were as careful as possible to not damage the floor! Our youngest and most energetic dancer, Dylan, asked that we all wore off those seasonal mince pies with Black Joke. I clearly am a little rusty, as I needed to take a moment to recover, before dancing Lads a’ Buncham and a six man Shepherds’ Hey Jig. Our final dance of the hour was Brighton Camp and with eight dancers we were tight for space in the narrow aisles but we managed it brilliantly.

Thank you to everyone who came to make the afternoon possible, and huge thank you to the team at St. Mary’s Church for not only putting on such a lovely charitable event, but also having us along to entertain the visitors.

Happy Holidays to everyone and we hope to see you all again very soon!