We all love a good fete! The sun shone, a warm Wiggington wind blew and a friendly audience welcomed us as we danced, surrounded on the site by all the customary Village Fete stalls including tombola, raffle, Hooky brewery, and some vintage vehicles which included an old steam roller. Alas, we soon discovered that the latter had not been utilised before we arrived – imagine dancing on ground just after a herd of cows had just vacated the patch and you will get some idea of how lumpy our grassy performance space was. 

There was nothing lumpy about our set though; Donald and young Alfie on the drum keeping us in wonderfuly tight time, and despite my three months absence I was held in step by my lovely colleagues as, dance by dance, they nurtured my muscle memories back into action.

As we all know, ours is a risky pastime and the hazards on that day were manyfold, not least the damage the tussocky stage might have done to our ankles. At one point Charlie nearly threw me on the rough ground as his skirt had come loose and I tripped on a backward step as our trusty steer reared up. In another incident during Postman’s knock, my recent lack of practice showed as I lost my sticking and thwacked poor Raf on the knuckles, but being the Morris stalwart that he is, he graciously forgave me instantly. It is good that we have brought Buffoon back into the regular repertoire, but in the side’s urge to create theatrical drama, the Faces stage of the dance turned into something resembling a brawl, and in a bid to dislodge my hat, this dancer was struck hard across the head by a swipe from my partner (who shall remain nameless!); again the jolly spirit of the dancing bid me forgive him immediately. It’s all part of the rough and tumble of our set!

Thankfully all the dangers remained within our dancing team, and when we called upon the audience to join us for a community dance of Shepherd’s Hey the only thing that broke were the participants’ faces breaking into beaming smiles at the fun they were having. This moment always leaves me wondering why more people don’t take up the Morris habit…!

David