Dinner Tour 1994 - Wye Valley
As is traditional by now, the WC Dinner Tour started off with a peal attempt or two. Oakham Surprise Royal at All Saints Worcester proved a success with ome good ringing in places. Unfortunately the other attempt at Ross-on-Wye did not meet with the same success so the attempt was abandoned and a quarter peal rung instead. Also, unusually, due to the high number of ringers, a couple of towers were organised for the afternoon / early evening.
We ventured to Tewkesbury Abbey during the afternoon to ring on the 12 there. Generally speaking, the ringing was not bad, helped by the easy going bells. However the 4 leads of Bristol Maximus was never really successful! Not to worry, other good things were rung. We then had a good break for afternoon tea etc before going on , in the early evening, to the 10 at Lydney. The ringing here was reasonable but nothing spectacular. It was then back to the hall before trotting up to the pub at the top of the road fot the usual meetings + chat.
As is usual with the Dinner tour, there were just 4 towers during the day due to the afternoon AGM with people needing to get changed into the evening's finery before the meeting. A large number of people turned up during the day and so ringing became more of a grab than anything else. This year, for the first time in a while the meal was being held in a hotel rather than a hall, so we didn't have the usual 'hall decorators' to relieve the nuber in the towers.
After ringing finished it was back to the hall and changing before the AGM. The meeting itself went reasonably smoothly to begin with, Darren being elected Master and Karen Secretary. However, when we got to the catering officers, life turned a little bit triky - nobody wated to do it! Eventually after 'questioning' most of the people in the room, we finally got two budding 'volunteers'. The rest of the AGM went without a hitch and it was then off to the hotel for the usual meal and evenings entertainment.
As said earlier, this was the first year in a hotel for a number of years and it made a refreshing change. Helen had fouind a superb 'olde worlde' hotel with character (beamed ceilings etc). The meal was very good interupted with the usual 'master takes wine with'..., following which it was time for the Guest Speaker - Robin Chirchill from Llandaff Cathedral to face the audience. Well, I don't think he quite expected the amount of heckling he received - which was, by all standards, fairly buoyont. Nonetheless, the prfessional that Robin is, he coped with it admirably and delivered an excellent speech.
The master (me) then stood up to speak. What happened next is virtually impossible to explain....
Just as I started speaking, a member of the hotel staff came in and interupted, explaining that Mr Murphy's minibus had arrived. With that, over half the audience walked out, leaving me totally dumbstruck! Malcolm had earlier commented that there was a good show on at the theatre down the road and that he was thinking of organising a group to go. For a moment I really thought this was happening.
Anyway, shortly afterwards people started drifting back into the room to much hilarity. All, that is, except Malcolm who seemed ominously absent. Determined not to let Malcolm get away with this, we sat in silence until he re-appeared; at which point he was made to stand in front of the top table, get down on his knees and apologise for the crime he had committed!
I then continued on with the speech (which contained nothing very rivetting_, now somewhat delayed, but still receiving the usual abuse from the audience.
During my earlier 'timing sessions' the speech had lasted about 20 minutes. Well, given the earlier delays and the extreme heckling, it apparently lasted for a full boring 40 minutes!
Not soon enough then, the tables were cleared away, and it was bopping to the 60's + 70's disco for the rest of the night, with the ceremonial handing over of the toilet chain taking place at midnight.
It was then Darren in the hotseat left to organise the ringing for Sunday morning at the various towers Helen had arranged. My thanks should be recorded to all officers this year, especially Helen who had done duch sterling work during the year, adding her own personal touch and ideas to each tour.
- Chris Mundy
Master - 1993/94
