Beaufort Arms, valley Hotel & Joiners, Kittle.

​Sweyn’s Ey visited The Beaufort
Arms in Kittle and then moved on to The Joiners Arms in
Bishopston. It was unseasonably warm for May in Wales,
fortunately there was Reverend James on tap in The Beaufort and a wide choice of lovely ales in The Joiners, including Pedigree, to help us re-hydrate.
A few of our regular, reliable members were busy elsewhere but we still managed to field 10 dancers (Alex D, Alex H, Alison H, Claire, Erin, Geoff, Keith, Ken, Nige and Zep). Siân and Roger provided the music (with a little help from Keith). It was Zep’s first Thursday tour, she didn’t take much persuasion to get involved in the Adderbury dances. Zep has a stylish take on the Sweyn’s Ey kit so look out for future developments in this direction.

Our set list included enough hanky dances to keep Geoff happy as he can’t wield a stick at the moment. In the Beaufort car park we danced Banbury Bill, Banks of the Lea, Valentines, Curly Boar, Y Caseg Eira, Postman's Knock and Bonny Green Garters.

We created enough space to dance in front of the Joiners by moving the furniture out of the way, we remembered to put it back afterwards. We danced Speed the Plough, Brighton Camp (Adderbury), Sheriff's Ride, The Curly Boar, Riggs of Doom, Grenadiers, Lads a Bunchum and Bonny Green Garters. Some of the side have their own names for our dances which help them remember which one is which. Nigel will work on translating these with Erin and Claire so the set lists will be easier to understand. Anyone know what ”hit, hit, fishy, fishy, clack” might be ?

We discussed the possibility of other members of the side
coming up with set lists for our Thursday outings, Erin was keen to help with this but confessed that the list would only have 3 dances which we could repeat as often as needs be.

Although it was warm we danced a lot of dances for an evening tour and were grateful when it became too dark to clash sticks safely.

​write up gratefully recd from Nigel Haworth.