The Black Country Rally - Spring 2009

During the day on friday, various members of the staff spent the day preparing the campsite for the arrival of all the different SSAGO clubs who were meant to be attending. Unfortunately by this point the rally staff t-shirts still hadn't arrived so it was hard for people to know who were staffing the rally, although some members of the committee did have high-visibility neckers to help them standout. Steve was put at the entrance to the campsite to help make sure that people turned into the campsite rather than the safari park next door. Menawhile Victoria, Mary and Caroline were busy ensuring people were booked in correctly inside the main hut. Upon arrival people gradually put their tents up and made their way to the hut for dinner. Catering for the rally was being organised by Marie of Wolverhampton parents who were very kind to offer their services for the weekend. Dinner of friday night was jacket potatoes with a novel system of people taking a paper club necker to show that they had had dinner. With very little for the staff to do, most of us joined everyone else around the campfire and engaged in the usual banter and campfire songs before heading off to sleep.

On staurday morning everyone was woken up either by the loud banging to announce breakfast was ready or byu the noisy animals at the safari park next to the campsite. It was later identified that the wild dogs were the culprits making the noise keeping people awake at the campsite. During breakfast the staff t-shirts finally arrived just in time for the opening ceremony. Kev did the honours breaking the flag whilst informing everyone of the days activities. Afterwards everyone organised themselves into the different groups that they had been given at booking in. The different teams were named after various local places such as Dudley, Wednesbury, Stourbridge etc. Silly games consisted of various activities including finding the ducks blindfolded, parachutes and giant jenga. The blinded fold ducks got more and more extreme as the ducks were gradually placed higher into the branches of the tree making it extremely difficult for other groups to find them! During silly games the groups on the metro pub crawl boarded their coach and made their way to their starting point at Wednesbury. The metro pub crawl wassplit into two different groups which would stop at various pubs along the metro line into Birmingham city centre. Caroline and Sam's group did manage to get lost at one point but eventually both groups made it to the final pub in Birmingham before getting the train back to Kidderminster. Other afternoon activities took in local attractions that went with the Black Country theme. Thus one trip was to the Black Country Museum, another took a trip along the Severn Valley Railway, and there was also a trip to a brewrey and a glassmaking factory. Other afternoon activities consisted of a trip to the West Midlands Safari Park nextdoor to the campsite, shopping at Merry Hill and swimming. Once afternoon activities were completed, everyone gradually arrived back on site for dinner consisting of stew and a chocolate dessert. In the evening it was time for the barn dance with Rannygazoo performing and directing the different dances. As there was little to do, some of the staff were able to take enjoy the barn dance as well. At the midway point it was fancy dress with some clubs giving varied interpretations of the Black Country theme. Out of the costumes there were a couple of trains, some miners, a stained glass window, Lord of the Rings and cadburys despite that being Birmingham and not Black Country! Once the barn dance had finished everyone again converged around the campfire whilst the marquee was cleaned out ready for use the following morning.

Again everyone was rudely awoken either by louding banging or the safari park to ensure that people went inside for breakfast. As this was the spring rally, it was to be SSAGO AGM rather than silly games. So after breakfast chairs and benches were taken up to the marquee in preparation for the AGM. Then followed a couple of hours of reports and elections for the new SSAGO Exec and rallies for 2010. Kev tired his luck for a couple of positions but to no avail, whilst there were some rather interesting bids for rallies including a week long Shetland Rally! Once the AGM finished everyone had some lunch before meeting up around the flag pole for the closing ceremony. The Rally committee were all given gifts for their role in organising the rally, whilst Rhys was lucky to have escaped home before he could be given a wooden spoon for suggesting that BUSAG host another rally whilst still preparing for this one. Afterwards people slowly packed up and made their way back home, whilst the campsite was cleared up and Kev started drinking again!

Our thanks for staffing this rally goes to:

BUSAG: Kevin FitzPatrick, Victoria Chatwin, Mary Burgess, Rhys Mant, Katherine Hazell, Jen Inns, Jo Webster, Becki Vesey, Simon Petrou, Stuart Hands, Steve Streatfield, Richard Meurs, Samantha Langham & Scarface

Wolverhampton: Rachel Hibbard, Marie Pearson, Luke Pearson & Marie's parents for their catering services

BCU: Emma Underwood, Vicki Hicks, Rupert Lomax & Stuart Lynch