Bamford Carnival 18th July 2009

With Danny driving the coach from Eastwood now arriving in less time than it used to do just coming from Duckmanton everyone was on their marks ready at the ‘Hollingwood’. With the loading of uniforms etc from the cars working a treat the band were soon on there way heading for the village of Bamford to participate in the village annual Carnival. Arriving pretty early at the starting point some members elected to bide their time in the Anglers Rest a short distance down the road whilst those who didn’t want to indulge twiddled their thumbs sat on the coach, with the weather unsure what to do but never the less the Carnival Queens retinues still kept arriving and lining up in the disused old roadway awaiting the parade start.
With every member now preparing for leading the parade down the hill to the Recreation ground no one had noticed or Drum Major showing signs of distress when he was unable to identify his particular Tabard from the entire collection of spares hung up in the coach. Panic struck when Madeline, Julie, Becky and me still could not find it and after checking the full members lined up ready to go whether anyone had put Mark’s on by mistake although were sure they would have noticed as the Tabard is somewhat ‘different’. The organisers informed us they were ready to move so mark elected to go with the coach down to the recreation ground and miss out this parade but fortunately we had brought a guest of honour with us today who happened to be our original uniform seamstress and of course she had brought along her magic needle and thread and assured us that Mark would be attired in time for the Display.
Travelling down the hill the band was very restrained and we thought a reasonable pace, but after marching about a half mile we looked around to find the walking contingency behind us were about 200 metres adrift so we halted to let them catch us up and have a drink at the same time much to the dissatisfaction of our bulging Policeman who decided to have a rant and curse and told us to get moving which we did in our ‘normal pace which allowed the band to finish on the field rather way ahead of the other contingency including a Brass Band. With Mark suitably attired after Ann’s titivating, the Musketeers took to the arena to entertain the carnival crowd with another brilliant display before changing out of uniform to rest up before the second engagement of this weekend on Sunday at Cutthorpe. After returning home the first thing for me to do was check all uniform bags and the wardrobe for Mark’s missing item which proved in vain even contacting the Knottingley organisers from last week to see whether it had in fact been left there, without success so, the plot thickens has to were this item of dress has gone … watch this space.