Betty Lupton’s Day 2016

This page was added on 16/9/16

21^st May

Two weeks later and it’s off to Ripley Castle to start another day of dance. Following on from the civilised start at Hornbeam Molly’s, the team gathered in the castle tearooms before dancing started at 10:30am.

A quick look at the agenda showed that dance spots were four in total, lasting about an hour each – the Castle, the Spring Well pub, and Harlow Carr Gardens (twice), the pub and gardens being on the outskirts of Harrogate. The interesting bit was that there were to be only two teams on this day of dance, so it looked like being a busy day. The tricky part was going to be managing with only six dancers, and a limited repertoire, as one dancer hadn’t been fully trained yet.

Manfully (or should that be personfully) the Swords set to with a will (who was a passer-by, but went after the first dance) and even included the Elgin dance on the bill.

Then on to the pub, where, after dancing for our supper (well, lunch really) we were fed. At this point the raindance magic kicked in, and down came the precipitation. (Rain to you and me). The dancers weren’t to be put off – and proceeded to dance in the pub (carpets and all – it’s actually not easy to dance on a carpet).

The rain ceased, dancers took to their transports, and off they went to the Gardens. Again, there was nothing about hiking in the contract, firstly from Car Park 3 to the entrance, and then from the entrance to the far flung dance spot. By half way through the first spot the Swords were starting to flag and try as they might, matter was over mind, and legs and feet weren’t going where they should have. As the dancing here had started later than scheduled it was decided to curtail the dancing after the first spot, and some weary Swords trudged back to Car Park 3 for a well-earned juice/coffee and mars bars (should have had them earlier, could have helped with the work and play).