Goosin’ the Fox Rally was the chosen rally for the West Area members of OGRI MCC, put on by Inner Circle Riders Rally Club in Greywell near Hook.
Friday saw an incredible warm ride (it still feels weird riding in an armoured hoodie) to the Fox and Goose Pub, with quite a few folks already on site by 4:30
A quick scan of the site didn’t reveal the location of Ooohh Badger and Hayley, one quick phone call and it turns out I’d just woken them up from an afternoon snooze and I was right outside their tent – soz.
A record time for tent pitching and getting into a pair of shorts and then it was time for a beer after tactically arranging the bikes to reserve some space for the late arrivals. We decided to hit the pub rather than the outside bar to attempt to cool down, ran into Jimmy Two Sticks who was sheltering in his camper to avoid the heat.
The first few drinks went down incredibly well (recommend the Alpacalypse Session IPA from Salt), Judi opting for her holiday drink Gin & Orange with a feck ton of ice. It turns out Hayley really likes alpacas so there was a lot of chats with the bar staff about how we could get Alpacalypse bar towel and glass. Turns out the pub only had two glasses left after other people decided they liked them (pre rally) and they had gone walkies.
Having a rare moment of sensibility (sorry will try not to let it happen to often) we decided to ordered some grub whilst waiting for the rest of OGRI MCC to turn up. A few locals were bemused by the amount of people taking over their local – I hope the chap who turned up for a quick half, with a bottle of wine in his pocket ,won his game of Croquet he was off to !
The food arrived, really good portion sizes and more beer was sunk before the evening entertainment started out in the marquee. Having a chat with with folks around the site and it turns out there was going to be a blessing for Rusty and Oz on the Saturday as well as the usual rally activities.
If you didn’t fancy the pub for food, there was an outside BBQ which seemed to be being kept busy all over the weekend.
A few more OGRI folk arrived, including Gordo on a home visit from Moomin Land, sorry, Finland. Now Gordo didn’t drop his bike, he just failed to ensure that he had put the side stand down ! The newly weds Kim & Dunny and Chris and Laura (on her shiny new toy) also arrived. The Prez wasn’t happy as his flight had been diverted to Glasgow and didn’t get back home till gone midnight after finally getting back to Bristol.
Withered Delilah were pumping out the tunes, whilst folks sank the beers and had a catchup. Last orders appeared to come round really quickly and folks heading to the bonfire at the top of the site. This is where I may have discovered that being up since 5am and being mostly hydrated by IPA may not have been the best option so may have accidentally stopped off in my tent on the way up the field.
With some of the group being child free there may have been some “unwinding” and a lack of responsible adulting !
I would love to regale you with the stories that happened overnight but in the name of decency and those of a weak disposition I will err on the side of caution and just say everyone had a good time :)
Saturday was an early-ish start, for some reason I needed lots of fluids of the tea based variety before attempting the Dark Fruits breakfast beer. Everyone headed down for a decent full English breakfast in the marquee whilst coming up with a plan for the day. A few OGRI decided to head off to Hook for essential supplies – you know the kind thing, ice for G&T’s, nibbles and trying to find a chemist for Gordo’s eye meds which he forgot !
Midday saw Easter performing the Wedding Part 2 for Rusty and Oz – congratulations to you both !
The travellers returned and Prospect Josh popped over to say hello on his, new to him, big boy Bandit, after passing his test recently and soon plans were made for him making some longer distance trips.
A couple of hours chilling (when I say chilling it was feckin’ roasting) and soaking up the rays round the tents, being forced to hand over money for the raffle and passing the time of day with the neighbours before surprising Kim with a birthday cake and a croaky rendition of Happy Birthday. Chris and Dunny decided that even shorts were too much and that underpants were the garment of choice
Eventually the heat got a bit too much so we headed down the site to try and find some shade and managed to blag a table in the shade (there may have been an accidental play on the swings). More beverages were consumed, the very nice people from Moctar RC (foolishly) asked if we’d like to sample their homemade Elderflower mead – yeah they didn’t get the bottle back ! But we liked it so much we did order some then and there .
A couple of freaky moments when it appeared there were a couple of folks on site who at first glance looked like Aunty Kat, Caz and a younger version of Graham !
The Prez and Tracey finally turned up so of course it would have been rude not to have a few more beers – the silly games took place in the sunshine, we erred on the side of caution and stayed in the shade but it sounded like everyone was having a great time.
Whilst a lot of the OGRI MCC folks headed over to the pub some lining of the stomachs, Trig and I realised that there was an awful lot of talking going on in the marquee so bimbled over to find the raffle taking place. A couple of quick texts and OGRI ended up with about 3 prizes :) Next up was the Inner Circle RRC awards and they left the awkward one till last – a tie between OGRI MCC and Beerhounds for best Club turnout. After a bit of “banter”, we took the physical prize and Inner Circle will make another one for Beerhounds (rumour has it, as we discovered later over a few more beers, not all of their members had remembered to sign in!)
The Butt Monkees provided the tunes for the evening till last orders when some people turned in whilst others headed for the bonfire and a few more beers.
We had a couple of beers with Inner Circle RRC before sacking it. Not sure what woke me up at 4am – sounded like an Ewok or maybe a Chewbacca ;)
Sunday saw another early start, multiple brews and good breakfast. There was quite a lot of sunburn on show Sunday morning and one chap mentioned he hurt all over – my suggestion of “More Lube?” didn’t go down to well ! We then tidied up our camping area and loaded the bikes ready for the off – not sure if Michelle purposely kept her birthday quiet but another round of Happy Birthdays !
One minor panic at 6am when my TDM wasn’t where I left it – later found nestling between 2 Goldwings – obviously sheltering from the heat ! There was lots of discussions on what was going to the takeaway of choice later along with “is it me or is it getting really muggy…….”
A massive thank you to Inner Circle RRC for their hospitality and putting on a great little rally, the wonderful staff at the Fox and Goose for keeping us fed and watered and putting up with us – we’ll be back – soz :)
Cheers
Simon C
