Newstead

Friday 26th to Monday 29th August 2005

We arrived to the usual warm welcome from the marshals, who soon had cups of tea on the table. Later that evening, we were treated to hotdogs and marshmallow sandwiches. This is the first time we have ever bbq'd marshmallows and it was great fun! Now we're trying to figure out how best to do it on a gas bbq! First time ralliers, John and Pam Higgins were introduced.

On Saturday quite a few ladies went off to visit a craft shop and I found a companion in Jean, who agreed to accompany me to the McArthur Glen shopping outlet. What bargains to be had at M & S!! People did their own thing until we all met up for the evening bbq. The Marshals provided the 'puds' all home made desserts. Lyn and David provided wine to celebrate Lyn's retirement from work. Lyn also won the lottery bonus ball and promptly donated the money to the Abbey charity. We also had a raffle with many lovely prizes. Later on, we had two couples playing 'Mr & Mrs. Guess which couple was picked to go first, followed by Peter and Iris. Oh oh!! - more difficult than you think; e.g. 'What's her favourite food'; 'Who would she most like to take out to dinner?' (We matched on this one though!)

Sunday was another lovely day and there were many things to do if you felt inclined, including a visit to Papplewick Pumping Station which was 'in steam'. In the afternoon we all set about the 'Decathlon' - a true sporting event. The majority of us had several practice runs before counting the scores. The games were quoits, ball in crate - really difficult, skittles, golf, frogs - yeh!, darts, horseshoes, ball in a bucket - also really difficult; boules and 'splat the rat' -you don't want to know!! The games were followed by a scrumptious cream tea served by Gwen and Lyn.

Gill officiated at Flag, held later on Sunday evening. Gwen and Tony were presented with their 250th rally plaque. Prizes were given out to the competition winners and winners of the games.

The final amount to be sent to the Abbey Charity was £95. Well done everybody.

Hope it will be a case of 'Newstead revisited' in 2007?

Many thanks to Gwen and Tony, Lyn and David for all their hard work.

Andy and Jenny