Beautiful one day, perfect the next! What were they talking about – it certainly wasn’t the weather!

The course was all set for our ‘Olympic Events’ and in the Vampire Registration Area our erstwhile ‘Olympic Committee Member – Sophie Gosper’  (where were those pearls, Grahame?) was drumming up business and taking down names of competitors to get the lists to our (un-bribable) officials.The fine upstanding officials were:-
Dave Wittner – Quoits (those furry ring things);
Mick Tuttle checking who Put what Shot where;
Harry Butterworth for the Bitch ‘n’ Putt;
John Knowles – Batminton;
Rod Searle to adjudicate the nuts who signed up for the Triathlon;
and the for event that most of us qualified for - ‘Dummy Spitting’ was controlled by Tom Byrne (now why did Bob do that to you Tom?).

Saturday morning arrived along with the rain (ED: Did it stop?). What to do? Decision time was fast approaching as boats, bikes and other equipment had to be positioned for the start of the Vampire Olympics. O.K., decision made! Scrap the Batminton; give Shot Put the heave; save the ‘nuts’ from throwing their lives away on the Triathlon; move the Bitch n Putt inside; move the Quoits inside and re-arrange the Dummy Spitting to a suitable location inside the marquee where we had eaten breakfast.LET THE OLYMPICS BEGINThe ‘Olympics’ started with the call for all competitors to assemble for their chosen event/s – calls to ‘come and stick your quoit(s) on the peg and to come over here and ‘have a spit’!Quoits  Dave Wittner was very positive about the rules of the game – ‘Bribes WOULD be accepted’! There were three sets of quoits in play and many ‘Olympians’ attempted the perfect score of six rings on the peg. The finalists were Brian Hansson, Rhonda Tuttle, Norma Dickson, Diana Stone, Mary Teuma, Grant Howlett, Jack Shepherd and Kevin Mellowship. Victory went to Mary TeumaPuttingControlled by Harry Butterworth and Rod Searle, who demonstrated how it was done by holing in one (ED: Is boasting allowed by the Chief Marshall?) Many tried to follow this fine example but failed. Those who made it to the finals were :- Leon Pollard, Mary Teuma, Brian Houliston, Mary Butterworth, Brian Hansson, Blue Chapman, Bernie Pridgeon and Grant Howlett. There were three ‘putt offs’ amongst the finalists before Brian Hansson scored an ace to win the event.Dummy SpittingThe Man-in-Charge, Tom Byrne, began by reading the rules to all the ‘experts’ gathered for this event. The ‘dummies’ for the elimination rounds were marshmallows – one had to propel the ‘dummy’ as far as one could by spitting. Many techniques were observed, including the not so well known method of ‘rolling around the mouth’ to coat the ‘dummy’ with moisture so as to make it slide out easily. Also witnessed was the ‘keep the powder dry’ method where it stays light and floats from the mouth.Barry ‘Sas’ Gregory was disqualified for chewing the ‘dummy’ and Bruce Nelson attempted to be disqualified by eating his ‘dummy’. The final was a different matter altogether as real (inedible) dummies were used. A lifetime of being really good ‘dummy spitters’ paid off for :- Leon Pollard, Bob Bell, Jack Shepherd, Glenn Woodward, Hank Vander Vinne and Graeme White; with the ‘Champion Dummy Spitter’ award going to Graeme White.