South Essex Chairman's Rally

We arrived at Shoplands on Monday afternoon at 2.30pm and set up in the small rally field. It was a welcome return to this site at which we had enjoyed such a great time last year so we were looking forward to another good time with the South Essex Centre.

The first three days were practice days pre performance to our concert on the following Sunday. Monday evening saw us on our usual get together for wine nibbles and general chat with our Marshalls Dave and Pam, John and Sue.

Tuesday morning we started practice in a very old timbered barn which was lit by chandeliers !! The weather was very hot but unfortunately our singing left a lot to be desired and Brian started to get worried so he called a halt earlier than expected at 3pm hoping that it would be better next day.

We were marginally better on Wednesday but still far from performance standard. NOW Brian was really getting worried (so was I).

Getting back to our van we were amazed to see just a short distance away behind a hedge of trees flames probably 20ft high and two fire engines had been called to deal with it, after a couple of hours it was put out. It was a good job the wind wasn't in our direction or it could have been more serious.

Thursday morning at 11am we met for coffee at the Marshals' van area. Afterwards Miriam and I went to the local garden Scott's for lunch then on to Battlesbridge and its antique shops, an amazing place and worth a visit if you are in the area.

On getting back to the site vans had been arriving for the official start of the South Essex Chairman’s charity rally and it was time to collect the first of our pre ordered food, pie and mash from Wally's. The bar was open on the marquee with beer at £2 a pint !!!

Friday started with a bacon roll from the kitchen tent to set us up for a busy day. From 11 to 12 we did a workshop in the marquee to which we did get a few ralliers to come and try us out. We followed this with a trip to Shoeburyness for a stroll along the prom towards Southend on Sea and spent a couple of hours watching six teams of children in a sailing relay race. We just back in time to have an hours singing rehearsal now that all of our members had arrived, at last we now sound like a choir much to Brian's relief. The evening highlight was the Prescriptions playing for the dancing in the marquee until 11pm.

Sunday started off with a dog show with Dave Bowers' dog winning two rosettes and Miriam's also winning one. Congratulations. A walk around Rochford reservoir came next followed by a fete where Roger and Elaine had a stall selling items he had turned in wood, and Sue had a stall selling knitted figures and jewellery. 3pm saw cream teas being served and at 3.15pm we performed our concert which was very well attended and received.

Monday was the last day on the S. Essex rally with flag at 12pm. Clare did us proud with her several competition entries, virtually sweeping the board (well done Clare).

Once again it was a fantastic rally packed with something for everyone and our thanks go to South Essex for inviting us. However it is not all over for the singers, while some of our members went home the rest of us had a couple more days at Shoplands before moving on to Walton on Thames for the Southern Centres Rally. Tuesday my niece came to visit for a few hours and we went to Morleys garden centre for our lunch and a spot of plant buying. The evening saw us celebrating Lasairina's 75th birthday with a cake baked as usual by Renato and of course some wine. What a nice way to spend an evening with good friends. We ended our last full day at Shoplands with a trip to Maldon to see the Werries down on the river and the tide was in.

Tomorrow we move on to Walton but in closing this report our thanks go to our hard working rally officers and to all our good friends in the singers, you are the best.

Basil and Miriam