15 August 2010 - The Harrow, Stockbury

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Jack in the Green hail from New Hampshire, USA and we became firm friends when Kettle Bridge danced at the 2009 Marlboro Ale. So when they arranged a tour of the UK, we were determined to get together again with them.

Their tour took them to Sidmouth so we had met up with them for a pub stand in Devon while we were at Dartmoor. However, they also managed to squeeze in a trip to our "home territory" of Kent at the end of their tour. We decided on a familiar venue of The Harrow at Stockbury and invited Boughton Monchelsea Morris to join in the fun.

There was a slight breeze at Stockbury (as there always seems to be!) but it was thankfully dry. After some expert tuition from John of JitG, Kettle Bridge performed an excellent set of dances, namely

  • Annie's
  • Aughton
  • KBC Processional
  • Cossington
  • Ealuscerwen
These were interspersed by some expert dancing from both the guest sides, who co-incidentally each featured stick-throwing as part of the entertainment. I don't see why Kettle Bridge couldn't incorporate this into one of their dances. Oh, I forgot! Girls can't throw or catch.

The light was beginning to fade as the dancers embarked on a number of "all in" dances which were greatly enjoyed by everyone. Kettle Bridge, for their turn, led a group rendition of Blackrod. But if you look carefully at the earlier photos of Kettle Bridge dancing Ealuscerwen, you will see that some people could not wait to be invited!

For the official group dances though even the musicians joined in the dancing and I am very glad to report that Ian completed the dancing without injuring himself (or anyone else for that matter). He showed there is still life in the old dog! Then it was time to repair to the pub for some welcome drinks and a bite to eat and the inevitable playing of instruments and singing.

To sum up, it was a great pleasure to meet Jack in the Green once more. We always have a wonderful time with them and we were very pleased to share the experience with Boughton Monchelsea. Everyone agreed that it was the best (most awesome, you might say) evening we have had for many a moon. We wish Jack in the Green a safe journey back over the pond.

Incidentally, there is no truth in the rumour that they are thinking of setting up a UK team, named in honour of the perilous financial position that the Royal family finds itself, namely Queen in the Red.

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Kettle Bridge Clogs web site by Stephen Cordery is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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