The 6th MAG Yorkshire Pudding Rally was held on 7th - 9th August, at Hesley Wood Scout Camp, Chapeltown, North Sheffield. And for the 6th year running, the weather was dry, hot and glorious all weekend (surely some kind of record ?!?).
Wakefield MAG were very active in the event set up and take down this year, with members being involved from the Wednesday onwards, loading the truck from the MAP HQ (Jol's yard) in Driffield, setting up the site on the Thursday, marshalling the event over the weekend and packing everything back up again on the Sunday and Monday. Everything went swimmingly to plan, and everyone had a thoroughly good time.
Although Friday saw good weather, Thursday night had seen a downpour of monsoon proportions, so the site was a little 'moist' for the early arrivals on-site. Wood chippings were distributed in some of the more muddy bits, which did help, but care had to be exercised riding on to the site. The site filled up very quickly from lunchtime onwards and by early evening, was more or less full.
Friday night’s bands (Microdots, The Mistakes and Jed Thomas) went down well, as did the beer for the vast majority of happy rally goers.
Saturday was a big day, in more ways than one, for at 12:00 was the wedding blessing for MAG members Gary & Christine, with the proceedings being conducted by Wakefield MAG's very own Padre, Rev'd Neal Owen.
Virtually the whole rally watched / attended the blessing.
Christine (in black wedding dress and new rock boots) arrived at the 'altar', through the aisle of bikes on a Boom trike, just as planned.
Yorkshire TV was in attendance and filmed the ceremony, which appeared on that nights Calendar TV news programme. Also in attendance were reporters from the Sheffield Star and other local newspapers, which carried articles in their next editions. It was a cracking ceremony and the happy couple were delighted with the day.
Wakefield MAG got a personal thanks on the order of service, for our help in organising some of the on-site logistics, which was most appreciated. Thanks Gary and Christine, and all the very best for your future together.
The Saturday afternoon bike show was smaller than last year, but it being such a lovely day, a lot of people had gone on the rideout, or hit the bar early. The quality of entries though was still most impressive, with a top prize of £100 up for grabs, courtesy of Johnson’s of Leeds, bike show sponsors and purveyors of all things Camo.
The afternoon comedy show in the marquee was very funny indeed, especially Greg Cook, Ruff Daddy (foul mouthed puppets, likened to Les Dawson meets John Prescott, pi$$ed up in a kebab shop) and Ulsterman Martin Bigpig Mor. The poor couple who had come all the way from New Zealand (on a European tour, on their own bike), came in for a bit of stick (but then again, they should have known better than to sit at the front at a live 'adults only' comedy show !!!).
Saturday night’s bands (Little Rock, Gun Law and the quite mental Megadeath Morris Men) were also spot on and had the whole site rocking, with the 'fire in a skip' nicely rounding off the evening’s entertainment.
A huge thanks go out to all the volunteer marshals, from the Yorkshire Region and beyond. These ‘heroes’ pay for their tickets like everyone else, then happily give up their ‘partying’ time to help run the event, for the benefit of MAG. Splendid effort by one and all.
This year’s YPR was a cracking rally and should have raised a fair bit for the MAG Fighting Fund. The only feedback, post event, has all been entirely positive. There were certainly lots of smiling faces leaving site on the Sunday morning. Roll on YPR 2010 !!!
