The wettest Caerphilly ever...

... well, in ten years of shows there, anyway. At least, that's what the knights at the Companye of Chivalry said, after two tents had blown down in the screaming wind, with the ground so sodden that even our fat wooden pegs were just sucked out of the squelching mud and sent flying.

So it wasn't the most glorious 'first event with new club' that I could have imagined. On the upside, Caerphilly is massive and impressive, with huge water defences (the source of much jesting, given the weather), and a gloriously restored Great Hall (it's even heated!) that we moved into for our displays. We scored enough fine weather on the Monday (it being a bank holiday weekend) to fire the trebuchet and the mangonel a couple of times (I was allowed to wind the mangonel, and fire the treb - haha!), to the enormous glee of the thronging crowd of approximately seventeen lunatics who had braved the weather to see us do our thing.

Ants has been playing with this mob for nearly a year now and to my embarrassment seems to have been singing unfair praises. Far too many people were strangers to me but knew who I was, which I'm not used to. But I'd turned up bearing some vego pasties that seem to have gone down well, and my 'bob' kit (boy costume) passed muster so I was allowed to play with my first bill. (For the re-enactors reading this, think polearm that's fatter and longer than a two handed spear and top heavy, so bloody hard work to wield!) They seem like a fun bunch and I was made to feel very welcome and I'm looking forward to getting to know folk, starting with trying to remember everyone's names...

I was too busy trying to stay dry to take photos (although my shoes held up a treat and my tootsies stayed dry!). Pix below are from Anthony's and my adventure in January 2007. We'll be back before the end of the summer, and I can test the knights' claim that Caerphilly is usually nicer than this.