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September 2020 September 2020

Conservation Working Parties volunteers were being split into knights and drummers to move the large team
banners around the field. Randomly I ended up as a knight battling for Borussia
Over recent years our volunteers at the conservation working parties have really Dortmund. We were taken through the narrative of the ‘story’, having to learn
helped to improve the wildlife value of the natural habitats alongside the stream choreographed fights, positions where the TV cameras would be in amongst us
and at Souls Moor. We hope to recommence the working parties in October with, and orderly entrances onto and exits from the field. We rehearsed over a couple
of course, appropriate social distancing. More details will appear in next month’s of weeks and then the anticipation levels rocketed when the costumes arrived. In
Parish Magazine, through the village Facebook page and our e-mail list (if you are heavy suits of armour and waving around substantial ‘weapons’, we were put
not on it and would like to be, please e-mail mike.n.g@outlook.com). through our paces. It all felt very different with the costumes on. Running on and
off was difficult and just knowing what was going on around us was challenging.

When the helmets were on, it was hard to hear
Contact Us instructions and there was limited peripheral
vision. We managed by supporting each other
If you would like to know more about the work of the Wildlife and Environment
Group or to be included on our e-mailing list, please contact: and by counting in the moves. After several
goes, body memory began to take over and
Tony Bates at tonybates19@gmail.com / 01929 471563 the whole thing became a dance. It was
exhausting!
Amy Yates at AmyEyeats@hotmail.com or
Excitement abounded when we turned up for
Mike Gee at mike.n.g@outlook./com / 0775 988 4942 the Dress rehearsal at Wembley. There we
were on the famous turf, although we soon

realised it was under sufferance. The eagle
eyed groundsmen kept us under close scrutiny
and, if the tip of a sword hovered half an inch
above the grass, we were barked at and
berated. For most of the rehearsal, there were
hordes of besuited knights almost tippy toeing
around the hallowed pitch.
The 25 May arrived and it all went off like clockwork. We strutted our stuff in front
th
of an 86,298 crowd and a sizeable TV audience, although when we later looked
at the TV coverage, there was very little of us and an awful lot of pundit
speculation. The downside for me was that I was in yellow representing Borussia
Dortmund, at the time managed by Jürgen Klopp, and we lost to Bayern Munich
2-1. Still, it was another heady dose of adrenalin in a large stadium setting.

I wasn’t done yet. The following year I was able to fulfill a lifelong ambition – to
play in an FA Cup Final at Wembley. Again, through one of the Olympic networks,
I heard that the Pandemonium Drummers, a group of Olympic volunteers who
had been amongst the thousand drummers who accompanied Evelyn Glennie
playing at the Opening Ceremony, had landed a gig playing at Wembley for the
FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Hull City. They were trying to recruit some new
members to fill out the numbers needed for the event. I couldn’t resist and signed
up immediately.
I attended some drumming workshops where I was taught fairly rudimentary
rhythm patterns and organised into the beginners’ section of the group. There
was also an intermediate section for those who had some experience and an

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