With nice weather for a change, Sherborne Park Lodge was tremendous fun for the public and the group alike.

Four activities were repeated twice throughout the day; a bungled house robbery, a site wide treasure hunt, pied powder court and a dark cellar ghost talk. All which went down very well wit young and old alike.

A bungled house robbery saw a group of nefarious characters demanding satisfaction from Dutton for some soured shipping in Barbados. Refusing to settle his account the pirates attempted a daring, day light robbery of the house and some of its contents, only to be thwarted by an equally hastily compiled militia who beat them away.

The children's treasure hunt was extensive, exhaustive and tremendous fun. Ranging across the grounds of Sherborne Park Lodge, from the building to as far as the Long Barrow each one saw over 40 children try to help the pirate locate his treasureburied somewhere in the grounds. Filled with riddles, fights and buried treasures the hunt was blessed with lovely weather and a great walk through much of the site people would have never seen otherwise.

The Pied Powder court was a slice of life from a market court of the mid 17th century ending in an attempted arrest of a dread pirate captain who was accidentally spotted during the proceedings.

Lastly the old favourite, the Ghost Talk down in the cellar saw old and young alike get very nervous as tales, old and new where told about various carry-ons committed in its dark, damp space.

Special mention should go to Gary Marshall for his near tireless antics throughout, changing from one show to the next and not resting when the rest of us managed five minutes as he led his treasure hunting band throughout the grounds.

A great weekend for all.

 Despite poor weather on the single day of the show in the south, a lot of fun was had by all at the Ferny Croft Scouts centre in the New Forest as part of their annual Evo event. Luckily for us the scouts were prepared and the event was moved to the large marquee building they had set up, so even the weather coudn't stop the fun.

Once the tents where setup and kit was donned; we started with a brief display that included the picnic fight where a group of Free Company men learn that medieval women (at least this bunch) may not have been the easy meal ticket they had hoped for as after a few frantic moments the pile of bodies is all male and the women leave wealthier for the encounter, this was in turn followed by a brief demonstration of some Fiore dagger and sword fighting and ended with a short demonstration of stage combat techniques to prepare the group for the next display.

Sadly the weather closed in and the event moved to the marquee. In the new location we carried out a short Hollywood section, demonstrating how fights are built up in layers for the camera, with the girls at the front conducting thier Hollywood fight, which went down very well. After this we had three volunteers come forward who were taught a short fight sequence to do before the public and a vote was cast on the favourite. The girls won this round!

Lastly, after a very short break we were back, this time in full harness to the demonstrate a passage of arms. Two fights had been scheduled but things soon get out of hand and a third fight started after Steve took annoyance at a technique Sam used against his brother Ben.

The rest of the event was spent enjoying the site, talking with some of the Scouts, eating and having a drink after the event ended.

Special mention should go to the following for having special occassions of their own but still coming to share the event with us; Alice, it was her Birthday andBen and Meri as it was their wedding anniversary.Finally to Ben's mum and dad for coming to join in the sillines and to Kate for taking lots of pictures.

A great start to the year.