After, well, ages of not happening it’s time for another Silly Army caption competition. Click on the image below for a bigger version (should you need it) and leave a comment as a caption. Prize is a message of your choice carved into our raft forever. . . So long as it’s not too terrible! The winning caption will also appear with the image in the next issue of Pose Monthly.
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Filed under Caption Competition, Silly Army
Pete can't resist the amazing waves of the Boscombe Surf Reef. Boy just has to plank surf.
The Silly Army had a busy time last weekend as not only did we play our regular Sunday games in the park, we also launched the Good Ship Monkey Trumpet in preparation for the Mudeford raft race.
Early Saturday afternoon saw a pair of planks (Pete and K) turn up at Boscombe Pier with a car full of barrels, planks and rope to construct our raft for the first session of raft practice. The rest of the team were arriving later, leaving this pair to get tied in knots, but they soon proved there’s at least once brain cell between them as they quickly assembled a raft (albeit after initially forgetting to attach the barrels). Pete did all the hard work and was soon drawing a crowd of admirers for his handy raftsmanship.
Dave and Helen joined soon after and we had a semblance of a team. However, it quickly became apparent that our Glorious Leader might have ‘mis-underestimated’ his team as Helen and K struggled with Lesson 1: Getting on the raft.
Eventually, after much leaping and bouncing in choppy waters, and the construction of a stirrup mounting system, the whole team successfully mounted, Lex arriving just in time to join in. Going forward proved the next problem, and a few more rowing lessons may be needed – although putting Dave at the back to propel the Monkey Trumpet might be a better option…
After much paddling round in circles, falling off and losing a barrel (retrieved) and an oar (sadly no longer with us) we abandoned ship and instead enjoyed a game of American Aqua Football. However, the choppy sees flipped the goals once too often and consigned them to the bin. Hopefully not the last we’ll see of this game.
We attempted some barrel bobbing and plank surfing and learned that one plank on top of another does not a successful mission make. Rafting needs a bit more practice, but we all had an immense time trying. Next week’s lessons will include Staying on the Raft and Going in a Forwards-ish Direction.
This week’s homework is to learn the following knot, the Trucker’s Hitch.
Giles is on the ball for the yellow team.
Sunday saw a lower than average turnout due to holidays and the lure of the beach. We brought the trampettes and Pete, K and Mimi soon invented a new game, which involved nailing down a net-covered dodgeball at the centre of a trampette circle. The aim is to bounce the ball off the trampettes or the dodgeball so your opposing team can’t catch it. Thanks to its shape and inflation, the dodgeball puts an interesting spin on the ball and catches your opponents out, and everyone agreed this was a good game.
Giles and K experimented with a trampette chase game, although they both found that the trampettes get rather slippy when you run on them.
Next we played giant football, although the wind soon put paid to using the giant ball, which rolled half way to Ringwood when caught in the breeze. A girls v boys penalty dispute broke out, and we switched the ball for the volleyball at half time. To keep things interesting, if you kicked the ball off the pitch you went off and couldn’t come back on until an opposition player did the same. This resulted in Karl being a one-man team at one point – and scoring a spectacular goal. The yellow team proved better footballers no matter what size their ball.
We played hockey and again the increasingly strong wind was a major factor. Some great goalkeeping helped keep the reds in the game and they were the eventual wieners.
Dodgeball saw the construction of a strange ‘house’ shape complete with en-suite bathroom. Stay in there at your peril, however – as Giles was quick to discover. Karen also utilised the under-used ‘melon eating’ technique to stay in the game a little longer.
It's big. It's Sillly. It's tennis. It's Big Silly Tennis.
Sticky ball was a whitewash, or more accurately a green wash, as the green team took all the points while the blues failed to get their balls in order.
Because of the wind, we decided not to put up the big net, instead going for Big Tennis – which encompasses three tennis courts. With a fairly small selection of players, we found the court had some dead zones (particularly where K was standing…) but played several games, enabling us all to practice our ball control and whacking skills. Karl and Terminator showed particular skill at this game.
Pete made a bag kite to make the most of the windy weather – the wind, of course, promptly died down so he didn’t get to fly it. Awwww…
Please note… There will be NO GAMES IN THE PARK this Sunday because the Silly Army will be entering the Ringwood Pedal Car Grand Prix. Alex, Richard, Pete and Alan will be pedaling their little legs off – come along and support them!
There will be raft practice on Saturday from 12.30pm at Boscombe pier. Come along and help us fall in the sea…
Just whack it! A Terminator serve captured on camera.
We’ll be back in the park from 7pm on Wednesday.
Now for some thank yous… Thanks to Helen and Alan ‘Clarkson’ for getting up and doing two car boot sales over the weekend, raising money for the Silly Army coffers. Thanks to Alan for making a fabulous promotional DVD, and to the amazingly creative Steph for banners, t-shirts and flags. Big thumbs up to Richard, Alan and Pete for constructing the pedal car. Thanks to Dave for handling all the boring paperwork and keeping us all ‘in the loop’. Thanks to Pete for tirelessly lugging all the equipment around and for building the raft.
And thanks to all of you who come and play with us – we hope you enjoy yourselves as much as we do. If you’ve never played with us before, come along and try it this Wednesday night – it’s fun, free, and fabulous!
Silly Army 