Space hopper 100m – close, but no cigar

On Saturday 18 September, a Silly Army delegation enjoyed a day out at Fit Christchurch. While there they attempted to break the World Record for 100m on a space hopper, and invited members of the public to give it a try too.

Pete prepares his inflatable friends for the day ahead.

Throughout the day several members, and hundreds of members of the public young and old, bounced along the 100m track, accompanied by Silly Army foot patrol sprinting (in some cases backwards) to time and film the record attempts.

Steph and Pete proved they were the best bouncers, Steph just a second off the record time of 30.2 seconds and Pete a few points of a second later in their best runs – time to get into training; if they hop everywhere for the next year they’ll smash the record no problem. Now may be the time to gloss over the fact that on what was probably their best time (and quite possibly a world record breaker) not only did K and Alex manage to mess up their ‘synchronised’ timers, but cameraman Alan also missed the start of the filming…

So the Silly Army were close, but no cigar to the 100 metre world record. We will all be in serious training for our next attempt, even if some of us are just learning how to use a stopwatch.

The camera crew prime themselves for action, though they're missing one vital ingredient...

The space hoppers put in an appearance at Sunday games, although anyone who had been to Fit Christchurch was not in the mood for much bouncing.

Sunday also saw The Silly Army moving into their new home at the far side of the park (after being told off for wearing out the football pitches!). Hammering in the goal posts, we were pleased to discover this rocky outpost was just as full of stone and strange lumps of metal as the rest of the park – so we soon felt at home. There is also a large pile of woodchips next to our new pitch, which gives a fresh, pine scent to the whole area and provides a great landmark to point members towards. Although it was quite entertaining watching Sam driving round in circles for ten minutes trying to find us…

We started games, as ever, with Big Tennis, where dynamic Karen proved a real asset to Steph’s team, propelling them to a resounding victory despite being recruited half way through the game. However, changing ends proved this team’s undoing, allowing Pete’s team to take the second game. Unusually for The Silly Army, we agreed to draw because there were now increasing numbers of people and it was time to play a runaround.

A large queue of record attempters quickly formed.

There then ensued the longest game of Hockey in Silly Army history (perhaps we should try a world record attempt at that…)

As more and more players came to join us, we had to extend the pitch to accommodate them all. Pete and K had laid a short, fat pitch, which meant there was a lot of midfield battling but not many goals. We stopped to extend the pitch, skilfully avoiding a fox egg that was now millimetres from the yellow goal, and played on.

The yellow team went ahead by two goals, but despite protestation from the reds that the sides weren’t evenly matched, Karen got two goals back to make things even.

The yellows scored another, while Dave for the reds kept pressuring the yellow goal. Even more players turned up and for a long time the action was contained in the newly extended midfield. About an hour into the game, Pete abandoned his yellow defensive position to go and lay out a Dodgeball pitch, in the hope that someone would score soon. However, he returned to position just at the right time to prevent a sneaky red attack.

Eventually, Dave and Pete decided that the “next goal wins” rule would apply – perhaps a little unfairly on the yellows, who were a goal up at the time. K in the yellow goal was not going to let anything through and at last the yellows scored the winner. After more than an hour of playing, all the players should take credit for a hard-fought, evenly matched game.

Christchurch: Where hoppers go to die. We suffered several casualties in the field.

It was time for something more sedate, and the Dodgeball circle that had been laid out earlier came in useful. Pete unveiled his new balls – one pink, one purple, both with silly slogans written on them and the purple one prone to deflating. Double Dodge was the order of the day and much squealing, jumping around and artful dodging ensued.

With so many players it was decided to play another runaround, and Stickyball was the order of the day. The yellows won the first game before Karen defected to the blues, helping in no small way to their victory in the second game. Many of the new players were particularly good at this game – it’s a shame our best new catcher was visiting from Scotland!

Both teams fought hard in the deciding game, but it was the blues who snatched it.

After tea break, it was time to mount hoppers once more (after we’d blown the accursed things up!) Space Hopper Polo was the name of the game, but being full of tea and biscuits and with the best hopperers still hoppered out from Fit Christchurch, it was going to be a short game.

Dave won something in the raffle. We didn't realise it was a Silly Army personal shopper...

In fact, it was a one-goal wonder, and it was the blues that scored that all-important point, much to the chagrin of Karl on the yellow team, the only player with enough bounce to play on.

After that exertion there was enough time for a quick game of Splat, the shooting game, in which K and Pete managed to draw as losers by shooting each other at exactly the same time in the final duel. Then there was just enough time to play more Big Tennis as the numbers began to dwindle before it was time to pack up and head home for another week.

Silly Army compact

Alex gives the ball a good whack - trying to avoid the trees this time.

With the football season now well underway and the Boscombe Community Fair pulling in the punters, the Silly Army found themselves pressed for space in King’s Park last Sunday. However, there’s nothing the Sillies like more than a challenge and it was up to Pete, Dave and K to rapidly adapt their gameplan to fit the space available. Let’s just hope some of the doom mongers who deem King’s Park an ‘under-used space’ were out to see just how many people were out enjoying the park and the sunshine this weekend…

So it was that the Silly Army set up their games along the narrow edge of the park, beneath the trees. After laying out a long, thin hockey pitch there was a great new game for one of the members – Dog Egg Hunt. All the fun of an Easter egg hunt with less chocolate and more dog toffee, which was lovingly gathered using plastic bags and disposable gloves and deposited in the bin to ensure none of the players had an unpleasant, stinky experience. Dog owners of King’s Park take note: it really is that easy, not to mention much more fun if you clean up after your own dog. It certainly drew some curious looks from new members to be welcomed by a woman with a plastic bag of dog’s eggs.

As is rapidly becoming a Silly Army tradition, first game proper was Big Tennis. With Score Machine Helen sidelined for a few weeks, nobody was sure how we’d keep the score and there was the fear that we could just keep playing forever. However, between them and on opposing teams for fairness, K and Pete established that they could, just about, count to 21 (if they used all their fingers and one of their toes).

But early on it seemed we might not be scoring at all as a predictably vicious Terminator serve was thwarted by the location when the big tennis ball got stuck up a tree.

Cue another new game – Racquet Toss. The whole of the Silly Army lined up and threw their racquets towards the branches in the hope that the nice tree would give us our ball back. But the tree was not quick to bear fruit, and Barry further complicated matters when his racquet got stuck in the branches too.

Pete prepares one of his killer chip shots.

Eventually, in a hail of racquets, both ball and racquet were detatched and the game could continue. Pete’s team won one game and K’s the other before they abandoned counting and moved on to play hockey.

More members were joining now and hockey was proving interesting on a long, narrow pitch. Often there would be an invasion of footballers getting their ball back; just as frequently we had to retrieve our ball from their pitch.

A long game ensued as the ball frequently went out of play. However Pete’s team took the lead and it was decided halfway through to switch ends, as Terminator’s team were constantly playing uphill. Despite the change of ends it was Pete’s team who hammered more balls home to be the first to five.

After some Dodgeball, where many of our new members proved very adept at dodging, it was time to play Sticky Ball, again using the long, narrow pitch. Again a lot of the newcomers proved natural and again we missed Helen, Sticky Ball top scorer.

This was another long game and for once ended in an amicable draw, yellows winning the first game and blues the second. Then it was decided to break for tea.

Refreshed, the Sillies were able to spread out later in the afternoon and play Combi-Ball, which has been a missing fixture for some time. Dave, Pete and Termy are among the best scorers at this game and new members Mike and Harry showed some great football skills.

The blue team started slowly but were able to launch a bit of a comeback mission; however, the yellows took a comfortable victory.

Richard found the whole Tchoukball match fascinating!

Another game that’s been missing from our repetoire for a while is Tchoukball and that made a comeback next, both the blues and yellows playing equally well, although many of the old faithful had forgotten the rules. Without having exclusion zones the game was a little harder than many remembered, but it was tightly played and taken quickly to 4-4. As we were playing to five points everyone battled for the last goal and Chris excelled for the blue team to claim victory.

Following another brief tea stop, where Karl, Colin, Barry and K attempted to battle the wind and play frisbee, it was time for old favourite Monkey Toss. Steph, who had joined us late, is one of the best at this game and it was her team that got the most monkeys on the board.

There was time for a little more Big Tennis before it was time to pack up and head home for another week.

It was great to see so many new faces joining us; we hope you’ll come back for more!

This Saturday, a Silly Army delegation will be at Fit Christchurch hosting the attempt to break the Guinness World Record for 100m on a space hopper. We will be at The Quomps on Christchurch Quay from 10am to 4pm – come along and join us and give the record a go yourself.

On Sunday we will be back in the park for regular Silly Army games. We will be a little further over the field this time – past the football pitches, which have fixtures all season. Come along and join us from 1pm.

Tennis shots (C) Karen

Uphill struggle – Silly Army at Blackbushe Pedal Car race

Helen in action in Doris.

A Silly Army batallion made journey into the great unknown, otherwise known as Berkshire, last weekend to compete in the Blackbushe Pedal Car race.

On Friday evening three intrepid travellers, Rich, K and Pete, supported by a couple of monkeys, squeezed themselves and the pedal car into Pete’s magic vehicle Sweetpea and headed in the direction of Blackbushe.

It’s amazing how much one little car can carry and equally amazing how much stuff the three thought they needed for two nights of camping and two days of furious pedalling. Still, after getting caught in the rain during our last camping adventure, we weren’t taking any chances and brought equipment for every occasion.

First challenge of the day was getting everything to fit in the car, which me managed admirably. All packed and ready to go we headed Berkshirewards. We were somewhat alarmed by the sudden decision of the driver to stop, announce “I have a job to do!” and promptly disappear under the bonnet – especially as we just assumed he was going for a wee. He emerged seconds later with a couple of springs in his hands, evidently not vital to Sweetpea’s running as we managed to reach Farmborough without anything falling off.

The Silly Army don't have tanks - just double decker vehicles.

Finding the campsite proved a little tricky but excellent navigation skills meant we too just one wrong turn on a rather strange roundabout. We arrived at a scout centre, spied another pedal car parked outside and new we were in the right place.

The camping venue was amazing, and we had our own boutique suite among the trees where we set up camp and put Mrs Doyle to work making sausages, mushrooms and the ubiquitous tea for dinner. Thanks to some foresight we had brought some camping stoves this time, making the whole field kitchen experience a lot quicker and more pleasurable.

Saturday morning came and after more nosh we set off to find the circuit, and Helen, who had driven down at the crack of dawn.

Pete’s professional driver instincts kicked in and, despite suggestions from his fellow travellers that maybe, perhaps, just possibly following the car in front with a pedal car on its roof might be the best way to find the circuit, he opted for the optional detour, taking in great views of Farnborough airport and the M3. After a considerable time spent going round in circles (perhaps in preparation for the race) we found the circuit, and Helen who had just arrived.

Pete has a Chameleon in his slip stream.

We pitched up next to French team Chameleon and set about unloading Doris the pedal car and pitching day camp.

Observing the other racers it was quickly established there were few other entrants in the Gentleman’s Tourer category. The speedy machines of Apollo, Swebelli and others were in a slightly different class from Team Silly.

Unfortunately the Gentleman’s Tourer class has yet to be officially recognised; more unfortunately still Pete and Richard didn’t make very convincing women, so we couldn’t enter the ladies only class either. However, we were there to enjoy ourselves and as soon as we got out on to the circuit for some practices, it was clear it was going to be a fun day.

Doris was most probably the heaviest car there but that didn’t stop the Silly team enjoying themselves. On a scorching day, we had the foresight to bring a lot of water with us – we were going to need it.

First up were four 45 minute sprint races, where Helen was particularly impressive, recording consistent times over and over again. This put her in great steed for the final race of the day, the three hour endurance.

Richard in action.

Despite Doris’s weight and lack of upper gearing, we still managed to compete with some of the other heavier cars and finished 16th on the day – not a bad effort, especially as K and Helen were pedal car virgins.

Doris, however, suffered some serious spoke damage to her back wheel and this meant we had to rethink our plans of racing two cars between five competitors on the second day.

After packing up Helen headed back to Bournemouth while K, Rich and Pete went back to camp to unload the pedal car before setting out on another mission – operation chips.

Finding a decent chip shop in North Camp, we sat round the fire discussing plans for Sunday, a five hour endurance race. Alan and Steph were set to join us the next day and unfortunately couldn’t magic up a spare wheel for Doris at such short notice.

However, Steph was bringing her speedy Squeelz on Wheels car and we decided we’d chose the team by tossing a coin.

In the lead - woo, yeah!

On Sunday we packed up camp and found the circuit more easily. The weather was looking rather more grim and it was decided by the toss of a coin that K, not Pete, would complete the second day’s line-up. Pete was able to record our lap times and give us a good talking to if we were going too slowly.

The challenge for the faster racers was to complete the circuit in less than a minute and the gauntlet was accepted by Alan, who whizzed around in an amazing 59.8 seconds.

Best times for the rest were: Steph 103.3; Richard 102.5; K 1.11 – an impressive effort by all. There may have been faster times but our official recorder was lured by the call of chocolate and LEGO at the neighbouring market, then roped in to help in the lap counting booth.

Steph lines up for scrutineering, with a bit of ad-hoc weatherproofing!

Though the first hour and a half of racing seemed to go on for ever, when the team got into their rhythm the time flew by. Reports from the lap counter let us know which cars to chase down, and we were embroiled in a fun, friendly but competitive battle with our neighbours, the lovely Chameleon team.

A final push helped us leap up the ranks for a comfortable midtable position of 9th. With a lighter car it was great to be more competitive on the second day.

Thanks to everyone at Blackbushe for making us feel welcome and for a great weekend’s racing! We’ll be back with Doris, or perhaps a new car, when we’ve found a wheelchair to steel a wheel from…

Alan chases down our nearest rivals, Chameleon.

Reports from Dave back at the park, where he ran a mini games session, saw an unfortunate injury to the Score Machine Helen after slipping during volleyball (get well soon, we don’t know the score without you!) and some new faces who proved naturals.

Wednesday saw the last weekday games of the year, until we can find a sports hall. Still somewhat cack-handed K and Steph gave Pete and new recruit Mike a good run for their money at Big Tennis.

Hockey saw a yellow team victory after the reds made a good fight back from being 5-1 down, while Sticky Ball was another yellow team whitewash, the blues being outjumped, outmanouvered and out stuck at every opportunity.

We tried some more Big Tennis but by then the invasion of the midges had started, so it was time to pack up Wednesday sessions for another year.

Steph keeps smiling all through the five hour race!

The Silly Army will still be playing sports and games in King’s Park every Sunday from 1pm, come along and join us, and click on the link above for directions.

We’ll also be at Fit Christchurch next Saturday, attempting to break the Space Hopper 100m World Record. Come along and give it a try yourself!

*Official Blackbushe results hadn’t been published at time of writing.

For this game, you need tea and a biscuit – English Football makes Silly Army debut

"It's really not that wet..." Duncan and Pete try to tempt Dave out to play.

Silly Army members had a busy week inventing games and building new toys in the run-up to last Sunday’s weekly games fixture.

While several club members got together for a game planning meeting, leaders of the pack Dave and Pete spent time making a set of large hula hoops. Hulaing and hula skipping races were just two of the games set to make their debut, along with a sport involving cups and saucers, tea, chocolate biscuits and ‘Excuse Me’ cards… More of which later.

So when, as we started to set up on Sunday, the heavens opened and what looked like sleet started to fall from the sky, there were rumblings of concern that not many people would turn up.

But adverse weather doesn’t stop the Silly Army.

One idea for the home made hula hoops - human hoopla.

The sleet and rain was quick to pass and while we waited for others to turn up, the early birds tested out the hula hoops, hula skipping and space hopper jousting (involving trying to knock each other off hoppers using cladwhackers).

Soon there were enough players for a game of four aside hockey and playing on a full-sized pitch meant we soon got warm. The low numbers meant everyone got a good run around and the yellow team won the first match of the day. Once again, in what is becoming a Silly Army tradition, Pete decided to swap sides halfway through the game to ensure he remained a loser.

Combi-ball was a victim of the strong wind that plagued King’s Park all afternoon, so the next game of the day was stickyball. Even here the wind posed problems, spinning the goals around and taking the balls in odd directions. Despite this, and despite Kathy entirely forgetting the rules, the blue team romped home to a comfortable victory.

"Hmm, this football is fun, but something's missing..."

After a spot of dodgeball, it was time to debut a new game, for which the aforementioned tea and biscuit were required. Christened “English Football”, this is a true gentleman’s pastime, with no running or tea spilling allowed. Each player has to carry their teacup and saucer without letting any tea spill – regular saucer checks were put in place to ensure no fouling occurred – while playing an otherwise “normal” game of football.

To ensure gentlemanly conduct reigned supreme, every player was also issued with an “Excuse me” card, which could only be played once but which, when used, meant whoever it was played on had to step aside.

"...Ah, yes, that's better." Every game of football should be played with tea.

Although it was generally agreed that this game would be more fun on a warmer day (our tea went cold) it was immensely entertaining and is sure to be added to the regular Silly Army repertoire. Once again, the blue team claimed victory.

After such a polite and dainty sport, it was only right our next game was something a little more physical. It was time to bring out the big, red tubes for cladwhacking. We hadn’t cladwhacked for a few weeks, so everyone was hungry for a bit of whacking action. Though the wind played havoc with our balls and cladwhackers, the blue team were victorious once more.

Bouncing in the face of adversity, the space hoppers came out to play once again this week, and we enjoyed a game of space hopper polo. It’s good to be able to report that there were no casualties in the hopper department this week (except Dave’s trousers…)  This game also saw the most dramatic comeback of the day. Proving this was a true blue Sunday, the blue team bounced – and we mean that literally – back from being 4-1 down to win 5-1.

A swift tea break and game of boules followed, along with some hula lessons for Kathy and Pete from hulaing experts Mimi and Steph.

For the uninitiated, this is cladwhacking in action.

There was still time for a couple more games, so we took the wind head on and played space hopper cricket, competing all against all. Pete was the clear winner, followed by Terminator second then Steph third. The rest of us failed miserably to score a single run!

We played another game of hockey, this time won by the red team and thankfully played on a shorter pitch, before it was time to pack up and head home.

Bournemouth’s Silly Army meets at King’s Park every Sunday afternoon from 1pm. Come along and join us any time throughout the afternoon. You’ll find us behind the playground at the Ashley Road entrance. Visit our website for more information.

Jumping through hoops, and eating lots of cake, at Silly Army

They're controlling that ball with the power of their minds...

The social side of the Silly Army sports and social club was out in force this weekend, as Cake Patrol went into overdrive. With chocolate cakes from Penny and ‘Terminator’ Alan, lemon drizzle from Kathy and chocolate crispies from Karl, there was more than enough cake to go around – along with the ubiquitous tea. And really, what better way is there to spend a Sunday afternoon than eating cake, drinking tea then burning it off with some extremely silly exercise?

First game of the day was sticky ball, where the supermarket giants Sainsbury’s and Tesco went head to head in the trial of the new sticky pads. Results of the test proved suitably inconclusive (in other words, all the new pads were suitably sticky) but we did particularly favour the new tiny balls, which could travel practically the length of the whole pitch.

The yellow team convincingly hammered the blues, leading to spurious claims by Pete some nameless members of the blue team that “Sticky ball doesn’t count.”

Dodgeball and double dodge followed, with much posing and being slapped in the face by large, inflatable balls.

The recently resurrected combi ball saw the dynamic combination of Ras and Karl ensuring another yellow victory, despite Helen and Kath’s valiant cheer leading efforts for the blues. Pete, however, enjoyed losing so much that he switched sides to the blue team halfway through – now there’s an example of true Silly Spirit.

Budge, the newly introduced ‘simple’ tag game that confuses everybody, turned into the ‘Make Simon run in circles’ game, and Ras again proved himself a champion chaser and chasee – even performing his classic dodgeball hop and still not getting caught.

A long and hard-fought game of hockey was won by the red team, after which it was time for tea and cake break.

The Silly Army were being filmed this week, by Alan for our website and by Mike for his journalism course. During the break Silly members old and new were interviewed on camera. It was also during the break that Karl showed off his amazing gymnastic skills by somersaulting through a combi-ball side goal. While we were wowed by his flexibility, he’d better be careful or we’ll turn this into a game!

Karl will jump through hoops for a slice of cake.

Popular demand saw the return of the space hoppers; lack of trailer space meant we had to blow them all up, turning our intermission into tea, cake and inflating break.

After the break, we tested out a new variant of tchoukball, involving four goals each with a trampoline. The verdict is still open on how well this game worked and general agreement was that it required a few tweaks to flow more smoothly. The teams had mixed around a lot but yellow was clearly the colour of the day as the yellow team again took victory.

More popular demand saw a sticky ball rematch, to give some of the late arrivals the chance to play this popular game. Everybody’s shooting seemed a little off target, perhaps because the new balls were smoother than usual, but Terminator eventually took matters into his own hands and scored the winner for the yellows.

Dreadnaught, not looking at all well as Pete takes him out for a test run.

The final game of the day was spacehopper polo, and it was in preparation for this that tragedy struck. While rounding up the hoppers, which were doing their utmost to escape, it was noticed that not only had Feck Off lost an eye, but Dreadnaught had been fatally wounded. Rather than watch him suffer an agonising death from a slow puncture, it was decided that euthanasia was by far the kindest option, and so it was that Pete vigorously pumped him until he popped.

Mike's convinced it's all going to be OK - but this isn't mouth to hopper resuscitation

After a moment’s reverence, in which a traditional Silly Army burial was eschewed in favour of resurrecting him as a carnival hat, space hopper polo rounded off the day with a final rousing yellow victory.

Despite calls for space hopper cricket, it turned out only Kathy and Terminator wanted to play, and two person cricket was never going to work. So instead, we played a fun game of ‘how the heck to we squeeze everything into the trailer’.

RIP, Dreadnaught - a moment of reflection for a fallen comrade, pumped to death (it's what he would have wanted...)

The Silly Army meets at King’s Park every Sunday afternoon from 1pm. Come along and join us any time throughout the afternoon. You’ll find us behind the playground at the Ashley Road entrance. Visit our website for more information – come on, be silly and play with us!

Silly Army hop to it

Lining up for a heat of the Hopper Grand National

And they’re off… Forget the Grand National; it was all about space hoppers this weekend as the Silly Army staged the Hopper National, the world’s least famous steeplechase, on the hallowed King’s Park turf.

The 3.30 at King’s Park was won by Pete, riding thoroughbred Tally Oh. Of this historic victory, the most successful jockey in the history of space hopper racing said… nothing, as it took too long to get his breath back.

Young blood Giles and Jez also enjoyed victories in other races, but Pete retained his crown, even proving that his expert hoppering can beat a man running the course – as Giles found to his cost. Further proof then that there is no other Silly Army member so skilled at sitting on their backside…

A man with legs; a man on a space hopper. Who will win this epic battle...

...Why the man on the hopper, of course. The Hopper King reigns eternal

The hoppers were back later in the day for a traditional English game of cricket. Using a space hopper as a bat and a fitness ball as a cricket ball, a jolly spiffing time was had by all (even though there was no tea; there was cake). Team Lisa thrashed Team Dave 32 runs to 15, largely thanks to Ras’s ability to whack the ball into the car park – even Sweetpea herself attempting to make a catch but ultimately heading the ball in the wrong direction.

Hockey was a popular choice of game on Sunday, played at the start and end of the day. The yellow team enjoyed victory in the first match, including a superbly dirty goal that involved holding down the red keeper. The reds, however, came back and won the second game using slightly cleaner tactics.

The arrival of new bibs in bright red and green caused predictable confusion and the prospect of playing sticky ball with three teams instead of the usual two, as we began the game with reds, blues and greens on the pitch. Eventually deciding on greens and reds, three tough games saw the reds claim victory, despite the fact their ‘medium’ sized bibs were more akin to oversized summer dresses on many of the players.

Cladwhacking was the usual excuse for some friendly chasing and beating each other with soft foam tubes – a Silly Army tradition – and was won by the greens, although by the end there was less clad and more whacking as we all began to beat each other with joyous abandon. When Dave made the mistake of collapsing in a heap, the game transformed into ‘Whack A Dave.’* Methinks he’ll choose his sunbathing spot more carefully in the future.

This is perhaps our strangest sport from a spectator’s perspective, as several tube wielding players gather round another who has bent over to collect the ball, ever-ready for that player to make a move so they can start whacking him/her.

It's just not cricket... (It's space hopper cricket)

We also played dodgeball, double dodge with a strange pink sausage, and resurrected space invaders – which saw another resounding victory for the green team, and a few spectacular own goals.

Making the most of the weather, Silly Army members also enjoyed some time sitting around socialising, aided and abetted by cake and cookies (special thanks to Gemma for the lemon drizzle!)

Get fat, get fit – the choice is yours. At Silly Army you can combine both.

Bournemouth’s Silly Army meets at King’s Park every Sunday afternoon from 1pm. Come along and join us any time throughout the afternoon. You’ll find us behind the playground at the Ashley Road entrance. Visit our website for more information – come on, be silly and play with us!

*Your correspondent would like to clarify that no Daves were hurt in the making of this afternoon.