Prowlers Party

28th August 1992 (last) - Prowlers BC

Once again, we found ourselves on the banks of the M25, near Langleybury in Hertfordshire. Sadly, this was posted as being the last Prowlers Party, (although I did hear rumours that some of the founders of the club, having moved to Wales, were having another of the same name). It is possible that the rising cost of holding rallies was the cause of the demise. The badge did seem to be rather cheaper than the usual enamelled items which were the norm, (and as last year's tenth anniversary badge was rather elaborate) being plain blue with a basic screen-printed image. At least it had a sew-on hole to prevent loss.

The weather was dry and bright, but not all that warm, a fault that my club was going to fix for the next night. The band on Friday was rather basic as well, who, despite being called the 'Blues Boys', seemed to just shout and swear over the quasi-punk music they played, when they could remember what words/tune it was supposed to have. It is possible the tunes were from the band 'Dumpy's Rusty Nuts', but I don't know enough of their repertoire to make the comparison. They eventually gave up and a disco took over for the rest of the night, which was mostly taken up with straw being dumped on to of people, and girls, (OK, one girl), of my acquaintance saying hello in the time-honoured manner.

On Saturday, still dry, bright and chilly, my club decided to initiate some members to rallying, using the hard-hat-with-a-hole-in device we had seen other clubs use, only without the funnel attachments. This soon degenerated into throwing shaving foam at each other until it ran out.

Around this time a rather strange aircraft was seen overhead, which was obviously using the local airfield. I thought at first it was flying backwards, but it was just an unusual shape.

A trike was trying to pull wheelies up and down the slightly muddy and sloping field, while other bikes & combos dragged people about on pallets, until they fell off. My club decided we needed some wood for a bonfire, and one produced a fearsome array of axes which made short work of a tree in the adjacent wooded area. I hope these were not protected/earmarked for the owner's own use.

One club member arrived late and, while he was booking in, a couple of us stuffed straw into his bike and luggage's every orifice. Needless to say, he was not best pleased, and made his displeasure known. I have to admit, I do not like people messing up my bike either.

In the evening, there were the usual eating & drinking contests, and the band was Ivor's Jivers who, it has to be admitted, also sprinkled obscenities into their songs, but not all of them - and they could play well. More beer and straw got thrown at people and the party went on for some time.

My friend for the previous night said hello again, as did someone else who 'never does that sort of thing'. We spent quite a while after the party chatting around our rather large bonfire.

It was still dry and bright on Sunday, which made the not-too-long trip home not-too-arduous.

- Phil (the Spill) Drackley