Kentish Hop Rally

8th Burnt Ash MCC - 3rd August 1984

On a hillside near Sevenoaks, at the end of a short tree-lined path, is a field. It has a bit of a slope, but most of it is manageable in a tent. That is lucky, because this is where the Kentish Hop Rally was.

Nothing one would not expect happened on Friday night, so I'll skip to Saturday.

It was a not-unpleasant day, but occasionally overcast, as it was all weekend, so several of us slipped into town for a mooch. I found myself in the company of the 7sMCC, who were fairly local to where I lived, but I had never associated with much. We discovered a shopping trolley next to where we parked our bikes, so used that to carry all of our helmets. A while wandering about revealed nothing much of interest, so we headed back to the site where it appeared that the weather was quite warm enough for many people to not bother with t-shirts.

The games were the usual sort and included brick lifting, which is not as easy as it looks. After a bit more sun-bathing, it was time for the marquee, where we boogied the night away and more clothing was removed.

I recall it was a nice relaxed evening and I didn't mind that some people, (probably the 7sMCC), had filled the front of my tent with balloons. Of course, nobody admitted knowing anything about it, so I never found out why.

The next morning was less overcast that Saturday had been, so it was a nice warm ride home.

- Phil (the Spill) Drackley