Halloween Howler 2006

This year we had two entries to the annual Leeds Halloween Howler - The Old boy’s teams (Norfolk and Leeds Old boys) arrived in tradition at the Library pub on Friday evening having travelled from all points of the country (Plymouth, Graffham & Newcastle!).  It wasn’t long until the drinks were flowing and old friends were re-acquainted.  After a silly game involving after-shock had been played it was time to move onto the Unions night club ‘Fruity’ where the music can only be described as being 100% Fromage!

The night passed smoothly with plenty of action, with 2 old boys, making special friends with some girls (Owen and Chloe! Jimbo and his wife Amy! (Claire’s house mate)) Plus a current member of Leeds – Katy, hooked up with Dakka from Newcastle!

All too soon the night came to an end and we headed back to our hosts (Sarah) house. Though not before Mat (Norfolk) had made friends with the bouncers and was thrown out! All in all a good evening.

The forecast for the weekend was set to be grim, so we were relieved to find the wind not to bad upon arrival at West Riding and their new club house.

The racing started off well for the Leeds Old Boys notching up a 1,2,3 in the first race followed by a 1,2,5 in the second. This was pretty much the same throughout the rest of the day, only losing to N.O.B.S (Newcastle old boys) in a race that we really should have won. So we finished the day having won 4 out of 5 races.

A quick trip home, shower and change and we were out to the local curry house known as ‘7 Spices’ where we were joined by West Kirby and a few others for a meal (only a fiver! Bargain!), and a chance to quaff our free vodka! Later we moved on to the ‘Quilted Lama’ and ‘Halo’ for more cheesy music.

Sunday racing resumed with much less wind and we managed to finish the round robin wining 6 out of our 7 races. Team Norfolk was close behind with a couple less wins.

As a result of the wind dropping, the proposed bronze, silver and gold fleets could not be run unfortunately, so working on the results of the round robin, Durham 1 came 1^st, followed by N.O.B.S then Leeds Old boys by one point!  Not bad for our first event, long may it continue!

Many thanks go to the Leeds Committee for organising the event. Claire and Katy for cooking all the food.  Tim & Wendy, plus their helpers for collecting two flights of Fireflies from Durham and Birmingham Uni. Dovestone for their rib and driver, Rick. Graffham Water and Sheffield for the use of their radios. West Riding for the use of the club. Sarah for putting us up for the weekend. And anyone else who I have neglected to thank

See you all next year!