THANK YOU!! Hyndburn Group would like to thank all those who took part in the Accrington Lions Carnival on Saturday June the 18th. A great day was had by all. The special report for the event can be found HERE Hot on the heels of the report going 'live' on the website the Rambler's Chief Exec., Tom Franklin, has included an article about it on his Blog!! (see right)

Accrington’s Carnival is held every two years and, quite surprisingly, Hyndburn Ramblers had never previously taken part. When the current Group Publicity Officer took over at the 2009 AGM one of her first promises was to ‘get us in the Carnival’. Fast forward 20 months to a June Saturday and 20 members of the Group were to find themselves engaged in various activities on behalf of the Hyndburn Group of the Ramblers whilst taking part in the Groups first ever Carnival parade. It also seemed fitting that the theme for the event this year just happened to be ‘Fitness, Sport and Leisure’.

The participants
All photos © Phil Bedson2011

		The gazebo set-up...
		...and a boot full of pebbles.

Meanwhile Gail’s hubby Phil was in charge of the vehicle being used in the parade and the other Group members and children who had volunteered their Saturday to walk with Hyndburn Ramblers as part of the Carnival Procession. David Hill’s car was the vehicle in question and upon arrival at the processions start we were directed straight to slot number 24 as the magnets on the car doors identified us immediately. No sooner had we arrived and parked up to get started with the decorating, Marc (Gail and Phil’s son) began blowing up balloons and very soon two more members appeared, June and Dave, who were quite eager to don their parade T-shirts and help out. As each subsequent member made themselves known, starting with Steve and Les, they were issued with their T-shirts and roped into blowing the balloons up as Phil busied himself attaching the banner to a couple of walking poles. Sheila, Howard and Paul joined the group and Howard and Paul were duly nominated to be the banner carriers. The last of the balloons were tied to the car by the time Michelle and Sue had arrived and within a few minutes Gail, Dawn and Dougie had joined us from the field (leaving Glenn to mind the stall).

Are we off yet??

The float in front moved off and the Carnival Procession was finally underway with Hyndburn Ramblers well and truly in the midst of it. As we turned onto the first ‘proper’ road of the 1.3 mile route the crowds on the kerbside visibly increased in number, as we did when Neil joined us, and this is where our leaflet distributors – June, Dave and Sue – began doling out the eponymous Join Us leaflets. David had the folk song ‘The Manchester Rambler’ playing on the car stereo as we went but with the New Orleans Jazz Band immediately behind us I seriously doubt it was heard.

As the snake of vehicles and walkers progressed to the long stretch of the route and Hyndburn Ramblers were certainly the words on peoples’ lips as we passed, although this was probably due in some part to the banner held aloft at the back of the group of walkers sporting Hyndburn Ramblers emblazoned T-shirts! The throngs of people in the main part of the town centre route gave us the opportunity to hand out yet more leaflets and even Phil found himself handing some out whilst replenishing the other leafleteers. Soon after passing through the centre we were temporarily halted by some traffic lights to allow normal traffic to dissipate from the main centre bypass. We crossed the road here to go past Plantation Street Car Park, our regular meet up spot for the walks, before the next left took us onto the side street which would see the procession disband. After finding a quiet spot to sort ourselves out the majority headed up to the Carnival Field to relieve Glenn but not before saying our thanks and goodbyes to Neil, Dave, June and Sue.

Once at the stall the first task was to remove the banner from the walking poles and attach it to the front of the long table. Once this was done everyone’s first mission was to have a go on the ’Guess the number of pebbles in the old boot’ game the aim of which was to win a 25L rucksack. Perhaps the one ‘niggle’ of the day was the location of the stall (and others around) as, as the day wore on, it transpired that a lot of the public were unaware of this particular section of the college grounds. The carnival organisers had given a lot of the main arena space over to a funfair thus consigning a lot of smaller participants into the lesser spots. Whilst some of us watched the stall others wandered about with leaflets whilst having a look around other stalls and events scattered throughout the college grounds. The afternoon wore on and as people passed they were given a leaflet and asked if they fancied their chances to win a rucksack. An encouraging aspect of the day was the number of those interested in the Family Stroller days and our members spent time chatting at length to quite a few people. For reasons unbeknown though a lot passed on the game although those who did try it used a number of ruses to guess the number from counting the stones on top to picking up the boot and feeling the weight. It was surprising therefore just how far apart some guesses were using the same technique!

"It's an activity for young and old"

As four o’clock approached and with the passing public dwindling to virtually non-existent it was decided to call it a day and dismantle everything. Just Phil, Gail, Glenn and Steve remained to pack up although there was just one more task to perform. With Steve and Glenn acting as independent witnesses the envelope was produced containing the number of pebbles actually in the boot. Guesses had ranged from a lowly 52 all the way up to 726 but that high guess was quite a long way out from the actual figure of 111. There had been a lot of guesses within the same area, indeed one of the earliest had been 110, but the eighth to last person had got it spot on so congratulations to them.

David Eastham collects his rucksack from Gail Bedson
after correctly guessing 111 pebbles in the old boot

The car was reloaded with everything that had been brought that morning, minus quite a few leaflets and pens and badges and balloons, and that was it. Hyndburn Ramblers had enjoyed their first carnival a lot and maybe, just maybe, we’ll be back again in 2013.