St Albans, Herts
10th - 11th July, 1999

The third Regimental event for the 1999 season, and one remarkably close to home for many of us. We arrived in the early evening, despite the best attempts by the local youth population to denude signs in the immediate area. Going through the Park entrance, I have to confess I felt a little worried. So, what a surprise it was to find ourselves in acres of space. No camping in your Association either, just straight forward Parliament Camp & Royalist Camp, almost like going back to the old days of the SK. Pitching canvas and nylon where you wanted too made a refreshing change, and we were still able to marshall our Regimental area. It was the first outing at a muster for our newly acquired gazebo - a grand name for a tall frame with a poly-nylon sheet cover. However, on another scorching weekend, the rank and file quickly made it a first port-of-call after the battles and drills, for the shade it offered.

The battles were interesting affairs, waiting to make our grand entrance after the microlight flypasts. A well-thought out dragoon and artillery action, preceded the armies arrivals, and made a manageable escalation of events easy to watch and understand from the crowdlines. The insidious parley session crept in again, but we were soon able to ignore it and continue with the battle. The end of the battle on the Sunday, with the Parliament army collapsing, was one of the most lamentable I've ever participated in. Perhaps the hot weather had something to do with it, but it must have rivalled the Italian collapse in North Africa in 1940/41.

This was an excellent mini-muster to attend, and certainly in the strength of numbers that we did. The site was well-laid out, with plenty of space. It had a few problems with the facilities, but I imagine the milkman made a tidy profit in milkshakes and orange juice, touring through the campsite. My sympathies went out to the pub staff. New in post with a day under their belts, and then we hit town. It was sad that they couldn't cope with the demands for food (I'll always remember G's face!), but they did the next best thing, and allowed us to bring back take-aways from the local restaurants. The beer ran out on three of the pumps, with only Tetleys left, the fruit machine went on the blink and we used up their entire glass stock. Its likely to be the busiest weekend they'll have for many a year to come.