Saturday 14th February- The Spring Gala

A gang of seven assembled at M&FM for the first operational Saturday of the year, which also happened to be the second day of the Spring Gala. This triggered the start of the years line inspections, with Pete and Keith heading off towards Alton, and Eddie, Mike, and Paul Alresford bound. John and Adrian meanwhile went straight down to the hut site at Yew Tree Curve, where they spent a couple of hours fighting with tree roots, slowly but surely excavating the back trench for the wall timbers, before heading to Alresford for breakfast.

Shortly after arriving, a call was received to provide assistance at Ropley, collecting chippings from the top car park, and unloading them on the car park field to stabilise a very muddy and slippery surface that had caused problems for cars exiting the site the previous day (clearly a Pway responsibility- Ed). Eddie, John, and Adrian delivered two loads of around a tonne (back breaking stuff!), before returning to base where the others, who had been joined by Neil, Paul, and Martin R, were waiting to depart for the afternoon's work at the Pway hut site.

Despite a few outbreaks of drizzle and light rain, and ground conditions resembling the Somme, reasonable progress was made on the hut with the erection of five wall timbers. The gang also had to be on their best behaviour when they received a visit/ inspection by Martin's better half, who appeared to be suitably impressed by their efforts, and assisted with the tea making duties (which was nice).