Just a short report on what happened in Beverley during our yearly get-together. Hopefully others with more writing skill and possibly some pictures, will flesh this out at a later date.
Compared to previous years there were in the beginning not that many attending the Course, but gradually over the week more and more people drifted in, and in the end we had a fair bunch on the ground. One funny point was that all the women attending were Aussies even if they now are based in Sweden, the States and the UK.
This year we consentrated on really getting the basics of the Martial aspect of Stav down pat, with the use of the Staff and Walkingstick as the only legal weapons one can carry these days, plus the knife which can be conceiled even if it is not legal (at least not in the UK) and hopefully by the time we finished most of us had a fair understanding of how to continue training. Luckily we now have enough people at instructor level, so beginners can for all practical purposes be taught on a one-to-one basis.
The weather was unfortunately not quite as favourable as it usually is at this time, but we still managed to cover what was planned for outdoor training. When the heavens opened we retreated indoor. Graham gave an interesting demonstration of what the Oxford Hov is planning to do in the coming year, which was followed by a constructive discussion later.
Ronayne then showed a method on stretching built on the stances, but taken further through his expertise in chiropractice and Yoga.
New this year was a short course in basic falconry. Unfortunately all our hawks were moulting and subsequencely too fat to fly, so Arthur (the eagle owl) stepped into the breach. He just loves people so it doesn't matter what weight he is; he'll come when called, but anyway he was flown indoors because of the rain.
As usual Graham took care of the catering and while I think he is a brilliant cook I noticed that a couple of people who I won't name always disappeared around mealtimes; Graham's porridge has apparently aquired something of a reputation.
The Thing this year was dominated by the possibility of establishing a World Stav Centre in Sweden. A commitee was established to look into possibilities and charged with reporting back next month. Further I feel that Stav has now outgrown the need for the yearly Summer Course as there are now so many qualified instructors available, so although Heimbu will continue to run shorter week-end courses, this year will probably be the last Summer Course.
Oh dear. Let's say it was an interesting experience. As you will have been
aware looking at the Heimbu website we had to downgrade and move the fair to
Heimbu because of bungling by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council. But we had
permission to let the River Run go ahead. However, after all advertising etc.
was taken care of the Council in its wisdom suddenly noticed that part of river
bank actually belonged to Hull Council and retracted the licence. We managed
to contact most of the runners and inform them of the cancellation; the rest
we had to turn away on the day. Then on Friday when we were going to set up
the beer tent at Heimbu we noticed that the lawn were under several inches of
water, so it was decided to move everything down to the local pub where the
landlord very generously offered to entertain the local kids. In the end no-one
turned up because of the rotten weather, even if it actually cleared up nicely
in the afternoon. After a light lunch cum tea at Heimbu we all toddled down
to the pub to taste the specially brewed "Heimbru" and found that
it had gone cloudy. Twenty gallons of ale down the drain. We then finished with
the Hnefatafl competition and surprisingly everything actully went OK. Mark
Todkill emerged as the overall champion after a brilliant series of wins. This
is definately something we will continue doing. Mention should also be made
of Mark's excellently made boards and pieces; great workmanship.