Wokingham All Saints, two days before Tony Pullan’s wedding, was the venue for yet another performance to mark the occasion. In the tower where he had done so much in two years as foreman, this was in many ways a thank you from the rest of the band. We rang a very enjoyable quarter of Yorkshire and handed over the tower at eight o’clock to the next band who were ringing for an equally special occasion. John and Joan Rance were married at All Saints fifty years ago and they too wished to celebrate with their ringing friends.
Meanwhile, the rest of us retired over the way to The Ship, and it was only at this point that I realised the band was an all male one. The purpose soon became clear as various of the assembled company, now augmented by a couple of Tony’s old work colleagues, tried to persuade each other to drink vast quantifies of the local brew. At length, and having locked the tower following the successful completion of the second quarter, we walked to the local Berni, some more steadily than others. Perhaps it was as well that by this time it was fairly empty, since the party, though not in any way unseemly, could hardly be described as demur.
After an excellent meal, a larger number of wine bottles and many stories, (some told with less clarity than others), we departed to go our separate ways. The sober among us merely went home and thought no more of it, but the tales repeated later about others’ attempts to walk home and of their inabilities to take Friday in their stride are perhaps best left untold. Suffice it to say that all did manage to arrive at their various ringing and other appointments on the day itself.
John Harrison (Apr 1989)
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