True Brit Grit
-and the band played on

Report by Jim Walker
(published in Reading Chronicle)

What rain? What floods? While some planned events chickened out and cancelled, “Music in the Park” at Englefield on Saturday 21st June went ahead regardless. In true British spirit – Dunkirk and all that – the event was staged as planned and, against all the odds, was a great success according to the 300 or so hardy souls who attended.

Reading Abbey Club president Andrew More said with a modicum of understatement that the weather could have been kinder, but he praised the efforts of all who had contributed to keeping it going in the face of adversity.

Setting up on Friday morning was a challenge, with the tent for the stage being erected by three hardy souls during the heaviest part of the deluge. Water was pouring off the lawns of Englefield House, home of the Benyon Family, across the roadway in the deer park and into the lake.

Fortunately, (or was it premonition?), the site chosen for the event got wet, but didn’t flood. Neither did the access to the site such that, once the deluge abated, the whole concert area including car parks was reasonably dry and very accessible. So far so good – the concert could go ahead.

Saturday morning at Englefield was clear and bright. The Hog arrived to be Roasted – a 6-hour process – and the stage lighting and sound system were installed and tested. The fine weather gave Peter Adamson time to finish the enviable task of clearing the deer droppings from the arena. That and the rest of the setting-up were nearly finished before the rain started again.

In the evening, the concert itself started in clear dry weather, with a 15-minute session by the pupils of Englefield School, followed by the concert proper and a cheerful audience, but by the interval the rains had started again. Undaunted, the audience donned weatherproofs and raised umbrellas or huddled in their gazebos.

The South Berks Concert Band, cocooned in their tented stage, played their hearts out all evening with a medley of classic to modern music including selections from Glen Miller, Sinatra and well-known film music. Then they rounded up the evening with a rousing Proms style finale.

Not everything escaped the waters. Macmillan Cancer Support, who were to be the main beneficiaries of this charity event, had intended to mount a raffle with wonderful prizes being given out during the interval. Unfortunately, the house in Bucklebury where the raffle prizes were stored fell victim to four feet of water during the Friday floods – so no raffle. In the event, the Macmillan girls made a bucket collection during the interval. The soloist who was to sing ‘Summertime’ failed to turn up – caught in the floods somewhere!

But the undoubted stars of the evening were the enthusiastic audience. While some were protected in various forms of gazebo on the periphery, many were in the open in the main arena. When the rain came down halfway through the evening, these hardy souls merely raised umbrellas and carried on enjoying themselves.

At the interval, Andrew More presented Lady Benyon with a bouquet of flowers to thank the Benyon Family for their kind donation of Englefield Park for the evening. Richard Benyon, the local MP, also enjoyed the evening - and did not have far to travel home.

Denis (Bimbo) Jones, who led the team of Reading Abbey Rotarians in organising the detail of the event said that we would be back next year as it could only get better.

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Rotary Club of Reading Abbey