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1.
The Great Britain Olympic underwater sychronised basket weaving team.
2012 official favourites!
This
is probably the most recognised of the C17 incarnations. It began in a public house near to Derby railway station.
The house in question was named the Brunswick and it serves (to this day) a fine ale called, simply, Second Brew. During a
tasting session a group of like minded people became rather irate that the art of basket weaving had been dominated over the
previous few years by countries other than Great Britain. The arts and craft fairs
in country towns and villages had long produced basket weaving technicians, the greatest of these was the West Country
Widget, Bill Brierley, a man famous for his ability to create a Wicker and Splint : using reed,
cane, willow, oak, and ash in 9 minutes and 34 seconds (a World record to this day!). It was decided that the art would be reclaimed, and indeed by 1988 the team entered and won its first
international competition, (the Norweigan grand prix) using the soon to become famous, six man New England Porch weave intertwinned
with the Finger Lakes Fan weave. This was innovative and eventually lead to international acclaim and gold medals at three
Olympics. Now retired the team can often be found weaving themsleves home after closing
time or on a field somewhere near Banbury!
(Theory expounded by S.Goodhew)
2.The
acrobatic rugby post maintenance team
After the synchronised basket weaving, another incarnation for the 17 team was the acrobatic
rugby post maintenance team. Stanley still will not speak about its demise, even after copious 6xxxxx's.
The team would be invited to various clubs, and the deal was to form
a human pyramid, painting and fettling the posts as the wall of folk got higher and higher. The work would be done, congratulations
all round, and much beer consumed in the Clubhouse.
On
the fateful day in late July, the team was particularly exultant, the rhythm was perfect, everybody's balance was spot
on, one of those days when everything was working together perfectly. Stanley being the youngest and lightest at that time
was somersaulted up to the very top of the last post, brush in his belt, and the specially designed non spill paint pot strapped
to one leg. Overconfidently exuberant, the final somersault took him above the heads of the top pair, and he landed astride
and impaled on the top post. Tears were in his
eyes, plainly seen by the astonished crowd!
Before he could be rescued, the clubs gang mower swept round rather too close to
the lowest members, throwing grass cuttings and pollen all over them. Everybody started sneezing at once, and the pyramid
collapsed. No one had the strength to get the pyramid up again, and it was forty minutes before the fire brigades' big
turntable ladder could be inched into the ground. Stanley was eventually prised off the precarious perch, and it was seventeen
days before the last of the
splinters came out.
That
was the end of another chapter of the seventeens'chequered
history, no one could face the pyramid again, least of all Stanley, and if you ever find him gazing watery eyed at a set of
Rugby posts, lead him gently away and buy him a beer.
The myths and legends
of C17 will only grow as time goes on.
(Theory expounded by S.Goodhew)
The Swindon Balloon
Theory
Sometimes folklore becomes common knowledge and mistruths turn into acceptable fact. The story
of the C17 group has suffered a fate that fails to do justice to its members due to the numerous fairytale stories surrounding
conception. The chances are that if you have read the stories of past C17 exploits they are little more that fabricated fables
borne from over-active minds in times of quiet reflection. Some tales bear an element of truth, others are simply tales of
moral good, but the truth of the origins of the famous group of Red and Gold clad warriors, that lunatic group of heathens
that descend upon the planes of Banbury once each year, regular as clockwork, that truth lies below.
Firstly, let it be made clear
that Mr. Goodhew’s recollections of his time on the rugby park have no truth whatsoever. Yes there are rugby players
enrolled in the C17 group, including a former International player, but the fact of the matter is that most of the quartered
tribe are actually too drunk to be considered as rugby players. There was even a case where one member was rejected from Bath
RFC due to an excess of illegal substances in his bloodstream.
The hitherto most common and most popular story
on the birth of C17 and her generation into a national treasure is about the basket weaving team, and in this story there
is an element of accuracy, although it is fair to say that many years of handing-down has lost the true ethos of the group.
For while baskets and weaving are central to the group the underwater aspect seems to have been fabricated by a mind influenced
by chemicals that are accepted only with medical advice.
Many moons ago, as long ago as you can’t
remember and when people were in black and white, wore Bowlers and didn’t bend their legs when they walked (quickly)
the foetal C17 group was founded in a field not too dissimilar to that in which we now reconvene annually. The field in question
was on the outskirts of Swindon in Wiltshire and the primary reason for the meetings was to construct a basket suitable
to attach beneath what was at the time the worlds largest hot-air balloon.
C17, as all balloon-basket engineers will understand,
is a standardised construction technique, with the letter C representing the month from which the chosen material was grown
(C for March; A for January etc.) and the number 17 was the page from which the weaving pattern was taken in that months’
Basket Weaving Periodical.
In those days the group wasn’t known as C17 at all, that would have been indulgence
of too high a degree. No, they just wove baskets and flew silently above the field, gazing upon the Cotswolds. Following their
success in building and flying the most versatile lightweight basket the members went their separate ways, and it was only
a chance meeting many years later that reignited the passion of two members for both hot air balloons and folk music.
Gradually,
over the course of several years, outsiders became drawn to the blueprints that the original two members used to sway above
their heads in place of white hankies as Richard Digance performed his early morning stint, one thing led to the next, the
outcast duo were so excited that they had actually made some friends, began handing out Group shirts, and the legacy had begun.
The C17
group of 2010 bears very little resemblance to the two erstwhile founders from decades past. The club now boasts folk from
all walks of life, students, teachers, journalists, delivery personnel and even dole collectors. But one and all are together,
hold hands and share beer once each year come rain or shine. C17 knows no class or social ladder, together they have learned
to live together in harmony and are aiming to present their story forth and encourage equality and love and peace amongst
all.
In finishing, an epitaph is appropriate as one of the original two founders of the C17 group is
sadly no longer with us. Without Ezquiel (The Baron) Hartley VII there would be no Red and Gold on the Cropredy fields. Hartley
was a visionary not only in early manned flight but also in the philosophy of being able to drink all day without getting
nasty and aggressive. He wasn’t much of a rugby player, mind you!
(Theory expounded byAlan Reidy)
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