Beer Pig Rally 2009 - article by Richard "Tank" Turner
Friday, 23 October 2009 - Sunday, 25 October 2009
A new venue for the 2009 Beer Pig Rally was enough to tempt rally stalwarts Dave Jackson and Phil Loom into joining me for the 6th Beer Pig Rally.
The Super 3 still not having recovered from a dose of "not working very well", picked up at the Bonneville Rally, I was on the old reliable 750 Trident. We had arranged to meet at the Pied Bull at 11.00 and surprisingly, everyone was right on time. All fuelled up, we trundled down the M25 and A3 to Portsmouth, stopping at the Devils Punch Bowl for a National Trust coffee and cake.
We arrived at Portsmouth without incident and, by saying "Beer Pig Rally" over and over to the staff at the terminal, managed to talk them into giving us cheap rate Wightlink tickets; if you don’t ask you don’t get as they say.
Following the map supplied with the invite soon took us to the new camp site at Brickfields Horse Country at Binstead, near Ryde, a riding school and horse-based farm place.
We arrived at the site at about 2pm and after signing in were directed to the camping field which had clearly recently been occupied by a large flock of incontinent sheep. A careful search soon identified an area with less than normal levels of sheep droppings so we formed a circle and pitched our tents.
Having established our camp we decided to take a ride out in search of food, that is "find a pub" before the rain started. A short ride to the Fox and Hounds near Robin Hill sorted that out, nice meal; definitely one for the Bexley TOMCC good eating guide.
Dark clouds were gathering so we didn’t linger too long at the pub and were soon back on site. The facilities on site were mainly contained in two large rectangular Atcost type barn/warehouse buildings. The two buildings contain the riding school equestrian area and a bar/restaurant, toilets but no showers.
The buildings are attached so that you can watch the horse riding from the bar. Last year the Friday night band at the Beer Pig was Cobra and was hoping for a repeat this year but it was not to be. The Friday night band was a Folk Singer lady with an acoustic guitar and a bloke with a violin, not quite the hard rock of Cobra last year; different, but not a hen as they say. This was followed by Steve and his mandolin; a regular on the rally circuit and always a crowd pleaser, good fun.
The rain started overnight and it was still raining by the morning when we were ready to try out the Brickfields Horse Country breakfasts. The rain had washed away some of the sheep poo which made it easier to navigate a straight path to the breakfast bar in the restaurant shed. The breakfast was traditional full English and I chose to have fried bread which when it arrived was more like hot fat sponge, otherwise a fine breakfast.
As the rain was still lashing down after breakfast we decided to have look around the facilities on site before venturing out on the bikes.
Brickfields has a carriage museum, blacksmith, children’s farm and loads of horses on site to look at under cover. There was an enormous Shire horse there called “Harry” which must be about the biggest horse in the UK, (21 hands from memory).
While it was raining, me and Dave Jackson decided to get our 2009 Beer Pig patches sewn on by a nice lady on site who charged £2.00 per patch.
Eventually the rain stopped and we set off to Carisbrooke where the Isle of Wight Triumph Dealer, Dave Death has his emporium. A quick look around, Dave purchased some new bungee straps and we were off to find another place to eat. We chose the "Dairyman’s Daughter", well known for providing huge meals, an essential for me and Phil. Once again they looked after us well and we waddled back to the bikes.
Saturday night entertainment was provided by PDQ who were very enthusiastic but I wouldn’t book them for our rally.
Sunday morning breakfast with toast rather than fried bread this time and soon we packed our tents up, said our goodbyes and headed for the ferry.
After an uneventful crossing we arrived in Portsmouth to find the roads shut for The Great South Run. After sitting in traffic for an hour we departed for home and the Pied Bull. Phil and I used the A3, M25 route, Dave steamed off ahead, missed the A3 turning and later joined us at the Pied Bull having diverted via Little Missinghurst or something.
It’s the third year that I’ve done The Beer Pig; it's a good, friendly little rally, nice people, perhaps more Bexley members next year?