Bapto Years

BAPTO FINALS GREAT YARMOUTH

I started to write the “The Pool years” in 2012 I can remember most things that happened over the 10 years or so I was involved,But I went to so many events not always the actual year of each event, In those 10 years I can categorical state, The Sheppey pool Lads made a huge contribution to the UK economy by consuming enough larger to fill an Olympic swimming pool, I should know I was the chief whip, I was very proud of them, Lol

This Years Bapto finals were being played at The Vauxhall Holiday Park Yarmouth And the Isle Of Sheppey were representing Kent, The Team had been playing out of The Flying Dutchman, Queenborough, The Landlord loaned us their Mini bus for the trip, It had the Flying Dutchman Livery all over the bus, I had booked two caravans but later had to book another one as more people wanted to go. (This will become relevant later on).

We set of on the Friday afternoon all the players and supporters excepted Jock Connors he was driving up Early Saturday morning. This bus was virtually clapped out and with the full load on it struggle to get up the hills we were trundling along on the inside lane of the M11 max speed 55mph when The Wimbledon football team coach came right up behind us and was tail gating us, some of my passengers (no names mentioned) started mooning at the Wimbledon coach.

I had my foot flat to the floor to no avail, their coach past us shortly after. As we got up past Felixstowe people were toting their horns at us and waving as they past and we realised they thought we were Dutch. We eventually get to the park and check in, the first two caravans i booked are next to each other No 90 & 91 the third one was No 367. We sorted out Who was in which caravan and then went to have a look around we saw the sign saying NO JEANS or TRAINERS to be worn in the playing area.

We didn’t know this would be a problem till the next morning when Tony told us he only had his Jeans with him, I gave him a pair of my trousers but as i was a lot larger around the waist than him they just fell down around his ankles.

Barry Williment took his trousers off and gave them to Tony to save the day, (Barry no trousers Williment ) was born, like all these trips they turned into “Jolly Boys Outing” when we got KO, and this one was no different, Saturday night i took the lads to a night club in Yarmouth called THE BIRD CAGE no prizes for guessing what sort of club this was, I just dropped them off and told them to get a taxi back as i was knackered and going to bed, About 2.am some one’s banging on my bedroom window, Its TG & Farbee. What number caravan are the others in, I’m not telling you says I.

Then i hear them messing about with the Gas bottle under the caravan and saying lets blow this fucking caravan up, where by I say there in No 367, all goes quiet, Now for some reason known only to them they decided to become CAT Burglars and break into the other caravan and pinch their cues, In the morning they left in Jock’s motor with the cue’s, by this time the break-in had been reported to the main site office, I had some explaining to do and we lost our deposit on one of the caravans.

JVAs “The Pool Years”