Wild Day Out 2 - 2003

The Beach Party

Sunday July 27, 2003

Once again it was time for another Wild Day Out at the Shepherds Bush Walkabout. The previous weeks' warm weather certainly had everyone in the mood, and once the doors opened at 12 the hawaiian shirts started rolling in. Proceedings were held up a little at the start of the day due to the Master of Ceremonies having a bit of a sleep in, but when Jack finally did arrive (note here - he was late to previous Wild Day Out too, "only" he says, by about four hours) they gave him the microphone and what can we say - he never looked back!

As usual the organisers had a day packed with events, the first was the popular Limbo competition. Judges and bar-holders Grappa and Bobby did a fine job, of weeding out the competitors they didn't like, using subtle up-and-down bar movements as they saw fit. Certain male contestants had the bar "lowered" right into them by Grappa, and certain female ones had nothing but "bar-raising" and affectionate smiles from Bobby. Still there were some interesting techniques, and some very flexible contestants - it was a deserving winner who collected her prize from Bobby at the end.

Next up was the snorkelling competition, basically the idea was to drink a bottle of reef as quickly as possible, as Grappa poured it in to the top. The guys went first and the best times were around the 12 second mark. For some reason "Little Nozza" and "The Machine Gun" had to have a drink off, not sure why, this reporter feels he would have been paying attention except that Little Nozza's shirt was putting everyone off. And yes it did button from the other side if you know what I mean.

The girls were next, and Jack the MC took it upon himself to start announcing that there was no way the girls were going to beat the times set previously, and that if they did their prizes would be doubled!! A stricken Bobby was seen shaking his head in disbelief and hissing at Jack that he didn't have any extras! Without missing a beat, Jack upped the ante to a Mercedes instead, unfortunately we couldn't see Kanga's face at the time. Not fazed, the girls stepped up, and after some strict words to Grappa about his previously timid pouring, the second heat of the snorkelling got under way. Dons drank with gusto and managed a rapid 9 seconds, and was shortly followed by a slightly slower time of ten - superb effort girls, those Mercs must be around somewhere...

Then it was boat race time! A strong Wildcats side and also a Wildcats "A" took to the stage, flanked by a couple of speedily assembled teams from the crowd. The Wildcats side, resplendant in their "top-five" t-shirts consisted of Cindy, Shuts, Big Andy, and Jack were on top form, beating the other sides by a whole pint in what must have been some kind of boat-race record. The Wildcats "A" side consisting of King Schmidty, Lewis, Bandanna Matt, and someone else, looked after themselves well and saw off the other competitors for second place. Having just put one away, the defending number 1, Cindy, was offered to the crowd in a one-on-one skull off. The Challenger, one "Lucky Phil" stepped up to give it a go, but it appears that putting two down doesn't seem to slow the champ down much, and not for the first or last time this year, victory went to the Wildcats.

Finally, the moment everyone had been waiting for, the first heat of the bikini competiton! The girls stepped out, modelling the club's footy jumpers, and into Jack's zone. His charm and wit were obvious as he introduced the girls and plied them with witty questions. He was overheard telling the girls back-stage that giving the MC a kiss would be looked upon favourably by the judges - yeah right Jack - still, he did get a couple of pecks. The competition was tough, and the judges (pictured below) were not given any easy time of it.

Well it wouldn't be a beach party if we didn't see any bikinis, so thats just what the lovely girls did in heat 2. A surprise was in store for the hungry crowd though as a last-minute late entry was added to the cards. "She" proved to be a real crowd favourite, and you had to excuse the other girls if they looked a little nervous - the new bikini on the scene was a SBM (Shep Bush Market) special and the latest competitor was filling it out well, perhaps a little too well in some areas.

As you can see for yourself, the choice of to who to give the £500 was not an easy one, in fact the judges were taking so long in finalising the results that it was left to Tyrone and Ruggy to fill in some time. Well we're not sure who gave the mic to Ruggy, but that boy was on the stage for a good five minutes telling us stories of his childhood. And with not one person in the crowd any wiser as to just where Ruggy would have taken it, if just given a bit more time, the judges final decisions were in, the talliers had tallied, and the results were in the envelope...

Congratulations to the winner, and to all the other girls for taking part, and turning the day into another big one for the Wildcats.

Blue Moose took to the stage almost straight away, rockin' the Walky, and once again showing off the club jumpers. Special thanks at this time go to major sponsors of the day Dirty Dog who generously donated a load of cool stuff for the prizes given out all day. Extra special thanks go to Bobby who did a fantastic job organising the day, Grappa and Jack (when he got out of bed) for on-stage support, all the Wildcats and Wildkittens who helped out during the day, on the door etc. - you made it what it was.

As expected there were a couple of sculling challenges, Big Andy took on Mattress, who must have been feeling the pressure. He started accusing of false starts, and was trying to play mind games with the big fella. In the end Mighty Mattress was given a final warning and the start was clearly counted down. Once again, as you can see from the picture below, a bewildered Mattress is standing there gawking as Big Andy sinks his pint anyway. Mattress later re-challenged but lost anyway, ah poor fella, the good old days are certainly starting to slip away!! Seeing Mattress had really only drunk one pint, Justin spied the weak link in the top ten, and successfully dropped Mattress down another spot as he confirmed himself in to the number 9 position. See the sculling rankings for the latest positions.

There was no stopping the Wildcats and Kittens, as per usual the celebrations continued long into the night, and plenty of Schnakey B's were consumed. The Wildcats certainly know how to party, and with plenty more social functions to look forward to this year, as well as the Wildcats' and Raiders' on-field performances, this is certainly shaping up to be one of the biggest years in Wildcats history!!

GO CATS!!!!

We're still not sure if the helicopter was just the club president's ride in, or if it was waiting on the Green to rush comatose Wildcats off for emergency stomach pumping action.