Fellow Tadgers,
Fifteen years! How do you sum the Tadgers up - what makes those trips so very special?
I hear you say - masterful organisation, quality golf, too much sleep, too little beer, support for the local economy, quality en suites … all fair comments, but there is more, I think.
I look through the old photos and see the same faces year after year – weight gain and hair loss has not daunted the enthusiasm. I think perhaps our fashion sense has improved but that is not the only thing. I’d say each tour gets better and better. Some Tadgers you will not have seen for months and yet it’s as if it was only yesterday you were discussing the merits of a ‘recovery club’ over the ‘old-fashioned four iron’.
There is never a cross word, there is always a drink waiting for you. The golf is incidental. We all want to play well but how many trips do you remember for the golf shots you played? It’s the tour handshakes, the Padstow moments, the tour drink, the Colsey tour tackle, Trigger’s one-liners, the duelling buggies, Cardigan’s a nice place, Blind Date and the first Blue Jacket … those are the things you recall.
It is rather poignant (and, perhaps, down to organisation) that we return to our roots to celebrate our fifteenth. Back to the Barley Sheaf, back to Lostwithiel and Lanhydrock, back to Wreckers. I can see some symmetry in the fact that Bodmin used to have a mental asylum. Luckily, nowadays, ‘Care in the Community’ allows us to roam free.
It is worth pointing out that when Andy spoke to Lanhydock, even after a six year gap, they still remembered the Tadgers. Even our re-branding exercise – ‘Tadgers’ to ‘The Ad Gers’ has been monumentally successful. Will they have stocked up for Moscow Mules?
We are always impeccably behaved (well, apart from the time that Gordon fell out with a Welshman … and Dennis had to be escorted out of the Eclipse … and Arthur fell out with a Welshman … and the near ‘altercation’ in the Kebab shop … and Brian fell out with a Welshman … and Stozzer scaling the front of the Barley …).
How long can we continue? Where is the youth policy? Difficult questions to answer. My only thought is: we’ll continue until we forget to organise the thingy-ma-jig?
Thanks to Andy for taking up the mantle of Organiser (will we ever tour Wolverhampton?); to Rob and Tony for doing everything that Andy forgets to do; to Viv for her pasties and of course, thanks to the rest of you for your valuable time, good humour and splendid company.
A proud T-Cap - see you all soon.
Nick