Some 40 odd years ago when sharing a flat in Old Road in Shipston on Stour with Bugsy we both awoke on a Saturday morning after a night’s hard drinking around Shipston. Our flat was a dingy little affair next to the public lavatories from where we got our electricity via a lead when we got cut off by “Rubber Shears Rick” who worked for the MEB ( this happened quite frequently) !
On this occasion we found that we had less than £15.00 between u...s for the day’s drinking – enough for lunchtime but not for Saturday night and Sunday – it was most depressing ! After the lunchtime session I sat morosely in my chair staring at a television that didn’t work and noticed a one gallon empty cider flagon on the floor with a spoon lying next to it – I put the spoon handle down in the neck of the flagon and gave the spoon bowl a flick and watched fascinated as the spoon waggled and waggled! I suppose it must have been the shape of the spoon bowl , lack of friction etc but after timing it on my cheap “garage digital watch” it waggled for some eleven minutes!
Bingo I thought and shouted “Bugsy - how much fuel have you got in your car?” – “Nearly full Baggy” – so off we went – all the way up the A34 to Lapworth and started at The Boot Inn. By this time we may have had about £1.00 left but were confident in our new found venture! We put the flagon on the bar, got out the spoon inserted it and let it waggle for about ten seconds before removing it . Now we took bets at even money and gave everybody 30 seconds “grace” either way to be a winner – about ten people took us on and as we expected most people bet between 40 seconds and 2 minutes . After the spoon had waggled beautifully for 3 minutes we removed it, drank up , pocketed the loot and left ! On the way back we “did” every pub in Henley in Arden and ended up trying to do it in The Hilton in Stratford from where we were ejected!
On finally getting back to The White Bear in Shipston we were fairly well oiled and with well over £100 in our fund!
On this occasion we found that we had less than £15.00 between u...s for the day’s drinking – enough for lunchtime but not for Saturday night and Sunday – it was most depressing ! After the lunchtime session I sat morosely in my chair staring at a television that didn’t work and noticed a one gallon empty cider flagon on the floor with a spoon lying next to it – I put the spoon handle down in the neck of the flagon and gave the spoon bowl a flick and watched fascinated as the spoon waggled and waggled! I suppose it must have been the shape of the spoon bowl , lack of friction etc but after timing it on my cheap “garage digital watch” it waggled for some eleven minutes!
Bingo I thought and shouted “Bugsy - how much fuel have you got in your car?” – “Nearly full Baggy” – so off we went – all the way up the A34 to Lapworth and started at The Boot Inn. By this time we may have had about £1.00 left but were confident in our new found venture! We put the flagon on the bar, got out the spoon inserted it and let it waggle for about ten seconds before removing it . Now we took bets at even money and gave everybody 30 seconds “grace” either way to be a winner – about ten people took us on and as we expected most people bet between 40 seconds and 2 minutes . After the spoon had waggled beautifully for 3 minutes we removed it, drank up , pocketed the loot and left ! On the way back we “did” every pub in Henley in Arden and ended up trying to do it in The Hilton in Stratford from where we were ejected!
On finally getting back to The White Bear in Shipston we were fairly well oiled and with well over £100 in our fund!
Brilliant story in! Love the ingenuity.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading it - more coming!
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