“The Old Time Sailors – Sunday 26th September 2021

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,”. For me, Dickens’ immortal words describe Sundays perfectly. For many Sunday is a day of rest yet we end up following a set pattern, week after week.

Following my usual Sunday routine, I ambled down to my local pub. A fellow local greeted me on arrival with “You’ve just missed the most amazing entertainment! But they may be coming back!”

They did. They turned my Sunday upside down. Capsized it if you will.

That Sunday afternoon, the pub sailed back into the 19th century and was treated to over two hours of outstanding traditional seafaring music played and sung by a seventeen piece band, all dressed in 19th century style costumes, plus one guest tin whistler. The pub joined in when the locals knew the chorus.

This unplanned, totally impromptu performance was a tour de force of professional musicianship executed by a band clearly showing its collective passion for its musical genre. Three hour long sets of exuberant entertaining left the pub locals exhausted and musically fulfilled.

Sadly the band weighed anchor and sailed back to North Wales. Everyone in the audience recognised that they had witnessed an extraordinary and unexpected event that had transformed a Sunday afternoon. Especially the pub landlord; he was the guest tin whistler!

It is now Tuesday 28th September, and a warm euphoria pervades the pub as the locals continue to reminisce and share mobile video clips, continue to talk in wonder about the unforgettable Sunday when the Old Time Sailors moored up to the White Hart in Bicester, Oxfordshire.

Harry Magnay”