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17th Laurel and HarDay Saturday 5th September 2009

Gary Winstanley The Dirty Work Tent took over the running of the Annual Laurel and HarDay when Chris Coffey and the Bacon Grabbers Tent announced last year that they would no longer be staging the event. This meant that this year's event took on a fresh life, combining some new ideas with trusted old favourites. The venue was the Upper Morris Street Workingmen's Club in Wigan. As always there was an abundance of Laurel and Hardy films on the screen and the host tent treated us to some clever "Dirty Work Movies", which were a big hit. There was also a film of the unveiling of the statue in Ulverston, including historical movies of Bill Cubin announcing the start of collecting of finances and some of his subsequent progress reports. The customary Kneesie-Earsie-Nosey World Championship was keenly contested and won by Cameron Seddon. The Bullseye Darts Competition was highly amusing and was won by Mandy Finney and Dougie Brown. Eric Woods presented a very difficult quiz. There was a free raffle and the usual Caption Contest. At the start of the day folk were slow to arrive, but this picked up dramatically and, by the middle of the afternoon, the place was packed. Grand Sheik Gary Winstanley can be justly proud of the success of the day. His tent helpers, well experienced in making previous Laurel and HarDays possible, excelled and our thanks go to them all for one more great achievement. Willie McIntyre Cameron Seddon Guess who? Dougie Brown and Mandy Finney