Van club rally 2025, Abingdon vale cricket club

Thursday 21st Aug

We set off to attend our first Van club rally ever at the Abingdon Vale cricket club, Oxfordshire. ///stud.silly.weeks 

The club is actually only eight months old and it sounded like it was the sort of club that we would enjoy being members of so we drove down the dreaded    M-25 and along the M-40 to Oxford and soon pulled into the town of Abingdon and then onto the cricket club field where we were met by the organisers, Ade and Claire. Ade showed us our pitch ///ballots.exam.skinny and we set the van up for the next five nights.

We had paid £80 for five nights here with elsan, grey waste and fresh water, no EHU.

We sat outside the van for a while and then in the evening everyone met at Ade's and Claire where we chatted and drank our favourite tipples including a shot of something rather nice that Ade poured for all 20 odd of us.

Eventually we all called it a night and crawled off to bed.

Friday 22nd

After a lie in we went for a walk along the river Thames into the town of Abingdon where we sat outside an independent coffee shop/cafe and had a mocha each before checking out the musem.

Back to the van and Andy sent the drone up to get the obligatory 360 degree view of the rally site before we joined the group for more drinks and chatting and eventually getting the skittles out and joining in with a very competitive game or two of 'Skattles'.

In the evening we went to The Brewery Tap and saw Heather Jane and the Red shoes who played jazz, RnB, Northern soul, and Motown.

We thought they were brilliant and will watch out for them again.

Saturday 23rd

We had a relaxing morning watching the chaps get ready to play cricket and then walked into Abingdon and caught a bus into Oxford city centre. It was only a 20 minute bus ride and we were soon walking along the high street where we bumped into some others from the campsite. We all walked into the "Legendary 1770's covered market" which was ram packed with artisan shops and boutiques. 

We decided to leave the crowd and head for the Oxford castle and prison which had been turned into a hotel. You can walk around inside and have a look at the landings where the cells were.

Sunday 24th

Sue and I decided to go for a walk along the Thames today so we headed off under the bridge and up to Abingdon lock and the wier. There were some lovely boats chugging along the river and a few Kites came down to feed.

A new game was introduced to us today, I can only call it 'bag in the hole'! The idea is to throw 4 bean bags at a sloping board with a hole in it. If your bag stays on the wood it's one point and in the hole scores 3 points. If your bag gets knocked off the board you lose that point. The first player to score 21 wins.

Later in the evening we all went to the Indian restaurant, all 40 of us, and had 40 banquet meals (£14.95 per person). It was manic and we were so noisy that we felt sorry for the other clients some of whom had obviously come out for a quiet meal!

We stumbled back to the camp and got the chairs out for a chat and a beer and then to bed.

Monday 25th

It's our 19th wedding anniversary!

A hot day today, 28 degrees but windy so we took the canopy and screen down. We looked up to see around thirteen kites swooping for food, we have never seen so many in one place and we didn't have to pay for the privilage.

Later we all met and played Skattles again until it was dinner time and then returned to the 'circle' for the quiz. We took a coloured counter from a bag and sat at the table with the corresponding colour counter on it, this made sure that we didn't all sit with our partners!

The quiz had about eight sets of questions and you could play your joker  to get double points.

Andy's team came first with 52 points after Andy decided to play their joker on the 'Science' questions and also did quite well on the music questions.

We sloped off to bed on this our last night together....until the next rally, possibly.

Tuesday 26th

A lie in today, we had put the canopy and wind break away yesterday so today wouldn't be so much of a rush. We are all leaving today and some actually left yesterday, (workers).

A quick cuppa and then Andy started on the blue jobs in between saying goodbyes to the vanners as they left and then it was our turn. We drove over to say farewell to Ade and Claire, the organisers, as we would be seeing them in a couple of days at the next rally in Swanage, and then hit the road south.

What a brilliant time we had and what great new friends we had made, Swanage here we come!