With aeromodellers of the golden control line years being mainly boys and young men, some serious pranks seem almost inevitable.

The rude awakening of four modellers camped in a tent is confessed to here by one of the perpetrators, Ken Dowell.  This is what he wrote to one of the victims of the awakening:

Sheep in the tent!

To this piece of sheer devilry, I must plead guilty to being a member of the team that did the dastardly deed.

This exercise arose from Trevor Woolnough's observation that "you were on your own" in a tent just outside the hall while everyone else was on the floor or whatever. What could/should we do about it?" became the catchcry when the boredom began to set in. Someone remembered the small flock of sheep on the other side of the Showgrounds, so the idea became a very quiet and secretive conspiracy - to capture a sheep to keep you company.

Have you ever tried to catch a sheep? .. It took over an hour for us to catch the damn thing - they can move a lot faster than one would expect. However, after many diving tackles and person-walls to corner it, we stealthily walked this sheep back to the hall where Trevor silently untied the tent flap and one sheep was unceremoniously pushed inside and the flap retied.

We all moved quietly away and awaited results - nothing. Someone then suggested that perhaps you should be "awaked" in some manner, so we became a little noisier in order to rouse you from slumberland. Within a few minutes, a blood-curdling scream emanated from inside the tent - you were awake!

As best as I can now remember, you said later in the morning that you awoke to see two orange eyes staring at you in the darkness! That scream was the topic of many joke sessions in the years following. My memory is fuzzy as to the people involved, but Trevor and myself certainly were - Geoff Lawson may have been, as may Ron Wilson, Johnny Hughes and maybe even Gordon James.

Nostalgia is a wonderful thing, especially when it relates to people and events of so long ago. We are all a lot older, maybe wiser, but certainly enriched for the friends, the craziness, the enjoyment, the experiences. Many are no longer with us, but their part in our lives continue, and may it do so for many years to come.