SUNFLOWER CLIMB AT THE A.O.G.

Good morning from your intrepid reporter, Honeycombebeach, from the A.O.G. on this bright and sunny morning.  It was an early start for me this morning, because news came that after all the hullabaloo yesterday, and the fact that an official complaint had been made by Shaun, despite Sammy trying to calm him down, an official adjudicator had been called in.  

Discussions had gone on long into the night, whilst the Snail contingent were drinking, as suggested by Sammy, and news had filtered through at about 3 a.m. that the Special Obstacle Race would be postponed.  There were sighs of relief from Shaun, and one or two others, who didn’t want to be named, so all that remained was to find out what race would be substituted. 

At 6 a.m. this morning I had a phone call to say that the Sunflower Climb would take place, starting at 8 a.m.  I rushed round to the dressing rooms to let the Snail Team know, but only found three of them in any fit state to participate - Sammy, who is a real trouper and always steps up to the mark, Siegfried and Sebastian.  

Sadly, Shaun was still rather inebriated after all the drinking last night and was curled up underneath his bed, where no doubt he had fallen in the night and the others were snoring their heads off, so I doubt they would be in any fit state to compete today.  

Mr. HCB has grown the sunflowers from seed and this year they are taller than he has ever seen them - in fact, two of them are at least 7 feet tall, so you can imagine how difficult it was going to be and how long it would take for the snails to get to the top.  However, once they started, there was no stopping them.

I had to find a stepladder so that I could see the action at the top and Mr. HCB kindly agreed to hold it at the bottom, just in case I fell - I think he was more concerned about me falling into his bed of leeks actually!  Once perched on the ladder, I was able to take several shots of the three competitors.  Unfortunately, Siegfried was still feeling the effects of the night before, so he curled up and eventually slid backwards to the bottom, which left Sammy and Sebastian in a good position to fight it out for the Gold and Silver medals.  

It was a shame that Sebastian didn’t keep his eye on the top and decided that he would see what was “over the edge” because before long, he too plummeted down and ended up amongst the marigolds and carnations down below.  

Of course, this then left Sammy in a good position so he could see that all he had to do was slither his way along the leaf stalk, up the main stem and then he would be at the top - with lots of lovely petals to munch;  he could hardly wait!  He knew that a Gold medal was now within his reach and he was so excited, not just for himself but for the Snail Team as a whole.  He wanted them to become the Super Snail Team of the A.O.G.

After the race, when things had calmed down a bit, I found Sammy and asked if he was fit to do an interview, especially as he had had a hard climb and he said he was always ready and would be out as soon as he had had a shower.  Before he arrived, I decided to take a selfie to show that this is not a made-up story.  I took several in front of the sunflowers, to show how tall they were, but the organisers were insistent that the sponsorship sign was used - so if you think I look a bit fed up, you would be right - because I had to hunt for the sign and then find some way of holding it, but I did it eventually.  The things I go through to make sure that you get the best news stories early!

Sammy told me he was sad that the rest of the team hadn’t managed to take part in the race, but as the official representative of the snails, he said that he was going to give them a good “talking to” when he got back to the dressing room.  In fact, he was going to tell them that if they didn’t step up to the mark for the Special Obstacle Race tomorrow, then they were out.  I said that sounded rather harsh, but he insisted that he had had enough of “snivelling” snails and would be telling them that they had to “man up” and become “super slithering” snails.  Of course, he had to be mindful of the fact that Susanna might not be in a position to “man up” but he hoped that she didn’t get upset and would see that when you are part of a team, you need to think about everyone else, and not just yourself. He thought he had the skills to be able to persuade her and I hope he does.

So, tomorrow is the big day for the S.O.R. and it’s to be hoped that the pep talk tonight will help get the snails in the right frame of mind.  It remains to be seen how many of the snail contingent will be there tomorrow.  Watch this space!

Sammy told me that this is going to be the “thrust” of his pep talk to the Team:

TEAM
T TOGETHER
E EVERYONE
A ACHIEVES
M MORE