Every year, the family hold our annual competition to see which of us can collect the most for Wimborne Folk Festival.  The origins of this custom lie deep in the mists of time, probably dating back to when I had a bad knee and was unable to dance for a while and discovered I was actually rather good at collecting.

The competition was in particular earnest this year, as the festival had lost one of its usual sources of income and its grant from the council was reduced as well.

The totals are now back.  We collected over £2000 between us, but I was over a hundred pounds ahead of Richard and Henry.  (I'm not quite sure how I managed this, as I know Richard filled more tins than I did (and often fills them fuller as he can handle more weight).  I think it must relate to the fact that I went around the music sessions as well as the dance spots and thus visited places where the tin had gone round less often and thus got a higher donation per person.  That's my best guess.  Still puzzling though - I'm sure Richard sold more programmes than me - and they're £2 each in the tin.)

We were all shattered afterwards, but we had a good time.  We all like the atmosphere at Wimborne and at least we get to the two evening ceilidhs.  (We rarely get to any of the day time events as we never really stop collecting/selling programmes)