As some of you may be aware I am involved in an annual Pace-egg play during the week leading up to Easter. It was this seasons first airing last night and after we had got into part and had a brief run-through we went to do the first performance at a local pub.

While waiting to go in the pub a drunken lout began to harrass us in general and our Black Prince of Paradine in particular. Completely out of the blue and totaly unprovoked the yob swung a punch which has landed the Black Prince in hospital requiring some facial surgery to repair his lip.

We did try to detain the perpetrator but while waiting for the police (why they took 10 minutes to arrive is another story!) he broke loose and ran off. It is a bit difficult to give chase when dressed in odd attire and wearing clogs! I think it was very tempting, particulary for the players with blunt but very heavy swords, to dispense some justice but where would that have landed everyone? Imagine the headline? 'Folk tradition hooligans beat man up!'.

Anyone else had this type of bad experience? How did you handle it? What should we do if it happens again? I will keep you posted as to whether they caught the scrote and how our Black Prince is doing. In the interim catch us around the Hindley area on Thursday and in Lancaster on Friday. We will be the ones waiting to jump on anyone who starts anything;-)

Cheers

Hector the Gnome