Anderton OKthat'stheseriousbit-nowlet's see some WRGies jump off it! The Anderton Abseil On Sunday October 7th, 21 intrepid WRG volunteers abseiled down the Anderton Lift, to raise money through sponsorship towards the final crucial fundraising push that will hopefully pay for the last of the restoration work...
As we go to press, the money is still coming in, but it looks very hopeful that we will raise the £10,000 target that will make WRG a Gold Patron of the Anderton Boat Lift Appeal. The latest total is £8551, and Viv Thorpe is currently top of the WRG league table for sponsors but with Glenn Shoosmith rapidly catching him up. Hopefully next time we will be able to give you the final figures and hopefully our total will have reached its target. We decided to make a weekend of it, with a day's work on the Ribble Link on Saturday and an enjoyable evening in Anderton village hall on the Saturday evening with Rick's birthday as the excuse for a party... as if we needed one....
The WRG abseilers were Spencer Collins, Dave Wedd, Sue Burchett, Ralph Bateman, Mike Palmer, Lou Kellett, Harry Watts, Jen Leigh, Dave Parish, Izzy Gascoigne, Viv Thorpe, Martin Ludgate, Matt Taylor, George 'Bungle' Eycott, Paul 'Mole' Cattermole, Glenn Shoosmith, Katherine Davis, Gavin Moor, Joanne 'Smudge' Smith and late entry Rupert Smedley who only signed-up for the abseil a week before it happened but still raised well over £100. Sadly Nina Whiteman had to drop out at short notice as she had damaged her back, so Andy Jones stepped into the gap... literally! We hope those who sponsored Nina are happy for their sponsorship to be transferred to Andy - and we really do hope that Nina's back gets better. Also abseiling were Andy Crossley of IWA and Bill Walker, Felicity Maxwell, Fran Littlewood, Richard Witt, Rosslyn Colderley, Paul Berry, James Thompson, Gemma Gleave and Simon Gilbert of BW / The Waterways Trust. Top: Jen's just hanging around! (Martin Ludgate) Above: Is the editor telling a 'fishy story'? Or boasting about the size of the next edition? (Lesley McFadyen) Left: group photo of all the abseilersl; the things they're sitting on are the cogs from the counterbalanced phase of the Lift's history. Opposite bottom left: 'Mole' comes down to earth. (Joanne Smith) Opposite top right: Smudge's 'not-quite-topless' abseil. (I don't know who took it 'cos it's on Smudge's camera but I guess it probably wasn't taken by her...)
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