The Judges 
the Stewards When we arrived, we were marshalled by Darby the Good into work teams with a number of other, similarly afflicted, wine nuts / stewards. Poor Carole Edwards was stuck with babysitting the little fat guy, and Big Dave was assigned to Sadie for general purpose use (his first time here).
Tony would come in from time to time with instructions, and Sadie would translate these into action. The basic job was to number the glasses, put them in order on trays on trolleys, and pour pre-determined wines into them. We then delivered them into the other room to the judges (aka the Lion's Den). We would then await the judges completion of that round so we could pick up the empty glasses and replace them with the next round, which by that time was ready to go. Wines were delivered to the judges in glasses identified only with a numbered tag, and placed in a large semi-circle in front of the judges. The judges at no time saw the bottles or knew which wine was which. We poured and removed three rounds in the morning.
We proceeded to pour three rounds in the morning, and then went to lunch. Big Dave (left) was more than willing to take some of the wines to the lunchroom to be sure we didn't dehydrate over lunch... Lunch was tasty, with a good wine selection! A chance to relax for the judges (Billy Munnelly, Linda Bramble and Frank Baldock to the right), and a chance to park your butt for the stewards! But, we still had to take the wines back after for media interview purposes after the competition.
After lunch, it was back into the lion's den (left). We were in the groove after receiving sustenance, and life was sweet again. But, back to work... We had no trouble finishing the day, helping clean up, helping arrange things for media pictures and interviews, picking up and putting away. Poor Sadie still had a day or two of work in front of her...
By the time we were done, there was one enormous pile of part-bottles! And this didn't include the ones where the judges had called for a fresh bottle... Eventually we had to face the tough decision as to which of the more than 300 good wines we wanted to taste, now that the judges were finally done! Talk about tough choices - even knowing that it would take some time to get back to the van in Pickering!!
A purple heart was earned by Pat Raynham (left, injured on duty), and Pat Bolger felt the need of a coffee to end it all.
We know who did the real work behind this day!!!
