The first of what we hope will be an annual “VIOCS Summer Picnic” was held at Beaver Lake on 18 August.  Twenty cheery members gathered at the picnic site for good company and conversation, a tasty potluck to accompany the bring-your-own barbeque, and a rousing game of “Aunt Sally,” which will be familiar to those Oxonians who ventured beyond the city limits into the Oxfordshire pubs.  Simon Farthing (Darwin, 1977), though a Cambridge man, graciously threw for the Dark Blues and took home the “VIOCS Dolly Cup.”  Simon promises to return with the Cup and uphold the honour at next year’s event, when he will be knocking the dolly for Cambridge. Let this be an early call for Oxonians to muster to the challenge.

Simon Farthing, winner of the VIOCS Dolly Cup, with VIOCS members Bob Vander Steen, Patricia Kongshavn, Peter Wood and guest.

The image on reverse side of the Dolly Cup is an engraving of the game as played in the 1800s, when the game used a dolly dressed as an old woman.