TG Lage celebration
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
As you may know Horsham Joggers is twinned with the running club TG Lage in Germay. They recently held a celebration there to which Dave Maurice was invited on behalf of Horsham Joggers.
The celebration was to commemorate 500 years of the Schutzenguild. To mark the occasion there was a parade of about 800 people made up from the shooting clubs in the area along with many other sporting clubs, Adventure Scouts Guides and Kinder Gardens. There were six marching bands, one of which was on horse back.
The story dates back to the 1500s when the villagers asked the hunting clubs to protect them from marauding outlaws and their animals. Since then every two years the town holds a Schutzenfest in which up to 300 members of the local shooting clubs walk around the town before returning to the market square where they are met by the Bergermeister. It goes without saying that a certain amount of drinking takes place both during and after the walk!
The picture above shows the newly appointed King Stefan-Olivar Strate and Queen Martina Widmar (no they are not married). Jochen Nitsche, chair of TG Lage and Dave Maurice for HJ.
The next big celebration between Horsham Lage, will take place in 2010 here in Horsham when we celebrate 25 years in partnership.