The Rustlers Country and Western Dance Club History.         Where it all began....   The Rustlers Country Western Dance Club was first set up by Colin and Cyd The Rustlers   Country Western Dance Club was first set up by Colin and Cyd Pettit, under the name of, 'The Double 'C' CWDC', on 3rd March 1995. This started off on a Thursday evening, with just a handful of line dancing enthusiasts keen on country and western music, in the dance hall at the Cowplain Community Social Club...... (and now a comment about the club's origins from the man himself, Mr Colin Pettit......)                                     "We started the club in September October 1994 after Phil Hewitt, late husband of Lyn, asked Cyd and I to get something going to bring people into the club. Our original members joined us to learn the dances we had been taught during the 2/3 years since we had been dancing. They were; Shirley and Lonnie Skeet, who are still regular members; The late Annie, and her husband Eddie Ayris, Pat and Rick Sandford, and lastly, Sam Cook.  Christmas 1994 started seeing people coming to join us. Kim and Steve  Daily were among the first.  We carried on gradually building up the membership until March 1995  when we approached the committee to be included as an official Dance  Section of Cowplain Social Club and put Double C Country & Western  Dance Club forward as our name.  We thought that the double C could stand for either Cowplain Country or  Colin and Cyd, depending on how we felt. There have been more than 250 people passing through the club as members, the youngest was probably Liam, whose mum Kim started bringing to the club when he was about  seven years old.    The oldest is possibly Ann and Nev Hoyes, who I think were in their late sixties when they started line dancing?....".   As line dancing became more and more popular their membership increased very quickly. Colin and Cyd made every one feel at ease, and new members were most welcome to join in. If you couldn't grasp the line dance steps it really didn't matter.   The most important thing was you went there to enjoy yourselves.  Entrance price was initially 50p eventually rising to £1 per person, the club started at around 7pm and ran on until 11.45pm or later. Social club drinks prices were very reasonable too. It was, to put it simply,                                 Just Brilliant!  Colin and Cyd retired from teaching for health reasons in 2002, as a result of this some members, namely, Lyn, Janis, Kim and Alan, formed a new committee and continued running the club.    Soon after, Lyn, Janis, Alan, Pam and Les undertook their Best Western Dance Academy (BWDA)Instructors training course. In due course, Janis, decided to resign from the committee.  In her place, we are pleased to say that Colin came out of 'retirement' to join our committee,and as a guest instructor, reviving a lot of our old favourite dances.  The Rustlers membership continues to thrive, and we hold Country and Western dances at the Club each year, and our thanks and appreciation go to all those members who willing give up their spare time to help set up the equipment and flags, and act as DJ's, and in many other ways, to enable our weekly line dancing sessions and Live Country 'n' Western Dance evenings to run so smoothly.  In January, 2005, some of our club members enjoyed a Country and Western Festival at Sand Bay, and Our 10th anniversary Party Disco was held on the 3rd March 2005.  (A comment from the club Secretary)         Lyn Hewitt)  "....The 10th anniversary of the founding of the club was celebrated in style recently with a disco party for all the members old and new, with many searching their wardrobes for the style of western gear we used to wear..."   With a ‘blast from the past’ type disco our brain cells were fully stretched trying to remember all the dances. Many times we heard the plaintive cry of,  "HOWZ IT START?" echoing around the hall.  (Here are some photos of the 'Double CC Club members....         www.angelfire.com/folk/rustlerscwdclub/album/index.album/the-dancers ....and, some more of the 10th anniversary party.....)                           www.angelfire.com/folk/rustlerscwdclub/Album/  Occasionally, restarts were in order until we remembered all the steps.    Bolstered by a slice of celebration cake our memories improved as the evening wore on, and the general consensus was that it had been a great fun evening when a good time was had by all ....".              Y'All Come back now!                        Les (editor)
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