"We wanted to liven up the Bank Holiday by doing something a bit different this year and at the same time raise money for our adopted charity, The Greenwood Centre", said Mel Sullivan. "It was all a great success despite the unexpected downpour on Sunday! Customers were very generous with their contributions to the raffle and the charity pony rides."

Natalie O'Rourke manager of the Park Lane Stables in Teddington was joined by helper Hannah 'Bernana' and favourite pony Trigger for rides from The Dukes Head Gate into Bushy Park. Natalie said "It was lots of fun and great to make some new friends. A bit of a pity about the rain but having just come back from our very wet annual summer camp we're quite used to it!"

On Sunday evening, The Old Fiddle Workshop Band put on a foot stomping ceilidh in the bar. With Caroline, Sophie and Hugh on fiddles and Judy and Keith on guitar and banjo, the five performed a range of Irish jigs to the delight of customers. Barmaid Jo Jo Bently said, "They were fantastic, the whole pub was buzzing!"

Mel and John are both great TinTin fans and have filled the Dukes Head with memorabilia including some great statuettes. It seemed appropriate to run a TinTin Trivia quiz over the weekend. "There were lots of entries," said John. "We got some very innovative TinTin quotes to the speech bubble tie breaker." The overall winner was Della with 'Quick Snowy, The Duke's heading for the pub and we must get there first!' Not too surprisingly the winners got TinTin t shirts!

Local archivist Alan Benns filmed the events as part of his Teddington and Hampton 2010 Video Archive and the footage will be appearing in due course. The whole archive can be seen at the Teddington and Hampton 2010 website.

Fiona Brennan said, "It was a wonderful weekend and lots of fun. We're so grateful to Mel, John and their staff for all their help and enthusiasm, to Natalie and Hannah of Park Lane Stables, and The Old Fiddle Workshop Band. I would also like to thank all the customers at The Dukes Head for their generosity and to all those who donated the raffle prizes."