Niggle Of The Week
Perhaps this was the first sign of an anti-Brexit revolt and
we all missed it. According to the Office for National Statistics in 2016, the
year of the referendum, no babies were named Nigel in the UK.
Shocked by this revelation, the landlord of the Fleece Inn
in the Worcestershire village of Bretforton, Nigel Smith, decided that the only
response was to raise the nation’s consciousness to all that was good about the
name by celebrating Nigelness. After a couple of years of planning he was able
to hold his Nigel Night party, proceeds from which went to charity.
Some 433 Nigels attended, the largest gathering of Nigels in
one pub at one time in recorded history. It is a good job the catering wasn’t
done by Starbuck’s. Around a thousand non-Nigels also attended but in a defiant
show of Nigelness, they had to wear badges with the motif, “I’m not Nigel”.
Inevitably, Nigels, a singer, a busker, and a comedian, provided the entertainment and Nigel awards were presented to the youngest (a seven-month old baby) and oldest Nigels and the Nigel who had travelled the furthest to attend (a man from Denver, Colorado).
And if you are wondering about the title of this post, a niggle is the collective noun the party goers came up with for a group of Nigels.
