Opening the champers with a sword...

[Mead Pusher]

TMJ

I remember that night at Honington... well, the start of it anyway! Great fun - that's what jointery should be all about.

[mukit]

Ponce

[mgdaviso]

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread, our ball was a great success and I only had one miss-fire with the champers.

Can't believe it as I did it first time on the asti as a practice as well!

still we were all pretty mashed by the time we got to the champers.

[beardy]

It seems highly likely that the 'trick' originated with German Celtic tribes about 2000 years ago when they ceremoniously hacked off the tops of amphorae of wine. There is an archeaological site near the Danube littered with lots and lots of hacked off tops and evidence of spilled wine

They liked a drink in those days!

[STAN DEASY]

Remember doing this at Portland (Ahh happy days) with a sword that had been presented to a colleague by HRH. Son of said personage ambles by and comments on quality of sword to be met with the response 'Yeah your Mum gave it to me!"

A visiting crab was much taken with the concept and after intense coaching decided it would be a great wheeze at happy hour that Friday. Sadly he did not heed all the advice (He was a crab after all) and found himself having to pay for extensive repairs to the Wilkinson sword of peace on Monday!.

[professor moriarty]

Swords?

What are you doing wearing a sword at a ball?
All that Pirates of the Caribbean stuff will scare the memsahib.

[Washington_Irving]

Originally Posted by mgdaviso

Think I might practice on a couple of bottle of asti spew-manti first!
The only problem is how to buy them without getting noticed....
thanks LB

I'm sure there's a ready stock to be had in the mess at Leeming. They're normally too into the Babysham there to touch the 'hard stuff'.

You don't even need a big/sharp knife, let alone a sword. In an emergency (sat among a gaggle of female American college students) I once used a regular dinner knife and managed 6 bottles without any adverse effect.

If past experience has taught me anything though, it's that it does help to be already trousered before you try this. It's one of those rare skills (like knocking a pint glass off a table and catching it before it hits the floor without spilling a drop, or driving a school bus) that actually improves with alcohol consumption.

In the words of Rowley Birkin, QC "Of course, I freely admit, I was very, very, very drunk."