The rain started on Birdlip – almost as regular an occurrence on London WRG digs as at Lichfield – but was short lived, giving us a much needed dry weekend. The other regular feature of our journeys to the H&G, the discussion of the true meaning of weight restriction signs in relation to Transit vans full of lardy blokes also materialised, giving Andi a chance to practice her mental arithmetic.

We found the Royal Exchange already very full: despite five cancellations, we had an excellent turn-out of 23. Another welcome discovery was the landlord’s interpretation of closing time – obviously it’s when you close the curtains! That and an excellent hall pose a serious challenge to West Felton.

Tesco once again obliged at 1am, but on returning to the hall with all the food, we found the fridge and all the pans locked in the storeroom. Somehow an excellent breakfast was cooked using a single grill tray on Saturday.

On site, a huge number of bricks were laid on the wharf wall. The slipway walls were finished by Matt, shuttered, and then partially backfilled with concrete, mixed by hand. Elsewhere, the gabion wall was finally started, and a large amount of "landscaping" brought the east bank of the basin down to the correct height.

Maria and Clive cooked an excellent meal, augmented by cakes supplied by Trust members. Once again the landlord was very obliging; too obliging for some!

On Sunday, shuttering and bricklaying continued, while everyone else got to play with terram and tonnes of crusher. The area around the slipway was prepared for topsoil, and the slipway for its granite finish. Clive filled more gabions, ably assisted in the cab of the 3CX by Bess.

No dig at Over would be complete without a few breakdowns: the hired pump failed to work all weekend, while the one it was brought in to replace functioned admirably. JP, Alan, and Chris even managed to perform negative breakdowns on both of the 805s: David will now have to find a new reference point to survey off! Similarly shocking was the novel experience of leaving site before sunset.

Those of us going back to London spent the journey asleep, no doubt dreaming of the opening ceremony: if the rest of the weekends are as productive as this one, then we won’t need to dream about it.