 Tom Legg braves the ladder in spite of inclement weather and searing hangover to behead the Cyclemas Tree by removing cast-iron lamppost.
 Ted Dewan gives a brief eulogy to the Cyclemas Tree, reminding pall-bearers of the priviledge granted by pushing the Tree through the streets, allowing them to savour their temporaty power to stop motorised traffic without upsetting motorists too much.
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THE WAKE
“I dont think you should have done that, Tom,” I said when he cut the wires to the Cyclemas Tree’s lamppost. The moment Tom Legg beheaded the Cyclemas Tree and carried the lamppost down the ladder, a furious north wind delivered its punishment. A ladder blew over and smashed my car. The pub signs crashed down. Hailstones bombarded us and scattered off our hard-hats, filling the little square with frozen white marbles.
This should have come as no real surprise. The start of the Cyclemas Tree’s “funeral” was very much in the true “Spirit of Cyclemas”. Throughout its short life, the Cyclemas Tree challenged and punished all who created it. But its visciousness was matched by its ability to reward and edify. Perhaps that’s how eight volunteer “pall-bearers”, suitably dressed in black with glo-brite vests and yellow hard-hats, came to serve at the Cyclemas Tree’s funeral that chilly and violent Saturday morning. They came to push the one-and-a-half tonne structure from the site at Oxford’s Gloucester Green Coach Station to its birthplace at Modern Art Oxford about a half-mile away. A sole mourner, bewitched by the romance and folly of the Cyclemas Tree, came equipped with a camera.
But though the Cyclemas Tree was solid concentrated Sod’s Law from its very beginning, its end proved to be Sod’s Law in reverse. When the Cyclemas Tree began rolling, Olivia Dawson ran back to its empty site and placed a wreath made of a cycle wheel covered with plastic ivy. On cue, a laser-sharp winter sun banished the hail and set the glo-brite vests, the hard hats, and the Cyclemas Tree itself ablaze. And from this heavenly light, two angels appeared in the form of two police constables from the Thames Valley Police Cycle Unit.
 The Cyclemas Tree, safely unplugged is rolled out of Gloucester Green by the pall-bearers.
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