: : September 2007 August was a busy and successful month for the club. Four cars travelled to Ripe Airfield in East Sussex, the venue for this years Deanland Weekender. Three cars from 1009 were joined by Ian Craig, our ex-editor in his ZT-T, and made the relatively easy journey to Sussex, where everyone enjoyed an excellent weekend. With hot sunny weather the free camping facilities really did pay off. Other attractions included a quiz on the Friday night (our team won), a beautiful scenic tour on Saturday via Eastbourne and parts of the South Downs that finished with a lovely home made cream tea, followed by an evening of 1940s music and fancy dress with a hog roast. Hats off to Ian and Linda for their Oscar winning costumes and dance routines but sadly they won no awards. Well done to our hosts at East Sussex for all their hard work in providing such a great weekend. Sunday August 12th was the date for this year's gathering at Athelhampton. A very pleasant day in beautiful surroundings was promised with the chance to support Nigel Hedges and our colleagues in 1020 for their annual charity event. It was a nice surprise too when Martin showed me the trophy presented for being the best supporting visiting club - I’m sorry I missed it. For the mid-monthly meeting it was decided to have a picnic and barbeque in the Forest, a great idea, after all it was August! So Anderwood Enclosure was booked for the evening of Wednesday 15th. Kris and I arrived early and when Martin drove up a short time later with the food we lit the fire and started cooking. It was a reasonable evening and as everyone arrived we were all looking forward to the barbeque scheduled for approx. 6.30pm. The meat was just about cooked when Linda arrived with the gazebo - do we actually need it someone said? with that the heavens opened. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a gazebo go up so quickly - it poured down. In true spirit everyone stayed for the best part of the evening gradually devouring the steaks, burgers and sausages beautifully prepared by Martin and disregarding the now monsoon conditions. (It must be said that Roy cooked with me and a huge thanks to Linda for keeping the rain off the burgers and us with the brolly. Ed.)  We must all be mad but thanks to all seventeen of you who stuck it out, surely a talking point for months to come. Conditions for the gymkhana on Sunday 19th were a lot better. Seventeen cars and thirty plus members participated in one of the best staging of this event. The usual games were enthusiastically tackled by driver and passenger alike and the newly introduced car golf was a great hit! Nigel Knowles returned to defend his title with support from Chris and Annabel Harrison of Sarum MGOC but it was 1009ers Lucie and Richard who beat off a strong challenge from early favourites Malcolm Bailey and Martin Charles to win the gold medal and return the trophy to Southampton. Tania had once again provided two sets of quiz questions (a) Elvis Presley song title anagrams (b) Cricket field positions------------Yes, Cricket field positions.------you must be joking. Anyway, well done Tania, as well as Malcolm and Julie Rumsey / Carol Ward and Ian Hamilton who were joint winners of the Elvis quiz. The late August Bank Holiday weekend weather was in stark contrast to conditions experienced at the start of the month. The blue skies and warm sunshine proved ideal for those who attended The Hampshire Pageant of Motoring at Broadlands on Sunday 26th/ Monday 27th. Another excellent club turn out on both days and if you left before collecting your brass plaque I have 11 to hand out ------see me on club night. It’s hard to believe it's September already but there are still a few good events coming up. The South Downs Run takes place on Sunday 9th Sept, and  the club has a stand for  fifteen cars at the Wessex Classic Car Show, Canford Arena on Sunday 16th Sept. Although it is too late to send off for entries you can still pay at the gate. If any of you are looking to tackle the odd maintenance job on the car over the winter months Beaulieu Autojumble takes place Saturday 8th / Sunday 9th Sept. It’s one of the biggest autojumbles in Europe and is definitely worth a visit if you haven’t been before. If August was a funny old month, it certainly never affected members enjoying their MGs, and the support for some of the events organised was the best I can remember for a long time ----------keep it up. < Return to previous page