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This is the worldwide club for all owners and enthusiasts of Standard Cars

"Dedicated to the preservation of Standard Cars 1903-1963"

Report on the AGM, April 2004

The 1934 Standard 10 was the first new model announced after Captain John Black became Managing Director of the Company in 1934. It is therefore appropriate that it should be photographed outside "Mallory Court", John Black's home near Leamington Spa.

Camera: Steve O'Hara

Its very fitting that this years Roadrun should start from Mallory Court, now a countryside Hotel in Warwickshire. This was formerly the home of Captain, later Sir John Black, Managing Director of the Standard Motor Company from 1934 to 1954. The occasion was used to photograph several examples of the company's products of the period outside his front door. Members also availed themselves of a rare opportunity to tour the public rooms and to take morning coffee and biscuits in the late Sir John's library.

Committee member Paul Newsome recalled the occasions that, as a young boy,  he accompanied this father, who was a Standard dealer in Coventry, to meetings at the house and amused us with some of the anecdotes of the period. In addition, we have to report that Mallory Court is beautifully presented as a luxury hotel and we all wished we could afford to stay there longer. 

But the roadrun was upon us, Steve O' Hara had arranged a country route of just under an hour. a fitting distance to exercise the cars on a bright Sunday morning. No breakdowns en-route so we all arrived just after noon at the "Bull Hotel" at Meriden. Everyone was very pleased with the lunch and the procession of cars then moved off to the Standard- Triumph Recreation Club at Coventry.

The AGM started at 2.00pm and  took its usual format. There was general agreement that 2003 had been a very successful year for the club. Whilst faced with a dwindling membership for many years now, the club had actually shown a noticeable increase in membership over the last 12 months. This was almost certainly inspired by interest in the Centenary celebrations, and the Chairman read out a long list of successful events that had been organised over the year. 

There had also been an improvement in the quality of the already impressive magazine and the Editor had been awarded a prize by the Motoring Writers Guild for his efforts. Alan Withey had been awarded Honorary Membership for his work over many years. Further awards were made during the afternoon, firstly the Chairmans Cup to Brian Birch for his work at the NEC show and the Editors Cup awarded to yours truly the webmaster for his work on this website! For the first time in a number of years we now had three active spares officers.

Val Richardson, Treasurer presented the financial accounts for Calender 2003, these showing both a healthy increase in turnover and surplus.

As is usual, a third of the clubs committee came up for election, but in the absence of any other nominations, the structure of the committee was  largely unchanged, the only movement being the ratification of Rachael Maxwell as the new Club Secretary, taking over from Lynda Homer who becomes a Member without Portfolio. The meeting gave a round of applause in appreciation of the many years of work that Lynda has put into the post.

John Matson spoke briefly about the arrangements that were in hand to host the International Rally near Scarborough

At 4.00pm, with all the main business concluded, everyone was served with afternoon tea giving an opportunity for the assembled members to chat and meet new faces