| Best
One Make Car Stand at the Powderham Castle Rally
The delighted Group
with their well-deserved award!
A
superb turnout of Standard enthusiasts results in a this major
accolade for the Devon and Cornwall Group.
Brian Murrish writes:
On
11/12 July, the Devon and Cornwall Group of the Standard Motor Club
put on together their Group stand for the event as they have done for
the last several years.
The
event for the members started very early for Steve Lovegrove and Chris
Bowden, with them enjoying a full English breakfast in Exeter before
starting out to Powderham to locate our site and start the
preparations. By the time I got there, Steve was hard at work mowing
our grassy plot and Chris was raking up all the cuttings. John Pine
arrived shortly after me and then all four of us set to and precisely,
or very nearly, made a roped area in a neat rectangle which, when
empty, looked massive.
| By
the time the gazebos had been erected plus our union flag, the New
Forest participants, Geoff and Sharon Cattermole with David Lovering
accompanying them, we were ready to take a look at our brand new
banner which Sharon arranged to have made for us. What a lovely
specimen. It was not put up until the Saturday but it certainly put
our plot on the map from far away. |
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through to see enlargement |
|
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With
the site all set we retired to our overnight lodgings, to prepare for
a run in the evening to Dawlish and Teignmouth for fish and chips. As
usual all enjoyed the food and banter and much discussion about the
weekend event to come. The weather was the popular topic seeing that
last year’s event was abandoned on the second day due to heavy rain
and high winds. |
| The
Saturday dawned reasonably well and we were all on site early, trying to
organise the cars that were arriving into some semblance of an oval
formation with 1920’s cars at bottom left, around to pre-war cars to
the left of the gazebo and post-war cars around to the bottom right.
We still had space for two late-comers who we managed to squeeze into
the middle. The weather was okay until mid-afternoon when it started
to drizzle and progressively got worse until tea-time when we had to
leave to prepare for our usual evening meal with our Group members at
the Swans Nest, Exminster. A lovely meal was consumed by all and this
time we left at the correct time instead of nearly being locked in as
last year. |
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through to see enlargement |
After
a soggy Saturday when we still saw a large number of interested
members of the public visiting our stand we wondered what the Sunday
would bring.
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through to see enlargement
|
Although
it dawned really bright it was not long before the clouds rolled up
and an isolated shower crept over us. It certainly didn’t mar the
weekend. Similarly, there were large crowds visiting us over the
Sunday too. The highlight for some was to see the steam-hauled Torbay
Express pass by hauled by "Tornado", the new-build A1
Pacific that featured on Top Gear in June. Highlight for one V4 owner
was when his car’s engine was sounding sick and the diagnosis was
"ignition", Steve Lovegrove rolled his sleeves up,
dismantled the relevant bits, sorted the problem and reassembled it.
Job done and the car sounded much sweeter. |
You
could say that the highlight of our day was when it announced that the
Devon and Cornwall Group had won the best one-make club stand at the
event. Having won it two years ago, we were up against stiffer
competition this time in the form of a very professional display put
on by the Renault Owners Club. Maybe Chris Bowdens wind-up gramophone
and old 78 records created the right atmosphere or maybe seeing two of
our cars as ‘restoration in progress’ helped.
The
highlight of some people’s weekend was to taste what real Cornish
pasties tasted like, not the "modern mush" that people over
the Tamar bought purporting to be the "real thing". I hope
we convinced them!!
|
Vehicles
attended were as follows:-
- 1924
Kenilworth, Brian and Dorothy Murrish
- 1927
V4, Steve Smeltzer
- 1932
Little 9, John Garrad
- 1933
Little 9, John and Julia Pine
- 1934
10, Colin Fry
- 1934
10, Steve and Karen Lovegrove
- 1938
Flying 10, David Swallow
- 1947
8, Chris and Linda Bowden
- 1948
8, David Lovering
- 1953
Ferguson TE20
Tractor, Steve and Karen Lovegrove
- 1955
8, Alan Skinner
- 1955
8, Colin Fry
- 1955
10, Peter Starbuck
- 1956
10, Tim Retter
- 1958
8, Tony Smith
- 1959,
Vanguard Vignale,
Geoff and Sharon Cattermole
- 1960
10 Van, Michael West
- 1960
Ensign, Richard Owen
|
The new
Group Banner |
All
enjoyed this weekend immensely, if you are interested in attending
next year on one or both days or even come down to spend the weekend
as our friends from the New Forest, Dorset and Bristol did, let us
know and we can recommend the B and B accommodation in the area or
there is a camping area adjacent to the site.
COME
AND SEE US, YOU WON’T BE DISAPPOINTED
Brian
Murrish
May
I add my congratulations to the Devon and Cornwall Group for this
achievement. Dear readers, you might like to note that 5 years ago
there was no such thing as a Devon and Cornwall group - but look at
their success now! There are many other areas of the country that
could benefit just from pulling together local members into a cohesive
group with the objective of forming a social gathering with a common
interest in Standard cars. If there is no group in your area, why not
start one? It's no use leaving it to someone else! Call our Registrar on 01676
522161 and insist that he sends you a list of all the members local to
you. Then tell this website and the Standard Car Review about it so we
can publicise your event(s), be they pub meets or visits to local
shows. It's not compulsary to win prizes, but this article shows what can be
done.
Thanks,
Phil
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