The sixth Stamford Car Show, organised by Stamford and District
Round Table, took place on Sunday 30th August and for the
first time the Standard Motor Club was excellently represented with
eight fine examples of our cars from across the decades.
The Show is held on The Meadows, an attractive field in the centre
of this historic and picturesque town. Stamford is partly famous for
being the backdrop in the BBC’s drama "Middlemarch" based
on the novel by George Eliot about provincial life in the 1830s, but
more for the splendid Burghley House and grounds where the annual Land
Rover Horse Trials are held.
On the day we had 8 Standards as follows:
1926 Charlecote Paul Newsome
1937 Flying12 DHC Phil & Linda Homer
1938 Flying 9 Bev Thompson
1951 Vanguard Ph1 Estate Tom Dolby
1952 Vanguard Ph1A Beetleback Roy Gillman
1957 Family 10 Conan Lewis
1958 Pennant Alison Flack
1959 Vanguard Vignale Pete Foster
The late entries of Paul and Phil’s cars were very welcome to
boost our numbers and to add some of the earlier cars to complement
the 50’s ones. Paul made the trip over from Rugby and back in one
day, proving that our cars are more than usable to cover significant
distances in one day. In fact, over the course of the previous week,
Phil and Linda had completed the Cotswolds Run and a day at Stoneleigh,
before making a detour to Stamford to complete a great week out in
their car.
The Stamford Car Show is open to all cars whatever their age, so
there is something for everyone, young or old. The youngsters of
course head straight for the exotic Aston Martins, Ferraris and
Lambourghinis, the sporting enthusiasts for the TVRs, RS Owners Club
or Mazda MX5 Club. The more curious among us spent a long time
admiring the concourse standard Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, not to
mention all the other Standard Triumph family and assorted Austin, MG,
Morris, Riley,Rover etc. Something for everyone and all to a very high
standard.
Our Club stand, complete with our new flag banner, attracted
attention with many passers-by stopping to take a nostalgic look at a
car they once owned, rode in or had some ‘experience’ in. It
obvious talking to people who lived through the 30s – 60s that
Standards have been a memorable part of their lives in one way or
another.
Towards the end of the day we were visited by Nick Black, son of
Sir John Black, who lives in Stamford and was our guest of honour at
this year’s National Rally at Cirencester. We had a chance to catch
up with him and it was sad to learn a couple of days later that the
publishing date of his book about his father’s life and work at
Standard has been slipped now to early 2010 due to economic pressures
at his publisher. On a positive note this is giving Nick more time to
polish the writing and research and update some inaccuracies. This
will be a must for all Standard enthusiasts and I encouraged Nick to
get a launch date close to the AGM and to come along and sell us all a
signed copy !!
We hope that one day we’ll hold our National Rally centred on
this town and to enjoy the great driving roads around it. In the
meantime we would love to see even more Standard’s next year and I’ll
ensure a top spot on the field, so put a date in your diary for the
Sunday of August Bank Holiday 2010. Why not make a weekend of it and
come and stay here? If a few of us do this I would be more than happy
to organise a local roadrun for the Saturday and/or Monday.
Bev Thompson’s prize winning 1939 Flying 9
Tom Dolby’s 1951 Vanguard Ph1 Estate
Pete Foster with Nick Black
Josh Lewis, wondering what life in the dickie seat of Paul Newsome’s
1926 Charlecote would be like if his Dad got one of these magnificent
machines – Pete, Ivor, Alison and Anne look on.
See you next year …
