To see the photos of the Christmas do, go to the Christmas section, not quite so many photos this year, we passed the camera around to get as many of you in as possible.

Hopefully all those who came along enjoyed themselves, the food and service were excellent and we enjoyed organising it, a little worrying at times that things would turn out ok, and very worrying when the staff had panic attacks about numbers, but in the end all went very well.  We hope you enjoyed the wine and coffee which was by special arrangement with the manager.  The raffle prizes were better this year with a DVD player, a jump start pack and a hamper as the main prizes with lots of smaller ones up for grabs.  Again, thank you for buying the tickets. The money raised runs the web site, buys things the club needs including food for the barbeques etc and also has made donations to charity.

All that remains now for me to do is start to plan next year's calendar for you and look forward to seeing lots of you again in the New Year. Have a great Christmas.

Helen and John

 Attendees:

 John, Chris – Hoods

 Helen, Stephen & Lesley, Bob & Sheila, Paul Wicks, Griff, Mike Montegue, Mal, Paul Brown and Rod Kirkby – Tin Tops

 Alan’s comment on RHOCaR forum “You know how many normally turn up (come rain or shine - shine for me) and a TV involvement would bring more + the fact there is a brilliant web site they could look at - all helps the credibility and enthusiasm of us Hoodies”  

Mal, aka ‘The Bear’, also encouraged the idea and before we knew it, Rizla had arranged that they would come to Baldock.  John and I made sure it was ok with the manager of the pub, Mark, just in case he might have any objections to us using his premises in this way. Of course he was more than happy to have this going on. 

There was much interest shown from other areas and despite the distance some had to travel, Battery Bill and Joey for example came down from Lincolnshire, eleven visiting cars came along to join the SG7s meet, plus of course Rizla and the film crew!  Very exciting. 

To make the day even better, the sun shone, it was chilly but dry, so Alan was able to bring his car out.  We arrived at the pub slightly earlier to get the RHOCaR banner in place and stake a claim to the parking spaces.  One by one the cars arrived until we had 28 cars all lined up in the autumn sun.  Fantastic.  We hope that the ‘visitors’ were made to feel welcome and enjoyed coming along to Baldock.  Not only did we have 28 cars but we counted 53 people which is a huge turnout.  I don’t think we will beat this record for a while, but who knows?  It seems that a lot of people are talking about SG7s, so the word is getting about.   

It was fascinating watching the filming in progress, it will be interesting to see the end result when the programme is aired in December this year.  Rizla will, I have no doubt, keep us posted as to what date it will go on screen.  

We even pushed the boat out with the raffle and had a bottle of malt whiskey up for grabs.  Couldn’t believe it that the first number out of the pot was Mine!  I graciously passed on the malt so that someone else could enjoy that one.  Went to Paul Meads, well done.  It was good as usual to see the ‘visitors’ doing well in the raffle.   

Now to the difficult bit, if I leave anyone out please let me know. 

Attendees: 

Visitors 

Rizla, Paul Jones, Mark Byford, Paul Meads (Essex)

Peter Ray, Steve Goodchild, (Thames Valley)

Graham and Beth Mintram, Dave Rose (Northants)

Bill and Joey (Lincolnshire)

Derek (Dredd) and Michael (Surrey)

Will and Clair, Simon Macaree, (Kent)

 ITV Film Crew (sounds good, doesn’t it)

SG7s

John, Helen, Sandy, John Balm, Mal, Chris Brown, Simon Trigg + 1, Glyn Rust, Stephen and Lesley Altwasser, Alan and Pauline, Griff and Mary with Mutley, Paul Brown, Alan Hudson, Mike Montegue and Paul ‘Again’, Richard Sumner, Ced and Lorraine.

 Tintops

Andy Barbet, Mike Gouldsborough, Tom Brown, Paul Wicks, David and Janet Edroff, Bob and Sheila, Derek and Terry, Steve Wakefield, Caroline and Francesca, Bob (on his motorbike).

As mentioned above: 28 CARS  53 BODIES and 1 dog!

A huge thank you to everyone who came along, even without Rizla’s ‘entourage’ we would have had a good turnout with 16 cars, so well done again.

PHOTOS TO FOLLOW SHORTLY…..

                  preparing to land at the Museum   

The SG7 members met at Junction 7 of the A1(M), six in all, and we set off in convoy to the museum, a 21 mile journey.  We were met at the car park and ushered into the club area where we were able to park under the plane.  Four of the Westfield members joined us.  We grouped together in the 'officers mess' for coffee, cookies and an extremely tasty chocolate fudge gateaux!  Yummy.  Ralph Steiner gave us a debrief about the museum and we were free to wander round, sit in the planes, listen to the tour guides.  It is such an interesting museum, small but full of memorabilia, fascinating stories and well worth the visit.   Being able to climb into some of the aircraft gives you a hands on experience, something missing from the likes of Duxford where you can only look from behind barriers.

                          Mal and John playing fighter pilots    

Our thanks to the museum for making us so welcome and looking after us so well. 

                                                Peter hot on our tail   

Attendees:

Westfield:  Steve Clark, David Birch, David Wraight, James and Eric Lambert;

SG7s:   Peter Bell, Stephen Altwasser, Paul Brown, John and Helen, Mal, Mike Montegue and Paul Bellwood, Mike and Myra Gouldsborough.  Very pleased to have Roy and Hian Bowron join us for the first time with their Caterham.

It was worth going to see Stephen speechless after going round the track in the MNR VortX, he is a lad for driving at high speed but nothing quite matched this experience! John was due to go out but didn't get to do it in the end.

The cars just kept coming today, the fact that it was the last ‘summer’ meet and the weather being so hot and sunny, obviously added to the attraction of taking the cars out, it was a perfect summer’s day. There were a few regular names missing and if everyone had turned up we would have topped 30 cars!  Just amazing.

Thanks to Caroline for selling the raffle tickets, and to everyone for buying them, also for the donations of prizes from Stephen Altwasser and Caroline.  

One bit of very sad news is that Peter Bell had his Robin Hood S7 stolen from his garage this weekend.  Our fingers have been crossed that it would be recovered in one piece.  We heard tonight that his car has been found with only a few minor scratches although not sure if the engine is ok.  It was parked in a side street not far from his house.  Very pleased for him.

Now to the task of listing the cars and people in attendance in alphabetical order of car: 

Banham Sprite:  Ced and Lorraine

Cobra:  John (Dax), Dave and Anita 

Dax Rush:  Sandie

Ford,  1923 Model T:  Peter Richards 

Hoods:  John, Mike Gouldsborough, Glyn Rust, Richard and Caroline,  Chris Brown, Mike Montegue, David Ricketts, Steve Putterell, Dan + 1, Laurie Barber

Locost:  Eddie and Cherry Martins + 4 guests 

Locust:  Alan Hudson and Rob Long

Lotus Esprit 83 S3: Terry Lovett (aka El Tel) 

Mach 1:  Troy and Mick

Mx-5:  Helen (yes I am allowed!! Or else!!) 

NG:  John Hamilton-Smith

Porsche Spyder 718 RSK:  Geoff Spencer 

Raw Striker:  John Richards

Tiger:  Maggie and Doug 

Westfield: Paul Brown, Alan Piggott 

Tintops:  Mario and Lisa with Gypsy, Bob and Sheila, Paul Wicks, A cute pug + 2 (sorry didn’t get to speak to get your names, drop me a line..) and finally a rugby coach and his son, again didn't get their names but he is building a kit at the moment.

Today was John and my wedding anniversary, 22 years!  We started celebrating with a cup of coffee in a cafe, a very tasty sausage hot dog at £1.50 each for lunch, which was very reasonable, a warm can of cola, a bag of cola cubes followed up with a bottle of water.  No expense spared.

We had a great day, a good variety of cars came along, although perhaps not as many as last year. The organiser put this down to not having spread the word quite so well this year.  There were plenty of people having a look at the cars.

A show like this provides a great opportunity to have a good look round the High Street with its pretty houses, interesting shops and side streets, all to easy to miss when you drive through a town, or as is more often the case nowadays, when you by-pass the town completely.

To finish what was an almost perfect day, Richard and Caroline came home with us and shared a take-away so it will be a very memorable anniversary.  Again, we took some photos to share with you to show what was missed by those who couldn't go including an Edsel, a big flop when it was introduced in the States and yet a very interesting car.  Also for the ladies a very pink VW Beetle and a Ford Fairlane with matching pink seats! 

I was sorry not to go into the museum but enjoyed sitting outside, my thanks to Pete Cherry for picking me up in his tintop so that John was able to take his Hood.  Not quite ready to get in a kit car just yet!   Although not boiling hot the sun did shine, this, of course, makes all the difference. Thanks to Stephen Altwasser for the donation of book maps for the raffle (didn’t hold one today so they will be raffled next meeting).  We can certainly recommend the fruit cake! Very tasty. 

New Attendees:

Glyn Rust (Hoodie Super Spec – Harlow)

Dave Cherry (Oxford – Dax Rush)

Ian Henderson (Hoodie)

John Brown (Hoodie – Langford, Beds)

Shaun Porter + 1 (Hoodie Super Spec)

Cherry & Eddie Martins (Locost)

Dave Rose (Hoodie – Northants) 

Old Hats:

Hoods:  John, Mike and Myra, Stephen Altwasser, Chris Brown, Peter Bell, Alan Day

Dax Rush: Sandie, Steve Mayhew, Terry Kent & Emily.

Dax Cobra: John

Westfield:  Mal, Simon

 Tintops:

Peter Cherry and Helen, Lesley + 1 Altwasser, 2 guests of Eddie Martins

 Apologies from:

Richard Sumner, Steve Wakefield, Griff, Mike Montegue, Andy Barbet, Hugh Grant, Andy Petrie, Bob and Sheila

 I expressed our thanks and appreciation to the manager and promised to be back next year if they will have us!

 Another great day in the lives of SG7s!  Well done for making the effort once again to join in.

 19 KITS and 3 TINTOPS and 29 BODIES 

We had a good turnout both from the SG7s and the East Anglia RHOCaR Group, arranged by Martin Pidd (Piddy) from his neck of the woods.  We had a barbeque, bacon butties seem the most popular.  The show was as good as last year with plenty of stalls, events, classic cars and lots of people, many showing great interest in the line up of 19 kits.

Thanks to all those who made the effort to come along, Helen was pleased to hear it was such a good turnout.

Attendees:

SG7:

John Tween, Mal Gwynne, Peter Bell, Alan Rowe,  Richard Sumner & Caroline, Mike Montegue, Steve Wakefield, Simon Trigg, Dave Rose, Mick Brewer

RHOCaR:

Andy Petrie 2B,  Debbie & Martin Pidd 2B, Bob Rowell S7, Yvonne & Peter Blackmore 2B. Lorraine & Mike Shearing TT, Rita & Graham Dockerill 2B, Mark Humphries S7, Marilyn and Derek Overfield 2B, John Cobbe Sub K.

 see East Hoods report for other photos: www.freewebs.com/rhocareast/latestnews.htm

It was a lovely journey in warm sunshine so well worth the effort.

   looks quite at home!!

We had met Paul Brown last time and today he was there with his Westfield, John Richards and Sue came along for the first time with his Raw Striker, Alan and Joshua from Milton Keynes in their Robin Hood and finally nice to see Mike Montegue back behind the wheel after his Hood has been off the road for ages. 

Thanks again to Sandie for selling the raffle tickets and to Mal for his voice in calling the numbers.  Thanks also to Mal for donating the disposable seat covers.  Much appreciated. 

Sandie took Mike Gouldsborough out for a spin in the Dax Rush, made an interesting change to Mike’s hair!  He was smiling when he came back so I think he enjoyed it.   

Attendees 

Hoodies:  John and Andy Barbet, Chris Brown, Andy Petrie, Alan and Joshua, Mike Gouldsborough, Stephen and Lesley Altwasser, Peter Bell, Mike Montegue, Griff, Richard and Caroline 

Westfield:   Mal, Simon Trigg and Paul Brown 

Dax Rush:  Sandie 

Dax Cobra:  John 

Tiger:      Doug and Maggie & daughter 

Raw Striker:  John Richards and Sue 

Tintops:  Mario and Lisa, Bob and Sheila 

Mx-5:     ME! 

17 Kits, 29 people, 2 tintops, 1 Mx-5 and lots of bikes!   

Many of you will know that Chris Brown has been called ‘Papa Smurf’ on the RHOCaR site, very amusing to see his grill on the Hood.  

We are always amazed the distance our ‘members’ travel to the monthly meets.  For instance, today we had people from: 

Baldock,  Bassingbourne,  Bedford,  Buntingford, Bury St Edmunds,  Graveley,  Hemel Hempstead,  Kimpton, Melton Mobray,  Milton Keynes,  Royston,  St Ives,  Stevenage 

The next get together is at Kimbolton on 17^th July.  Tickets from John or Chris Brown. 

Also a reminder that the August meeting will be held at the Lower Stondon Motor Museum.

Attendees:   John Peach (Thames Valley Area Secretary) and his wife Chris, Bob and Pauline Lancaster (Bob is Area Secretary for Somerset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire & Herefordshire), Steve and his wife, Pete Ray, John Tompkins and his wife, John and Helen (John is as you know Area Secretary for Herts) and finally Sean Higgins.

To start with, the usual weather report.  Essential, we are in Britain!  Cloudy at times, with warm sunny intervals, slightly threatening rain but luckily it missed us.

As always we had a great turnout.  Very nice to meet Tim and Sue Clarke (Robin Hood) from Duxford (nice to go and see them on a flying day!) and Paul Brown (Westfield) from Baldock. 

When I arrived at the pub Andy (Rizla) and son Andrew were already there.  Alan Rowe had been texting John to see what the weather was like ‘is it raining?’ He did join us and it was good for Alan and Andy to finally meet and sit in each other’s cars.  There is a lot of friendly rivalry between the two of them on the Robin Hood web site (www.RHOCaR.org). 

There was much discussion as to the whys and wherefores of me selling my much loved and cherished Exmo.  It just isn’t practical for me to keep it for a number of reasons.  So I am defecting to the world of Mazda MX-5’s.  Won’t be the same but I am sure I will cope.  Poor John will now have to put up with ‘Sat Nag’ sitting beside him again when we go anywhere. 

We held the usual raffle, thanks to Sandie for selling the tickets and Mal for doing the number calling.  The money raised is put towards running the web site and buying items such as the raffle prizes, we bought a barbeque and gazebo last year, food for the barbeques and the Christmas at Home which we held and any money left goes to the Christmas Do.  We always appreciate donations of prizes.

 A reminder that the August meeting is going to be held again this year at the Lower Stondon Motor Museum (approx £5) which I will book with them shortly.  This outing is always very popular so the more the merrier. 

Also the Mosquito Museum visit is booked for September 18^th to arrive about 1200 (to be confirmed).  The price for this is £8 which includes entrance, parking under the airplanes and afternoon tea.  This one has to be booked by numbers attending so if you could let me know if you are coming I would appreciate it.    We went last year with the Westfield guys and it was a very interesting afternoon out.

Thanks to everyone who made the effort to come along, without you it wouldn’t be the same!!

Attendees:

Robin Hoods:                 John, Helen, Peter Bell, Chris Brown, Stephen Altwasser, Alan and Pauline, Tim and Sue Clarke

Westfield:                       Mal, Simon Trigg, Steve Wakefield       

 Dax Rush:                       Sandie, Steve

 MNR:                              Andy and Andrew

 Tiger:                              Doug Ball

 Tintops:                          Andy and Claire, Paul Brown, Mike Montegue and two friends, Bob Plaistow, Ricky and Keith, Lesley and son

 28 bodies and 14 cars

 Steve Wakefield is selling his Westfield if anyone is interested or knows of anyone interested. See: For sale.  

On the way home from the meeting, I had already arrived back at base with my Exmo, I had a call

from John to say that as he was travelling at about 50 mph along the A507 his rear wheel suddenly locked, he managed to control the car and pull over in a huge big cloud of blue smoke.  A brief inspection pointed to a wheel bearing failure!  He managed to free off the wheel and pull off into a farmer’s field.  Jacked the car up and confirmed his thoughts, a catastrophic failure in the wheel bearing.    Now as luck would have it, at the meeting he had bought two drive shafts with wheel bearings on them from Chris Brown.  He called Mal for assistance but by the time he had arrived the job was well on the way.  Off with the old, on with the new and back on the road again.  Mal kindly followed him home to make sure he was ok.  One tyre to replace, a nice flat spot, a large skid mark on the road and an even larger one in his pants! 

We had a viewing on the Exmo on Tuesday evening, by a current RHOCaR member from Crawley, West Sussex.  He liked the car very much and is coming to collect her on Sunday, so that is the end of my days of owning a kit car, for now at least.

Next one: July 3^rd at George IV. 

A selection of stalls:  charity, toys, plants, cakes, tombolas and the usual village fete proceedings, majorettes, Indian dancing, dog agility, kite flying, etc.

We enjoyed our time chilling out in the sunshine.  My day was made by my Exmo winning a prize 'the car most wanted to take home'.  A very nice hamper is sitting on my living room floor waiting to be opened. 

The heavens opened as we were driving down the Wymondly by-pass and we had to pull over and park up under brollies and then a bridge to try and keep dry. 

Thanks to Sue and Stuart for the invite, had a relaxing and pleasant day out.  We had also been invited to join the Westfield guys over at Grove Lock but the weather forecast of heavy rain and then my winning the prize, meant that we were unable to get over there. Hopefully next time we will get a little more notice and manage to get to see them. 

It was certainly a good idea to change the date of the monthly meet to today.  We met so many SG7 members at Stoneleigh last Sunday, that there wouldn’t have been many at the pub.  Laurie did go to the pub, a very lonely one car meeting, sorry to miss him. 

As for today, what a turnout.  Amazingly the infamous Rizzla and Son made it to the pub in their MNR Vortex.  Very nice it is too! Regular users of the RHOCaR web site will have heard of Rizzla, aka Andy, and we didn't quite believe he would make it to the meeting all the way from Thurrock - I think.  (Photographic evidence to prove it…)

                               Andy 'Rizzla' with Stephen and John

                                               Rizzla's MNR Vortex

A sad time for me because I have decided to sell my Hood, I hope to stay with the kit car world with a car with proper doors!  Nothing too sensible though I hope.    It was great to see so many there with a forecast that promised sunshine and showers, boy did we get showers! Heavy rain and hail to be precise.  We had a total of 16 cars and 30 bodies, as always a huge thank you to everyone who managed to get there.  What would happen if we all turned up?  It would be brilliant.  Mal missed today, he had to play golf.   

Yesterday, John and I went to Bassingbourn to watch Griff and Martin doing their track day.  I was enjoying watching them going round, then I fell asleep much to the amusement of John!  A much needed rest.  If you can find the time to go along to one of these events to support Griff, let him know and he will book you in.  It is free to watch! (Toilets and tea facilities are on site).  Got a bit hairy after the showers, great fun.  Griff did manage to lose his windscreen and get covered in glass.  He is advertising for a screen on RHOCaR so if anyone can help let us know. 

Back to today. 

Attendees: 

MNR Vortex:     RIZZLA and son   (honest……) 

Hoods:               John and Helen, Andy and Connor (in Helen’s Exmo), Peter Bell, Paul Boatman, Stephen Altwasser, Mike Gouldsborough, Alan Rowe 

Westfield:           Simon Trigg, Steven Wakefield 

Mach 1:              Mick and Troy  

Dax Rush:          Sandie, John Paul (see For Sale section for details of his car) 

Dax Cobra:         John 

Banham Sprint:   Ced and his friend from Australia 

Tiger 6:              Doug and Maggie + 3 

Tintop:               Bejay and Ashleigh 

               RAT PACK                                                                        ULTIMA

Let us know if you want to go sometime, they meet the second Sunday each month from 1200 to 1pm.

Happy Birthday to Mal whose birthday it is today.  Mal had invited some of the Westfield members to join us, nice to meet Graham and Matt. 

Doug and Maggie made their first meeting in their Tiger Super 6 from Buntingford and Rod (alias Racer as he is known on RHOCaR) came over from Braintree.

Tom Hoey came in his Cobra, we met Tom at Knebworth last year and this was his first visit to a meeting.  He also brought along two friends each with a Cortina Mk 1 classic car which boosted attendance.

It is very satisfying to see so many people at the meetings.  Peter Cherry, having been absent and missed for some time, managed to get over today, his car is nearing completion, a great leap forward since we last saw it. 

Thanks to both Richard and Sheila for their donations of tools and wine to the raffle and again to Sandie for selling the tickets.

Richard won a trip out in John’s Cobra, he seemed happy enough when he got back! 

Attendees:

 Hoods:              Richard and Caroline, John and Andy, Helen, Griff and Dudley, Chris Brown,                          Mike and Myra, Keith

Westfield:         Mal, Graham, Matt

Cobra:              John, Tom Hoey and Maria

Dax Rush:        Sandie

Tiger Super 6:  Doug and Maggie

Locost:             Rod (Racer)

Cortina Mk 1:    Steve + 1, Dave + 1

Tin Tops:          Bob and Sheila, Pete Cherry, Alan and Pauline, Mario, Greg 

31 People :  17 cars

A reminder:  The May meeting at the George IV is on Sunday 8^th May.  This was changed to

                     avoid clashing with the show at Stoneleigh and also Old Warden.  Hopefully this will 

        not inconvenience anyone.  If all goes to plan, I won’t be at either Stoneleigh or the 

        May meeting but John will be.

There was a very good turnout on the Hood pitch, John counted 20 at one point.

The new hall was an improvement on previous years with all the major kit manufacturers present.  Finally got to see Rizla’s MNR Vortex, yes it does exist, he had managed to get it inside the hall, just in case it rained???  Quite impressed, a nice car.   

 Glad we went, worth the effort of going if you can make it next year.

Met up with:  Sandie and John, Stephen and Lesley Altwasser, Griff and Martin, Rizla.  Peter Bell went on Sunday

Being Mother’s Day the pub was busier than usual but we had plenty of room in the car park.  Alan Rowe sent his apologies for not getting to see us (nothing to do with the weather this time!).  Andy Barbet was doing the mother's day thing up in Norfolk so was unable to come along but the good news is he has STARTED his kit!!!! I am sure once the weather warms up he will make very good progress with his Luego, we wish him all the best.

Those of you who look at the RHOCaR web site will know that Chris changed his avatar for a brief time but has reverted to the Smurf again.  I wonder where he got the idea from???

Griff and Peter are doing their charity drive this weekend in the 4 x 4.  Griff said he hopes to have raised £1,500 from donations for which we would like to thank everyone who sponsored their efforts.   I hope they were not as cold as we were today, but then hopefully the 4x4 has a good heater, something many of us do not have in our cars.    We held the usual raffle, thank you for supporting this.   I felt it would be a fair and nice gesture to donate the profit from today’s raffle to Griff’s charity since it is for such a worthy cause and hope that everyone is agreeable to my doing so.  I will send Griff a cheque for £10 this week. 

Simon arrived with his Westfield, he has modified his engine to be converted to have throttle bodies and mapped ECU and now has a lap top computer to set up the engine.  Very impressive, created a great deal of interest..

Simon's car somewhere behind the bodies, spot the Smurf!

Peter assures me this is what they were looking at, not a magazine..... (thanks for the photo Peter)

Next weekend is the Stafford Show, John is taking Andy and me in a tintop, if it is as cold as today it will be a great relief to not be in a Hood!  We are going on Sunday.  Is anyone else venturing there? 

I have to mention that Keith and Ricky arrived in a Mini having driven most of the way with the roof down to give them the feel of driving in a kit car.  They seemed to enjoy themselves although cheated and put the windows up to help them stay a little warmer.  Well done.  Hopefully they will soon get a car, they are missing out on too much fun. 

Greenwood Exhibitions have now released the booking form for their events this year.  If anyone would like one either contact us or Greenwood Exhibitions direct on 01527 871150, e-mail: info@classicmotorshow.com or internet www.classicmotorshow.com , we will be attending the Bedfordshire Classic Motor Show (Old Warden) on 1^st and 2^nd May and Knebworth 2005 Classic Motor Show 28^th and 29^th August.  We will be under the RHOCaR club name and banner at the Knebworth show as last year.  Knebworth is a very good show to attend, last year we had a barbeque running which went down very well and the marshals ended up sending any kits that arrived to join us.  Well worth the effort to get there.  

(I might not be at the Bedfordshire show unless the NHS postpones my ‘holiday’ I have booked with them.  If I get cancelled then of course I will be there, most likely on the Monday).  Let us, yet again, hope for good weather, last year was a wash out at the Old Warden show so we didn’t go.  It also clashes with the show at Stoneleigh in case you have forgotten that one.   

Thanks to those of you who made suggestions about a car for Abby.  Chris Brown sold us his Nissan Micra and she is very happy with it and had her first drive this morning.  Thanks Chris.  She is a very lucky girl to have a car for her 17^th birthday. 

A huge thank you to everyone who made the effort to come today it was great to see you all. 

Attendees: 

Hoods:  Peter Bell, Chris Brown, Steve Puttrell, John, Helen 

Dax Rush:  Sandie and John 

Westfield:   Mal, Simon Trigg & daughter 

Caterham:  Janet and David 

Ronart:   Rob and Paul 

Tintops:  Mario and Lisa, Bob and Sheila, Ricky and Keith

Motorbike:  Mike Montegue

 (21 bodies)

As I said, we had 12 cars in all and 33 bodies.  Griff came along in his Hood joined by his friend in the 4x4 RangeRover which they are driving in the charity fund raiser for MacMillan Cancer Relief.  Anyone who didn’t give a donation/sponsorship and would still like to, should contact either Griff direct or us and we will sort something out. 

Andy Barbet finally had his ride in ‘Little Mo’ which my Exmo is affectionately known as.  Even better than that, I let him drive the car which put a smile on his face.  He was surprised how easy the car was to drive, hopefully it will spur him on now to start his build.  No excuses now, he has sorted out his garage, got all the bits he needs to start, heating, light, etc, all his tools tidy and in the right place so now all he has to do is GET ON WITH IT!  I am sure there will be plenty of advice floating around when he does or doesn’t want it…. 

Mal sadly wasn’t able to bring his Westfield, it wouldn’t start!  (I know I said I wouldn’t mention it Mal but you know me, it got the better of me!!)  

9 Hoods (all started first time), 1 Cobra, 1 Caterham and the 4x4 Range Rover 

Attendees: 

Hoods:  Chris Brown, Mike Shearing, Andy Petrie, Stephen and Lesley, Griff, Peter Bell, Steve Puttrell, John and Andy, Helen

 Cobra:  Sandie and John

 Caterham:  David and Janet

 4x4  : Peter Restall

 Tintops:

 Mal, Richard and Caroline, Mike Gouldsborough, Keith Brown and Ricky +3,  Bob and Sheila, Chris Wing +1, Nick Ferris (still trying to sell the Fisher Fury, anyone interested?) Laurie and Glen +1

Sunday 2nd January 2005

The first meeting of the year was held here at our house, as we have done for the past two years.  Rather than the usual buffet food we have all had quite enough of by the time New Year arrives, I thought a selection of pasta dishes and chilli with rice and lots of puddings would make a nice change.  The food was very well received and people seemed to enjoy their afternoon.  Thanks to those who brought wine, this will no doubt find its way into the raffle prizes over the next few months.  The profiteroles from the Altwassers have long gone! Very nice.....   Thank you for coming and finishing off our festivities on a high note.  We spent Monday afternoon and evening taking down the decorations, those who came will appreciate just how many we had to take down! 

just a couple of the many trees!

 Attendees:

Mal and Lynne, Andy and Claire, Chris and Carol,  Stephen and Lesley, Richard and Caroline,  Mike Montegue, David and Janet, Mike and Myra, and of course Helen and John (John cooked the sausages!).

We wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2005!

Helen