GWENT MG OWNERS CLUB

We met at 1400hrs on Saturday 5^th July to prepare for our show. There was lots to do, control centre to erect, First Aid tent to put up (even Lester was on his knees), lines to be marked out, even the grass had to be cut so we could see the lines. Someone should tell Wayne (see pictures) that you don’t get a shock off a petrol mower. He held the umbrella for Francis. All the members who turned up soon got cracking and by about five it was all done. We had a bit of a BBQ whilst we all studied the plans to make sure we had not missed anything and talked about what we had to do the next morning.

Some of the members had come a long way - Jan from Aberdare, Lester from  Merthyr Tydfil - so they left with a few more while the rest settled down to a few cans, until the Ladies decided to go to the pub. Leaving the men for the evening we started with a lesson in car maintenance from Richard on how to break out of a car as his door was stuck and he could not open it from the inside or the outside. I think he must have been Raffles in his last life because he had the door open in a couple of seconds and before long a new temporary circlip was made and all was well.

We settled down then for a few games of dominoes and a few more cans of beer. Richard in true Victor Meldrew style moaned at the amount of games he was not winning, Brian kept getting double six this and the beer made us all laugh. When the girls came back from the pub they had chips with them, so we ate them and went to bed.

The control centre was made of material that made it sound like a bag of crisps and it managed to keep us awake all night. At six in the morning Richard had his hand on the horn of his car, so yes we were all up and rearing to go. There were cones to put into position, bunting to be arranged, Flag poles and signs. It never took us long and we watched as the sky grew darker and the rain come down in buckets.

The first traders arrived and we were on our way to our second car show. Other members arrived, even Roger from Nottingham,  and with our walkie talkies we all took our positions. It rained until about 09.30hrs and that was enough to put some of the car owners off coming, but about 150 of the 250 cars did turn up and we were very pleased to see them.

Everybody worked hard throughout the day - the team was like a Swiss watch. As normal  we all took the mick out of each others cars and this time it was Francis who lost ten points because his breather pipe from the carburettors had come off.

At the end of the day the PA system announced the car of the show and I can remember that Phil’s car came third. I would like to Thank all our Sponsors, traders, Members for their support and the Public for keeping the field so clean.

The sun shone all day until we were packing away. Then the heavens opened again, so we did it all in a rush. Leaving the show ground on the way home I think Phil must have borrowed Richards old sat nav as he took a wrong turn and had to double back to the roundabout which held him up a bit but if you ask him he will tell you that it was planned.

I think that the total made for St Anne's Hospice was somewhere near £1000 give or take a few quid. Let's hope next year will be better than this one and more people turn up.