GWENT MG OWNERS CLUB

We left the house at 6.00 am for the journey to Gaydon, a mere 116 miles from Newport. On the way up we expected to see a few Midgets or Sprites but alas we saw none. Beginning to think we were the only ones going we pulled into the services to put the hood up one hour into our journey. I thought I had taken somebody else’s ears as I could not feel mine and then we saw a Healey, the only one. Just outside Gaydon on the motorway we passed a midget that made Phil happy - at last he had passed one.

When we arrived we were in the second row and there were quite a few cars already there. We parked up and started to talk to the couple next to us. They were from Switzerland and had come over for the show. The cars started to pour in. Four rows behind us were quickly taken up, the area held for the pride of ownership was used by the overflow,  the banking above the show was taken up by some from France and Holland and then they started to park on the slip road leading into the show. At a guess there were 1500 Midgets, Sprites, and Frogeyes; Kermit would have had a field day.

It's funny but with all those cars there seemed to be a lot of people who wanted to talk to and admire Phil’s car, an Austin Healey Sprite 1971. Maybe that’s because we were willing to talk to them. There were people from the USA, from Australia, you name it they were there. The tents were from the MG Owners Club, Midget and Sprite Club, Healey club and the Heritage new shell manufactures.

A welcome speech was given by Roger Healey the son of the founder himself. The museum was impressive and some of the events they laid on during the year seemed pretty good too. The Auto jumble was very poor. I expected to see some big names like Moss, MGB hive and the like. Alas no luck.

It was about 3 o’clock when we decided to head for home, saying what a good day we had had. We left the birthday cake that was in the shape of a midget as the queue was unbelievable. Stopping at the services once again to put the top up and the sat nav taking us the scenic way home across the bridge on the M4 we arrived home about 6.00pm.